- hi; in article,
<
20121116104515....@firedrake.org>,
firedrake r <
roger+ab...@nospam.firedrake.org> elucidated:
> "ppint. at pplay" wrote:
>> - hi; it sounded like it must be a hoax, but it doesn't
>> appear to be one: the people's republic of china has for-
>> bidden the practice of time travel and, by implication,
>> also research into the theory of it, too.
>
>It's a bit more complicated than that.
- yes, it was a crystallisation of two implications of the
new policy, rather than its initial focus and overt targets.
>In the last few years, historical time travel stories on television
>have become very popular, and the authorities have become annoyed by
>the "misrepresentation" of historical figures (i.e. they do and say
>things that aren't in the Official Biographies).
- i'm sure the chinese _used_to_ have a lord chancellor - in
fact, i think he may've been the lord high chancellor... [a]
>Also, as with any fantastic story, these things are used to comment
>on current affairs...
- fantasy and science fiction certainly can be, and have been,
but is this a first - a school of political and social comment
cast as time-travel stories?
>But it doesn't help that changing history for the better implies that
>history is not already as good as it could have been (since it contains
>inevitable progress towards the perfect Marxist state, i.e. the present
>day).
- quite. and therefore any attempt to travel back in time,
that would inevitably run the risk of damaging - or even
destroying - this present day perfection, and any research
that might lead towards making such journeying possible,
must also be placed forever out of bounds, mustn't they?
>As many modern Chinese will point out, many people now revere the memory
>of Chairman Mao in a properly Marxist way, by collecting as many portraits
>of him as possible
- i get confused by multiple alternations in party line; are
personality cults currently unacceptable, or de rigueur?
>[
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Renminbi_banknotes.JPG]
- and does it depend at all upon the identity of the person in
question - or the quality of the reproduction of their portraits?
>
>> - love, a ppint. wondering whether the republican party will
>> copy the chinese communists, commencing a campaign to rid the
>> past, present and future of the threat from dr who's tardis
>
>They're more inclined to attack _all_ fiction that's even vaguely
>fantastic, rather than just the most popular sort.
...and whether the tea party has yet proved able to distill
itself a coherent policy on use of the popular social drug,
caffeine, consistent with those it espouses towards others.
- i'm familiar with some people's inability to entertain,
or even accept the existence of, works of fiction based upon
ideas they believe impossible or find intolerable; but this
is more often on a book-by-book or author-by-author basis,
for specific political, moral or scientific reasons, rather
than a fundamental inability to differentiate between works
of fiction, and "lies", whether for reasons of intolerant,
closed-minded religious (or other) upbringing, similarly
deep-rooted moral objection to enjoyment of life, entertain-
ment or fun, or a total lack of sense of humour. i don't
believe i've ever previously come across a blanket ban upon
any subset of science fiction because of the susceptibility -
even fragility - of the foundations of the current regime to
the results of logical enquiry and constructive thought.
- love, ppint.
[drop the "v", and change the "f" to a "g", to email or cc.]
--
"Incipient Doldrums."
- roger thomas, 19/3/97 (3/19/97 for merkins)