Retrospective for 3/26/2016

This week on Expository Conundrum we talked about,

Space Oddity by David Bowie
Stardew Valley by ConcernedApe
All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy

As usual we have Bowie sitting outside of the loop a little bit. That guy did always like to be unique. But if you want to start with the title track being about life and death, or perhaps just a dissociative state of mind between yourself and your world in general (I mean we could take that all the way to gender dysphoria if we really wanted too), then we might begin to see where he and Cormac McCarthy begin to line up.

But life and death is kind of an easy line to draw.



Stardew Valley is such an upbeat and rural promoting game. The crux of it is based around this return to the country side, to small towns and villages that represent the American Midwest. Here we farm, we live our lives, we fish, we mine, we make ourselves busy with "livin' off of the fatta the land," as Lemmy would say (I guess Of Mice and Men review is much later in the schedule...), and it breeds a resentment towards the obviously corporate world of the Joja cola factory in-game.

Here's where we get a contrast with McCarthy. John Grady Cole is one of those characters who resists moving to the city in his own story, and winds up running to Mexico to preserve what he feels is the life he wants, the life as depicted in Stardew Valley more or less. But McCarthy's worlds are not optimistic, they are going for a darker way of life. John Grady Cole ends up facing banditos, mercenaries, police, and other forces aligned against him and his "peaceful" life style.

There are some festivals in Stardew Valley, and Bowie spends one of his tracks, "Memory of a Free Festival" remembering his own time at one. Here we see some of Stardew Valley's happy go lucky nature being met with genuine optimism and happiness, also once again in contrast to something that's more corporate or controlled.

Really, everything this week seems to be aligned against corporate owned and controlled. Here's where I can gladly pick up an important seeming topic, art as political argument.

There are some people, especially recently, that have taken to the idea that some art is apolitical. There is no such thing. All art, being created by people who are unable to be politically inclined, must by it's nature as an expression of viewpoints be political by nature.

Maybe that's a bit hard to follow.

If you make an action film that concerns itself with a secret agent who fights foreign bad guys, gets the girl, and shoots a lot of bad people... you're making a political statement. Seriously. Gun violence in films, especially gun violence as depicted a fun or protective engagement insists that that violence is standing up for some sort of personal or global ideal. James Bond is inseperable from his British identity and those films are British first and foremost, hence why Idris Elba could be considered for that role.

In fact, let's discuss that. If Daniel Craig, once his James Bond retired, was replaced by Idris Elba a black brit, would that move not inherently be political? Would that film somehow get away with not being political simply by putting him on screen? People would flip, they would argue that something about world continuity demands that James Bond always be white, despite the fact that there are and have always been plenty of black brits throughout the history of the world.

This is a small example. The overall point is that a line of dialogue, a certain characterization, there's a number of things that can be put mindlessly into films that are obviously political.

Let's think of Wedding Crashers. Now Rom-Coms are typically pretty benign politically. I mean what's political about love? Owen Wilson's character for instance sees Rachel McAdams character and knows right away that he's in love with her. He then spends the rest of the movie introducing the concept of someone who loves her to her apparently.

I mean seriously, the entirety of the Rom-Com genre seems obsessed with "Good Guy" worship. There's always a shitty boyfriend in the film. In fact, dear god, Owen Wilson's character is someone we're supposed to like despite the fact that he is a compulsive liar who completely makes up his character, history, and life in order to win Rachel McAdams' character. When her "obviously evil fiancee" does... you know, his FUCKING JOB of protecting his now slightly unloyal partner from being persuaded by a CAREER LIAR, we're meant to think he's an asshole? Because he said a mean thing one time?

There's a perfection of outsider perspective that the Rom-Com genre always seems to rely upon. The idea that people not in a relationship should somehow be able to see or agree or believe that a relationship works one hundred thousand percent of the outside social reaction sets into stone a status quo that's been in place since the dawn of time. That's without discussing how McAdams' character, and other love interests in Rom-Coms are representative of a female race who just can't keep it in their pants when a nice guy is around, and can always be persuaded to go for our obviously better male lead, just because... he's nice sometimes.

Aside from the fact that it's not really that nice to try and steal someone else's girlfriend, it's not very nice to pretend women are these mindless and opinionless bargaining chips that can't think for themselves when it comes to men competing for them. McAdams' fiancee is the least villain like boyfriend in the history of cinema.

This is why I like films like Casablanca, where at the end of the day the relationship the lovers had is gone. We'll always have Paris, is a celebration of a happy moment in their otherwise sorrowful and dangerous lives. Love is treated as a reprieve from the world, an identity and history that never goes away, but does not trump the idea of doing the right thing.

...

But you know, remember that there's still Opinion Sunday tomorrow!

-----

Did you like this post? If so, consider signing up for the e-mail list so you never miss out on the latest film, tv, music, or video game post from Expository Conundrum! (Hint: It's in the upper right-hand corner of the page!!)

Also, consider donating to the blog! Your eyes are enough, but generosity and support can go a long way to making us both feel a lot better. Support your local artist (by local I mean Internet local.)

And finally, you can hang around the Facebook page or Twitter to keep up on Social Media. This doubles as the easiest way to harass me, but you wouldn’t do that would you?