The Truman Show & Gattaca
The Truman Show has long been one of my favorite movies although I’ve never thought of it as a dystopian film. After finishing the readings, especially Dystopias and Histories the idea occurred to me that The Truman Show wasn’t just a weird funny movie but a serious commentary on bubble societies that seclude themselves away from the rest of the changes happening in the world under the idyllic thought that their view of how life should be lived is perfect and has no need for development. Still, in our society, is the dream of a nuclear family seeming like a golden achievement.
As a child of divorce growing up with only one parent wasn’t something that was strange or seemed lacking in any way. In fact, most of my friends had divorced parents as well. I specifically remember being sent to a counselor in the 5th grade to get “help” with being able to cope without a father figure or rather with only a mother figure. To this day I still don't think that forcing a child, or anyone really, to see a single parent as a negative experience is right. Like with Truman his missing father figure is more of a driving force for him to achieve his dream (a trip to Fiji) than if he had continued to have the “perfect” family life. This ultimately results with Truman being able to break out of his physical and metaphorical bubble of living in the same town and experiencing the same things day in and day out.
The theme of perfect imperfection continues within the film Gattaca as well. Our world is made a beautiful place by people who strive to achieve dreams that to most seem unobtainable.
In this story our main character, Vincent, yearns to be an astronaut and explore the galaxies. Right off the bat he is restricted from joining the space program, shunned for having imperfect DNA and is socially exorcized due to being a “de-gene-erate”. Seeing these barriers as penetrable, Vincent breaks legal and social law by impersonating another person with near perfect DNA.
The most impactful relationship in the story is between Vincent and Jeromne (whom Vincent impersonates). By the end both have achieved their dreams of being greater than themselves. Vincent, by finally being able to explore and pilot through space and Jeromne for being the greatest aid to Vincent to achieve the impossible.
Dystopias and Histories
The reading concentrates on critical utopia and dystopias where a bubble society is caused by a deep reflection on past events to prevent future wrongdoings and missteps.
Coercion and consent use a system of checks and balances to keep the bubble of control without causing mass pits of negativity causing riots. Dystopias keep themselves in a state of neutrality by using the state or the established government to keep the economy in a slow positive or neutral bubble thus keeping business owners happy due to a general positive income. At the same time the population has no rights or even any privacy due to the need of constant surveillance that the overpowering government must maintain to keep the haze of utopia to those trapped under dystopian control.
I thought it was interesting that you said 'haze of utopia'; I chose the other essay about V for Vendetta to write about but concluded the same kind of thing. That is, that media often are used to create a static-fuzz over the real landscape, in a way; pumping people's brains full of unrealistic positivity. Wasn't really sure what you meant when you used 'neutrality' and 'bubble' sometimes, though. Never heard bubble used like that, but it's interesting to think of people trapped inside of their own individual mental bubbles, if that's what you meant. In that case I would say it often seems like we really are already occupying a landscape under dystopian control in alot of ways. I guess by neutrality you mean invisibility?
ReplyDelete