Brave New World

Imbued with poetic representation, Huxley works the novel’s characters, plot structure, and interconnected Shakespearian, Pavlovian and Marxist themes to allow for interpretations of political discourse, technological ethics and the advancement of the human condition, in almost every era of human progress since it was written in 1932.  What Huxley sought to do, like any other dystopian writer, was to project the discomforts of his present into the future. The 1930’s saw the rise of the ideology of consumption, the Soviet Five-Year Plan, the synthetic creation of vitamins, the spectacle of a chicken heart that lives on without the body, and the control of diabetes that had massive implications for the progress of medicine and technology.

Mr. Huxley utilized these anthropomorphic progressions to underlay the way in which economic security and absolutism could work to allow for the placid servitude of the human race. The true genius of Huxley’s novel is the way in which objects, names, items or novelties have a function for his symbolism and relation to his present. Names like Bernard Marx, literary references to Othello and Romeo and Juliet, the displacement of the talkie by the ‘feelie,’ and the careful placement of poetry and ‘hypnopaedic’ repetitions to drive home his message. Each parallel to the progressions and relations to reality are profound, and connect in a way that mirrors a true master of dystopian satire.

Huxley intricately laced the New World society controlled by the ‘World State,’ with a mutation of religious regard for technology and the assembly line of the Ford Model T; the mass production of the automobile. All dates are preceded by ‘a.f.,’ or ‘After Ford.’ Places of worship are referred to as ‘Church of Our Ford,’ and in a bastardization of the Christian cross, the top is removed to form a ‘T.’ It is the assembly line metaphor that forms the basis for the World State’s ability to condition individuals from birth; genetically, physically, and psychologically for their ‘inescapable social destinies’ inside of a stabilized caste system, separating each ‘echelon’ of human segregation by size, intelligence and appearance. It is also for this reason that Brave New World finds itself prominently cited on reading lists the world over, almost 80 years later.

Huxley uses Brave New World to deal with ‘the problem of happiness,’ anticipating that as technology progresses, it is not what suppresses the human individual; it is what pleasures and distracts it. In Nineteen Eighty Four, George Orwell sought to depict a world that was controlled by surveillance, repression, the eradication of information and language, as well as intimidation, through fear in Big Brother. What Huxley develops through Brave New World is the concept that it is not what suppresses us, takes away from us, or instills fear in us. It is what makes us numb with convenience, pleasure, comfort and complacency, so that it is not the banning of books, the eradication of history or the constant threat of oppression, it is the individual itself; conditioned from birth, to come to be controlled by promiscuous sex, drugs and the technological wonderment that causes its own servitude, and lack of awareness.

It is this very core idea that places Brave New World in a realm of literature that makes it fundamentally essential to read. Because Huxley, in 1932, had such foresight to see within the way that human beings could harness technology for their own use and ultimate enslavement, the relevance of his vision jumps out into the present and points out some alarming similarities, perhaps now more than ever. What reason do I have for literature if I have a glowing rectangular box to fill my imagination with delight (and commercials)? For what reason do I require information when my life is constantly bombarded by so much of it that I become passive and complacent? How do I know what truth is when it is drowned in a sea of irrelevance? Why experience life in the flesh, in the present and in the beauty of reality, when I can get it for cheap and easy through ‘feelies,’ ‘obstacle golf,’ and the ‘centrifugal bumble puppy?’ I can take a holiday on Soma, the perfect drug that Huxley foresaw as well. Zoloft, Percocet and Prozac? His vision is eerily accurate.

Huxley used his genius to present his readers with an all out ambiguity of prose and symbolism. The future is ultimately unknown to all of us, but it can be pieced together by making judgment and extrapolations of the present into that unknown. As human beings it is interesting to note that only our own actions as a species can allow us to anticipate, learn from, yet still take steps in the directions we can see will take us to ruin and darkness. Huxley could imagine such enhanced states of our future and it is through him that the production of such masterpieces of speculation, such as Brave New World, can come to fruition and turn the dreams we have for our future, into nightmares.

But the tables turn, and the political battles that took place in the elections of 2006 bring about land reform and power is returned back to the people. But it is the corruption of this power that ironically renews itself in the hands of the Nicaraguan natives.

LAND trailer for feature documentary from Julian T. Pinder on Vimeo.

Power corrupts, and the 28 year old director captures the essence of this fact with some ballsy documentation and filming with almost no budget, yet with great ambition. This film has garnished rave reviews, including a rare 4/4 stars in the Globe and Mail. It screens this week on Wednesday the 9th at 9:00 p.m. and Thursday the 10th at 7:00 p.m., at The Royal Theater on College Street in Toronto. I highly recommend this film to anyone who supports Canadian film and for those of us who can appreciate relevant, provocative and informing media from an entrepreneur like Julian. With a potent mix of the eye opening truths that can be compared to those of Noam Chomsky,  and the raw vision of a budding new director, I too give this Canadian Doc a 4/4 stars. Big ups, yo.

Michael Jackson – arguably the most famous man in world history and easily the greatest entertainer of all time, died this past summer.

