He should have written a piece about how pedantic Star Trek fans can be. |
But more important is Holmes' contention that sci-fi has gotten swearier-great, now I'm doing it. More swear-filled? Whatever. Fuck it.
Aliens came out over thirty years ago, so what else you got? |
Pictured: us when we sit in front of Netflix all day. |
"Quaaak quaaak quaaaak..."
-Meredith discussing the
role in a 1978 interview
|
Pictured: the real vicim here. |
"That's not fair. That's not fair at all. There was time now. There was-was all the time I needed. It's not fair! It's not fair!"
-Henry Bemis, last man on Earth
and apparent sociopath, I mean,
everyone he's ever known is dead
The correct response to this should be "Fuck! Fuck fuck fuuuuuck!" But this was 1959 and nobody wanted to risk the wrath of Calgon. The issue isn't-huh? It was a laundry detergent or something in the 1950's. I'm suggesting that they wouldn't have advertised on The Twilight Zone if Burgess Meredith said fuck. What's that? Yeah, Calgon does sound like alien warlord or something. Huh, I think you're on to something. Call Jordan Peele.
"I Calgon, shall conquer the shit out of your puny fucking planet!"
-Next time on The Twilight Zone
Episode 14: The Wrath of Calgon
|
For all we know, qupla' is Klingon for suck-it. Or suck them I guess. Oh, didn't you know? Klingons have two. |
Where were we? Right, all the swears. Ok, let's say Johnathan Holmes is on to something and maybe in terms of volume there is more swearing on sci-fi. Which, there's more sci-fi as well, but whatever. I guess my bigger problem here is the underpinning assumption that a character saying fuck or shit in space is in itself a problem. Holmes tries to make the case that people in the future or from another planet would have future or alien swears or something and that's fair. But they'd probably also speak Klingon or Marain, so I don't so much mind that sci-fi is magically translated for viewers.
Why shouldn't we expect characters in sci-fi sound like real, relatable people? Like, when you're on a spaceship with Sam Neil and he's torn out his own eyes and opened a portal to hell, shazbot doesn't really cover it. People say fuck and shit sometimes. I mean, if you're going to play 'kids these days' with an entire genre of entertainment, why not go after the ramped-up violence and cruelty everyone loves so much now? I mean, has this guy seen Altered Carbon or Westworld? Because goddamn.
"So many swears..."
-Johnathan Holmes, on these
grim times in which we live |
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