Update on ‘Firefly’ and geekhood
I’ve been enjoying the “Firefly” screenings at Portland’s Mission Theater these last few Tuesdays. It turns out I’d only seen five episodes of the series, so most of it is brand-new to me.
I’m not generally a sci-fi sort of person, and I admit some of the people at these screenings are far geekier than I tend to associate with. (Not that there’s anything wrong with that.) But it’s been interesting to discover that “Firefly,” while surrounded by sci-fi trappings (outer space, the future, etc.), is not always strictly a “sci-fi” show. Many of the stories could just as easily be used in a straightforward action series like “The A-Team” or “MacGyver” or whatever.
For that matter, the show is set on the frontiers of space 500 years hence, and a lot of the frontier resembles the American Old West. Because of that, a lot of what goes on could happen in a Western series, too. Replace “going to visit this planet” with “going to visit this town,” and everything else is the same.
The point is, if you’re generally averse to science-fiction, you might like “Firefly” anyway. Did I mention it’s also very, very funny, often exciting, and full of lively, interesting characters? Well it is!
The free screenings at the Mission have been very well attended, so much so that people are lining up outside an hour early in order to get a seat. And some people have gone even further: They’ve been buying tickets to whatever movie is playing beforehand and sticking around. Since the “Firefly” showings are free, the theater doesn’t care if people come to the movie and then just stay in their seats for “Firefly.”
Of course, this means they have to sit through whatever the movie is. A few weeks ago, it was “Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer.” Remember, these are hardcore sci-fi/comic book geeks. Forcing someone like that to watch “Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer” before they can watch “Firefly” is like taking an art enthusiast to a Picasso exhibit but making him walk through a Thomas Kincaid gallery first.
Sometimes it works out. Last night, the movie was “Waitress.” Apart from being a delightful film, it also co-stars Nathan Fillion, who plays the lead in “Firefly.” So that was much better for those people.
On the subject of geekdom, there was a flier going around last week from AM 970’s Rick Emerson, one of the sponsors of the “Firefly” screenings. Here’s what it said:
What a geek believes
According to Rick EmersonI believe that Han shot first. I believe that Ally Sheedy was hotter before Molly Ringwald cleaned her up. I believe in miniatures, models, claymation, and not revealing the shark until you absolutely have to. I believe that George Lucas, for better or for worse, change the way we see the world, each other, and ourselves. And I believe that we will someday reach those stars that he himself made visible. I believe that George Lucas is also a narrow-minded, money-grubbing pig-headed slave to the now, who ought to be locked away from his own creations, lest he do them further harm. I believe that Jean-Luc Picard is the better Starship Captain, but I also believe that James Tiberius Kirk is infinitely cooler. I believe that a child standing in line to buy a book at midnight is fantastic; I believe that reading makes you smart — it’s schools that make you dumb. I believe that any episode of Futurama is better than any program featuring a precocious teenager who’s wise beyond their years. I also believe Buffy the Vampire Slayer to be the sole exception that proves this rule. I believe that comic books are an art form, and will someday be recognized as such. I believe that good shows die too young; and crap shows last too long. I believe that Eddie Izzard is the funniest man alive, an dI don’t care whether you’ve ever heard of him or not — it’s still true. I believe that a girl who likes movies about zombies is hotter than whoever is on the cover of Maxim this month. I believe that Belloch ate that fly, I swear to God that I heard Luke call Leia “Carrie,” and I believe that Samwise Gamgee never quite got the credit he really deserved. I believe in magic, I believe in dreams, I believe in the power of music, movies, and the untold worlds inside an everyday library card. And I do not believe that geeks will inherit the earth; I believe that we already have.
I know what 90 percent of those things mean, but I only have opinions one way or the other on a few of them. I guess I’m not much of a geek. But I sure love me some “Firefly”!
August 8th, 2007 at 1:27 pm
It’s kind of geeky, but for my friend’s birthday, we did a “Firefly”-themed party: a space-western with Chinese influence. Then we watched episodes of the show. It was fun. Unfortunately I didn’t know how to swear in Mandarin.
August 8th, 2007 at 1:30 pm
One thing about Firefly: the Chinese sucks. It’s just awful to listen to when you actually understand the language. I’ve only seen a few episodes, but what I heard hurt my ears. And it’s not that they have bad accents or something, I can deal with that. The tones are all wrong, and Chinese is based on tones. I don’t know why they picked Chinese for the language, maybe figuring that almost nobody watching would understand how bad it sounded, but it was just a bad choice.
August 8th, 2007 at 1:39 pm
re: the Chinese. Do you really believe that if Mandarin was internationalized (interstellarized?), it would maintain its tonality? Especially if it is internationalized as a second language (since English seems to have remained dominant in the Firefly ‘verse) used almost exclusively for swearing?
August 8th, 2007 at 1:49 pm
Eric — Welcome to good science fiction. I recognize that, as a movie guy, you haven’t seen much good science fiction, so you might have a hard time recognizing it as such when you see it, but there’s a lot of it. In fact, one of the better authors of science fiction happens to be a fan of yours — he’s also a great fan of Firefly/Serenity.
Good science fiction isn’t about space ships, robots, or laser guns, although it may have any or all of those features. Good science fiction is about telling stories that matter in a setting that’s obviously not realistic and which doesn’t involve magic. It can be alternative history, with or without futuristic elements playing a role. It can be near-future speculation, or most anything. Firefly is space-cowboy science fiction that involves action, romance, comedy, drama and very pretty, very real characters that you care about.
