Invisible Writings in Firefly

POSTED BY: SittingDuck
UPDATED: Monday, January 16, 2006 15:05
VIEWED: 4588
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SITTINGDUCK

Tuesday, January 3, 2006 2:01 PM

On the off chance anyone cares, I've put up a post in my LiveJournal concerning the Invisible Writings found in Firefly.

http://www.livejournal.com/users/sittingduck1313/1823.html

The rabbit is cuddly. Kids like little cuddly sidekicks. I mean... The rabbit... It's a time-tested... Okay, the rabbit bites.

JONUS

Tuesday, January 3, 2006 2:13 PM

Cool. But now you've made me want to go watch my Cowboy Bebop DVD's. Haven't watched those in years. If y'all haven't seen Cowboy Bebop, you need to. See Trigun also. It's an awesome sci-fi western anime.

Mal would kick Han Solo's ass.

SITTINGDUCK

Wednesday, January 4, 2006 4:14 PM

You've been using your Cowboy Bebop DVDs as dust collectors? Shame on you! Get them out right now! Watch them all in one sitting. Don't be too concerned if by the end you can't feel your pi gu.

The rabbit is cuddly. Kids like little cuddly sidekicks. I mean... The rabbit... It's a time-tested... Okay, the rabbit bites.

JONUS

Wednesday, January 4, 2006 5:55 PM

I know, shame on me.

And for the record, they don't collect dust cuz I dust every week. I'm an obsessive compulsive neat freak.

Well, my Star Wars stuff has collected dust cuz I haven't touched it since I saw Serenity. Boo-yah! Take that Mr. Lucas!

Mal would kick Han Solo's ass.

SITTINGDUCK

Thursday, January 5, 2006 4:42 PM

A couple of more notes on the similarities between Cowboy Bebop and Firefly (which I'll edit in later). Both use conventional firearms instead of energy weapons. Both have a complete abscense of aliens. And both shows are highly unepic in nature.

I suppose I didn't bother to note this at first because it's scene specific rather than a general theme of the series. When I first got my Cowboy Bebop DVDs, I looked at a trailer for a series called Outlaw Star. In one shot, we have a box with mist coming out. The mist clears away to reveal a nude female curled up in a fetal position. Sound familiar? I suppose it could be coincidence, but it's kind of a weird one.

The rabbit is cuddly. Kids like little cuddly sidekicks. I mean... The rabbit... It's a time-tested... Okay, the rabbit bites.

MEIMEIMEG

Thursday, January 5, 2006 5:01 PM

Very cool. I may have to send this link to my friend. She refuses to watch Firefly, using all manner of excuses ("I don't have time" being the main one, although she seems to have plenty of time to keep up with anime into the wee hours of the morning.) I think she thought the previews for Serenity looked stupid. Anyway, she's a big Cowboy Bebop fan, so maybe showing that the two shows are similar in a lot of ways might work. Worth a try =)

BTW, is Cowboy Bebop on at all during regular hours? I can't stay up very late, since I have a 2 year old son who gets up early. But I'd like to watch it sometime...

ZOESBACKUP

Thursday, January 5, 2006 6:02 PM

Impressive assessment. I have never been an anime fan, although from everything that I have read about "Cowboy Bebop" I am going to have to change that. I definitely agree with the "Invisible Writings," in the end there really is nothing new under the sun. Even so, I have to mention that there are huge parallels between the female characters of Firefly and practically every female character that Robert Heinlein ever created, with touches of Dagny Taggert thrown in for good measure. The strong woman who is a deadly fighter and does not feel the need to parade or hide her sexuality is the mainstay of all of Heinlein's novels. The concept of the companion is also straight out of his "Time enough for Love," which has a character whose occupation is prostitute which has become a respected and much sought after career. Heinlein's "prostitutes" are almost exactly like the companions of the 'verse both in training and philosophy. I am not so certain about the comparison of the Bene Gesseret of Dune, although it has been quite a while since I read it, sexuality wasn't the foundation of their profession, political control and supernatural powers were. They used prostitution as a means to extend that political power.

