Who am I?

I am in late middle age and I have 3 kids and a husband. I have a full-time job in New York City, and it takes about 35 minutes by train for me to travel from my home to Penn Station. I have been writing most of my blog on the train, which means that I cart around two laptops (home and work) during the 30-minute walk part of my commute. I am in a state of total exhaustion all the time, which means that you, dear reader, should be very appreciative of all that I do to bestow upon you my profound (and witty) insights about Battlestar Galactica.

It's sad, really, that I am spending what little free time I have exorcising my obsession with a television show that appears on the SciFi Channel. I could, after all, be writing about the effect of existentialist philosophy on late 20th century American literature, but there you go. This is my blog and I get to say what I want.

My daughter is in fifth grade and she is very very smart. She also likes Battlestar Galactica. (She does, however, hide under a pillow and say "yuck" during anything that remotely resembles a sexual encounter, even if it is just a kiss. Alas, I fear that this will come to an end in about 2-3 years). I think, though, that her all-time favorite shows are Dr. Who and Zoe 101. Go figure.

My sons are almost two years younger (they are twins, in case you can't figure that out). They are identical, meaning that they are essentially genetic clones (13th Cylon model, maybe?). They both have autism, and I do not mean they talk all the time about, say, the Civil War, until the person listening just wants to kill them. You know, geeky guys with long hair and really bad taste in clothes, the really smart kids who attend MIT or Cal Tech and go out on their first date when they are 45 (if at all).

They have the really-messed-up-brain autism. They can't talk and can't read or write, although we have made huge progress in getting them to dress themselves and eat at the table using spoons and forks. We are also working to teach them how to watch tv (bet you never heard that one). Their favorite activities are running around screaming while rubbing a piece of string (and then sometimes eating the string), or running around banging two items together. Lately this has been two spoons, although in the past it has been any two objects that come to hand (including two crystal candlesticks which, of course, shattered). When they are upset they tend to bang their heads on any hard surface they can find, including windows, walls, floors, me, etc. They will do this in the house and outside, which tends to upset people if we are, say, in a diner, at Home Deport, or in the grocery store.

I do not believe that autism is cased by vaccines, and if YOU think so, please keep your thoughts to yourself. I also do not believe that (a) God gives special kids to special people, (b) before they are born, babies pick their parents and our kids chose us because they knew we would be such great parents, (c) God gives us disabled children so that we can be better people, (d) God gives people horrible situations as punishment for being bad, or (e) autism happens because parents (especially moms) withhold love from their children (THE most popular theory, btw, until sometime in the late '70's). 

I believe that we have had incredibly bad luck and it just happened. I try not to take it personally. I believe that all children are entitled to unconditional love from their parents, although there are many times when I don't like my children that much. My kids are incredibly good-looking, btw, and that certainly makes it easier to love them (which may not be admirable on my part, but is the truth). They are also very sweet and very affectionate.

I think I am suffering from something I call "The Purple Rose of Cairo" syndrome. In case you don't remember, "The Purple Rose of Cairo" is a Woody Allen movie set in the Great Depression, and the main character is a woman whose life is so shitty that she watches the same film over and over again as a means of escape. I am also not a huge science fiction fan, although I loved the original Star Trek series (I was like 8 at the time) and "The Next Generation." "Deep Space Nine" was pretty good until the last year or so, when I got lost in all the geopolitical machinations. "Voyager" was often, but not always interesting, and I never saw the prequel series. I like all the even-numbered Star Trek films. I don't read science fiction at all, but I like speculative movies and fiction a lot.

In this blog I will be devoting some posts about individual characters. I will also be providing a show-by-show analysis of my observations on the plot, themes, and characters. I will not be provding a synopsis of each show, if you want that go to Battlestar Galactica on the SciFi channel web site. There will be spoilers, so if you haven't seen the entire series you may want to stop right here.

I have not listened to all the podcasts, and I am going to hold off listening to the rest of them since I don't want to be unduly influenced by their content (it feels a little like cheating).

