Blog # 11

The English Standard Version Bible:  Containing the Old and New Testaments with Apocrypha.  Oxford:  Oxford UP, 2009.  Print

     People shape their lives based on the religions, they have for thousands of years.  When people are faced with a decision, the will most likely consult the Bible to see how his disciples dealt with the issue and if it’s not specifically in the Bible, sometimes they will ask the Lord himself in prayer for guidance.  These rituals are inbred in many of the people around the world because their parents taught them to follow the Bible in your daily lives.  In the Bible, men are supposed to act as Jesus would have and therefore, parents around the world raise their children to be conscious of their actions and to take Jesus into account.  So when it comes to doing the right thing, people almost always have a guide as to what is right and to what is wrong.  But what if enemies choose the wrong path and intentionally (or intentionally) hurt others? What are we supposed to do then, after the deed has already been done?   The Bible is very explicit when it comes to forgiveness.  When asked about it, the Bible says in Colossians 3:13  “Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.”  This is clear that the Lord wants us to be forgiving because the Lord knows we all make mistakes and that is important to forgive the mistakes of others.  

BLog #10

You seem to be saying the through “Train Heist,” the writers of Firefly are arguing that after someone makes a mistake, it’s still possible to make it right again and that it takes a big heart to forgive someone.  The main evidence for this is when Mal takes a job from a crime lord with no questions asked.  Then when he learns the truth about what he stole, he finds out that the stolen goods are actually much needed medicine that were going to a small village with a plague.  A real world example of this is when Ulysses S. Grant ordered Jewish citizens in four counties in Missouri to evacuate in 1863.  He soon realized that he was very wrong for enforcing this and apologized to the Jewish community for his actions and they forgave him.  They embraced him so much that the Jewish community voted him back into the office.  This is a timely argument because people make mistakes everyday and it is important that people learn to forgive and forget.  I think this is important because some people need to realize that everyone, including high power people and officials, make mistakes.   

Griswold, Charles L.  Forgiveness: a philosophical exploration. New York: Cambridge University, 2007.  Print.

Aureli, Fillippo and Frans B.M. de Waal, eds.  Natural Conflict Resolution.  Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000.  Print.

Peterson, Christopher and Martin E.P. Seligman.  Character Strengths and Virtues: a Handbook and Classification.  New York: Oxford University Press, 2004. Print.

Hampton, Jean and Jeffrie G. Murphy.  Forgveness and Mercy.  New York: Cambridge University Press, 1988.

Murphy, Jeffrie G. and Sharon Lamb, eds.  Before Forgiving: Cautionary views of Forgiveness in Psychotherapy.  New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.  Print

Blog #9

Joss Whedon’s undermines our expectations of females in his hit tv series Firefly.  When the plot began, the viewer assumed that the characters were straight-forward and would not fool you.  However, this is not the case when it comes to River, Zoe and Kaylee.  All three women are not “average” by society’s standards; in fact, most are extraordinary in their abilities and accomplishments.  But each woman has a talent that society would consider improper for a woman to hold, which is what makes Joss Whedon’s series quite interesting.

            River Tam was introduced in the first episode by being the human cargo of her older brother, Simon Tam.  For almost half of the series, River is thought to be small, weak, scared and helpless.  But as the series progresses, her true self comes out and she is revealed to be intelligent, telepathic, and a real danger to anyone who crosses her.

            Zoe is a tall, incredibly gorgeous, no nonsense kind of woman who, upon first glance, you wouldn’t expect to be the fiercest fighter in the series (apart from the human weapon, River).  Zoe is a veteran of the Alliance/Independence war who fought right along side of Mal.  In some respects, she is a better fighter than Mal because she has some of the common sense that Mal seems to lack. 

            And finally, there’s Kaylee who is the sweetest person you could ever have the chance to meet.  She’s quick to light a smile on her face and always has a comforting word to say to any of the characters in the series.  She might not look lie it, but Kaylee is the best mechanic in the universe.  She managed to keep the ship moving at all costs and her crew depended on her for it.

            Joss Whedon’s interpretation of the female is a good indication that society’s constraints placed on women are fictitious and are only based on men’s unfair bias.  I believe that Joss Whedon is trying to prove a point: women are equal to men.

Blog #7

I would like to talk about the series Firefly and also the movie Serenity as a whole.  I thought the series was phenomenal, that is…until it ended.   It left me with so many questions left unanswered.  I think the worst thing a writer could do is not finish a series.  I mean, I know he was cancelled, but he still then he was given an opportunity to do the job when given the movie opportunity and he failed miserably.  I have a few questions for Joss Whedon:

1) What happened to the men with blue gloves?

