Allegory

[A_Wanderer]

I was wondering how people feel when pieces of literature change into an allegory for an event.

I myself are of mixed opinions on the matter, on one hand I think that literature is a very good escape from the politics and events of the day and that by dragging contempary events in there corrupts that. On the other hand, it can help to present morality and philosophies to the masses, Lord of the Flies and Animal Farm would be good examples of this.

The example that got me thinking of this is the television show Enterprise, at the end of Season 2 Earth was attacked by a single Xindi probe in a suicide attack, providing an obvious allusion to the attacks against the US. The enemy is a dispersed and unknown species comprised of various races, they are in turn being manipulated to work against the humans in a complex web of intrugue. They add in the MACO team which is a special forces group and simmilarities betwen Captain Archer and George W Bush come up through their actions in fighting The Xindi. It takes elements from the War on Terror and integrates them, changing the narrative in some ways for the better, others a little worse. Considering "Undiscovered Country" was tied in with the end of Cold War, there is a history of this type of thing.

What do you out there think, is there enough reality on TV, do people really want to be reminded while they sit back and watch their futuristic sci-fi shows, is there not enough out there, is it just propaganda. Any ideas or opinions?

 

[Kieran McConville]

I have only one opinion on the matter and it is this: the temper of the times will inevitably creep into 'creative' work like novels, stage plays and films. Sometimes it may not even be wholly pre-meditated. So it's liable to be in there, like it or not.

I guess one can always ignore the political side if one wants. There isn't anything wrong with escapism sometimes, I'm all for it in fact.

 

[najeena]

It's nice to know someone else out there watches Star Trek. But honestly, I never saw a correlation beteween Archer and Bush. Was I blind? Perhaps. But it's difficult to believe, having watched it since I was a little girl in the sixties, that the writers would have modelled Archer after someone with as much baggage as Bush.

 

[Dreadsox]

Star Trek has always been written with reality mixed in.

 

[A_Wanderer]

The Klingons (USSR) and Romulans (China) being obvious examples.

 

[BVS]

What do you out there think, is there enough reality on TV, do people really want to be reminded while they sit back and watch their futuristic sci-fi shows, is there not enough out there, is it just propaganda. Any ideas or opinions?

I think there is hardly any reality on TV. Not in reality shows, not on the news, not in sitcoms most of what we see is pretty mindless and it would escape our minds if it wasn't there the next day or the next week to remind us that it existed. But some of it's entertaining.