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'An aphorism, properly stamped and molded, has not been "deciphered" when it has simply been read; rather one has then to begin its interpretation, for which is required an art of interpretation.' -- Nietzsche, 'On the Genealogy of Morals'

Apocalypse + cinema « Previous | |Next »
March 19, 2007

Wheeler Winston Dixon's book Visions of the Apocalypse: Spectacles of Destruction in American Cinema surveys myriad forms of popular culture, with an emphasis on American culture, in order to delineate the numerous ways that contemporary society is declaring its exhaustion and self-destructive impulses.

This provokes discussions of developments in digital cinema technologies, the monopolization of media distribution, aesthetic and ideological differences between war films from different eras, the contemporary trend of cinematic remakes across national lines, and specific film texts which project images of global catastrophe, among many other topics. These subjects are related in that they all foretell the inevitable, imminent, and total destruction of the world by violent means.

I've often puzzled over Hollywood's fascination with images of mass destruction and how it promotes the passive consumption of fantasy worlds over active citizenry in the real world. Is it culture of conformity is driven by the fear of the new? But it is not a fear of technology due to the reliance on computer generated imagery (CGI) to create spectacular images.

Daniel Herbert in An Economy of Annihilation: Wheeler Winston Dixon's _Visions of the Apocalypse says that the:

author lays out the argument that organizes the entire book: the world is on the brink of destruction and nobody cares because we are exhausted with ourselves. The possibility of global nuclear holocaust, instead of solely instilling fear and anxiety, provides a perverse comfort because in that event, 'all bets are off, all duties executed, all responsibilities abandoned'

| Posted by Gary Sauer-Thompson at 8:11 AM |