Programmed
Snowed in Sunday, I watched Whit Stillman’s “Last Days of Disco.” Though void of a plot, sympathetic characters or anything resembling an homage to disco, the movie had a few cute scenes with some lofty life questions to contemplate. It was no “Barcelona”, but I sort-of enjoyed it. Although, I can’t think of too many other people who would like it at all.
A common theme of movie is the idea that we are programmed from a young age to be a certain way. An environmental lawyer mentions the perhaps that entire environmental movement was caused by “Bambi.” A nation of little kids witnessed the hunter shooting Bambi’s mom and, a score later, the environmental movement comes along. Another character worries that “Lady and Tramp” was teaching girls to be vacuous and to be attracted to assholes.
How significant are these early exposures to entertainment? There are a few things that I might have been affected by growing up. I think I hate clowns from seeing “Poltergeist” at a young age as well as cockroaches from seeing “Creepshow.” Then again, those things are naturally scary anyway. That’s why they were chosen to be in horror movies in the first place. I have absolutely no fear of snakes despite their repeated presence in entertainment. So, who knows…
More than anything else, at a young age, I was exposed to aliens, space ships and robots. Star Wars, the Masters of the Universe, Transformers and Voltron dominated my impressionable mind and those of my peers. Yet, society has no real improvements in space travel or robotics since my youth. There are no flying cars, laser pistols or cybernetic pets. The closest thing we have is a computer and communication revolution that has us all looking downward at pdfs and mp3s instead of upwards at space stations. I don’t remember childhood idols like Luke, Adam, Optimus Prime or Keith wasting countless hours checking e-mail and deleting spam.
In the end of “Disco,” the characters learn that they may have been programmed at a young age, but it didn’t matter too much. Stronger social forces push their direction more than anything else. One character, fearing she’s a prude, tries to sleep around only catch herpes. The affliction forces her back into an exclusive relationship. Another character wonders if he is happy in a relationship, but a job takes him to away from that relationship before he makes the decision for himself. A third character, though perhaps mentally unstable, is now able to live a normal life thanks to modern medication. None of them are at the mercy of their internal desires and personalities, but all of them are at the mercy of the winds of social change and luck.
The characters do not even know if they truly like disco. The movement is ripped from them before any of them chooses to abandon it. Furthermore, the characters do not know even if they like each other. They are thrust in and out of each other’s company by a larger forces and great deal of luck (where one went to college, economic forces, who happens to be in the club on a particular evening). There is a great deal of talk about controlling one’s destiny, yet no one is able to.
Though I find in real life people are slightly more decisive and a lot less introspective than in “Disco,” the movie makes an interesting point. We look often inward and strive to improve, change and mask ourselves. Perhaps we are all programmed and full of baggage, complexes and fetishes. Whether or not we can escape our programming is an interesting question, but dwarfed by larger forces. We may have control over ourselves, but that doesn’t mean we have control over our destiny.
A common theme of movie is the idea that we are programmed from a young age to be a certain way. An environmental lawyer mentions the perhaps that entire environmental movement was caused by “Bambi.” A nation of little kids witnessed the hunter shooting Bambi’s mom and, a score later, the environmental movement comes along. Another character worries that “Lady and Tramp” was teaching girls to be vacuous and to be attracted to assholes.
How significant are these early exposures to entertainment? There are a few things that I might have been affected by growing up. I think I hate clowns from seeing “Poltergeist” at a young age as well as cockroaches from seeing “Creepshow.” Then again, those things are naturally scary anyway. That’s why they were chosen to be in horror movies in the first place. I have absolutely no fear of snakes despite their repeated presence in entertainment. So, who knows…
More than anything else, at a young age, I was exposed to aliens, space ships and robots. Star Wars, the Masters of the Universe, Transformers and Voltron dominated my impressionable mind and those of my peers. Yet, society has no real improvements in space travel or robotics since my youth. There are no flying cars, laser pistols or cybernetic pets. The closest thing we have is a computer and communication revolution that has us all looking downward at pdfs and mp3s instead of upwards at space stations. I don’t remember childhood idols like Luke, Adam, Optimus Prime or Keith wasting countless hours checking e-mail and deleting spam.
In the end of “Disco,” the characters learn that they may have been programmed at a young age, but it didn’t matter too much. Stronger social forces push their direction more than anything else. One character, fearing she’s a prude, tries to sleep around only catch herpes. The affliction forces her back into an exclusive relationship. Another character wonders if he is happy in a relationship, but a job takes him to away from that relationship before he makes the decision for himself. A third character, though perhaps mentally unstable, is now able to live a normal life thanks to modern medication. None of them are at the mercy of their internal desires and personalities, but all of them are at the mercy of the winds of social change and luck.
The characters do not even know if they truly like disco. The movement is ripped from them before any of them chooses to abandon it. Furthermore, the characters do not know even if they like each other. They are thrust in and out of each other’s company by a larger forces and great deal of luck (where one went to college, economic forces, who happens to be in the club on a particular evening). There is a great deal of talk about controlling one’s destiny, yet no one is able to.
Though I find in real life people are slightly more decisive and a lot less introspective than in “Disco,” the movie makes an interesting point. We look often inward and strive to improve, change and mask ourselves. Perhaps we are all programmed and full of baggage, complexes and fetishes. Whether or not we can escape our programming is an interesting question, but dwarfed by larger forces. We may have control over ourselves, but that doesn’t mean we have control over our destiny.
posted by American Dilettante at
4:03 PM
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