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- Newsgroups: rec.martial-arts
- Path: sparky!uunet!charon.amdahl.com!netcomsv!netcom.com!dsmythe
- From: dsmythe@netcom.com (Dave Smythe)
- Subject: Re: Speaking of Carradine and "Kung Fu"...
- Message-ID: <1993Jan23.081553.20108@netcom.com>
- Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest)
- References: <1993Jan23.040634.7600@cbfsb.cb.att.com>
- Date: Sat, 23 Jan 1993 08:15:53 GMT
- Lines: 44
-
- In article <1993Jan23.040634.7600@cbfsb.cb.att.com> osan@cbnewsb.cb.att.com (Mr. X) writes:
- >Another good aspect of the show was its emphasis on responsibility and
- >non-interference, i.e. allowing people to live their lives as they see fit.
- >This was made clear in an episode where Kane flacshes back to a situation
- >where a gambler comes his master for medical attention after having lost
- >his pinky in a wager. The master tries to save the hand, but is not able
- >to and tells the man that his whole arm will have to come off.. The man
- >refuses to allow tha amputation. The monk waits. At some point events
- >conspire such that the sick man asks them to please proceed with the
- >amputatiion, and they do so.
-
- As I recall, they wanted to take the *hand* and he refused. He eventually
- came back to have his hand removed and awoke to find that they had taken
- his whole arm. The woman ragged on him because he could no longer work,
- I thought. When Kwai Chang asked his obligatory question: why did you remove
- the whole arm? I think the answer was something like: If we took the hand
- then he might not really get the lesson. By taking the whole arm, they
- pounded the lesson in and probably saved his life by getting him to give
- up gambling. That's all from (old) memory, but I think it's right.
-
- >What I found proper hear was that the monks did
- >not take the "we must save you from yourself" attitude that is so nauseatingly
- >pervasive these days. Tehy allowed the sick man his right to determine his
- >own fate after having informaed him as to the possibilities.
-
- But they actually *did* do something to save him from himself by doing much
- more radical surgery. I remember being shocked at that...
-
- >I really think the basic quality of the series
- >was actually rather good.
-
- I agree. I found them quite entertaining. Still do. It had more than
- passing influence on my choice of MA :-)
-
- >Ask yourself what you'd rather have your kids
- >weatch; this or Knots Landing
-
- No contest.
-
- D
-
- --
- ========================================================================
- Dave Smythe N6XLP dsmythe@netcom.com (also dsmythe@cs.stanford.edu)
-