Babylon!

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8 Responses

  1. Doctor Jay says:

    In response to your encoded paragraph:

    V guvax gur erfcbarf bs Mbt jbexf ba nabgure yriry: Gvzr naq gvzr ntnva gur fubj erzvaqf hf gung orvat byqre qbrfa’g arprffnevyl zrna orvat jvfre. Gur Funqbj naq gur Ibeyba raq hc orvat pnfrf va cbvag. Gurl zvtug unir vaperqvoyl nqinaprq grpuabybtl, ohg gurl fgvyy qb fghcvq, irany guvatf. Naq V guvax gung gur nccnerag puvyqvfuarff bs gur Mbt va guvf rcvfbqr nyfb uvtuyvtug gung gurzr. Rira gubhtu V guvax lbhe cbvag vf jryy gnxra. V pbhyq rnfvyl oryvrir gung Mbt guvaxf gur Ibeybaf gb or wrexf, naq gung gur lbhatre enprf jvyy arrq gb or onvyrq bhg.Report

  2. Doctor Jay says:

    I really love this show and we just happened to rewatch through Season 4. JMS loves writing speeches, whether they are noble or malevolent. The show has a streak of melodrama in it from top to bottom, and the over-the-topness of the fascist cabal in EarthGov is just one aspect of that.

    The actress playing Masante in this episode deserves a lot of credit for committing to the part – I got the sense that Masante believed every word, even when moments later, she admitted she was lying.Report

    • Jason Tank in reply to Doctor Jay says:

      I was curious about the actress, so I looked around a bit. Julie Musante was played by Shari Shattuck, who spent some years after this on a soap opera, then disappeared from Hollywood after she hit 40. She has a new movie out (she stars in it, but the movie looks straight-to-DVD) this year, her first IMDB role in 14 years.Report

  3. Jason Tank says:

    Marcus is almost always the highlight of any episode he’s in. I love that cheeky bastard.Report

  4. James K says:

    I agree with you about the speeches, JMS has a tendency to send his villains a memo saying “you’re a villain, here are the villainous things you are going to do”.

    Still, he made back a lot of points for me with the conversation between Sheridan and Masante. Because Masante’s line about “reframing the problem to solve it” is the finest quality BS. Because, yes, reframing a problem is often a useful way of considering new solutions, but that is exactly the opposite of what Masante is doing, which is to deny the existence of a problem by framing it away. That line is simultaneously true and a lie.

    But still, she gives every sign of being sincere, JMS paints a portrait of someone who has lost their epistemology – who no longer understands the difference between symbols and the reality they symbolise. He also shows just how useful such people can be to a nascent totalitarian.Report