A couple of ideas perhaps worth following up in terms of the film and utopias generally:
Why is the 1950s the go-to decade for Americans when they think of utopian worlds? Certainly it wasn't that good if you were black, for example, or 'liberal'. Clearly consumerism had a part to play, that rapid and unprecedented expansion in the goods available to ordinary people. By comparison with the 1930s and the war years, this was a time of new and undreamed of prosperity for many. As we discussed with Seahaven itself, the world was static, or seemed static, safe and 'controlled'. Prosperity and security: are they all we need? Do the majority of people prefer that to freedom?
The idea of Christof as Creator connects to notions of utopia and its relation to religion. For some theorists, utopias essentially are post-Englightment entities constructed by humans. But does religion, or something like, infiltrate all utopian dreaming. I leave the definition of 'religion' vague on purpose.
6 comments:
I do find the stasis thing interesting, and loved Emma's (?) comment that Seahaven's 1950's facade (and values?) can be seen as nostalgia, OR as a willful attempt to keep things the same in a changing world (or are these part and parcel of the same thing?)
Yevgeny Zamyatin (who wrote dystopian novel We) has a essay called On Literature, Revolution, Entropy and Other Matters which deals with this issue. The essay and the novel both express some interesting ideas about the role of stasis and revolution in utopian projects, but also the necessity of recollecting and interacting with history.
Also, if you are interested in the whole 1950's thing and new urbanism, check out Disney's urban planning experiment Celebrations!
As we discussed with Seahaven itself, the world was static, or seemed static, safe and 'controlled'. Prosperity and security: are they all we need? Do the majority of people prefer that to freedom?
I'm with Jenn on the curiosity in stasis. Though I'm thinking in terms of entropic atrophy, here, and I'm not entirely sure where to sit that in terms of u/dys-topian social dreaming. I wonder what would happen if we put a pandemic to the effect of Children of Men through Seahaven - would it wreak chaos like it does in Cauron's dystpoia or, rather, would everyone just accept it calmly, knowing that at least they will remain employed. Though Truman would react - I hope - I'm not sure how: with great affect or defeatist acceptance?
Seahaven, for me, evokes planet Miranda from Serenity, where everyone was just happy to lay down die while it all went to hell.
(I'm convincing myself that there should never be a Truman/Children of Men crossover, because soon enough I'll start wanting it and though that utopian desire may serve impetus to my actions, [early] Jim Carry and Clive Owen cannot do a movie together - the universe would tear apart at its very seems!)
-- now that WebCT is up and running will this blog fall redundant?
Entropy as an atrophising force is an interesting idea, I guess particularly in relation to 'end of history' theories.
That's also a provocative idea about what would happen to Seahaven if a pandemic swept through California or the world, but Seahaven was left unharmed. If Seahaven is art, or at least entertainment - then what is art's purpose without an audience, what is the function of art in dystopia (or utopia for that matter)?
Apparently only 1% of people in a discussion group etc normally actively comment or participate, so regardless of whether we keep the blog or use the WebCT discussion board, we are already doing better than the norm! I propose we keep the blog, but that Peter sends everyone author invites so that we can write blog posts as well as comment.
To pitch things back to Cauron, who I started with: Seahaven would be a commensurately crappy 'ark of the arts.'
If art has no world then what purpose has art? I guess it's production that has to take value, and becomes the end rather than the means - a departure from those things we hold onto nostalgically and narcissistically, like a great big frozen pond. Production over product, I guess.
It's such a bad idea to give me authorship on any communal blog, Jenn, you saw what I did to the hons community last night.
As the pseudo Christof here (pauses to allow for communal guffaws) I say we keep the blog, in part because it keeps things relatively free-flowing,and also because I've not used on in teaching before and am interested to see what we make of it. I have sent a invite email to people, or at least I thought I had (but given the success rate so far, perhaps I should double check. I'll try to remember to remind people next week to have a look see. Feel free, of course, to start your own lines of questioning and commenting.
It's great that we can comment on posts, but if you also want us to be able to create new posts in order to start our own lines of questioning about things that are interesting us about the course, we need to be invited to become authors.
You can do this by going into the Settings tab for the blog from your dashboard and then go into the Permissions tab. There is then an option to Add Authors.
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