The Prisoner #016
Date: Tuesday, 26 April 1988 13:15 mst
From: dji at SBCS.SUNYSB.EDU (the dirty vicar)
Subject: Prisoner #016
To: lippard at BCO-MULTICS
The Prisoner #016 09/13/1986 Moderator: Dave Iannucci (iannucci@sjuvax.UUCP)
Topics
- Hotel Portmerion
- "Once Upon a Time" & 6's real name
- One man's interpretation
- The death of mail.prisoner
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From: "James J. Lippard" <allegra!seismo!HIS-PHOENIX-MULTICS.ARPA!Lippard>
Does anyone know if it is possible to visit the Hotel Portmerion? Can one just walk around the grounds, or must one make reservations to stay there?
Yes, it is possible to visit. I was just there on June 29. I believe there is a (nominal) charge to get in, but I visited after hours when it was supposed to be closed except to residents and no one complained. It is quite a distance from London, I drove from Bristol leaving around lunchtime and got there around 6 P.M., then spent the night in nearby Portmadog.
Penrhyndeudraeth is pretty much out of the way of everything, though, and the roads are small. Coming up from the south they are narrow and winding as well.
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From: cmcl2!lanl!dspo!tallman%princeton.uucp (Charles David Tallman)
Our local station has never shown the last two episodes, perhaps since they don't want to end the series. However, I recently ordered them on video- tape though Starlog.
It appears that the episode "Once Upon a Time" reveals #6's name. As others have noticed, #2 calls him Drake when posing as the headmaster. Earlier, they are on a see-saw and #2 says "Jackie shall have a new master". He keeps repeating "Jackie". This suggests that #6 is Jackie Drake, or John Drake.
In the last episode, no one has commented on the three types of rebellion - #38 (Youth), #2 (Midlife crisis), and #6 (Individualist). The Butler is a follower, who serves the strongest. They are the only ones who escape, and they have to fight their way out. The meeting with #1 appears to be a trick to get #6 into the rocket - since #6 will not lead them They plan to shoot him into space with the other rebels. The rebels manage to get out in time, and escape in the portable environment cage from OUaT. The episode makes some sense on the surface level as well as being symbolic.
______
"Jackie shall have a new master"
Dave Tallman - dspo!tallman@LANL or {ucbvax!unmvax,ihnp4!lanl}!dspo!tallman
Los Alamos National Laboratory - E-10/Data Systems
Los Alamos, New Mexico - (505) 667-8495
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From: Liudvikas Bukys <princeton!cmcl2!rochester!bukys>
In February of 1985, some discussion of the Prisoner occurred in the Usenet newsgroup net.tv. As a result of that discussion, this "Prisoner" mailing list was formed. The moderator suggested, some time ago, that I repost one of my net.tv articles, since many of the mailing list subscribers probably missed it. I hope you all enjoy this...
Liud Bukys
"The Prisoner": <1> my interpretation
By the end of the show, it is made clear that the action-show/spy-show part is irrelevant except as background. (This is not to say that it is of no interest at all. But, really, the answer to "But which side are they on?" is "It doesn't matter" or even "It is meaningless to ask".)
This is a program with messages at multiple levels. The last episode doesn't even bother to operate at the shallow level, though, so would no doubt be very unsatisfying to someone who hasn't been pondering the deeper level[s].
I can't wait for this program to make the rounds again in a few years. I can remember only a few of the numerous foreshadowings and fine touches, but I'm sure I'll be able to appreciate them the next time around. What I really like is that at no time does the show rub the fine points in the viewer's face, drawing attention to itself. Rather, it is just loaded up with goodies, many of which are rather obvious (the scenes of #2 waking up and looking out of the window), some of which are subtle enough that one might miss them ("you are #6", see below); some may not even be there (intentionally, anyway), but the viewer is able to find delight in the show by using his/her own imagination within the framework of this story. And they got away with it and made it palatable by wrapping it in an action/adventure/spy setting!
intro to almost every episode
#6: Where Am I?
#2: In the Village.
#6: Who are you?
#2: I am #2.
#6: Who is Number 1?
#2: You are, Number 6.
Note the comma! Is it really there? I don't know, but I find the possibility delightful anyway.
---
Here is my interpretation of what happened at the end.
There is this society called the Village whose goal is no make its members conform. The things that they are required to conform to are arbitrary and capricious, but it's not the pattern that matters, it's the conformance. (This society is self-contained and autonomous. It sets its own standards.) Society's members are expected to be cogs in a machine, or, as Number 2 put it, "units of society". I think the bicycle is a symbol of this: it suggests the mechanical role of the units of society, and the quaint and arbitrary nature of this society whose only goal is to maintain the status quo.
2nd last episode; the "trial" scene
#2: The fine will be 20 units.
#6: Units are not for me.
Number 6 has consistently refused to conform. Why?
Well, his warders think they know. They recognize that certain exceptional individuals are really "Individuals", that is, that they *will* *not* conform. They have ways of dealing with the average guy, whose resistance to the `pattern of this world' is able to be worn down sooner or later. Number 6 is not the average guy, however.
