"I’d buy that for a dollar." I see what you did there.
It does feel like we're heading to the Robocop, Starship Troopers future predicted by Verhoven, with an unhealthy mix of the capitalism from Blade Runner and Alien.
Put on your Waylan Yutani jumpsuit and risk your life for the Corpos, just to get enough screen time with the entertainment.
Trump and Hegseth may be playing the Nukem board game from Robocop.
"You crossed my line of death!"
"You haven't dismantled your MX stockpile!"
But THE film about our Mideast Wars (also from Paul Verhoven and screenwriter Ed Neumier) is Starship Troopers.
Would you like to know more?
Then find a way to listen to the awesome DVD commentary track. Verhoven says the film is about fascism, and when it's depicted on screen, "You should think 'bad'. Bad, Bad. BAD!"
It's almost like a documentary of MAGA, or the playbook for ICE and the "Department of War".
Sonny - really enjoy when your focus is wider than a particular film (why you should get a seat on the pods more often BTW). We all have some fav entertainment to link to grander thoughts so here's 2¢ from my corner of the peanut gallery:
About the time Neil Postman was publishing 'Amusing Ourselves to Death,' a hip, cheeky Brit came up with a character named Max Headroom. I was immediately curious. Max became a sort of phenomenon with tentacles into pop culture, advertising, satire & social comment. The graphics & how the character was woven into entertainment led to uncertainty about whether Max really was some form of AI (don't think we used that term then)... or maybe partly computer-created, partly a performance art project? Real? ...but what's THAT mean anyway? ...which seemed to me at least partly to be the point... if there WAS one?
The TV series with Matt Frewer - cyber-punk when both elements weren't yet stale & who knew where they were going. Dystopian mix of 1930s, current events, and War Games/Tron fantasy futures.
I feel like Max Headroom doesn't get enough recognition for what it reflected back to us in its moment and what it postulated about where we were headed in the mid/late 1980s. To some degree, where we are right now. As one e.g., the Blipverts episode.
Been uneasy on all this for most of my life. I had already been clued in as an early teen by The Prisoner episode, 'The General.' We've been on this path a loooong time
I've been thinking thinking a lot about the dystopia in Fahrenheit 451 for a while. I wasn't impressed when I first read it, I thought the characters and plot were dumb. Ray Bradbury seemed to keep changing his mind about would the book was actually about throughout his life (censorship during McCarthyism, then years later stating it was about an illiterate society immersed in mass media, and then in the 90's stated it was about political correctness).
Now, it does feel prescient to me. Between social media, our "infotainment" media ecosystem, and the proliferation of screens, I don't think the protagonist's wife and her friends would be out of place at all in our society. It takes three screens of shallow "content" in a single room to keep them entertained and they describe having para-social relationships with the people on their screens (there wasn't even a word for that when the book was written). Now we have the ability to generate endless content with no human effort, the technology to disseminate it both instantaneously and endlessly. Throw in a society insisting that wars only take a week... and yikes.
Maggie - Bradbury’s book was a generation or so ahead of Neil Postman’s and Ray was ‘fiction’ (right? Please?) but saw many of the same things coming
Editing to add another thought - you mention Bradbury's thoughts about the book over the years - to me that's one aspect of art, how we view & give it meaning can involve all of our knowing & experiences, which of course can change how it impacts us over time cuz I'm not the same viewer today or in the same world as when I first read it in 6th or 7th grade.
Yes! when I looked it up on Wikipedia, I was kind of shocked at how early Farenheit 451 was written. I thought it was (1953?!? That's insane!)
But to your second point, it's funny you say that, because my reading goal in 2026 it to revisit classics that I was forced to read academically at some point. First up was My Antonia, which was just a completely different experience (I'm now on my 4th Willa Cather novel of the year). I feel like when I read it 11th grade it was a series of plot points, and reading it as an adult was just totally different. I have the Iliad, Middlemarch, All the Kings Men, and All Quiet on the Western Front lined up to dive back into, and I'm really curious how my reactions to these books change.
I have a feeling The Last Two will hit a lot differently.
Haven't re-read F451 but in my mind it's gotta be like HG Wells level prescience. My intro to Bradbury was Something Wicked... which I read at younger age than the 2 protagonist boys. I had always felt creeped out & sus of the carny components of our county fair -that book nailed it.
Our house had Iliad, Odyssey, and Greek mythology stories on on shelves next to the Brittanicas - I read a lot of Odyssey & mythology during grade school, so much wilder than anything the nuns assigned.
Minimal proper lit during my school years. I found Dalton Trumbo's 'Johnny Got His Gun' to tell me the horrors of war (probably more like Poe than a Hemingway war story), and learned about Huey Long from Randy Newman's 'Good Old Boys' record. Everything I need to know I learned on vinyl 🤣 ...yeah, I know I still have a few gaps still to fill
Dalton Trumbo's 'Johnny Got His Gun' is the reason I have a really detailed DNR order. A horrible nightmare, and the best analogy for what happens to Alzheimer's patients that I have ever encountered. Horrifying in the best way.
