This one tickled me because of its full on frothing at the mouth. The Western Mail (aka “The Daily Mail for Welsh people”. Collectively they will be referred to as * Mail) is wondering whether we're turning into the society depicted in A Clockwork Orange.
Quick answer: no, we're not.
There you go. Sorted.
That's never enough for a * Mail article though. We must continue to scare.
Thirty-five years on, are we heading for the kind of nightmarish vision presented in that film - a place where young people kill for kicks?
There are points in history - slavery, Hitler, children being sent up chimneys - at which we look back in dismay asking, “Why didn't someone do something?”
The slightly mythical happy-slapping compared to slavery, Hitler and children being sent up chimneys. Marvellous.
Just for laughs, incidentally, count how many of the sentences following “Thirty-five years on…” end in question marks, with one concluding sentence that supposedly answers those questions.
“Is the moon a balloon? Can I have fries with that? Happy slappers should be shot.” See how the final proposition doesn't necessarily follow the questions posed, but because it's placed in proximity to the questions, it supposedly is the answer.
Ah the wonderful world of * Mail rhetoric.
November 30, 2006 | Reply
It's marvellous the way the author seems to tag loving The Beatles a continuing source of society's ills.
BTW, I don't know if you've been at TV Guide recently, but in case you haven't, this bit on Eccles' character turned up in the feeds.
November 30, 2006 | Reply
Thanks. I had noticed it, because someone mentioned it on a LiveJournal thread to which I was contributing. But I didn't think it worth another update from my last post, since the only extra info was his power. Although it did confirm my theory - woo hoo, me!
I agree re weirdo Mail writers. What's with this obsession with The Beatles? Besides, I thought Blair liked the Stones.
November 30, 2006 | Reply
It's been suggested his name's a deliberate reference to Claude Rains. I don't know if they do that sort of thing on Heroes, but there it is.
November 30, 2006 | Reply
It's possible, but I haven't noticed any nods to movies other than the most blatantly obvious. But there are supposed to be dozens that you have to re-watch each episode to find, so maybe I'm just not spotting them.
November 30, 2006 | Reply
We're not heading for Clockwork Orange, but we're speeding rapidly towards 1984.