The Agrarian Clean Slate
I look forward to hearing more from Peter about Battlestar Galactica, and I wish he or I had more good things to say about the final season. Much as I enjoyed both works, I hope that BSG and its obvious counterpart Wall•E don’t become the sci-fi standard bearers of our era, since their transparent craving for the supposed authenticity of the land will seem so pat to future generations. We can do better, can’t we? A double feature of Idiocracy and Children of Men does a better job of exploring our modern anxieties, for example.
For all its flaws and simplifications, I think Wall•E (or at least its amazing outro ) had a better angle on the place of land and agriculture in sustaining the human soul. The pudgy humans who return to Earth after life on the Axiom regain, through cultivation of the land, something that has been lost amid stultifying abundance and atomization. The survivors of the Second Cylon War, on the other hand, throw themselves at the mercy of the elements in hopes of burning away the violence and social complexity that humans have accreted over generations. Through self-imposed hardship and austerity, they will not only repair the damage to their souls that life as fugitives has done to them, but they will get a do-over of all the mistakes that ensue when brains outpace hearts, to paraphrase Lee Adama’s monologue.* While the medicine might be the same, these are two very different ways to diagnose the modern condition and to speculate as to how we might heal ourselves, as cultures and individuals. A greater appreciation for the limits of land and season might help us become more human in ways that we have lost, but sudden agrarian austerity would not, as I keep yelling, reset our moral senses to some prelapsarian default.
*Of course, the tacky little denouement of BSG implies that humanity’s do-over is futile, but that scene is best ignored or forgotten.
I’d defend some parts of the fourth season much more than the finale, but I completely agree on the nuttiness of Apollo’s approach.
One thing I’d add though. Wall-E envisions success for its neo-agrarians. I don’t believe the same is true of BSG. If it’s our earth, Colonial genetics may have lived on, but by and large their civilization died out to such an extent as to have no notable effect on history. The abandonment of the ships seems like not so much an effort at renewal as a graceful way to die and avoid a cycle of colonizing or enslaving of the natives.
I think that’s a rather bleak look at potential for resolving conflict, sort of a Bad News gospel, but at least it would be fairly unflinching.
— Greg Sanders · Mar 24, 07:26 AM · #
The ending of BSG was a compelete let down. I found the conclusion of everyone “going back to the land” was predictable conclusion that absolutely sucked wind.
Not happy with it at all…
— M00se · Mar 24, 02:48 PM · #
I’ve been reading The Irony of American History and just yesterday I was reading about the fallacy of thinking that the poor are somehow more virtuous (as Communists did) or that working the land and keeping to one’s self bestows some sort of innocence (as America did, for a time). I’m guessing Ron Moore never read the book, but it is ironic (ha!) that I would read that right after BSG’s finale ended.
At what point are we going to admit that, after two intriguing and watchable seasons, the show became unbearably pretentious in exploring deeper themes it didn’t have the chops to explore, only to crash and burn with a finale that basically cemented fans’ worst fears that the show wasn’t really about anything other than what half-baked dorm room philosophy Ron Moore wanted to explore that week? At least for the first two seasons he was more focused on creating an entertaining show.
— Lev · Mar 24, 04:21 PM · #
WALL-E, faults? I think you watched the wrong film. Maybe Idiocracy or Children of Men? There are two great films that had major faults nonetheless. WALL-E is a great film without any major faults to speak of. Musta got those three mixed up there.
— Matt · Mar 25, 09:16 PM · #