"Sally Manton" smanton@hotmail.com wrote: : Jenny wrote: : <Suppose he'd said, 'a trooper killed Bobby. She meant everything to me. We : were to be married. When she died, a part of me died as well.'>
: If he'd said that, I'd have checked the tape for what show I'd got on 'cause : it sure wouldn't be Blake's 7 :-)
: What Gan says - 'my woman' - is IMO perfectly in tune with the general tone : of the language used in the series, especially by people within the : federation itself (as apart from neutral worlds like Lindor). It *is* : harsher than what we're used to a lot of the time, more reticent and much : less effusive. This is very much in keeping with the coldly oppressive, : sardine-tin society of the Federation. You don't spill your emotions to : people when you've spent your life not knowing who you can trust.
Yes, yes, a thousand times yes. I've been following this thread, and not one suggested locution to replace Gan's "my woman" line has rung true to me, for exactly the reason Sally gives here. This ties in, for me, to the comment Helen just made in response to the idea that Gan's woman was the trooper's wife.
Helen Krummenacker avona@jps.net wrote:
I had never thought of that possibility, but it seems so very in keeping with human nature that I like it very much. It's very plausible and taints Gan with some of the responsibility for what happened to her-- yet another Balke's 7 situation where none of the heroes are squeaky-clean.
I think that one of the themes of the series is that nobody is squeaky- clean. I interpret this as being because the Federation, the world they're in, doesn't allow them to be so clean. Suppose (because I'm not willing to argue it right now!) Cally is the character with the strongest moral compass in the series. Even so, she had to break with the world that gave her that moral grounding in order to fight this Federation. The Federation does that to people, presses them to one breaking point or another if they resist, corrupting them if they do not.
Back to Gan... to me, the *least* morally dubious statement he can make is the one he does. Any elaboration would only give one reason to dissect the statement for emotional falsity or lack of moral soundness. What he says is straightforward and comprehensible, and not, to my ear, sexist.
Claudia