The Transformed Wife is a blogger and a minor Twitter celebrity. In her profile she describes herself as
A wife, a mother, a grandma, and a keeper at home. Loves Jesus and is not afraid to speak Truth because it sets you free!
But I think she’s selling herself short here, because she seems to have forgotten that she is also a bold crusader against the evils of our age: feminism, witchcraft, and grouchiness.
Let’s roll the tape, or rather the tweets:
It’s just too bad God designed women to be so gullible.
Remember: Marriage and babies, good. Putting a hex on the Transformed Wife, very bad.
Apparently witchcraft and feminism are pretty much the same thing.
Uh oh, now she’s naming names!
Whatever you do, don’t dress like a slut, because that too is a sort of witchcraft.
This lady is doing it all wrong:
This tweet sounds a bit like a pitch for a fun rom-com — that is, if your version of fun involves burning in hell for all eternity:
And while you’re going about your non-witchy life, don’t be a grouch! Remember to smile or God will smite you or burn you in hell for all eternity or something.
And don’t worry about the end, which is near!
SMILE DAMMIT.
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“You can’t get a work published to a large audience if it offends the sensibilities of private-sector corporate suit-and-tie types (I still have no idea how Roddenberry managed to sneak a nearly-overtly communist utopia past these guys, but I doubt it was easy)”
Oh. I am not qualified to discuss copyright laws and idealistic utopias per se, but I am a Star Trek fan…
First, suit-and-tie types are hardly a monolithic entity with a hivemind, so it might not as hard as all that regardless of the following points. (Not to mention people have a great tendency to ignore undesirable traits in something they like.)
Secondly, the Star Trek utopia most people think of AS Star Trek was TNG on up. TOS was far less so, and that was Roddenberry’s claim to fame, the series that cemented his position as a great artist. He was riding his own coat tails for TNG, and to some degree got a bit of a free pass.
Third, much of his new utopia vision (the arrogant self righteous “humans are super evolved and the bestest thing ever” for example) went away when he lost control over his own creation, and especially after he died. I would argue this was for the better, as he was definitely going for the commie version of the ugly American in the first season or so.
This in particular relates to the copyright thing though. Arguably Roddenberry was a poor writer and most of his scripts were simple and without nuance. For example, compare A Private Little War with Errand of Mercy.
Minor Spoilers ahead:
A Private Little War, written by Roddenberry, was a straightforward commentary on the Vietnam war. Kirk shows up and decides the right thing to do is to arm the group of natives opposing the Klingons. Spock basically agrees with him, the proxy war starts, roll credits. The implication: Just like the noble Captain, the US was right to get involved in Vietnam, no matter the cost.
Errand of Mercy however, is written by that other Gene, and is far more interesting. Kirk faces off against the Klingons and tries to do a similar thing, trying to convince the natives to rise up against the Klingons in exchange for Federation technology and support, the whole jeans and firewater thing. Not only does he fail, but in the end the primative Organians reveal they are actually very powerful and stop the conflict between the Feddies and the Klingons before it really starts. And Kirk is suddenly hit with the realization that he was pushing for war and even protested when it was stopped. He has a very human reaction, realizing that “Wait, I might be the bad guy here” and sputters a face saving excuse about the right channels. It is far more engrossing and complicated, whether or not you agree with the premise and what it says about the Vietnam war in real life.
In conclusion, Gene Roddenberry was a wonderful idea man and we should be greatful he shared his art with the world, but he was not so good in the writer’s room. Much of what we think of as his best work was essentially copycatting by more skillful writers, first with his willing permission, then as he deteriorated later in his life, without.
And that is really what relates: He had his art taken away from him against his wishes. Much of the resulting art was arguably better than anything he did, but how does all that factor into this discussion?
@ .45
You’re far better qualified to talk about Star Trek than I; so I’ll just reference Doctor Who instead.
The programme has always been famous (notorious?) for plagiarising other stories. But the staff are quite open about that. I like writer Ben Aaronovitch’s quote:
As part of my trip through this life, all 52 years of it so far, I was a witch for a while. I was also a Christian (nominally), and sorta tinkered with Buddhism, and now I’m an atheist. Throughout it all, I’ve pretty much always been a feminist, even before I really knew what that was (thanks to a mother who raised me to be whatever I damn wanted to be). This idea that one falls in a direct one-way line from grace, to feminism, to witchcraft, just shows how overly simplistic her thinking is. The woman’s never had a complex thought in her life. Mind you, her husband probably won’t let her.
Sorry to necro (although bearing in the mind he subject matter, maybe that’s appropriate, pass me my Necronomicon.). This does though seem the most appropriate thread.
They’re cool pictures anyway.
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/photo-booth/the-many-faces-of-women-who-identify-as-witches