Re: Education and Religion

From: DJ Clawson <djclawson_at_garden.net>
Date: Thu, 6 Jun 1996 21:27:59 -0400

At 05:24 AM 6/7/96 +0700, you wrote:
>On Sun, 2 Jun 1996, Dr. Samuel Conway wrote:
>>Stretching further to say that if they have Religion-A, then they
>>probably also have Religion-B, Religion-C, etc. It's a very Americo-
>>centric assumption.
>
>Heck, for all what we know, the kats could be atheists.

   Well, true, but we do have Hard Drive's mention of "The Christmas Tree"
which obviously is decorated with lights on it, because the line was
something like, "I'm gonna light you up like a Christmas Tree!" Now about
the speech someone (probably Dr. Conway) gave about the history of the
evergreen, still, he said "Christmas"--meaning "birth of Christ". If the
show designers wanted their own new kat religion, they screwed up on this
line. Christmas trees symbolizing the birth of Christ is Christianity no
matter how you slice it. There would also be no Christianity without
Judiasm, because one sprung from the other. As for Islam, well, I did go a
bit to far to assume anything there. Sorry. But I think we can all be pretty
clear on the Christianity/Judiasm thing.
    This'll go on my list of things to ask Davis Doi went I get around to
calling him again.

>
>>I think that the entire debate about what religions the people of MegaKat
>>City follow is an exercise in futility. Cartoons in the U.S. are, as a
>>rule, inherently non-denominational. I don't think you'll even hear a
>>character exclaim, "Oh, my God!" lest someone be offended.
>
>Well, Dr. Sinian say "Oh, my....". in "The Deadly Pyramid". What could
>cause this sudden mute?
>
>Could it be that A.J.'s fears on the tape degradation is getting worse? :)
>Or is it something else...?

   That's tape degradation all right. I've got my own copies of both seasons
from TBS (minus SKIQ), thanks to my own instinctive sense of preservation
that propelled me to make the tapes before it offically moved to TCN--a
channel I don't get.
    The line (I've seen the episode a hundred times--trust me) is, "Oh, my
goodness! One of the exhibits has fallen!" That's fine and dandy, but I
*despise* the phrase, "Oh my goodness!" in place as a goody-good version of
"Oh my G-d!" In "Children of the Stone" and "Vilthuril" there *are*
characters who say "Oh my G-d!"--Abi being one of them. It *is*
fanfiction--I can do whatever I want, within the limits of good taste of
course (but there are some fanfiction writers out there who don't get *that*
concept).
>
>>No, there is nothing in the series that would even hint at a religion.
>>Can anyone recall seeing a church? Or a priest? Or any sort of musings
>>about the Afterlife?
>
>I think that what chance (Andy) said on the kats love life can also be
>applied here. 22 minutes is something that must be use carefully.
>
>But T-Bone do swear something that resemble like "Christ!" in "Razor's Edge".
>
   The line is "Crud!" which is basically a goody-good version of "Crap!" A
pet peeve of mine is "watered-down curses" as I like to call them, even
though I personally don't care for the word crap either. I had a friend once
who said stuff like "Dang it!" and it drove me nuts. I don't believe in
major curses *that* often, but when something belongs in there, no writer
should throw in a watered down version--or it'll really hurt the scene. I
mean, when someone like T-Bone (who anyone should be able to picture spewing
curses) is faced with a real problem where he screwed up, and he's got 20
guns pointed at his head, once in a while the moment will simply scream for
a "SH-T!" but instead someone might write "SHOOT!" Something's lost there.
Of course, this doesn't really count for TV 'cause they *have* to keep it clean.

>Doc Conway wrote:
>>>Or any sort of musings about the Afterlife?
>
>On Mon, 3 Jun 1996, Brother Buford wrote:
>>Well, they do talk about "that big litterbox in the sky".
>
  
   That phrase always confused me. It was obviously the writer's attempts to
"katize" the show--make it more kat-like, as in when they have gameshows on
a TV screen that hand out lifetimes supply of furball-begone products. It's
neat, but I don't think a *lot* of thought was put into this one, just some
writer or executive saying, "Hey, let's mention a litter box!" Think about.
Kat world or no, a litter box is there version of a tolit. Do we ever talk
about the afterlife as a big tolit in the sky? TMNT actually did this
well--Donetello once said a line involving, "the big aquarium in the sky."
Now *that* I can understand; turtles live in aquariums. But bathrooms?
  

Dr. Jake Clawson
(djclawson_at_garden.net)
(XXRJ13C_at_prodigy.com)
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         "Accidents are conspiricies we don't know about."
                                   -Sensei McGee
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Received on Thu Jun 06 1996 - 22:17:34 PDT