Beyond _Blade Runner_ (was Empire...)

Peter K. peterk at enteract.com
Sun Feb 4 09:37:23 PST 2001



>When reality is as dystopian -- decaying postwar suburbs, the great
>unbroken plains of aging bungalows, stucco apartments, and
>ranch-style homes -- as Mike Davis suggests, who needs a cyberpunk
>novel or movie? The actual American dystopia we live in is not
>spectacular, for it is neither urban nor urbane. It's suburban &
>sprawling, policed by zoning.
>
>Yoshie

Anyone familiar with David Foster Wallace's novel _Infinite Jest_? It's set in a near future where global warming has undeniably occured and where corporations sponsor the years. Instead of B.C., you have B.S. (before sponsorship) and instead of 2010 or 2020 you get Year of the Whopper or Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment. Also, North America has evolved into one political entity much to the chagrin of radical Quebecois separatists who may or may not be behind a terrorist weapon named "the Entertainment," a videotape of a "movie" so "good" and pleasurable that people can't stop watching it until they're dead.

Speaking of entertainment, I saw _Cecil B. Demented_. Great flick! Why was I not surprised when our underground film heros found allies amongst action-movie afficionados and porno devotees against their common enemy - the family values/Tipper Gore/Joe Lieberman crowd? Mine enemy's enemy is my friend? Most un-pc "joke" I've heard of late: the self-immolating Fulan Gong members were not in fact protesting the lack of freedom of religion in China, but rather were copycating a stunt pulled on an episode of MTV's Jackass.

Peter



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