----- Original Message ----- From: jan b ceri99@hotmail.com
I've just rewatched Deliverance
Me too. Yesterday, in fact.
- Avon is the one identified by Meegat as 'Lord' simply because he is the
one who speaks the Words of the Prophecy she has been waiting for - 'Who
are
you?'. Anyone might have said it, but Avon does.
Yes, I noticed that. Which made me wonder a bit about the number of people who seem to have said that it's because of his air of masculine nobility :).
- Jenna is captured by the scavengers because a. Gan told her to wait, b.
She agreed to wait, c. They were both stupid enough to separate.
Fair enough, but she was still set up by the writer to be captured. Sorry, I'm with the Marxist brigade on this one.
. Yes, they may need a healthy female to join the tribe.
But no one actually *says* that, do they? Perhaps they needed food :)...
- Jenna is not a feeble resourceless character. She frees herself from
her
restraints and is very unlucky to be spotted by one of the tribesmen as
she
exits the tent. If anything, Vila is the feeble one, since he makes enough fuss when captured to alert the whole tribe (and see below).
But again, her attempt to escape fails, and it is Avon and Co. who rescue her in the end (and IIRC, almost nobody on the lyst said that Jenna was feeble or resourceless-- just that she was the one that was captured).
There was something else I noticed there, though. At that point, we get an interesting sequence of scenes:
1) Meegat falling at Avon's feet.
2) Jenna cutting her way through the tent and making it out, only to find herself at the feet of one of the tribesmen.
3) Cally on the Liberator, flat on the floor with Ensor standing over her.
4) Back to Avon, lifting Meegat up.
Now, I am in no way trying to equate Jenna or Cally with Meegat (I'm sorry, but the woman still strikes me as a bit of a dishrag), but it does suggest that some people may have been right about the sex-and-power metaphors going on here (And yes, Avon does lift Meegat up, but in the context it seems he is the one who has to give her authority to stand).
So what we get are two scenes of a woman (and yes, yes, you lot, a very capable woman who's just a bit out of her depth) being dominated by a force-wielding man, and a third of a woman falling at the feet of another gun-wielding man (yes, yes, voluntarily, but the point is, she's down there and he's up here-- and she was informed by Kashel [male] to abase herself before him). This theme is only broken in the very powerful scene of Servalan subtly twisting the knife with Travis-- and as Neil (and Erving Goffman) suggest, this only serves to throw the other scenes into sharper relief.
The way I see the episode is as giving the writer, the viewers and the B7 crew a chance for amusement at Avon's expense. It's early in the series
and
we have all had the chance to see how seriously he takes himself. For once he finds himself in a situation where he just can't hide his discomfiture. And on the other hand, he plainly can't resist letting the flattery carry
on
for a bit - and the others can see this too. It does show his human side; his actions deflate his own action hero/clever clogs persona for a moment,
Interesting reading. Watching the Meegat scenes over, I didn't see *any* of the overt embarrasment or sense of humility and responsibility that a lot of people have said they did. He's a bit disconcerted when she actually drops at his feet (but so are Gan and Vila) but he recovers quickly, and for the most part seems to display irritiation, wariness and suspicion (and as a result keeps his gun drawn for the most part... oh, wait, here come the phallic-symbol brigade... DUCK!!!).
and even Blake can't resist making him squirm with a bit of good natured
sarcasm at the end.
Blake's statement seemed to me to have little to do with Meegat, and more to do with leadership in general (if anything, since he's left Meegat behind, the statement could be taken as a double-edged comment on the *abdication* of responsibility).
recognised for what they were, as I think has already been said. It's another opportunity for the writer to send Avon up.
I don't see how he's sending Avon up, anywhere.
Regarding leaving Meegat and her people behind, I think strangely it's a sign of respect.
So if I whipped out a gun and shot you right now, that would also be a sign of respect :)?
It will be several lifetimes before the rocket reaches
destination (500 years in fact), and the new people will be a different generation. Meegat's people are dying out, but they have fulfilled their life's mission. They presumably cannot reproduce (in sufficient numbers to remain viable - Meegat may well be one of the very few young people left - 'Our numbers grow smaller, more die'). It seems fitting for them to end their lives on the planet which bore their civilisation. Where else would they want to be? My impression was that they had some resistance to the radiation (living underground?), and would be able to live out their lives as they had done before. Moving to another planet would not prevent the people's death, because the damage was done to their race when the first bombs dropped centuries ago. Meegat's responsibilities as priestess are still to her people even now. It's unthinkable that she would leave them,
or
that they would leave the planet.
Jan, Jan, Jan... remember what happened to the *last* person who started reading a lot of backstory into Deliverance...:).
operate the technology and set off the rocket - which in fact does define Avon. It's to his credit that he doesn't try to explain, thus enabling her to retain her position and dignity by performing her role in accordance
with
her people's traditions.