Good science fiction has little to do with anything George Lucas ever did, and not a lot to do with what Gene Rodenberry did either — those are surface anomalies on the great mass which is science fiction. You can hate both bodies of work and still love science fiction. Firefly/Serenity happens to be among the better works available, so it’s a great world to start with. Battlestar Galactica isn’t a bad place to go afterwards either — it’s not just Book of Abraham allusions anymore.
August 8th, 2007 at 2:49 pm
“I believe in magic, I believe in dreams, I believe in the power of music, movies, and the untold worlds inside an everyday library card. And I do not believe that geeks will inherit the earth; I believe that we already have.”
– amen, brother, amen
August 8th, 2007 at 5:19 pm
Love the Emerson quote (although I didn’t understand all of it). Glad to see another Firefly fan converted…sad to say, once you’ve seen Firefly, no other sci-fi show will measure up (not even Battlestar), and you’ll spend the rest of your life cursing the corporate honchos at FOX for mismanaging and quickly killing the greatest sci-fi show ever made.
August 8th, 2007 at 5:29 pm
If the Chinese language loses it’s tonality, then it becomes gibberish. The tone decides the word. I can say horse, mother, ?, and scold using the same sound, the tone is all that differentiates the word (along with context). I love showing my American friends that trick because I tell them I said 4 different words, and they swear I said the same word 4 times.
Chinese has a very limited number of sounds. I can imagine it would evolve, but I don’t think you can hide behind science-fiction logic here to force a production error to make sense. Unless you can say the universe took Chinese and perverted it with really bad American accents (read: incomprehensible and inconsistent tones), then you have to admit that it was just a bad language to choose for the series. They chose a cool, exotic language that is somewhat logical (China is powerful and has lots of people). However, it may have served them better to choose a language that wasn’t almost completely dependent on being able to say the word correctly for it to make any sense. I respect the actors for their attempt at the language, but they were all awful (in the few eps I saw).
August 8th, 2007 at 5:39 pm
Well, to be fair, the actors themselves admit their Chinese was terrible (if you watch the extras on the Firefly series DVDs). Seeing as how Chinese as a second language does make a lot of sense within that universe, I’m willing to give them a pass on the point that it happens to be a language that’s nearly impossible for American English speakers with little training to pronounce well.
Anyway Eric, congrats on discovering Firefly. As for your geek cred, I don’t think you have to know everything about geekdom to be appreciated by its members. As long as you know something, you’ll be fine.
August 8th, 2007 at 10:46 pm
Ditto what Kamisaki says on the Chinese. I was gonna post it myself, but actually took the time to read the comments first. So, yes, this is superfluous.
August 8th, 2007 at 11:50 pm
“I believe that Belloch ate that fly” ??
I tried googling with no luck. Can anyone enlighten me?
August 9th, 2007 at 2:29 am
Belloch is the archaeologist aligned with the Nazis in Raiders of the Lost Ark, although IMDB has it spelled “Belloq.” The bit with the fly is mentioned in http://www.indianajones.de/indy1/texte/trivia.php about 3/4’s of the way down.
August 9th, 2007 at 4:09 am
Belloq was a character in Raiders, and he ate a fly, right on camera!! You can see if you rewind.
August 9th, 2007 at 4:44 am
Randy - there’s a scene in ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’ where a fly dives right into Paul Freeman’s (Belloq’s) mouth while he’s speaking and he just carries right on as if nothing happened.
August 9th, 2007 at 7:34 am
That is one spot where I disagree with Emerson. If you look closely, the fly seems to be walking on a flat transparent surface, not on Belloq’s face. I believe the fly was accidentally added to the image when the shot was being developed or something. It has been suggested on other message boards that the fly landed on the lens while the shot was being filmed, but I think it would look a lot larger and out of focus.
Anyway, I really enjoy that “What a Geek Believes” flyer.
August 9th, 2007 at 10:55 am
“Ally Sheedy was hotter before Molly Ringwald cleaned her up.”
No truer words have ever been spoken.
August 9th, 2007 at 4:34 pm
In Mandarin Chinese there are only about 413 to 416 actual spoken words (depending on who you ask) so each word is a homonym multiple times over. The word that sounds like “shrr” is the most common spoken word with 70 to 100 characters all using the same sound. So the intonation and context are terribly important in Chinese. Obviously, puns and/or wordplay form one of the easiest forms of humor in Chinese. Tongue twisters are fun and easy to invent. And popular song lyrics are impossible to understand unless you have them written out and you follow along. When you introduce yourself (”Hello, my name is Shrr.”), people ask which characters are used (”Which Shrr character?”), since there is no context for a name. It’s a very different world.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to pare a pair of pears.
August 10th, 2007 at 7:52 am
After reading all of these comments about how hard Chinese is to pronounce, I’m glad that I learned Japanese. Yes, they still have characters that have two different meanings, but usually they are combined with other characters so it is easier to understand. Also, the have an alphabet of 47 or so letters and you can write the whole language in it.
Haven’t seen Firefly yet, but I do know that the Japanese on Heroes is usually pretty good when spoken by Hiro and Ando-kun, but George Takei’s japanese is HORRIBLE. Same with everybody elses Japanese.