Kevin's Watch

It really hit home how sick Billinsgate was and how much trouble Morn was in for. It was an interesting moral ground to compare alot of the societies in the gap with. But I definitely agree with Skyweir, the act was like a stab at mass entertainment.

precisely!

gladiator syndrome .. mass pyschotic voyerism

Might as well have some fun in the middle of nowhere! What's the old Sci-Fi adage?-"In space no one can hear you scream." (brownie points if u can tell me where this comes from-come on it's ez! )

I think SRD needed, in order to retain our sympathy for the main characters, to make the reader feel it was OK to blow up a whole world. So he made Billingate a horrible, gross world. To make us believe it, he extended from our own day the psychological trends pointed out by Amani.

That scene was the worst thing I've ever read. By that I don't mean badly written but made me physically ill. I had to put it down, left it for a couple days but then had to pick it back up because without finishing the story it would have haunted me. It made my stomach knot up. What got me was not that a person would agree to do such a thing to themselves, but that a whole crowd would encourage, demand it and take some kind of satisfaction in it. I felt the same way in high school when people would circle around kids who were fighting. I wondered how they could enjoy watching injury to another human being? When I read that scene my mind just said...if that was the state of the world then life would not be worth living.
I'm glad I finished the series.

Yeah, agreed, Arabisha. It made me very concerned for Mikka, Sib, Ciro and Vector when Nick sent them out of Captain's Fancy.

Just have a look how "reality shows" have become popular in the past few years. All kinds of settings, women and men put together on a farm, an island, a plain closed house, anything. How many years will pass until even this wears out? What comes then? "Running Man"? And next?
SRD wasn't exagerrating _that_ much.

I honestly don't think things will get to that level. I mean, we have snuff now, but it will never become a form of mass entertainment.

Ur-Vile wrote:It really hit home how sick Billinsgate was and how much trouble Morn was in for. It was an interesting moral ground to compare alot of the societies in the gap with. But I definitely agree with Skyweir, the act was like a stab at mass entertainment.

But who would enjoy that type of entertainment? it's sick

I think SRD likes to use graphic descriptions of events like this as a device to grab the reader's attention.

In the Gap sequence examples are Angus and Nick's sexual abuse of Morn and the aforementioned self-mutilation 'entertainment' on Billingate.

In TCTC, he uses the rape of Lena and the descriptions of how the Kresh and some of the other twisted creatures in Flesharrower's army would not only kill their victims, but feast on their flesh also.

SRD's skill is evident in the fact that, rather than being repelled by such horrific acts, we are drawn in and we want to read on - a sign of the same sick fascination in us all that makes people slow down to look as they pass the scene of a motorway crash?

Perhaps SRD wants us to look within ourselves?

Satansheart wrote:Perhaps SRD wants us to look within ourselves?

Yeah, that's a good point. Perhaps he examines entertainment and our fascination with it; note angus' and nick's lack of reaction to the act. Perhaps this is a study of just how evil they are.

Bear in mind that Angus couldn't react to it openly as he is a welded cyborg and neither of them want to draw attention to themselves at this point as it would compromise their cover.

If Angus has been to Billingate before he's probably seen that act and others like it a dozen times before and now ignores it. It's not necessarily an indication of how evil he is, more likely that he has been desensitised from having seen it all before.

This fits in better as a parallel to our own society - we as outsiders are shocked by the graphic description of this unspeakable act, but the people watching it have seen it so many times that they are not affected by it. In the same way, we are routinely exposed to sex, violence and horror in the media (computer games, movies, TV news, etc) and we are becoming desensitised to it.

If SRD intended this to be a social commentary, then he does a good job of pointing out our essential apathy towards the suffering of others.

Well said, Satansheart. I agree with most of your points. However, I think it is only possible to become desensitised to such graphic violence if one is sick to some degree.

I think it is in part to show Billingate as a horrible place...

I found myself reacting quite differently to the destruction of the Lab than I did the the destruction of Billingate. While intellectually, I realize that both killed numerous persons, and could both be considered acts of mass murder -- emotionally the destruction of the Lab hit me much harder...

Maybe I'll get flames for this, but still: to a degree I sense something similar in the fact that Mel Gibson has made his Passion of the Christ (I haven't seen it yet, just the trailer and pics, and read reviews). A few decades ago it would've been enough to _hint_ at the mental and bodily sufferings of Jesus - now it takes a host of horror-movie effects and a daily 8 hours of make-up for the artists to make an impression on the movie-goers.

edit

They are actually discussing the desensitation to violence that is taking place in our society. I have not seen that particular film, and have no desire to. Many critics have been saying that it deserves an X/NC17 rating for its violence...
I would think the self mutilation act would also deserve an X/NC17 rating, in my eyes at least, if it were really to happen live on stage, or in a movie...

heh, In that case... I am sorry... I'll edit my post.

My question is...what was the entire "behind-the-curtain" situation involved with this poor gal mutilating herself time and time again for each new act? Was she made to do this by someone running the show, or is she just so at the bottom of the barrel she'll do anything to get some cash? If the former, then I really, really pity the poor thing.

I remember Ben Kenobi from Star Wars describing Mos Eisley as a "wretched hive of scum and villainy". Yeah. Right. Man, Billingate makes Mos Eisley look like Disneyland.

But yeah, I agree with the idea that SRD could be making a social comment on how far we're digressing in our forms of entertainment to the point of vile repute. Talk shows, reality television, excssive violence in films just for the sake of violence? I don't even watch T.V, and I don't understand why folks keep watching this junk. Let's see, as far as reality t.v. shows go, I'll just watch American Chopper, but that's on Discovery Channel, so you're actually learning something, and besides, it's about them at work, not their personal lives.

Now with shows like the Osbournes, by moral choice I will not watch that program because I don't think it's right for millions of people to know the personal lives of Ozzy and his family. I realize it's their choice, but...why encourage that sort of behavior?

Okay, I really ran out on a tangent.

-Dutch
www.mistythemouse.com

I agree with the Duchess, I think the point of the act is to show how bad this place is. It helps the reader see the neccessity of Angus' mission, instead of just being some abstract diplomatic issue.