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Black Mirror's pessimism porn won't lead us to a better future

theguardian.com

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Re: Black Mirror's pessimism porn won't lead us to a better future

#31

Post by ryandrake »

mandevil wrote: post #17

I feel like a big problem in the modern world is the small scale of our dreams. Dreams drive us, they change the world. In 1865, French author Jules Verne decided to write a book to inspire people to dream big, impossible dreams. He decided to write a novel proving that humans could do anything- by describing how, if enough people worked together, they could journey all the way to the moon. This became one of the fir…

Maybe this is an oversimplification, but optimism is gone from media because people are no longer optimistic about the future. For a long time, the next generation always just kind of assumed they'd have it better than the previous ones. Apart from a couple of terrible historic blips like world wars, of course. Everyone has kind of believed they'd live better lives than their parents. The Baby Boomers were the last generation that really felt that way, and it was by and large true for them. From there on, Gen-X knows already that they'll never live as good as their parents. Milleneals are finding out very quickly the same, the next generation is going to have it worse, and so on. So it's no big surprise that all of our media is doomer and pessimistic.

Maybe if we want more optimism in our media, we should give ourselves something to be optimistic about.

Re: Black Mirror's pessimism porn won't lead us to a better future

#32

Post by [deleted] »

ryandrake wrote: post #29
bawolff wrote: post #14

Huh, i guess i both agree and disagree with this article. I disagree that black mirror has to save the world. Art doesn't have to literally save the world to be useful, it just has to add to the conversation. The fact we are talking about it proves that it has. On the other hand, i've never really liked black mirror that much. It feels polemical to me. Its unrelenting pessimism robs it of nuance, which makes it feel…

> To be clear it doesn't have to be happy, it can still be grim and dark, but when every character is a terrible character, it undermines the story The world is full of terrible people, though. It's a "mirror" on current society, which is probably where they got the name. And by terrible I don't mean "literally Hitler," but the boring terribleness and malaise that so many around us have kind of just slipped into: Sel…

[deleted]

Re: Black Mirror's pessimism porn won't lead us to a better future

#33

Post by mullingitover »

This article, I feel, misclassifies the show and then criticizes it on the wrong grounds.

It's in the horror genre. Of course it's fearmongering, that's what horror stories do. Just because it's not the stereotypical horror doesn't mean it's not in that domain. It's great as a horror show because it shows somewhat plausible futures, and that dream/nightmarelike quality is truly gripping.

Re: Black Mirror's pessimism porn won't lead us to a better future

#34

Post by h0l0cube »

ryandrake wrote: post #29
bawolff wrote: post #14

Huh, i guess i both agree and disagree with this article. I disagree that black mirror has to save the world. Art doesn't have to literally save the world to be useful, it just has to add to the conversation. The fact we are talking about it proves that it has. On the other hand, i've never really liked black mirror that much. It feels polemical to me. Its unrelenting pessimism robs it of nuance, which makes it feel…

> To be clear it doesn't have to be happy, it can still be grim and dark, but when every character is a terrible character, it undermines the story The world is full of terrible people, though. It's a "mirror" on current society, which is probably where they got the name. And by terrible I don't mean "literally Hitler," but the boring terribleness and malaise that so many around us have kind of just slipped into: Sel…

> It's a "mirror" on current society, which is probably where they got the name.

Nope. It's a reference to the surface of a screen. (Though undeniably there's important double meaning there)

> The "black mirror" of the title is the one you'll find on every wall, on every desk, in the palm of every hand: the cold, shiny screen of a TV, a monitor, a smartphone.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2011/dec/01/charlie-b...

Re: Black Mirror's pessimism porn won't lead us to a better future

#35

Post by moduspol »

bawolff wrote: post #14

Huh, i guess i both agree and disagree with this article. I disagree that black mirror has to save the world. Art doesn't have to literally save the world to be useful, it just has to add to the conversation. The fact we are talking about it proves that it has. On the other hand, i've never really liked black mirror that much. It feels polemical to me. Its unrelenting pessimism robs it of nuance, which makes it feel…

The part I don't like about it is that the premise is too often:

"Imagine some theoretical technological advancement. Now take it out of context, put it in the worst possible circumstances, and imagine it appeared into a society like ours without any prior thought or discussion about the possible downsides of that technology."

