I received a letter yesterday, yes that's right a letter, from an old friend and fellow fan of 'the Prisoner.' In a previous letter he asked me how long did I think the Prisoner had been in the Village until he finally escaped in 'Fall out?' So I wrote and told him, fifteen months. In this latest correspondence he said he didn't believe that, and why couldn't it be one year and fifteen months, even two or three years and fifteen months? {yes it's a strange way of putting it} The evidence is in 'Fall Out,' itself, and because of that the Prisoner's incarceration in the Village could not have been longer that fifteen months. Whether or not my friend will find that evidence remains to be seen.
BCNU
We all know about the limited significance of dates and times given in The Prisoner. Some, most notably the McGoohan's birth date, were purposefully inserted. Some, as far as I can see, were given rather randomly by the script writers because of the little they knew about the series and its progress. Thus said, I find it difficult to deduce too much in order to conclude a coherent strategy of the plot. Any number between half a year and more than one year is valid if only because of the foilage indicating a seasonal change. I always liked the way the duration of No. 6's stay in captivity is obscured, generally speaking. - BCNU!
ReplyDeleteHello Arno,
DeleteYour comment is fair enough, if you liked the obscurity of the Prisoner's length of captivity in the Village, that's fine. But one thing does put a time on his stay in the Village, it occurs in 'Dot Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling,' it was a year since the Prisoner attended the final fitting of Janet's yellow dress, she hadn't seen him since.
For me I like to make connections within 'the Prisoner,' I like to get to the facts, where possible, for myself that is part of the fun of 'the Prisoner.' One can see the allegory in 'the Prisoner,' one can see the obscurity, but facts are much harder to come by!
Very kind regards
David
BCNU
Not that I wanted to deny or contend your argument, it's true. Only, judging from my own Prisoner "experience", I wonder how many viewers, other than us, would take notice of those time stamps except maybe the birth date so they would be able to align them and calculate the day of No. 6's arrival and departure. Don't get me wrong! All in all, musing and puzzling about it, obfuscation all these are the Prisoner series' strategies as much as taking away people's hardened convictions or (false) beliefs. - BCNU!
ReplyDeleteHello Arno,
DeleteYou make a valid point about wondering how many viewers, other than us, would take notice of those time stamps, except the Prisoner's date of birth. I know I didn't, not as an ordinary viewer of 'the Prisoner,' for years and years, I was never concenred with when the Prisoner arrived, and when he finally returned to London. In fact it wasn't until I joined Six of One The Prisoner Appreciation Society in 86, that I started to take notice of them, this by reading what other people were writing on the subject in the society magazine. It was after that that I started looking for myself. Some fans do not look or question at all, they simply enjoy 'the Prisoner' for what it is, a quite remarkable televisual series. While others do have hardened convictions, and at times are etched in stone, while {false} beliefs I find make understanding 'the Prisoner' to be something else! As for musing and puzzling about the series, well most of us do it despite ourselves!
Very kind regards
David
BCNU