Father Pearse J. Harman (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
witchfinder_general) wrote2014-03-04 04:11 pm
witchfinder_general) wrote2014-03-04 04:11 pm
OOC post: Problematic
I like to stay very clear about the problematic aspects of my charries -- starting with Teja, whose canon has been weighed down with problems by history, even though the text iself is quite innocent for its time.
Watching 'Ultraviolet', I kept wondering about what the hell they were saying with their treatment of the vampires, and where the story was going before its unfortunately incomplete ending. Lovely actors, interesting story, some hairy contemporary problems addressed from an unusual angle, fascinating characters -- but what is the take-away message from it all? Might it even be that we're supposed to doubt the ostensible moral of the story?
Apparently, I'm no the first person to ask themselves that. There is even an academic paper about this very question. One that proudly quotes Slavoj Zizek, so it must be the Real Thing. I'm not going to join Questia to read just the one paper, but yes, somebody managed to make a relevant statement about the moralised conflicts of recent history using 'Ultraviolet' as an example, and got published in a peer-reviewed publication. Good for them.
Dehumanising is what we must do in order to calmly eliminate the enemy; if they're not people, there is no reason to feel compunction over whatever we inflict on them. That is what 'Ultraviolet' is about -- quite overtly so, even, in the episodes with a) the experimental vampire baby and b) the episode with the pedophile and the child vampire. And among the personnel of 'Ultraviolet', Father Harman is the most ruthless neo-conservative hardliner (at least where vampires are concerned; with everything else, he can afford to be quite liberal as it doesn't really concern him), the one who formulates the team's ideological underpinnings, and the one who makes sure there is no deviation from the ideology and the ruthlessness. Yes, he is the inquisition -- and the true faith he's upholding is 'Code Fives are not people'.
I am aware of that, and it's not going to change, as that is what makes the character interesting.-
Also, their vague but menacing government-Vatican joint venture must be avidly using GCHQ-collected data.-
Watching 'Ultraviolet', I kept wondering about what the hell they were saying with their treatment of the vampires, and where the story was going before its unfortunately incomplete ending. Lovely actors, interesting story, some hairy contemporary problems addressed from an unusual angle, fascinating characters -- but what is the take-away message from it all? Might it even be that we're supposed to doubt the ostensible moral of the story?
Apparently, I'm no the first person to ask themselves that. There is even an academic paper about this very question. One that proudly quotes Slavoj Zizek, so it must be the Real Thing. I'm not going to join Questia to read just the one paper, but yes, somebody managed to make a relevant statement about the moralised conflicts of recent history using 'Ultraviolet' as an example, and got published in a peer-reviewed publication. Good for them.
Dehumanising is what we must do in order to calmly eliminate the enemy; if they're not people, there is no reason to feel compunction over whatever we inflict on them. That is what 'Ultraviolet' is about -- quite overtly so, even, in the episodes with a) the experimental vampire baby and b) the episode with the pedophile and the child vampire. And among the personnel of 'Ultraviolet', Father Harman is the most ruthless neo-conservative hardliner (at least where vampires are concerned; with everything else, he can afford to be quite liberal as it doesn't really concern him), the one who formulates the team's ideological underpinnings, and the one who makes sure there is no deviation from the ideology and the ruthlessness. Yes, he is the inquisition -- and the true faith he's upholding is 'Code Fives are not people'.
I am aware of that, and it's not going to change, as that is what makes the character interesting.-
Also, their vague but menacing government-Vatican joint venture must be avidly using GCHQ-collected data.-