Hang on, what about that exchange at the end: "Did she really think you were a god?" "For a while...[cold smile]" which suggests that he did disillusion her.
this episode. It's to all their credit that they go along with what she wants them to do - when Gan says 'We are just men from a spaceship', Vila adds 'with problems of our own' - this is the last thing they need at the moment.
Vila also twice says that she is "insane" and "mad" for falling at Avon's feet.
I don't agree that Meegat's people would have worked out how to operate
the
switches by now. There would have been religious restrictions on doing so, which would automatically temper any natural curiosity.
But hang on a mo. Leaving aside my anthropological cavils at the thought that religion would "automatically temper any natural curiosity" (Einstein was a believer, folks), there are religious restrictions on it, it seems, but it's also stated that these were put in place by male ancestors, and that the people must wait for a male deliverer (and yes, it's explicitly stated as such) to come and switch them on. Which seems to bring in more support for the Marxist-Feminist position. And before anyone says that it could have been her rota and there could be male priests, I'd reiterate that *we don't know that.* For the purposes of the story, she might as well be alone.
Avon is getting, but IMO Avon behaves impeccably throughout
Well, no, he doesn't kill her or rape her, but beyond that, what exactly does he do? He *does* leave her behind, remember, and at the end, on board the Liberator, he shows more concern for the rocket's future than hers.
- and there is
attraction on both sides between him and Meegat,
That's very true. They hold hands-- he faces down a primitive for her-- and then later on there is *tons* of eye contact. You can't say there isn't anything going on between those two.
Despite this, Avon _doesn't_ take his relationship with Meegat further because he is too aware of the fact that
it
would be taking advantage of her.
He doesn't physically do it, but he doesn't seem to be doing much to discourage her attraction.
More examples: Avon raises her from her knees not once, but twice.
'Forgive
me' 'I forgive you' He does everything in his power to counter her subservience.
Hmmm... he does raise her, true, but he seems pretty damn flattered by her subservient attitude, if you ask me. And his "I forgive you" implies that he's the one with the power to give forgiveness-- if he wants to place her on an equal footing, why doesn't he say "nothing to forgive"?
I can see the same potential for sexism arising if roles were reversed,
but
would Jenna behave as respectfully if faced with a young attractive and unworldly priest before whom she is in a similar position of power?
See what Neil said earlier about such reversals presupposing the original power relation.
derisive/patronising asides would you get between her and Cally? I hope Jenna would behave as Avon has. This is a power thing, not a gender thing.
Now hang *on!* You can't separate power from gender, a point which I recall has been made by Neil, Una, Alison and myself among *many* others on this list.
Finally it's quite a poignant moment when Avon replies to Meegat 'That
seems
like a poor reward somehow.' (Can't believe I'm presenting him as self-deprecating but that's the way it reads.
It does read that way when you see that scene, but it's undermined by the next scene, on board the Liberator, when he is terribly concerned about the rocket, but only mentions Meegat briefly-- and when prompted by Cally at that. Which stands in sharp contrast with the earlier scenes in which he was holding her hand, making eye contact etc.
It may be that he is all too aware of the fate that awaits her.
This would make it into a very sombre tale; also very in keeping with
Terry
Nation's writing, especially in B7. IMO any misogynistic agenda would have been the last thing on his mind.
I thought it was agreed in earlier posts on this thread that Nation was not promoting a misogynistic agenda, but that he was unable to rise above the sexism of his culture at the time-- which given that Nation is usually quite good at doing that, isn't really very forgivable.
Let's face it, in most TV sci-fi, the default position for women is as helpless rescuee.
Me:
I'd say that's true for TV sci-fi in the sixties, seventies and early eighties (Tarzan and Jane scenarios?!), but less so now.
That isn't in dispute, but now isn't at issue.
I'd like to raise another interesting point here. Another thing I've been doing lately is rereading "The Lady of Shallott" (sp?), and a few interesting parallels between that and Deliverance cropped up, viz:
The Lady of Shallott, in the poem, is a woman who lives in a castle, forbidden by a curse to look down on Camelot, and consequently (as for some silly reason she lives next door to it) forced to live in isolation from the world, viewing it through a mirror placed opposite the window. This idyll is interrupted when Sir Lancelot, all unwitting, blunders into view, and she is so struck by his masculine appearance that she runs to the window to look... and brings the curse upon herself. Dying, she climbs into a boat and sets herself adrift, floating into Camelot just as she dies. Lancelot's reaction, upon seeing her corpse, is to remark: "She has a lovely face/God in his mercy send her grace," and getting on with his life (admittedly he has no idea that he was responsible for her death, but it does seem a bit of a callous response in any case).
So what we have is: a virginal woman, isolated from the world. A (rather masculine) man blunders in unwittingly and performs an act which, although it affects him little, changes her life totally. At the end of the story, he expresses little regret for her death. Hmmm... we *do* know that Terry Nation knew his Arthurian legend...
Fiona (who regards Nation as one of the underrated writers of our day)
The Posthumous Memoirs of Secretary Rontane Available for public perusal at http://nyder.r67.net
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