darkwing_duck1
Vice Admiral
The material may have originated within Trek, but Trek pulled it back and presented it in a believable sci-fi context. PAD's stuff reads like his X-Factor work: four-color and "spandex-y".
Is it time for Peter David to go?
- Thread starter Ktrek
- Start date
The material may have originated within Trek, but Trek pulled it back and presented it in a believable sci-fi context. PAD's stuff reads like his X-Factor work: four-color and "spandex-y".
Depends on the reader, I suppose. I found it neither intense nor powerful, and enjoyment was far from my experience of it.
I found it incredibly overbearing--and culminating in a very, VERY tasteless assassination fantasy.
I think the book pretty clearly demonstrated that the assassination wasn't at all morally justifiable, and if nothing else the consequences resonated through War/Peace and AOTF.
Mack, it seems to me, often writes about situations in which people have no Right choice to make, either by being caught up in events beyond their control or being caught up in events that are morally ambiguous enough to permit no easy answers. And I didn't think the assassination was easy or overbearing. Just as dark as the rest of the story.
On the other hand (and getting back on topic), PAD tends to write about individuals able to singlehandedly make the entire universe submit to their will, through sheer force of personality. I don't think the two writers' approaches could be more different, but perhaps even because of that contrast I enjoy them both a lot. With Christopher, they make up my top three Trek writers.
Believe it or not, the end of Zife was supposed to be horrifying, repugnant, and evil. I'm very nearly insulted that you would think that that could possibly have been intended as a positive cathartic release for people who disapproved of George W. Bush's administration.
Oh, I did find it disgusting. And even more disgusting that that would be presented as ANY sort of viable "solution," even a bad one. And yes, I did and still do believe it was partly to mostly put in there to express what some "wished" could happen IRL--which I DID find utterly repulsive.
You're right, that IS what some people wished would happen IRL. And you're also right - as it turned out, it WAS utterly repulsive.
Which. Was. The. POINT.
I apologize; this quote seems vaguely familiar, but I can't place it. Remind me?
It's paraphrasing Calhoun; his reply to the female Nelkarite in one of the first four books when she made a snide remark about him trying to police the galaxy. IIRC, since I'm at work and don't have the books with me...
Cool, thanks.
Did you have the same reaction to the VOY episode "Tuvix"? Because that was another ST story where no possible ending was the comfortable one. On purpose.
And that's the point of the David Mack's "A Time..." books. I don't care what David Mack's opinions of George Bush were/are. That he chose to give us an uncomfortable solution, from a range of possible uncomfortable solutions, was the whole idea.
Because sometimes real life won't allow confortable solutions.
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I'm going to go ahead and say yes.
Same here. While dark, No-Easy-Answers tales are, by and large, brillantly thought provoking, still, it is a nice relief to pick up a tale where good and evil are clearly defined, and where the good triumphs over the evil.
The latter gives one a good feeling upon finishing the tale--it provides a feeling of hope--that good CAN triumph, if it stands firm to the end, and never gives in....
No. Keep PAD. There are, IMHO, more than enough "dark" writers out there, as it is. We need some balance, so as not to give in to depression....
^Considering your moniker, I'm beginning to question what is wrong with me that I tend to agree with you so regularly, Rush.
I'm tempted to put up a Sarah Palin icon just to scare the beejezus out of other posters - and to test my own sanity.
Ah well, whatever the reason, once again I find myself nodding "yes" to your posting.
I'm tempted to put up a Sarah Palin icon just to scare the beejezus out of other posters - and to test my own sanity.
Ah well, whatever the reason, once again I find myself nodding "yes" to your posting.
Nothing wrong, mate.
"In Your Heart You Know He's Right.
Far Right...."
Thanks!
(And about the Palin thing--if the picture's not something demeaning to the former governor, it might be misunderstood by fellow right-wingers like yours truly...and you might get a heck of a lot of friend requests from "Fellow Members Of The Brethren Of Conservatism"!)
Leaving aside the scientifically stupid premise of "Tuvix," I've never found Janeway's decision in any way justifiable. Yes, I've seen justifications (like Richard Hanley's in The Metaphysics of Star Trek that Tuvok + Neelix > Tuvix), but I can't get around the problem that for all intents and purposes Tuvok and Neelix were dead at that point, and murdering Tuvix because a way was found to bring them back was morally incomprehensible. Is it justified to murder children to restore the life of the parents -- which is the situation presented in "Tuvix"? There is, actually, a comfortable ending to "Tuvix" -- it's that Janeway doesn't do anything, and Tuvix lives.
George W. Bush is not a "Junior," and it's inaccurate to refer to him as such. His father is George Herbert Walker Bush; he is George Walker Bush.
"W" (pronounced like "dub-yuh") to his friends....
