Quote:
Originally posted by ARTelevision
in another thread, Shakran lists some well-known Academy Award winners:
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I think this list points to something about the glorification of sociopathology that has a powerful hold on our consumer culture.
The brief list is another entry point for those interested in delving into how we are being exploited by the types of material we are continually exposed to...under the deceptively misleading banner of "entertainment."
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A hallmark of post-modernism is the draw to the spectacular and extremities. These are just more examples of how easily we embrace that which is spectacular and extreme. The neverending battle between deciding if media is symptomatic of the society, or if the society is symptomatic of what the media shows us is irrelevent. Both build on each other, the real world is more and more fascinated with the extreme world. The real world gets more extreme. The boundaries keep stretching.
An interesting thing about these characters is that they are strongly human and yet exceedingly eccentric and bizarre. Like
The Heart of Darkness by Conrad, we are fascinated by the darker side of humanity. The unfortunate limitation of Hollywood film is that it tends to do a terrible job of achieving balance with these complex philosophical and literary issues. It tends much more to lean on the dark side, and to reduce it so that it doesn't have it's full philosophical weight (though even if it could, is pop media an appropriate forum for that?). To continue with
The Heart of Darkness theme,
Apocalypse Now is a great example of this phenomenon. A more aware person would see the Freudian allusions and the duality. Someone less interested in the philosophical or psychological issues would view the violence in an entirely different way. Truthfully though, where our imagination and introspective inclinations go when reading are not tapped in nearly the same way as watching a movie.
In any event...
The Horror, The Horror...