Firefly

From a reader up there in the Friendly Giant to the North (though not so friendly to NR since we dissed Neil Young a couple of issues ago - this reader must be one of the six Canadian readers who didn’t cancel their subscriptions):

"Dear Mr. Derbyshire—Even as a fundamentally math-challenged ELA teacher, I noticed that problem with the band of Reavers around Miranda during the film the first time I saw Serenity. But I was having such a great time that I didn’t let that little bit of bolonium get in the way. My boys and I have watched all the Firefly episodes since then, multiple times, and re-watched the movie, too. Thanks for the info that Tudyk was a contract killing; I’d also wondered about that.

"But it was the huge fun of the movie that sent me back to the DVDs of the show, and I still think Serenity was a better film than just about anything nominated for Oscars last year, not that that’s a surprise.

"Has anyone commented to you yet on the enormously satisfying **conservativeness** of the conclusion to the film? Mal’s assurance that someone would try again to change people to make a ’better world’ and that the transmission would help fend off that inevitability. If only for that, they should not skip Serenity, even if it’s a slight letdown after watching the shows. Let’s hope that it’s true that no one can ’stop the signal.’"

[Derb] I’m slipsliding towards the Menckenian (?) position that there is no greater threat to human happiness and liberty than the threat from those who want to make us better. I think this is the influence of Jayne working on me.

And to the readers who scolded me for admiring Adam Baldwin, on the grounds that no member of the Baldwin family can be worth a damn, please note that Adam is (a) unrelated to Alec, and (b) an "unabashed conservative." Just one more reason to get those Firefly disks. Great Father’s Day gift. (I should get some kind of commission here.)