Tag: escapism

The Rise of Superheroes When We Needed Them Most with Anastasia Iorga

Captain America Decks Hitler

“I knocked out Adolf Hitler over 200 times,” says Captain America in his title Marvel Studios film. And we laughed, because Chris Evans’ comedic timing is gold, but also because, good, knock him out again. Captain America was first published by Timely Comics, Marvel’s predecessor, in 1941, and he was a quick favorite during the wartime for obvious reasons. He fought for what was right, and every time he got knocked down, he got back up again, and that’s what the people needed during World War II. It should come as no surprise, then, that during the tail end of the Great Depression and into the long years of World War II, we have something referred to as the golden age of comics.

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Escapism, crisis and precariousness Pt. 2 with Giovanni Bello

As Mark Johnson points out, while “many claimed to be put off by the shocking and explicit nature of the Black Mirror’s first episode”, the second episode “might be a more representative introduction to the series” because in the first one the “technology is present, although is arguably less central than other concerns”. Precisely, one of the features of the series is to expose some of the technological phenomena that are happening right now in a manner that they would lose their familiar qualities so their sinister edges become more evident. That is something that the series second episode “Fifteen Million Merits” does fully.

“Fifteen Million Merits” shows a society focused on the production of energy that, at the same time, is absorbed by the consumption of entertainment through a regime as violent as the one that forces people to work. But where is the difference between the society that this chapter portrays and reality? The difference resides for example in the fact that in the episode we do not know exactly what energy is produced for, we don´t know what people work for. In other words, what “Fifteen Million Merits” does is overshadow the productive character of the economy to make us concentrate on the most sinister features of its relationship with entertainment.

As the authors of the Frankfurt School pointed out almost one century ago, the relationship between capitalism and the entertainment industry is not a secondary relationship, there lies the essence of capitalism. This relationship is highly complex, and it can be pointed out that the entertainment industry not only socially reproduces the ideology of capitalism but is the basis of the consumption dynamics that give life to global capital. That is why “Fifteen Million Merits” is not only showing the most sinister side of consumerism in the digital age. It shows that the alienation of all the members of society forced to produce continuously without knowing the purpose is exactly the same as the alienation to which they are led by senseless consumerism.

 

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Escapism, crisis and precariousness Pt. 1 with Giovanni Bello

A few years ago, in the small city of Sucre, Bolivia, the news reported the story of a boy who had been missing and found in a cyber cafe by his parents. He spent more than 48 hours in a row playing online games. In Bolivia, as in most Latin American countries, cybercafés are still very popular as they allow access to computers and internet since many do not have access to them at home. Although the number of cybercafés had declined in the residential areas of Bolivian cities, many can still be found in poor areas. A characteristic of these places is precisely that their biggest consumers are minors. The news report about the lost boy also explains that the cybercafé where he was found even offered mattresses and quilts to the children so they could rest for a while. One of the reports ends by stating that the authorities of Sucre would have taken actions on the matter since it was something illegal.

The idea of ​​escapism has drawn my attention a lot since at first sight it seems to be a phenomenon whose only spur would be a recognizable crisis. However, escapism is a fundamental part of contemporary culture. Wherever we see, video games, cinema, literature, art, there is escapism. But, what is the crisis that is leading to this general escapism ? Starting from this question, which queries a broader framework than the current crisis that societies are going through due to Covid, I am interested in approaching the culture of escapism and its offer of evasion.

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