Gripping. I read as a high schooler, not for class tho. With the draft to think about along with graduation, it was… clarifying. And Trumbo - his own story is impressive too
Spot on Sonny. I watched Brazil not too long ago (yes the Criterion 4k) and I couldn’t help but think of ICE either. Yet it was my recent rewatch of Network (another Criterion 4k) that left me stunned in silence. I couldn’t believe how much it predicted and explained how we got where we are. The rage of populism, the global corporatism usurping democracy, sellout revolutionaries. The list goes on. I listened to your great interview with David Itzkoff, but it did not prepare me for how astounded I was. We are all mad as hell and aren’t gonna take it anymore, but sitting back and watching or yelling out our windows no longer seems adequate to the time we are in. I’m wondering what films I can turn to on how to right the ship before it sinks. Or maybe I should just rewatch Titanic. 🤷♂️
"The stark unreality of our reality"---excellent description. But, as you say, I think human beings crave unreality---delusion really is our stock in trade. We don't just want to be distracted, or entertained, we want to escape our real world in a way that will make it all go away forever. It's a way of avoiding all responsibility. The complete nullification of the human will is a good bet.
"The social media gurus haven’t quite mastered it yet; we’re still, unfortunately, able to look away and return to the real world. For now. God willing, our techno billionaires can figure out the precise AI algorithm that will get us to that state of blissful emptiness soon enough."
Had to google this person. Apparently she take pictures of herself and somehow advertising pays her millions of dollars? WTF? This is the miracle of the free market?
Back in my salad days there was an ad for financial services firm Smith Barney in which serious actor John Houseman made the claim that Smith Barney made money "the old-fashioned way: we EARN it."
We're all gonna die a fiery heat death because the consumers of all this grifting right wing AI content are happy to boil a lake or a few rivers - and eventually the oceans - so some dopes can listen to the Ghost AI of George Washington and (checks notes) Scott Adams (throws notes in the compost heap in disgust).
May I recommend the Korean film "No Other Choice as a truly black comedy about the effects of downsizing and AI on a dedicated employee in a specialized business. Desperation and conformity evolve into rage fueled determination with both farcical and frightening results.
"I’d buy that for a dollar." I see what you did there.
It does feel like we're heading to the Robocop, Starship Troopers future predicted by Verhoven, with an unhealthy mix of the capitalism from Blade Runner and Alien.
Put on your Waylan Yutani jumpsuit and risk your life for the Corpos, just to get enough screen time with the entertainment.
America is a depressing country.
"choked out in an MMA octagon, I mean, not on OnlyFans"
Holy FORK Sonny that was a literal spit-take line for me. Bravo! XD
That was an @Adam Keiper special! (Always give your editors credit, kids.)
Great article, thank you Sonny
Trump and Hegseth may be playing the Nukem board game from Robocop.
"You crossed my line of death!"
"You haven't dismantled your MX stockpile!"
But THE film about our Mideast Wars (also from Paul Verhoven and screenwriter Ed Neumier) is Starship Troopers.
Would you like to know more?
Then find a way to listen to the awesome DVD commentary track. Verhoven says the film is about fascism, and when it's depicted on screen, "You should think 'bad'. Bad, Bad. BAD!"
It's almost like a documentary of MAGA, or the playbook for ICE and the "Department of War".
Great essay, Sonny
Sonny - really enjoy when your focus is wider than a particular film (why you should get a seat on the pods more often BTW). We all have some fav entertainment to link to grander thoughts so here's 2¢ from my corner of the peanut gallery:
About the time Neil Postman was publishing 'Amusing Ourselves to Death,' a hip, cheeky Brit came up with a character named Max Headroom. I was immediately curious. Max became a sort of phenomenon with tentacles into pop culture, advertising, satire & social comment. The graphics & how the character was woven into entertainment led to uncertainty about whether Max really was some form of AI (don't think we used that term then)... or maybe partly computer-created, partly a performance art project? Real? ...but what's THAT mean anyway? ...which seemed to me at least partly to be the point... if there WAS one?
The TV series with Matt Frewer - cyber-punk when both elements weren't yet stale & who knew where they were going. Dystopian mix of 1930s, current events, and War Games/Tron fantasy futures.
I feel like Max Headroom doesn't get enough recognition for what it reflected back to us in its moment and what it postulated about where we were headed in the mid/late 1980s. To some degree, where we are right now. As one e.g., the Blipverts episode.
Been uneasy on all this for most of my life. I had already been clued in as an early teen by The Prisoner episode, 'The General.' We've been on this path a loooong time
I've been thinking thinking a lot about the dystopia in Fahrenheit 451 for a while. I wasn't impressed when I first read it, I thought the characters and plot were dumb. Ray Bradbury seemed to keep changing his mind about would the book was actually about throughout his life (censorship during McCarthyism, then years later stating it was about an illiterate society immersed in mass media, and then in the 90's stated it was about political correctness).
