Religion and Revenge on Babylon 5

In the first season episode, “The Parliament of Dreams,” all the sentient species aboard Babylon 5 spend a week celebrating their culture’s dominant religion.  The Centauri host a feast commemorating a time in their history when they battled against another intelligent species, the Xon, for dominion of their home world.  The Minbari perform a ceremony of rebirth and renewal, which we later learn also doubles as a wedding ceremony.  Unfortunately, we don’t get to see all the religious ceremonies, as a major portion of the episode concerns an attempt on the life of Ambassador G’Kar.

When we first glimpse the Narn Ambassador, he is preparing a meal in his quarters, and singing this lighthearted Narn song with his beautiful tenor voice.

I'm thinking of thinking of calling her right

after my afternoon nap.

I'm thinking of thinking of sending her flowers,

right after Bonnie gets back.

So many fishies left in the sea,

so many fishies - but no-one for me...

I'm thinking of thinking of hooking a love,

soon after supper is done.

As he sits down to eat, a Narn messenger arrives and asks, “Are you Ambassador G’Kar?”  Annoyed, G’Kar responds, “This is Ambassador G’Kar’s quarters. This is Ambassador G'Kar's table. This is Ambassador G'Kar's dinner! What part of this progression escapes you?"  The messenger leaves him with a memory crystal, stressing that the message is urgent.  With a growl, G’Kar rises, and places the memory crystal in his computer.  All thoughts of his meal evaporate as an old political adversary, Du’Rog, reminds G’Kar of how he once disgraced Du’Rog before the Narn Council.  Now that he is dying, Du’Rog is liquidating his assets to hire an assassin.  Du’Rog says that while the assassin is close to him, G’Kar will not learn the identity of his killer…until it is too late. 

Ambassador G'Kar loses his appetite.

G’Kar bursts into action, intent on protecting himself any way he can.  Complicating matters is the arrival of his new aide Na’Toth.  She is replacing Ko’Dath, his former aide who died during an airlock malfunction.  While Na’Toth’s suggestions seem wise, her governmental sponsor was Li’Dak, and Li’Dak’s sponsor was his nemesis Du’Rog!

By pairing the celebration of religion with a tale of revenge, writer and producer J. Michael Straczynski suggests that, as much as we grow as a society, and as evolved as our species may become, as individuals we will still inflict harm on others, and occasionally “repay evil with evil.”  Yet religion gives us a means through which we can stretch ourselves, and attempt to embody our highest ideals. 

In the final scene, Commander Sinclair demonstrates “Earth’s dominant belief system” to the ambassadors of the major alien races.  Instead of holding a particular ceremony, Sinclair lines up representatives of various Human religions.  Having survived his encounter with death—a situation caused by how he harmed others in the past--G’Kar follows as Sinclair introduces each representative’s name and Faith, and shakes his or her hand.  

Even more solemnly than the commander, G’Kar greets each person, shaking hands or bowing.  Perhaps he has learned something that will light the way to his transformation later on.  Perhaps he recognizes now, more than ever, that the ultimate expression of religion is not only that we love and respect those who believe like we do, but that we love and respect those who believe differently, whether they be atheists, Roman Catholics, Zen Buddhists, Muslim, Jew, Greek Orthodox, Taoist, Shinto, Hindu, or any of the other 250 Humans who have assembled on the space station to represent “Earth’s dominant belief system.”

Dragon Dave

Related Internet Links

"The Parliament of Dreams" on Wikipedia

The Lurker’s Guide to Babylon 5

Kim Stanley Robinson Set To Music

For many of us, Kim Stanley Robinson’s Mars trilogy was a revelation.  In the novels, he laid down a path along which Humanity might settle the red planet using existing or readily conceivable technology.  In the process, we learn more about ourselves, and how we might change as we move out to inhabit more of our solar system.  In his latest novel, 2312, he returns to this vision of the future, and we meet two people at once familiar, and yet different from ourselves: Swan and Wahram.  They meet on the planet Mercury, where they journey from the traveling city of Terminator to a museum in the Beethoven Crater.  There, they attend a classical music concert. 

