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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