(I also really like parentheses, in case you couldn't tell.)

Enough about me, let us join Battlestar Galactica's quest for Earth.

Why Battlestar Galactica

What makes us human

A big part of Battlestar Galactica is about what makes us human. It's a compelling theme and one that is common to a lot of science fiction. Take a look at Philip K. Dick's "Do Androids Dream of Mechanical Sheep" or the film version, "Bladerunner," directed by Ridley Scott. (I might add, btw, that I have never been able to actually read a book by Philip K. Dick, although I have tried on several occasions.)

All of the Star Trek shows touch on this topic with at least one character. My favorite is Commander Data from "The Next Generation," who is a mechanical man, but is self-aware and strives to experience human emotions. Data is also a highly moral person, something appears to be programmed into him. The critical question, of course, is how much of him is programmed and how much is something else, whatever that may be.

Karel Capek, a Czech playwright, coined the term "robot" in his 1920 classic "RUR." The essential plot line is the creation of robots that look like people and serve as slaves. They are lacking in affect and obedient, even if obedience means self-destruction.

Eventually the robots rise up in rebellion against their creators (hey, wait a minute, does this sound familiar?) and destroy all of humanity except one person. In doing so, they kill the people who created them, thereby losing any hopes of achieving reproduction and extending their existence to future generations. The last man alive is ordered to solve this problem, but doesn't have the knowledge. At the end of the play he observes a male and female robot (he calls them "Adam" and "Eve") develop an emotional relationship (love), as exemplified by their willingness to sacrifice themselves on behalf of the other person.

I only read this play a couple of days ago, as "homework" for this post. It is really amazing. The story is original and brilliant and the plot and dailogues are wonderfully expressive of the underlying concepts. I suspect that it was an inspiration to Ronald Moore, although its influence on many later science fiction classics is obvious. (BTW, in RUR the robots are not mechanical but based on organic matter that is somehow manipulated to produce beings that IMHO act quite autistic.)

RUR and Battlestar Galactica both examine what distinguishes these man-made creatures from their creators, and their struggle to be more human. For many of the Cylons it is the ability to feel love. (D'Anna holds Hera in her arms and feels true love for the first time, as predicted by the oracle. "Exodus, Part1") Like the robots in RUR the Cylons also strive to reproduce ("The Farm"). In fact, despite their ability to resurrect, the Cylons spend a lot of time trying to figure out how to make babies.

Of course, this opens a whole can of worms. Are Cylons programmed to feel any emotions? Well, yeah, I guess. My impression is that they do, certainly Athena seems to have an emotional life. If they can feel other emotions, why is love alien to them, something they strive to feel, but only a few can achieve. There is a poignant conversation between a Six and a Doral on Caprica ("Tigh me up, Tigh me down") as they talk about Sharon's love for Helo and her escape with him. Doral asks Six if she envies Sharon's intensity of feeling for Helo. She says no, but her facial expression says otherwise.

The big question is WHY do the Cylons want to feel love. HOW do they comprehend it sufficiently so that they even know what it is? HOW did they decide that they wanted to feel love? And of course, who the hell created the Cylons? It can't just be humans, where did the Cylon concept of God come from? Who are the final five, and WHY aren't the other seven models allowed to talk about them. How did the final five get to earth when no one else seems to be able to find it? Is there really a higher power at work here?

I will be really interested in seeing how this all plays out in the last season, because I frankly think that the creators/writers have dug themselves into a hole, and I am not so sure they are going to be able to pull themselves out.

One last thought, contemporary medicine is finding out more and more about the brain, so for us humans, some of these questions are increasingly relevant. (I recommend taking a look at a "An Anthropologist on Mars" by Oliver Sacks.) The physiology of the brain, our genetic make up - how does all this determine who we are? Does it determine our soul (whatever that is)? Our emotional responses? Questions about the Cylons seem to be related to questions about who and what we are, and how our physiology determines this, rather than our soul (whatever that is).