First, a wind ensemble plays the Appassionata piano sonata.  The ensemble “rollicked its way through the finale…fast to the point of effervescence.”  Then two pianists play Beethoven’s opus 134, his transcription of his own Grosse Fugue for string quartet, opus 133.  “They had to pound away like percussionists, simply hammering the keys.  More clearly than ever Wahram heard the intricate weave of the big fugue, also the crazy energy of the thing, the maniacal vision of a crushing clockwork.”  After that, a string quartet play their own transcription of the Hammerklavier sonata, which Beethoven wrote for the piano.  “Broken out among two violins, viola, and cello, it all unpacked beautifully: the magnicient anger of the first movement, the aching beauty of the slow movement…and then the finale, another big fugue.” 

During the concert, Wahram looks back at the audience.  He sees the other musicians “on their feet, bouncing, swaying, faces uplifted and eyes closed, as if in prayer; hands sometimes spastically waving before them.  Swan too was back there dancing, looking transported.  Wahram was pleased to see that; he was out there himself in the space of Beethoven, a very great space indeed.  It would have been shocking to see someone immune to it; it would have put her outside his zone of sympathy or comprehension.”

When I was young, my parents, both music lovers, forced me to practice classical music on the piano.  In time, I became proficient.  After my father’s death, I forsook lessons, and played sporadically.  In the following decades, I would return again and again to piano playing.  Each time, I would enjoy it for a time, only to later give it up.  For several years, I’ve felt a yearning to return to it: I have a piano, after all, in my living room.  Wahram’s love of classical music, the way it forms a part of his soul, encouraged me to sit down and dust off the keyboard.  At first, the fingers proved unwilling to move with their former alacrity, but through daily practice, I feel as if I am, in many ways, picking up the pieces of a broken life, and even returning to a path that can fill some gaps in my soul.

Despite their differences, Swan and Wahram will cultivate a friendship that grows throughout the novel.  They will share great experiences, and together, they will do wonderful things for Humanity.  Music will play a part in that relationship: it will unite them, and tie them together, even when their differences, and trying circumstances, might otherwise tear them apart.  Thanks to Kim Stanley Robinson, I’m wondering if piano playing will prove a continuing part of my life, and if so, where it may take me.  I’m also wondering what I may discover along the way, and how that journey may ultimately transform me.

Dragon Dave

What Kind of Animal are You?

“Life in the R.A.F. reminded me of something I always knew: Men are like animals.  I don’t mean men are ‘beastly.’  What I mean is that no two are exactly alike.  Many people think my farm patients are all the same, but cows, pigs, sheep and horses can be moody, placid, vicious, docile, spiteful, loving.”

James Herriot, All Things Wise And Wonderful, Chapter 29

One show I’ve been enjoying recently is “Grimm.”  I really like how the protagonists don’t let their differences get in the way.  Instead of wasting their time and mine by bickering, sniping, or having arguments over interpersonal issues that they cannot change, they accept each others’ strengths and weaknesses and get on with the task at hand. 

For those of you who don’t know, “Grimm” follows a police detective who can see were-creatures for who and what they are.  These creatures come in all varieties.  Most humans cannot see them for what they truly are, unless they wish to reveal themselves.  (Usually, they only do this when they are attacking someone).  Nick, who is called a Grimm, can see their true form at any time.  With the help of normal humans and his were-friends, he learns to recognize these changelings by their species’ characteristics, personalities, and traits.  These were-people tend to lump members of other species into easily definable categories.  Nick, like Herriot, recognizes that an individual is more than just the type of animal that others might choose to view them as.

What resonates with me most about the series is how unique all of us are.  Sometimes, we don’t even recognize our true selves.  It’s easy to define ourselves by our looks, body type, jobs, personalities, or interests.  It’s also easy to define ourselves by our history.  All too often, we tend to think that what we’ve done in the past is all we’re capable of. 

This weekend, I’m going through the piles of paperwork (and other things) in my office.  I’m finding all those drafts of previous manuscripts I’ve written, plus all the associated outlines, character histories, and notes, notes, notes.  Personally, I don’t know what I’m capable of, but I hope there’s a writer whose capable of being published lurking inside me.  One who will stop giving up on stories at a particular stage, for whatever reason, and say “It’s all too much to put together,” or “This is no good, I can’t possibly sell this.”  I’m hoping that the outside person—how others view me, and how I tend to view myself—isn’t the real me.  Like the were-people on “Grimm,” that process of transformation promises to be painful, but if I really want to reveal that person, I have to work toward my eventual transformation. 

