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posts about #takeadrinknow more → It's Like Blade Runner, By Way Of Uwe Boll
We Love Dystopia Because It's So Rich... With Meaning
San Francisco, 1:14 AM
Tue Nov 10
25 posts in the last 24 hours
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| posts about #takeadrinknow more → |
It's Like Blade Runner, By Way Of Uwe Boll |
We Love Dystopia Because It's So Rich... With Meaning |
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04/09/09
04/09/09
04/09/09
still, i'd rather see Repo! than this, i think. or shit, maybe a double header.
04/08/09
In this new final cut of the beloved sci-fi cult classic, Deckard finds out he's not only a replicant... but actually a replicant of a replicant, which actually makes him human. Scenes from The Gene Generation have actually been spliced in to bridge the story gaps, making this article wholly appropriate.
~Palin
04/08/09
But before it will Blade Runner: the unrated Laser Disc director's recut of the 1992 vhs director's uncut".
In that versiones, Deckard saw two unicorns. You know what it means. TWO!!!! It has probably two personalities, but do dream androids with schyzophrenia?
04/09/09
04/08/09
I smell a new editorial idea!
04/08/09
04/08/09
PAINTINGS!
I mean, they could've at least tied it into the narrative somehow, (albeit, without revealing all of the intricacies of the plot against Duke Atreids), by having it be a film-book Yueh was teaching Paul out of or something similar.
04/09/09
To be fair it is one of my favorite mediums, BUT I AM NOT MAKING A BIG BUDGET MOVIE.
12/03/08
(This one's for you, Peeps.)
12/03/08
Coming to-day to save the muther fucking DAY YEAH!
12/03/08
12/03/08
Brave new world. 1984. We. Utopia (which is actually sort of dystopic when you read it closely). Dystopias aren't liberated from rules....
12/03/08
I think they might be referring to the process of making a dystopia...I think.
12/03/08
12/03/08
That made me laugh.
12/03/08
n.
1. An imaginary place or state in which the condition of life is extremely bad, as from deprivation, oppression, or terror.
In a world that bad, why obey rules? Rebel. Fight back.
12/03/08
12/03/08
I'm sure glad you know the meaning better than the guy who created the term: Mill.
He meant it as a play on Utopia and as a place where almost everything is bad. Simple as that.
But I'm sure and your six years of book learnin' will straighten me out.
12/03/08
12/03/08
The real world is always mixed up and the good and bad are always hard to separate and isolate.
12/03/08
Couldn't have said it better. I do believe though that Americans love the idea of fighting the bad guy for the sake of the oppressed.
On a practical note dystopias are fun to write and great to read about. I love 'what if' stories.
12/03/08
12/03/08
Um, I never said it was. Americans really love the romantic ideals of fighting evil against all odds. A lot of people love that, but it's ingrained in our culture. A Lot. The very basis of the U.S. government and economy is the idea that anyone can achieve anything against the Big Bad.
12/03/08
"As an American, I find that I love dystopian fantasies.."
My opinion on my view point. Sorry you feel I can't discuss aspects of the country I'm from.
12/03/08
12/03/08
12/03/08
Once again, no one said it's Americans only. Just in case you missed it, this quote is directly referring to the U.S. and why they like dystopias. I'm just explaining the logic.
12/03/08
First off, not all cultures have the same definition of heroism and liberty. What we regard to be doing the "right thing for the sake of the oppressed" may not be the same for someone else.
Also, was there a particular time I mentioned the American Revolution?
I'm just explaining why Americans have a particular fondness for this type of storytelling. It comes from concepts like the "American Dream" in which people believe that the little guy doesn't have to be little his whole life. It's not an ideal exclusive to the U.S., but we're talking about America and not somewhere else.
12/03/08
but thanks.
12/03/08
I was trying to make my point about American culture as a whole.
IMO, I likes the dystopias cause I lurves the worlds people come up with and they're fun to write.
12/03/08
12/03/08
It's nice, no?
@Evlsushi: WHY are we talking about America, though? Why is Tim Cavanaugh talking about America while also using examples drawn from world literature? It feels myopic to conduct the conversation in this way. I don't think artistic themes are limited to culture. A hungarian man who sympathizes with the little guy has exactly the same resonance to that theme as the american does. This is the basis for the transmission of art, after all. Each individual is a state unto himself, but can resonate with each other in sympathy.
I mean, who provided the commentary on Children of Men for example? Slavoj Zizek. That's who.
12/03/08
I really don't get how you're still conducting the "liberty is not owned by any culture" argument when no one is arguing such. I'm merely saying that this is why Americans like it. Not "this is why Americans like it which means no one else can like it for that reason." You're reading between lines when the message is a lot more direct. I'm not agreeing or disagreeing with Cavanaugh's opinion, I'm just trying to shed some logic on why the American populace would like dystopias.
Fighting big corrupt government has been a running theme in American literature since the birth of this country for obvious reasons (ok, NOW I'm referencing the American revolution). There ARE certain themes that exist more prominently in particular cultures. It's not bad, it just has to do with the society in general. For example, America (generally speaking) doesn't revere their elders like other cultures do. Now this isn't to say that we don't love our grampa and gramma, but we don't feel the same societal obligation to have them move in with us.
Fighting the Big Bad is not exclusive to us, but it does resonate in our culture a great deal.
There's nothing wrong with discussing how certain themes effect culture. That's the basis for a lot of literary criticism.
Now get off your high "Americans want to own everything" horse and realize that your animosity is better reserved for when we're ACTUALLY being pompous asses.
12/03/08
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12/03/08
But if you do a little reasearch I'm sure you'd find that there is a long history in American literature and film that stems from our country being created through revolution of it's main characters fighting the establishment, and it is often done through a solitary quiet man. It's a trend that has moved to other countries, to be sure, but is has some roots here. Dystopic fiction often continues that trend and rather than place it in historical context or as a reflection of current times, places it in a possible future, seeing how humans might react against extraordinary odds. I was just pointing out that it is one of the reasons I personally am attracted to it as I grew up in america with that viewpoint and those allusions aren't lost on me.
I wasn't trying to say that America is more punk-rock than the land of Pope John Peeps II.
12/03/08
IF you look at the world though ACTUAL historical glasses, maybe you'd notice that the majority of all world dystopias actually don't come from America at ALL. But in fact emerge from far more ancient societies, which have all undergone thousands of years of people trying to remake human civilization in a new image.
In fact, you're pretty wrong about the whole image of a dystopia. Mad Max, the Road and Children of Men depict the world as basically without government. That's anarchia, not dystopia. Dystopia is the perversion of a system that remains fully in place, and fully in charge. The end result of a societal project gone very wrong. So you're not even thinking about the right books yet.
12/03/08
/applause
Yeah, there's a whole little guy facing off against the Bad Guy in most American Literature. I mean take, for example, WWII games/movies/novels. This is a great war to talk about because it's romantic and can be reduced to good guys vs. bad guys. Americans eat that shit up. In the media, we love to see success stories (and failures) of people from the middle/lower class. We also love the idea of being "against the Man" no matter what party's in power.
12/03/08
I'm not saying... oh forget it, its like yelling at a wall. go take a literature course.
12/03/08
12/03/08
And I don't think you're a redstater, but I think you don't understand communication. The words you say define your statements, including all the subtext you put in them. It's not my fault if I can read them correctly. You're the one who can't think outside your little box. Don't blame me for pointing it out.
12/03/08