Serenity is a Burkean conservative movie. Am I really the first to notice?
UPDATE: VR pointed me here. The claim is made that the western (that is, bang! fill your hands you S.O.B. western, not the Not Eastern western) essence of Firefly necessitated the reactionary, traditional message. This seems like nonsense to me. But the article is worth a read.
UPDATE II: Another take. I have to admit that I didn't see any real equivalence drawn between the Alliance and the Reavers. Also, I don't think that it was democracy qua democracy being derided, but rather a corrupt pseudo-democratic system. Parallels to modern institutions left for the reader.
UPDATE III: Frustration over what might have been.
UPDATE IV: A more literary review.
4 comments:
Explain. Did you enjoy it?
Do you mean Burke's argument that human nature is not dark and evil, and that it provides its own impetus to work on itself (because of God--not government)? Or that a government that interferes with preestablished connections between individuals breaks the connection between idea and world, thus severing "word's" ability to influence action--namely, that "restless innovators", i.e., Utopian Reformers, who believe in the total reconstruction of society without regard to human nature often do more harm than good?
Again, did you like it?
Err. I have to admit that I was looking for previous asserters of the claim, so I didn't have to think for myself. Here goes:
SPOILERS!!
River's rant about "meddling" is a perfect example of the Burkean idea that custom is more complex and meaningful than can be seen on the surface. The Alliance's rather unsuccessful attempt to immanentize the eschaton shows just how poorly a government manipulates such complexities. Their failed attempt to alter the very nature of mankind has an horrific and unpredicted backlash; which, ironically, is just what a Burkean would have predicted.
As the Operative maunders about the new society having no place for men like him, we see that he believes that human nature will be, in this Utopia-to-come, essentially different. When shown the previous attempt to alter this nature, he realizes the falsity of this idea. Human nature, as Burke would have it, is given by God, and may not be altered by the hands of men.
The refrain of "can't stop the signal" is the "word's" influence on a civilization, which also is beyond the power of a government to destroy. Any attempt to do so is futile, since government is parasitic on the very "word" and essence which is to be destroyed.
...
Yeah, I liked it a lot.
I could probably come up with more specific examples, but I'll need to wait until I can watch it again. I'll have something to say about Book, for sure, as well as Elena.
I should add that I'm far more familiar with Burke's aesthetics than his politics, so I may have misattributed a bit. Time for some remedial reading!
There are, apparently, books written analyzing Serenity. You can see opeds regarding the movie and those books at blogcritics.org
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