Pronunciation

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When I finally watched Utopia or Deuteronopia, I was struck by the way Trevor said Bregna. He pronounced it BREN-YA. I've been saying BREG-NA (hard G) all this time. However, on thinking back, I'm not sure the name is spoken at any other time in the series.

While I'm piddling around with words, I also came up with another interpretation for the episode name. In Rach's episode guides several people assosciate Deuteronopia with Deuterium, a Hydrogen isotope. However, I feel the Deuteron- prefix stems from Deuteronomy, one of the early books of the Bible. The name is derived from the code of laws laid down in the book. Thus a Deuteronopia could be a society governed by a strict government code. This would make a good contrast to Utopia - a community in which all citizens act instinctively in the best interest of the state.

-- Charles Martin (charmaine@dfn.com), August 20, 1998

Answers

The name could stem from the character interaction in the episode. Trevor wants Bregna to be a deuteronopia, a heavily-controlled society right down to the moral level. "They know what's wrong," he says, "but they don't listen. These are the new rules." Aeon, on the other hand, prefers a utopia of sorts, a society in which she can easily manipulate Trevor, in which, ultimately, she has the power to keep him in leadership or to take him out of it. In a way, both got what they wanted, and this is evident in the end. The thing I love about this episode is that the whole thing seems to be an act of love for Trevor, on Aeon's part. This is obvious in the closing shot, as she smiles sincerely at him (I believe it to be sincere, anyhow), and Trevor smiles back slightly, in a way you never see him smile elsewhere. This smile is not the leering, smart-ass smile he usually bears, but something more innocent. Do I sense disappointment in him? There's something there, but I can't put a finger on it. Maybe a thank-you to Aeon? Then she blows a kiss to him. This kiss and the one earlier, in the love dimension ("You think you know what I'm doing, so obviously you don't. What I have in mind for you is much worse...") both seem perfectly sincere to me as well. Aeon is keeping Trevor in power as an act of love, or just to screw with his head, or to show that she ultimately decides where his life will go, or all of these. Chung says this episode was developed as a way to introduce the character relations and the state of things in Bregna, and he certainly did a good job, I think. This episode shows directly Aeon's relation to everything, showing that she can lie, plot, do anything, to ultimately come out on top of the situation, and it shows her complex relationship with Trevor perfectly. It's one of my favorite episodes, with great visual quality most of the time, and some of the best direction from Chung, in my opinion (although he considers it the worst of the episodes he's directed). The multidimensional concept is intriguing, as are just about all the other aspects of the episode. And the plot is at once one of the simplest and most complex of the series. And, if you read the herodotus file, Trevor supposedly didn't meet Aeon until just after Clavius had been kidnapped, which means that in this episode, Their relationship is still in the early stages, still being defined. If you watch the episode with this in mind, it sort of casts an interesting mood over everything, and possibly explains some aspects of their interactions. Trevor expects Aeon to like a dress, and takes her words to be the truth ("My name is Aeon Flux. I'm here on a mission to assinate Trevor Goodchild"), which turn out to be false. In a way, Trevor in this episode represents the new viewer to the series. He expects Aeon to be a linear person, but comes to discover her penchant for ambiguity and complexity in thought.

-- Mat Rebholz (matrebholz@yahoo.com), August 20, 1998.

And because of the reasons listed above, I'd consider this episode to be the second most romantic of the series (with "A Last Time for Everything" in first place of course).

-- Mat Rebholz (matrebholz@yahoo.com), August 22, 1998.

brilliant interpretation of the title, Charles. Best one I've heard so far. Also, figuring out the correct pronunciation of Bregna shows pretty attentive watching. Cool.

-- P D (Snazzman@hotmail.com), August 24, 1998.

Isn't Deuteronopia a type of colrblindess which renders the subjuct unable to see the colors red and green? I allways just assumed it referred to Trevor blinding the populace to certain truths (deuteronopia isn't total colorblindness) while making other aspects of his life paunfully obvious. Utopia or Deuteronipia then, would literally mean "Is it really a perfect society, or are they just blind to the bad thing, therefor making it SEEM perfect?"

-- Frostbite (foo@bar.com), September 28, 1998.

Hey, Hey, everybody! I'm back at school - note the change in my E-Mail. I just ran the term 'deuteronopia' through the online Oxford English Dictionary - no matches. However I did find this -

deu.ter.an.opia n [NL, fr. deuter- + a- + -opia; fr. the blindness to green, regarded as the second primary color] (ca. 1901): color blindness marked by confusion of purplish red and green -- deu.ter.an.opic adj But I would guess that Peter Chung's the only guy who really knows what 'deuteronopia' means.

-- Charles Martin (cmmartin@princeton.edu), October 02, 1998.



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