Post modernism is a reaction to modernism, with Pst standing
for after, and shares the same points however they are opposites of each other.
Postmodernism is a way in which some believe that we live in, where Modernism
looks in to a ‘brighter’ future, Postmodernism rejects this and has an
extremely pessimistic view on life, it rejects the grand-narratives such as
science and religion, suggesting that we shouldn’t really believe in anything
anymore.
Postmodernism rejects all concepts of ‘good’ art, stating
that there is not difference between opera and reality television, this applies
to literature, architecture, philosophy and many others.
Jean Baudrillard states that :We live in a world where there
is more and more information, and less and less meaning.” this can be applied
mainly to the news but as well as the media in general as, as an audience we
are bombarded with information from what products we should be using to who
started what fight, but this information has been diluted, saturated and
contaminated through the media, which in
the end means that nothing means anything anymore as no one knows what is true
and what is false anymore.
For example in Black Mirror’s 15 Million merits they are bombarded
with adverts, they can not do anything without having to watch adverts
including going to the bathroom, they cannot avert their eyes. Bing is quoted
saying “fake fodder is the only thing that works any more!” meaning that we
can’t understand truth anymore, we don’t know what it is anymore, it’s not only
the media that dilutes the truth anymore its us.
In 15 million merits they have virtual selves adding to this
fake reality.
Mick Googan has been quoted saying “Capitalism has
reinforced its control over the masses through the transformation of the
culture as a whole into a commodity-something to be brought and sold. Thus the
spectacle is not so much a set of particular cultural or media events and
images, -say the X Factor final-but characterizes the entire social world today
as an illusion, a separation from, or masking of real life”
This quote is basically saying that people are a commodity
now, that the spectacle is no longer the media program but the illusion of the
person that we are watching. We are brought and sold now days, that it is not
our talent that attract people but what the person looks like, for example X
Factor changes the appearance if the contestants on the show.
Take 15 Million Merits for example Bing’s only way of
escaping his life, his reality was to go into the reality show and become part
of the system which wins again. His heartfelt speech was broken down and sold
to people who are in what was his situation. Celebraties are no longer
represented by themselves but by the media.
As well as Bing everyone in that reality was born to consume
and consume some more, which is a representation of our lives now as we work to
buy and so on.
Joshua Kane said that “The reality television phenomenon is
a collective expression of our panoptic translation, and in being so offers a
glimpse into the different potential futures that postmodernism can take. What
is reality television then, and what makes it so appealing? Reality television
occurs when regular Joe people, like you or me, play themselves on TV. Of
course this alone would be boring. So reality television consists of putting
ordinary people into extraordinary and unexpected situations. Why is this
interesting to others? I believe that this is interesting to others because the
watcher of reality television performs an immediate reflexivity in which the
watcher becomes, in their own mind, the watched.
This quote states that we watch reality television because
it makes us think we are involved in the show and therefore the one that is
being watched, this is encouraged by now days television because the public
votes for the people on the show. It makes us feel apart of something bigger
than our regular lives, to escape from reality.
In 15 Million Merits they are in their own prison
(panopticon), the idea of cycling to gain merits is a representation of the way
we work to earn money to buy things, its a cycle, however in 15 Million Merits
they can only buy things for their virtual selves, things that aren't even real
that don’t exist.
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