For example: in a society where autonomous security guard robots kill intruders, there would not be people sneaking into warehouses. In a society where people can play back and re-live prior memories, it would not suddenly come up that one can relive experiences with past lovers. In a society where one's consciousness could be contained inside a "cookie," being unexpectedly in a strange place with no explanation would immediately have one questioning whether that's what happened.

It just feels ham-fisted. In their defense, I'm sure it's tough to introduce an entirely new concept and world and sell a brand new story all in the scope of a single episode, but the formula felt a little stale, at least while I was watching it.

Re: Black Mirror's pessimism porn won't lead us to a better future

#36

Post by duxup »

I agree in the sense that Black Mirror seems almost required to be extra pessimistic when... there's a better and far more complex story available with a different approach or ending.

Granted I'm also WAY burnt out on pessimistic Si-Fi, it's the default now, and it's predicable and far too easy.

That's not to say it can't be mostly dark, but for many movies and shows, that's most of the meat...

Re: Black Mirror's pessimism porn won't lead us to a better future

#37

Post by rufus_foreman »

ViktorRay wrote: post #10

I disagree with the premise of this article. Sometimes an extremely pessimistic vision of a possible future CAN change things...by making it so people are determined to fight to prevent that possible future from ever happening. The novel 1984 by George Orwell was published in 1948. It is an extremely pessimistic vision of a possible future for mankind....and many of us over the generations who read it really really d…

>> many of us over the generations who read it really really did not want to live in such a future

You live in exactly that future.

The screens that you watch, watch you. You can't escape them in your own home, let alone in public.

Words are redefined by the elite at their whim, as they were in the novel.

Very few would dare to publicly align themselves with the nation which we have always been at war with.

You live in that world now.

Re: Black Mirror's pessimism porn won't lead us to a better future

#38

Post by anyfoo »

While I don't fully agree with the article, I really like this sketch about "Black Mirror in medieval times": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1aSqZ23ydk

It does show rather well (and rather funnily) how it can be a fine line between warning about technology, and taking it too cynically.

Re: Black Mirror's pessimism porn won't lead us to a better future

#39

Post by ryandrake »

anyfoo wrote: post #30
ryandrake wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> To be clear it doesn't have to be happy, it can still be grim and dark, but when every character is a terrible character, it undermines the story The world is full of terrible people, though. It's a "mirror" on current society, which is probably where they got the name. And by terrible I don't mean "literally Hitler," but the boring terribleness and malaise that so many around us have kind of just slipped into: Sel…

I don't feel my social circle is like that. I mean, you're right that there are plenty of people as you describe, but I like to think that I surround myself with people for which that does not match (not always successfully when I was younger, but you learn as you grow older). As such, bawolff's point resonates with me. And even if that wasn't the case, they still have a good point. If you pick terrible protagonists…

Yea, I do the same, I try to surround myself with positive people. Friends I choose, local businesses I frequent. But there are some forced interactions (like kid's school friends' parents for example) where you have no choice to have to interact with terrible people.

My recollection is that niceness used to be the default in random people you might meet. But that's not been true for about the last ten years or so. You actively have to seek out nice people now. Something happened back in 2015-2016, where "casual meanness" became suddenly OK, and people went mask off and it was cool to be an insufferable jerk.

Re: Black Mirror's pessimism porn won't lead us to a better future

#40

Post by addicted »

alabastervlog wrote: post #19
bawolff wrote: post #14

Huh, i guess i both agree and disagree with this article. I disagree that black mirror has to save the world. Art doesn't have to literally save the world to be useful, it just has to add to the conversation. The fact we are talking about it proves that it has. On the other hand, i've never really liked black mirror that much. It feels polemical to me. Its unrelenting pessimism robs it of nuance, which makes it feel…

Nosedive is easily among the worst Black Mirror episodes and I was very confused by so many people praising it when it came out.

It was praised for its visual style.
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