The systemic presence of ... apocalyptic motifs in the most popular forms of contemporary entertainment suggests a connection with the postmodern subjects diminished sense of historicity. According to theorists such as Jameson and Žižek, contemporary events in late capitalism are presented and experienced in a historical vacuum, leading to a new set of public anxieties of which these films are clearly symptomatic. The superhero movie offers a way of mobilizing the contradictory desire to see spectacular images of mass destruction repeated over and over from the safety of a genre that is constructed around such endless repetition in serialized form. This helps sustain the kind of widely shared cultural amnesia through which the public too easily forgets and forgives the transgressions of the capitalist class and the periodic disasters its actions precipitate (Harvey 2010: 219). Or, as one of the superheroes in The Incredibles (dir. Brad Bird, 2004) comments with obvious irony: No matter how many times you save the world, it always manages to get back in jeopardy again! -Dan Hassler-Forest, Capitalist Superheroes: Caped Crusaders in the Neoliberal Age, p. 229
Posted on: Mon, 29 Sep 2014 05:27:32 +0000
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