The Repressive, Authoritarian Soul of “Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends”

Re:The Repressive, Authoritarian Soul of “Thomas the Tank En... by paulddraper on Friday September 29, 2017 @02:11AM (#15363125)

I should have been more clear. The very next episode ("Henry To The Rescue"), Henry agrees to help, and leaves the tunnel (which conveniently, The New Yorker writer forgot to mention).

https://youtu.be/dWtNGzGZTCo?t=2m28s

I agree they left it kinda weird, especially if you only ever watch that one episode. And that's why it was later edited.

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Re:The Repressive, Authoritarian Soul of “Thomas the Tank En... by falsedan on Friday September 29, 2017 @07:28AM (#15364358)

The whole article seems very poorly-researched: the primary material wasn't consulted, and it's extremely easily available[0]. The moralising is extremely obvious when you're reading 2-3 stories at a time.

0: https://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Tank-Engine-Story-Collection/d...

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Re:The Repressive, Authoritarian Soul of “Thomas the Tank En... by glenstein on Sunday October 01, 2017 @08:52PM (#15380895)

An episode is a self-contained narrative unit and it chose permanent incarceration as it's point of closure. I don't think a child audience, left with that impression until next weeks episode, puts two and two together in such a way as to dissipate the previously established creepy atmosphere.

I'm reminded of Roger Ebert's brilliant review of Fight Club, where he pointed out that, given the visual medium, the images and themes you choose to put in front of a viewer (again, a child audience!) speak for themselves, and whatever the writer "thinks the message is, that's not what most audience members will get."

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