I have never been a big fan of "Westerns" and I am a country girl! Settlers, horses, and fighting are not copyrighted to early America television stereotypes and Mal is not John Wayne OR Han Solo! He is every soldier who came back from a war trying to figure out who and what he is. Han Solo was always a smuggler and John Wayne was either always a cowboy or always a soldier. The fact that Malcolm Reynolds is a smuggler in a spaceship is irrelevant. As is the fact that occasionally there are gun fights. Mal is the Man v. Self protagonist. Reintegrating back into society is a struggle to become something completely different than what you were during the war and prior to that. You can't go back to either but there is no way to mesh those two diametrically opposed personae into one. Westerns are so friggin simplistic in that they never deal with the internal conflicts and personal evolution that comes after being in combat. To my knowledge there isn't a lot out there that really deals with this particular characterization.

Dang, I am ranting away. Sorry about that. I really enjoyed reading your thoughts, LOL despite my diatribe.

nice cover fire
Oh, and I also have a black belt in Smackdown Fu

JONUS

Thursday, January 5, 2006 6:24 PM

I don't think Cowboy Bebop is on Cartoon Network's schedule right now. They play it every now and then but it's always late night when they do. You can get it for cheap though. I didn't buy the Region 1 DVD's cuz they're too expensive ($20-30 per DVD x 6 DVD's + The Movie) I bought the No Region DVD's on eBay for like $20. Here's what I got -

http://cgi.ebay.com/COWBOY-BEBOP-TV-Series-EngDub-COMPLETE-BOXSET-3-DV
D_W0QQitemZ6470454620QQcategoryZ617QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

It's out of print so as far as I know eBay is the only way to get it.

Mal would kick Han Solo's ass.

MEIMEIMEG

Thursday, January 5, 2006 7:39 PM

Thanks!! I'll have to check that out. Maybe if I watch that first, my friend will be more willing to try Firefly.

SITTINGDUCK

Thursday, January 5, 2006 8:49 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by meimeimeg:
Very cool. I may have to send this link to my friend. She refuses to watch Firefly, using all manner of excuses ("I don't have time" being the main one, although she seems to have plenty of time to keep up with anime into the wee hours of the morning.) I think she thought the previews for Serenity looked stupid. Anyway, she's a big Cowboy Bebop fan, so maybe showing that the two shows are similar in a lot of ways might work. Worth a try =)

Maybe the fact that she watches so much anime is the reason why she doesn't have time for Firefly.

Can't say I'm surprised that she may have found the previews to be a turn-off. I felt very uneasy myself after watching some of the promos.

Quote:
Originally posted by Zoesbackup:
Impressive assessment. I have never been an anime fan, although from everything that I have read about "Cowboy Bebop" I am going to have to change that.

Definitely a show worth checking out. Out of the twenty-six episodes, I only found one to be irredeemably bad.

Quote:
I definitely agree with the "Invisible Writings," in the end there really is nothing new under the sun. Even so, I have to mention that there are huge parallels between the female characters of Firefly and practically every female character that Robert Heinlein ever created, with touches of Dagny Taggert thrown in for good measure. The strong woman who is a deadly fighter and does not feel the need to parade or hide her sexuality is the mainstay of all of Heinlein's novels. The concept of the companion is also straight out of his "Time enough for Love," which has a character whose occupation is prostitute which has become a respected and much sought after career. Heinlein's "prostitutes" are almost exactly like the companions of the 'verse both in training and philosophy.

I'll admit I've never really read Robert Heinlein as I've generally found the Golden Age SF writers to be unappealing.

Quote:
I am not so certain about the comparison of the Bene Gesseret of Dune, although it has been quite a while since I read it, sexuality wasn't the foundation of their profession, political control and supernatural powers were. They used prostitution as a means to extend that political power.

Mainly I was thinking of the training in seduction and similar. And I think it quite likely that the Companions have a good bit of political clout.

The rabbit is cuddly. Kids like little cuddly sidekicks. I mean... The rabbit... It's a time-tested... Okay, the rabbit bites.

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