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The monsters that haunt us in popular culture embody the fears of our contemporary human condition. While a new Godzilla movie starts in the cinemas this week, we will be able to better understand what haunts us the most at present.
The endless waves of zombies in movies, television, and literature would reflect the stupidity of our behavior, whether it is a cog in the industrial machine, or as the l '39. noted film researcher Leo Braudy, as an "unthinking member of a mbad consumer society".
For Braudy, zombies "best represent the anxieties of the 21st century" because these nameless monsters can represent whatever the fear that consumes us the most as individuals, especially pandemics, globalization or the anonymity imposed by an impersonal technology.
However, the age in which we currently live requires another monster, capable of representing the incredible complexity and enormity. challenges that humanity faces today. This monster is Godzilla.
The consequences of human-induced climate change are increasingly alarmed, with eminent experts including David Attenborough suggesting the possibility of a collapse of civilization. With the new film, the public may see its fears about the damage we have done to it.
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In their 1987 book Angels Fear anthropologists Gregory and Mary Catherine Batseon proposed a fictional god called Eco, which would represent the importance duty. the world as a system of interconnected organisms, or "the unity in which we live". They hoped that the existence of such a god would encourage humankind to behave more respectfully towards our world.
However, in today's world, a figure such as Eco does not inspire the fear or respect that our era of existential crisis demands. A monster is needed and, as I explained in my book co-author Monsters of Modernity: global icons for our critical condition Godzilla is the perfect monster to make us think about the consequences of our actions. 19659002] From the first Japanese film Godzilla in 1954 to the last Godzilla release in this year's Hollywood blockbuster Godzilla: The King of Monsters Godzilla was understood as a response to the abuse inflicted to humanity by the Earth.
The first case of mistreatment that provoked Godzilla in 1954 was the use of nuclear weapons. Tanaka Tomoyuki, a young producer from Toho Studios in Japan, asked himself the following question: "What if a dinosaur sleeping in the southern hemisphere was awakened and turned into a giant by the bomb? And if he attacked Tokyo? "
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The following films, whose severity varies considerably, have referred to other environmental misdeeds, such as the 1971 film Godzilla vs. Hedorah (aka The Smog Monster). in which the pollution of humanity becomes an almost invincible monster. Although Godzilla has defeated the smog monster, viewers have no doubt that we ignore the effects of our pollution at our peril.
As time pbaded, the crisis that spawned the monster evolved. In the words of one protagonist in the 2019 movie trailer, "Our world is changing. The mbad extinction we feared has already begun and we are causing it. We are the infection. But like all living organisms, the earth has triggered a fever to fight this infection.
This is an important feature of Godzilla. As the scientist Dr. Serizawa puts it in the Hollywood movie of 2014 simply titled Godzilla : "We may not have created this monster. But we summoned him. We brought it ourselves.
Godzilla is not on our side. It threatens humanity, although it sometimes helps humanity to avoid a bigger threat (such as the smog monster) or Godzilla's sworn enemy, Ghidorah, the three-headed monster. But even when Godzilla and humanity share a common goal, it's not that Godzilla is our party or that we make Godzilla "our pet", as it is featured in the 2019 trailer. Dr. Serizawa observes that "we would be his."
Wherever Godzilla appears, the triviality of humanity's achievements and defenses is clearly highlighted. Godzilla treats us, as well as our big cities, with the scorn and scorn with which we regularly treat our world.
"The Godzilla Principle"
In Project Management, the "Godzilla Principle" refers to the idea that it is appropriate to deal with problems of small size, because "left behind" without supervision or care, they grow and do not decrease until they are too big to handle. " However, I maintain that Godzilla's lesson is actually more striking. The Godzilla principle is that there is no forgiveness.
There is no forgiveness because Godzilla is our transgression of the environment that is referred to us, personified in the form of a monstrous reptile. In this way, Godzilla echoes Bateson and Bateson in Eco: "There is no point in telling [Eco] that the offense was only a small crime, that you are sorry and that you will never do it again. mischief against the world irrevocably affects us.
In reality, the effects of our vandalism or unconsciousness may remain on land hidden from view or in vast expanses of waste in our oceans, or be supported in the future. However, in fiction, Godzilla is an incarnated karma, which today ruins the cities that represent "civilization".
Although people can forgive themselves and start from scratch, our world can not forgive in this way. We must act from the outset by becoming aware of the seriousness of our actions to avoid awakening unstoppable "climate monsters"
. Godzilla is the monster of our time. Godzilla is awful, implacable and irresistible. Our only hope is not to take care of it.
Julian CH Lee, Associate Professor, Global Studies, RMIT University.
This article was first published in The Conversation.
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