Serenity ~ The Movie ReDux

Serenity ~ The Movie: I attended the preview in Albany, NY, last night (Regal Theatres/Crossgates Cinema 18, theater 1) with my friend and fellow conspirator and sci-fi adventurer Bill Bortis - reader, thinker, movie buff extraordinaire.

We went early to avoid the aficcianado rush for seats and stood around chatting for about 15 minutes in line and seated for another 30 before the film began ~ with a rush!

The rest of the film left us clucking to one another from time to time but not indulging the distraction of speech lest it intefere with the direct line infusion of cinematic elemental excitements, of which there are more than aplenty.

I'm not one for spoiler info (or the endless repetition of star and starlet names) so this thin gruel is merely meant to tell you, it's worth your eight bucks now and your tivo time later. Here goes:

Character building (and destruction) were more than adequate to the task at hand (attempting to bolster the audience for Firefly!, I suppose), and the plot thickened well without going too too overboard, as these things have a tendency to do.

As for plot -- let's call it storyline: the movie leaned heavily of scenes from the original Star Wars, Episode 4: that heavily armed cruiser coming into overhead view like a prophetic cloud tight at the outset but not so cloyingly similar as to make one say "Oh, gosh, can't they do better'n this?" Later on, "the mule" arrives at a desert outpost in a manner befitting the arrival of OB and Luke to garner transport at excessive cost: this time the cost was reversed in favor of the good guys, thanks to a couple of lucky but seemingly ofhand trigger pulls by Captain Reynolds, one of which sends one miserable soul chasing the gold that lies at the end of rainbows.

Downs included the prettiness of the Princess Bride-to-Be and the only too well telegraphed reappearance of Mr. ? in future epsidoes yet to be unveiled on a tv (or DVD showing) coming to your livingroom just as soon as enough of you get out there and begin shaking the trees to make it happen. You'll want to ... or you think the dialogue of this movie (and the series) is just too too much by way of cuteness; but I have to tell you -- the audience around me cracked up at some sharp lines and applauded with others in a way I have not seen in many many a viewing, maybe many a year.

Serenity ~ The Movie ReDux

Pederasty in an Intergenerational Three-Piece and A Defense of Reason

Chronicle of Higher Education writer David Glenn today notes that "Haworth Press announced last week that it had canceled the publication of an edited volume on homosexuality in classical antiquity. " This none-too-careful or timely decision by Haworth occurred after another web site attacked one chapter of that book as a "Defense of Pederasty": those opposed to publication, writes Glenn, " had complained that one of the book's chapters -- an essay by Bruce L. Rind, an adjunct instructor in psychology at Temple University -- amounted to a defense of present-day sexual relationships between men and adolescent boys. "

Rind has been in deep water before and as a result has probably attracted a shadow that is uncomfortable for his preferred academic cover or stance. Writes Glenn, " Six years ago, he and two colleagues were denounced by Congress for writing a paper that, in its critics' eyes, soft-pedaled the long-term traumatic effects on children of sexual abuse. "

The book chapter in question -- "...Same-Sex Desire and Love in Greco-Roman Antiquity and in the Classical Tradition of the West -- had been scheduled for publication in November by Harrington Park Press, an imprint of Haworth. The same material was to have been released simultaneously as a special issue of The Journal of Homosexuality, which is also published by Haworth.

The Chronicle article "Scholarly Press Cancels Book After Web Site Attacks It as a Defense of Pederasty" is available online for five days. The Chronicle notes that the Glenn article is always available to Chronicle subscribers at this address.

No doubt all such presses ought to use care when choosing both who will edit the materials to be published but also the standing in the academic community of who will be the author/s, including the moral character of each such person. It is my view that little boys ought to be off-limits to adults of all ages, and those who choose to take the opposing stand ought to be able to speak up so that the rest of us know both who they are and their arguments, first, so that we might revisit those arguments (e.g., "...to educate...") and expose them to the bright light that argues on the other side (e.g., "...is exploitation of the innocent...").

Secondly, a real problem arises, nonetheless: that the wider population is unlikely to encounter airing of opinions and research upon which the academic community grazes and which it nurtures, thus pushing the general run of productive youth, adults, and families farther and farther out of the light where public discourse allegedly takes place. The farther out they are, the less able they are to participate, the more their opinions are alienated from favored discourse and publication, and the more readily they and their arguments are made to seem ridiculous. The more foolish they appear, the less reason there is to air their voices, to print their words.

I am all for free speech but I do think the time is long past when the ability of those favored by circumstance and thereby enabled to mold extreme views as "mainstream" ought to be either promoted or ignored. Ideas are powerful. Ideas are wonderful. Ideas are dangerous. Personal integrity and charcter, social cohesion, personal ambition and societal industry, cultural substance and direction are all dependent upon the free flow and measure of ideas; and when that free flow and especially that discrimination between sound ideas and chaos falls apart, a society and a nation can easily corrupt and disintegrate.

When, then, those measures are not in place, it may well be neither a) unreasonable to deny publication or b) an incongruity to argue for free speech:

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Serenity ~ The Movie

My first sci-fi was something called "The Marvelous Trip to the Mushroom Planet" that was recommended to me by the local smalltown librarian when I was 11 years-old, and by the time I was a freshman in college I was knocking myself out reading up to five -- no shucking you! -- sci-fi novels a day ... instead of the homework and assignments to which I was supposed to be attending, indeed, devoting my energies.

This practice danged near got me booted out on my ear at the end of the first semester, of course, and so I mended my ways thereafter...albeit slowly and, until late in my Junior year, only enough to evade capture by the auto-kicker. I kept on reading. That is, I kept on readintg sci-fi until that media turned dark and almost gothic, about which time I had enough and indulged myself and my hours in more classic literature, writing, publishing, and helping to run a college literary journal and the kind of social clique that supported the college theatre, newspaper, journal and readings. Most of my literary sci-fi adventures slipped away until the better sort of sci-fi movies began to appear ("Them!" and so forth) and were slowly but surely overtaken by not only better scripts but far far better cinematic photography and then technology.

I find myself now on the near-eve of the appearance of Serenity ~ The Movie (as narrowly distinct from the craft/ship/boat) and slapping the reins awaiting the first local showing on Tuesday night, after which (if you stick around ;-) I'll be right back here with more joy - oh, I do so hope: I mean to say, we've gotta keep this television adventure running on full plasma!

Jaws & Minds

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