h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Prisoner Fallout - A87911625
Author: Paigetheoracle - U15002949

As this is an interpretation of Patrick McGoohan's TV series, The Prisoner, it can hardly be entered as a formal review but budding followers of Jung may find this of interest

I shall be away for a few days, so if I don't respond, it isn't because I can't think of an answer, it is because I am literally away, not absent minded and callous in my lack of response

Warning: The AWW is a venue for discussing writing technique. This means that readers will tell you if they think what you've written works or not, and why. They'll also make suggestions for how to turn your work-in-progress into something you can use in another context.

The problem with this essay is that you're assuming the reader has just seen this episode, as you have, or is completely familiar with the series in all its details, and has committed it to memory.

This is not going to be the case unless you post this on a 'Prisoner' fansite.

Here is one such fansite, in case you're looking for like-minded people:

http://www.theunmutual.co.uk/

If you're talking to people on a site like that one, it's fine to assume they're really into the subject. You can eliminate all the preliminaries and plunge right into the meat of your argument. You'll probably get some enthusiastic discussion going.

Now, I like the series, and I've seen it a couple of times all the way through, but it's been awhile. I couldn't follow this at all. Most people on h2g2 probably know little about the series, and most will care less.

If you wanted to make your essay accessible to anyone else, you'd need to start with a bit of background: what the series was, the basic plot, etc. Then explain the episode called 'Fallout' - where it comes in the series, what happens in it...next explain what other people have said about it, and what their criticisms were. Then your version would make sense in context.

You might start by searching the Edited Guide. If you click on A744897 you'll find the Guide Entry on the show. It's a nicely-written, brief introduction to the show. Maybe you could make this into a guide entry on a special angle?

I suspect that this is going to sound like more work than it's worth.

Thank you for that Dmitri. Because I had found previous posts on this subject I assumed it had been popular with someone in the past from the amount of threads. I do post on Facebook in about half a dozen pages, dedicated to The Prisoner, including Six of One, the official site but the response was in most cases a staggering silence (people might like dressing up in costumes and pretending to be characters from the series but it doesn't mean they want to think about the themes of the series in any depth). And yes, this does sound like more work than may be worth the effort

I know what you mean about fansites and dressing up. I've just been watching an old tv series that has cult status, but which I'd never seen before. I turned to a fansite for background and found that they were more interested in continuity errors and historical inaccuracies than in the themes and ideas involved in the stories.

The 'trivia' pages were full of remarks like, 'There's a jet contrail visible in the corner of the sky at 25:03,' or some such.

I know it's frustrating to have insights and not be able to share or discuss them.

Last line reminds me of a quote from Julius Caesar but I can't quite remember it and I don't have a copy of it at hand (I think it was something to do with a discussion by Cassius with Brutus, when he is trying to win him over and not 'The fault dear Brutus is not in the stars etc.).

Oh, yeah, I know that one.

'The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars / But in ourselves, that we are underlings.' (Looked it up.)

It reminds me of the show I was watching, called 'Kung Fu'. The main character was confronting a 'demon' - stuntman in weird costume. He finally realised that he'd created the demon out of a childhood misunderstanding and a bad conscience. He said to it, 'And I want you to be...nothing.' And it disappeared.

I suspect Patrick McGoohan would have liked that one - he seemed to be trying to get people to think harder.