Now, it does feel prescient to me. Between social media, our "infotainment" media ecosystem, and the proliferation of screens, I don't think the protagonist's wife and her friends would be out of place at all in our society. It takes three screens of shallow "content" in a single room to keep them entertained and they describe having para-social relationships with the people on their screens (there wasn't even a word for that when the book was written). Now we have the ability to generate endless content with no human effort, the technology to disseminate it both instantaneously and endlessly. Throw in a society insisting that wars only take a week... and yikes.
Maggie - Bradbury’s book was a generation or so ahead of Neil Postman’s and Ray was ‘fiction’ (right? Please?) but saw many of the same things coming
Editing to add another thought - you mention Bradbury's thoughts about the book over the years - to me that's one aspect of art, how we view & give it meaning can involve all of our knowing & experiences, which of course can change how it impacts us over time cuz I'm not the same viewer today or in the same world as when I first read it in 6th or 7th grade.
Yes! when I looked it up on Wikipedia, I was kind of shocked at how early Farenheit 451 was written. I thought it was (1953?!? That's insane!)
But to your second point, it's funny you say that, because my reading goal in 2026 it to revisit classics that I was forced to read academically at some point. First up was My Antonia, which was just a completely different experience (I'm now on my 4th Willa Cather novel of the year). I feel like when I read it 11th grade it was a series of plot points, and reading it as an adult was just totally different. I have the Iliad, Middlemarch, All the Kings Men, and All Quiet on the Western Front lined up to dive back into, and I'm really curious how my reactions to these books change.
I have a feeling The Last Two will hit a lot differently.
Haven't re-read F451 but in my mind it's gotta be like HG Wells level prescience. My intro to Bradbury was Something Wicked... which I read at younger age than the 2 protagonist boys. I had always felt creeped out & sus of the carny components of our county fair -that book nailed it.
Our house had Iliad, Odyssey, and Greek mythology stories on on shelves next to the Brittanicas - I read a lot of Odyssey & mythology during grade school, so much wilder than anything the nuns assigned.
Minimal proper lit during my school years. I found Dalton Trumbo's 'Johnny Got His Gun' to tell me the horrors of war (probably more like Poe than a Hemingway war story), and learned about Huey Long from Randy Newman's 'Good Old Boys' record. Everything I need to know I learned on vinyl 🤣 ...yeah, I know I still have a few gaps still to fill
Dalton Trumbo's 'Johnny Got His Gun' is the reason I have a really detailed DNR order. A horrible nightmare, and the best analogy for what happens to Alzheimer's patients that I have ever encountered. Horrifying in the best way.
Gripping. I read as a high schooler, not for class tho. With the draft to think about along with graduation, it was… clarifying. And Trumbo - his own story is impressive too
Spot on Sonny. I watched Brazil not too long ago (yes the Criterion 4k) and I couldn’t help but think of ICE either. Yet it was my recent rewatch of Network (another Criterion 4k) that left me stunned in silence. I couldn’t believe how much it predicted and explained how we got where we are. The rage of populism, the global corporatism usurping democracy, sellout revolutionaries. The list goes on. I listened to your great interview with David Itzkoff, but it did not prepare me for how astounded I was. We are all mad as hell and aren’t gonna take it anymore, but sitting back and watching or yelling out our windows no longer seems adequate to the time we are in. I’m wondering what films I can turn to on how to right the ship before it sinks. Or maybe I should just rewatch Titanic. 🤷♂️
"The stark unreality of our reality"---excellent description. But, as you say, I think human beings crave unreality---delusion really is our stock in trade. We don't just want to be distracted, or entertained, we want to escape our real world in a way that will make it all go away forever. It's a way of avoiding all responsibility. The complete nullification of the human will is a good bet.
"The social media gurus haven’t quite mastered it yet; we’re still, unfortunately, able to look away and return to the real world. For now. God willing, our techno billionaires can figure out the precise AI algorithm that will get us to that state of blissful emptiness soon enough."
Dark... but understandable
Yes, but Wallace also provided the easy escape route of putting one’s head into a microwave oven and pressing “Popcorn”.
A serious question about this Sophie person and her ilk.
Do the people who consume this content actually WATCH or LISTEN to it? Do they even have a clue what watching or listening is?
We're dying here in a simulation of vacuity.
Had to google this person. Apparently she take pictures of herself and somehow advertising pays her millions of dollars? WTF? This is the miracle of the free market?
Back in my salad days there was an ad for financial services firm Smith Barney in which serious actor John Houseman made the claim that Smith Barney made money "the old-fashioned way: we EARN it."
WTF WTF WTF?
We're all gonna die a fiery heat death because the consumers of all this grifting right wing AI content are happy to boil a lake or a few rivers - and eventually the oceans - so some dopes can listen to the Ghost AI of George Washington and (checks notes) Scott Adams (throws notes in the compost heap in disgust).
Drop your pen and put your hands up. You have thirty seconds to comply.
May I recommend the Korean film "No Other Choice as a truly black comedy about the effects of downsizing and AI on a dedicated employee in a specialized business. Desperation and conformity evolve into rage fueled determination with both farcical and frightening results.
I totally should’ve included it; the lights out factory is 100% where we’re headed. I liked it! https://www.thebulwark.com/p/no-other-choice-chair-company