New subject: Deliverance

7 Feb 2001


      ...
and at the end, on board
the Liberator, he shows more concern for the rocket's future than hers.
Well...
the rocket is full of very old machinery and potential life, but not   
*living* life. Unless everything works perfectly, the launch will do no
good, and how (as someone else hinted at before) are the new people
going to be raised to adulthood? This is definitely a case of gaping
plot hole.
Meeghat is, unless she's lying about 'others', part of a society. She
looks to be about 30. There's no reason to think she won't survive for a
good many more years among her people.
OTOH, I can see this as a really good play to start yelling about
misogynism. Because the script does seem to place potential life above
the life of an individual woman. I would tend to shrug it off as shoddy
writing if given no evidence to the contrary-- I try not to look for
things to be angry about and only worry about *patterns* of sexism.
(Thus my complaint that Cally should have been kept as a warrior and
given leadership scripts, not relegated into mommy-mystic roles). But,
if you look for hidden ideology, this does seem to be an anti-choice
position built into the script. Meeghat doesn't ask to be rescued, but
then, as a 'good religious woman', she would not put her health above
the potential life entrust to her.
Yet, even if this was an intentional pro-life ideology written into the
script, I believe that people do have the right to express their
viewpoints. Yes, it's annoying now that I've thought to look at it this
way, but I appreciate science fiction for its potential to rephrase the
topics of modern debates, and the fact that many people think it a shame
that Meeghat's future was not explained shows that just rephrasing the
debate does not necessarily change people's minds. 
I may not agree with Neil's ideology all of the time (the middle classes
are necessary for successful revolutions if we go by history. When
Proles take over governments without having previous democratic
experience, we get mob rule and everyone who has shown talent and
cleverness is persecuted by those seeking a lowest common denominator.
After the mob have wiped out those who can create stability, a dictator
steps in)-- but his posts are incredibly well-written, intelligent, and
enjoyable. I bring this up to answer the question of why intelligent
women can enjoy the episode Deliverance, without resorting to character
elements.

Re: Deliverance