Paul Gadzikowski
scarfman@iglou.com

The Return of Archy the Cockroach

Nothing New Under the Sun

boss i heard you 
talking the other 
day about screen 
science fiction 
as if no one but 
you sees what s going 
on i first wrote of 
the movies as the 
modern folklore 
fifty years before 
you quote 
coined the term 
unquote time magazine 
had a sidebar 
article when 
the empire strikes back 
opened on how 
lucas was 
swiping his characters 
from the same old 
archetypes that homer 
invented and that 
jung copyrighted and 
that had finally got 
tired of appearing 
in westerns all the 
time you remember of 
course that that s how 
roddenberry sold 
star trek 
to nbc the first 
time to wit as quote 
wagon train to the stars 
unquote but the major 
difference i note between 
space opera and horse opera 
or any other traditional 
folklore 
is that space opera is 
perforce set in 
the future implying 
that the human race 
has one even if it is 
designed by h r giger 
which i suppose would 
be better than none but 
i digress

the star trek movies 
are just the 
gilgamesh story 
over again except 
the hero wins and the 
sidekick lives to 
direct 
the alien movies are 
the new beowulf they 
even bring in the 
monster s mother and what 
a mother it 
is too superman is 
sampson and slash or 
hercules with a 
cape seaquest dsv is 
jason and the 
argonauts agent mulder 
is just diogenes with 
a badge searching 
for an honest man or 
maybe an honest alien

it is all the more 
important to humans to 
have worthy folklore 
heroes in these days 
of the information 
revolution since 
heaven knows no real 
public figure stands 
up to media attention 
for long

     archy

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