Number 6 successfully survives all attempts to make him conform, culminating in a psychological battle-to-the-death with Number 2. (I could say more about that; not today.) The warders placed Number 6 in this "Degree Absolute" contest, even at the risk of losing Number 2, because they believed they couldn't lose. If Number 6 lost, he would have cracked, and they would have succeeded in their goal of making him conform. If Number 6 won, they would have discovered a true Individual, someone who sets his own rules, someone who is truly autonomous. This is the only thing they understand! The Village is autonomous. The only quality the warders can respect in a foe is true autonomy. Once Number 6 survives his ordeals, the warders worship him, because Number 6 does the same thing that the Village does, only better! His is the `triumph of the will'.
Or so they think. And so might Number 6 think, sometimes. When he enters the tower to confront Number 1, he discovers just another cog-in-a-mask, with a crystal ball in his hand, watching replays of the great moments of Number 6. Come on, gang! This is pretty obvious. The phrase is repeated. "I will not be pushed, stamped, filed, briefed, debriefed, (etc). I will not be... I... I... I... I..." while Number 6 pulls the orb-holder around, the camera zooms in on the number on the holder's chest. "1" "I" "1" "I". `I am Number 1.' Number 6 is handed the crystal ball; the ball fills with the image of his own flesh as he takes it in his hand. (Note the great symbol for a world turned in on itself.) Number 6 stares into it for a second. And lets it drop to the floor and shatter.
2nd last episode; #2 calls #6 on the phone
#2: Why do you care?
#6: You'll never know.
His warders did not understand him. In fact, they could not understand him. "You'll never know." Even if he told them, they would not have understood. Because they were trapped in their own solipsistic universe, they could not understand an answer from beyond it. When Number 6 foiled them, they could only assume that he was like them, like their society. They assumed by that point that Number 6's "why" was that "I am Number 1".
They were wrong, though I think that when Number 6 was holding the crystal ball, he was thinking about it, and had to make the decision that "I am not Number 1". In his hate for the Village, he could have chosen to use his newly-bestowed power for revenge, in the process becoming the very thing he hated, an autocratic one-man Village. But his reason for resisting, his "why", was not his hate for the Village (though I think he did hate it), or his considering himself above it because he was number one in his own mind. His reason transcended this world. The closest we come to knowing what it is is when he states that he resigned "for peace of mind" and "honor".
We are not told the particulars of his reason. But the point of the matter is not the details of his reason; it is that his reason is transcendent. I can't help but think that this is the explanation of the "The kneebone's connected to the ... Hear the word of the Lord" song.
---
This stuff I'm pretty sure about; there are still many open questions in my mind, some of them probably permanently open due to deliberate ambiguity in the show. More on these open questions...
"The Prisoner": <2> my speculations
So far, I have expounded on my opinions about the meaning of various parts of "The Prisoner". This section contains mention of various things that I don't understand to my satisfaction. I fully realize that some of these may not have answers. I'd like to hear what people have to say.
Who is the Butler?
I think that at the end the Prisoner is a free as a man can get, being free from mindless conformance to society and also from the tyranny of his own self.
My impression is that the Butler may also be a free man. So why does he walk into Number 6's automated/villagized apartment at the end? I think (but I'm not sure) it means that the demands of society are unescapable, that even though you can't escape it you can still be free. `... in the world, not of it ...' I'm not sure, though, how, if the Butler is a good guy, he can stick around with the village people at all. I suppose it could be just a cynical/pessimistic there's-no-escape you're-still-in-hell cheap-shot ending, but that's not really consistent with the overall theme, I think.
- Who, if anyone, was behind the green eye before Number 6 went into the tower?
- What was the rocket for?
- Are these various hints at extraterrestrial influence just a distraction to keep the viewers on their toes? Hints: the rocket, the mask under the mask on "#1".
On this question I think it may be a quick effort to make a simple but important point: that Number 6 and the village people are responsible for what they do, and they can't blame anyone else for their own behaviour, even when the results are so weird that they are unrecognizable, and seem "alien".
- - - - -
Liudvikas Bukys
rochester!bukys (uucp) via allegra, decvax, seismo
bukys@rochester (arpa)
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Mail.prisoner is dead. This is the last issue. There just did not turn out to be enough interest. But at least we had a chance to throw around some good ideas. Regarding the much asked question: "Where do I get the videotapes?", I personally suggest waiting for it to show again and taping it. Much cheaper that way. But anyway, I am almost certain that Publisher's Central Bureau sells the whole series for about $39 apiece. Sorry, I don't have the address.
In answer to Dave Tallman's above suggestion that No.6 is John Drake: I have an interview with PM in a mag at home in which he states emphatically that John Drake and No.6 are not the same person, as much as we would be inclined to think so.
I will be keeping the list of members in case I run across any interesting news in the future regarding the series. To those who set up redistribution points for me, I would appreciate it if you would leave the aliases intact for this reason.
Thanks to all who participated. And BCing U.
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"Why do you care?"
"You'll never know."
Dave Iannucci @ St. Joseph's University, Philadelphia [40 00' N 75 15' W]
{{ihnp4,ucbvax}!allegra, {psuvax1,sdcrdcf}!burdvax, astrovax}!sjuvax!iannucci
=== THE END ===