What kind of animal do you see yourself as?  If you have not yet become the person you wish to be, what will you have to do to complete the transformation process?

"Hey, don't over-think this!
I'm a dragon, okay?"

On a lighter note, a family member recently gave me this animal.  She enjoys playing games of chance, particularly ones in which she can win something.  She loves going to Circus Circus in Las Vegas, playing machines where you operate a claw to pick up the animal, even Chuck E Cheese.  Somewhere along the way she found this fellow.  She said, “You call yourself Dragon Dave, so here’s a dragon for you.”  While he bears a slight resemblance to a dragon, he also reminds me of Godzilla, or simply an alligator who, in addition to changing his color, has also learned to walk upright.  What do you think?  Any thoughts on who and what this guy is? 

"Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to terrorize Tokyo."

Perhaps it’s mere whimsy, but I can’t help wonder what James Herriot might make of him.

Dragon Dave

Bren Cameron's Moment of Transformation

For the past week, I’ve been wondering what to say about Foreigner by C. J. Cherryh.  The novel took me awhile to read, and at times my interest lagged.  But the novel is one of her most famous, and kicks off a multivolume series.  Knowing this spurred me on when the pace slackened, and the plot seemed to be revolving in circles rather than marching toward a worthy goal.  

I’m glad I persevered.  For, deep into the story, everything in Bren Cameron’s world was overturned.  In a moment of realization, his worldview is transformed.  The unexpected has occurred, and he must scramble to adjust to this new reality.  If Bren is to survive this moment of crisis, and prove useful to his friends and his world in the future, he must draw upon all his wits and resolve.  It doesn’t help that this occurs when his physical strength is at its weakest. 

For a number of years, I kept in touch with a man who had left our church.  We got together for dinner every month or so, and caught up on what was going on in our lives.  At a certain point though, I began to realize that as much as I looked forward to our evenings together, I was coming home exhausted, feeling as if I had been beaten up.  Somehow, our easy-going dialogue had descended into diatribes.  No matter where the conversation started, somehow we ended up on the subject of the Catholic Church, how he believed that the denomination had a superior view of marriage to that of Protestant churches (such as we both belonged to), and that if he and his wife were to divorce, he would never remarry.  Regardless of how I countered his arguments, he stuck firm to his opinions, and stated repeatedly, and categorically, that he was right and I was wrong.

I don’t know why, but it simply never occurred to me that his marriage could be in trouble. Even when, at one point, he mentioned that they were seeing a marriage counselor, and then added that there were no insurmountable problems between them, it never occurred to me that they might divorce.  Sadly, one evening he told me that the unthinkable had occurred, and that their marriage was suddenly, and irretrievably over.  What had been going on between them, unobserved by me, had transformed their lives.  In an instant, my worldview changed, as I learned that something I had always counted on was forever sundered. 

A less capable author than C. J. Cherryh could not have pulled off this moment of transformation effectively.  She might have lost her readership, as no one enjoys being tricked.  But C. J. Cherryh had built the proper background into her story, so when events transform Bren Cameron’s worldview in an instant, I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough. I felt more in tune with him than ever before.  For I knew what it was to have my perceptions transformed in an instant, and to scramble to stay relevant in my friend’s life. 

I look forward to reading Invader, the next volume in her long-running series, and learning how Bret Cameron strives to prove useful to his friends, and his world, as the changes initiated by this unexpected transformation ripple through all sectors of society.  Oh, and if you’re wondering about my friend, well, while he did get divorced, he also followed his inclinations and joined the Catholic Church.  There he learned of something called annulments, and met a pretty girl.  As to what followed, and the subsequent transformation he underwent…well, I think you can guess, can’t you?

Related Dragon Cache entries

C. J. Cherryh: Exceptional and Accessible

Related Internet Links

Shejidan: Fan site based on the Foreigner series