Does anyone else think that portraying a fanatical monotheistic suicide-bomber as Arab-American on the new SyFy show Caprica is horribly misconceived?
As Aaron Solomon Adelman blogged back in December:
Today’s topic: The pilot for Caprica, the prequel to Battlestar Galactica (new series), has shown up on Hulu, and since it is riddled with religious ideas, it is my job to blog about it. Where do I start?…Aaron Solomon Adelman, Divine Misconceptions, Dec 2009
There are a lot of religious undertones to the plot of Caprica. This series is set up to be the backstory for the history-making remake of Battlestar Galactica, which also had a lot of religion in it, and it seems that religion is central to the differences between the Cylon and human races that populate the BSG universe.
All of that is well and good, but if you watched BSG you will realize that the whole story cycle is supposed to take place in *our past*, before humans were even making fire.
The BSG civilization was a pre-Earth space-age civilization with human-like qualities, but they exist before all of earthly human history.
Caprica happens even *earlier*-- so why is there an Arab-American suicide bomber? What frakked up vision of human destiny posits that in every possible human history there are people with Arab blood who hold fanatical beliefs and are willing to kill themselves and others to make a point?
This is a poor generalization even in our current historical situation, much less in some pre-historical super-society on the planet Caprica.
I'm disgusted that they would cast things this way.
Are they reducing the whole BSG universe to a morality play about modern conflicts? Then they are selling themselves short.
Ursula K. Le Guin could teach these guys a whole hell of a lot about creating a believable, relevant extra-terrestrial civilization whose behavior and beliefs shed light on our own.
Ditto the late, great Octavia Butler.
I am deeply disappointed.