2) When River was placed in danger in almost every single episode, why did she not spring to action?

3) When did Shepherd Book get off the ship and move to a small planet and make a settlement?

4) Did River and Simon live a life of peace after the movie ended?

5) Did Mal and Inara ever end up together?

6) What did Reavers have to do with the assassin in the movie?

7) Why did Shepherd book know so much about warfare, and what did his badge say that allowed him to be given emergency care?

These are just a few questions that have occurred to me and I fear they will never be answered again.  I mean, the series was excellent: it was exciting, dramatic, funny, romantic and entertaining.  I just feel that the show should not have been cancelled.  I can’t put my finger on it exactly but something about this series seems unfinished and it seems as though Joss Whedon had a lot more tricks up his sleeve, but was wripped away from the project before he could further the plot.  Overall, I recommend the series, I just recommend that whoever watches doesn’t get their hopes up thinking that all the loose ends will be tied up, because the viewer is left to wonder on a lot of aspects of this series.

Blog #6

I would like to talk about how Mal views every member of his crew as a family member.  I’m speaking about episode 9 called Ariel, when the ship visits the planet named Ariel so that the crew could steal incredibly expensive medicines from the store closets while Simon took River to a brain-imaging laboratory so he could diagnose River.  Simon once worked at this hospital so he knew every little nook and cranny, so he was responsible for working out a plan to accomplish all that they needed to accomplish.  The plan would have succeeded had Jayne not sold out Simon and River to the feds.  Fortunately, everyone gets out okay, including Simon, River and Jayne; but Mal knows what Jayne did and almost kills him because of it. 

            I think Mal’s reaction was interesting.  After all, Jayne did nothing to Mal, yet Mal almost killed Jayne because of his betrayal.  Mal is a different type of; he is extremely loyal to his crew and will protect them til the end-a trait that is very hard to come by.  It seems that in this series, almost every single person the crew on the Serenity deals with has an ulterior motive. It makes the future seem kind of bleak if everyone is about numero uno and making a profit.  But Mal gives us all hope because he is a true gentleman who remains loyal to those he cares about.  If you ask me, we need more people like Mal in the future and also in the here and now.

Blog #5

In the fourth episode of Firefly, Inara, Mal and Kaylee go to a ball where Mal gets in a fight with Inara’s customer, Atherton Wing.  The fight happens because Atherton regards Inara more as property than a human being, and Mal is not alright with that.  The culture on Persephone (the planet they landed on) requires anyone who agrees to a duel to follow through with that and fight in the duel; this rule is so strictly enforced that Mal was held captive all night so that he couldn’t run away.   In the dual, Mal wins and walks away with Inara back to their ship.

            I think that it incredibly ironic that Mal, a thief, crook and smuggler, has better morals than Atherton, a rich, high class, high society figure on the planet of Persephone.  In most cases, high society peoples have better manors than low income peoples because they were raised to have higher standards.  In the future, it seems that the people with good personalities are not given the life they deserve simply because chose to NOT follow the Alliance and to stand up for what they believe in.  This brings me to my question for the day: do the people who have high positions in our society have the highest morals and do they deserve to be there? In today’s society, the leaders of our world are often people who looked away at the wrongs in society just so that they could advance their career.  Some people purposefully ignore opportunities to help so that they can focus on other aspects of their career.  Is it right that only the most  popular and well known politicians get elected when the moralistic ones are stuck behind the scenes trying to make a difference in the world?

Blog #4

In the third episode of Firefly, the crew on the Serenity finds a derelict ship and search it for survivors.   They find one man and they rescue him off the abandoned ship, and soon learn he was mentally disturbed (probably by what he witnessed).  I think when they begin to asses him, Mal understands immediately that he has turned into a Reaver, horrible inhuman cannibals who commit atrocious crimes on humanity.  My question is, how could the man turn into a Reaver after he watched the Reavers murder 13 other families and probably his own family too?

             I think the answer to this is that when someone witnesses a horrible action, the person is going to be affected by that for the rest of their life, and become severely disturbed. His humanity was stolen by the Reavers, which subsequently caused him to become very homicidal and violent to anything that could possibly be threatening to him. In a sense he was similar to that of a beast waiting in the ship to pounce on anything that entered his domain. Mal’s humanitarian effort was commendable for giving the people a proper burial and saving the sole survivor. Which, because of his lack of religious morality and his cold personality, would be something he wouldn’t do.  Even though he did this for monetary gain, it was still a very humanist act. The Priest gives the last rights to these poor, slain, civilian families, which were looking for a new life in deep space (something that, if Mal’s humanity did not permit, they would still be without proper burial). Overall we are starting to see Mal’s more kinder and caring side as the series progresses.