Oh, you’ve heard?

The aftermath and mourning of his passing included this past Tuesday’s release of “This Is It”, a documentary-style film that followed Jackson as he rehearsed in the weeks before what was going to be his curtain call – a string of 50 sold out concerts for over one million people, taking place in London’s O2 Theatre, beginning in July of this year.

Much more than way to salvage what was surely going to be a massive profit for Jackson and his camp and what may have been the catalyst that re-launched Jackson’s career, This Is It was released for the fans (as noted in the opening titles) – those that truly miss the King of Pop, what he did for music and what he tried to do for people all over the world.

Filmed in Digital Technicolour, which is easily one of the best ways to see a movie, This Is It offers a  backstage look at an icon, his processes, handlers,  and some rare candid scenes of Jackson smiling laughing and having fun while he played music – the only thing he’s ever known.  This is what is most entertaining about This Is It – a look at the raw Michael Jackson and something void of biased media, gossip and whatever stories and rumours that have followed him for at least the past ten years.  He seems happy to be back on stage and comfortable.  Even without these scenes though, any fan of Jackson’s music will find this film a joy to watch because of the music itself and a reminder of what it was that made him an unstoppable pop music juggernaut.  More than that it is a memorial and a reminder of why we miss him.

Watching him on film, the fact that the man was nearly 50 years old is almost forgotten.  Yes, he can still dance, yes he can still sing and points in the film where he seems tired and lethargic can easily be attributed to the fact that this movie was 115 minutes of rehearsal footage, and a far cry from the enormous, exciting and mind-blowing entertainer that Jackson becomes on stage in front of thousands of screaming, crying fans. We forget that MJ is just a man and probably wasn’t always the crotch-grabbing, rhinestone-glove wearing singer that we always knew.  We want him to always dance and sing and karate kick the air in front of him.  We forget that he is human and at the base point, is just like everyone else.  He’s moody, quiet and sometimes he doesn’t shave, too.  Watching him even at 50, it is quickly understood that this man was born to sing, dance and entertain and even as he aged his talent remained as sharp as it was during his rise in becoming the King over 25 years ago.  But still, he is just a man.

This Is It centres on a man with mind-blowing fame and success, yet when he speaks he is polite and timid – almost scared.  The struggle comes when deciding whether Jackson really was a truly good and pleasant man, who put all of his energy into spreading love, or a man-child scared of being vilified again by the press, his peers or anyone who ever really knew him.  The dichotomy of Jackson on stage and Jackson the person is something really remarkable.

What’s more interesting is that this movie was not intended for release and wasn’t even intended to be a movie at all, it was intended for Jackson only – a video diary for his own personal records.  It’s easy to forget this as you wait for a moonwalk across the stage or a slide to the left or right that looks like he is sliding on air.  You wait for the big payoff that doesn’t really come, a new dance move or something that pushes the boundaries because as is said in the film – that’s Michael Jackson.  Watching the heartfelt confessions of his dancers in the presence of his greatness, the process of the rehearsals themselves and watching his meticulous, precise involvement in his music and its production offers a look at a man who spent his whole life in the spotlight.

It feels good to see him out of it for once, even if we won’t ever see him again.

But every now and then the hype machine yields something unexpected – something worthy of the hype.  I guess I feel a renewed sense pride in the human race when something comes even close to being worth all the attention it receives (see: Barack Obama) but you know what’s even better?  When the hype machine produces something not only worthy of the hype, but something you’d call the best thing you have ever seen.

So I praise it its support of Paranormal Activity – the scariest movie of all time and the best horror film I’ve ever seen.

Yes, I’m becoming part of the hype machine.

Paranormal Activity – a movie with a tagline like “don’t see it alone” would normally make me laugh out loud.  It had been 10 years since I’d been genuinely scared by any film, and I come upon a movie with no real advertising budget, a viral marketing campaign and production costs of $15,000 but endorsements from the likes of Steven Spielberg.

Shot in one house over two days and written and directed by one man, Paranormal Activity should have been nothing more than a cheap Blair Witch Project – an attempt to blur the lines between fiction and reality and a rehash of a genius idea brought to all of us ten years ago.  It should have been a bad movie about a couple who are disturbed by nightly flicks of light switches and door creaks, thought to be the work of a demon who had occupied their home.  The couple then sets up a video camera to record the events with the hope of finding proof of their paranormal experiences.   In all honesty it should have been a bad movie, only furthering my ill feelings towards the hype machine – but it was the exact opposite of bad.  It was deeply haunting.

What makes Paranormal Activity so horrifying is the fact that it relies on tapping into our primal fears – what happens when we are asleep.  There are no real effects and tension builds throughout the entire 96 minute runtime.  Something as simple as getting up in the middle of the night becomes a scary thing to do, and there isn’t a single boring moment throughout the entire film.  It is void of cinematic booms and bangs, blood and gore and there isn’t even a musical score, but what the film does incredibly well is immerse the viewer into what would be an unbelievably terrifying situation.  Better than Blair Witch, and better than any horror movie I’ve seen.

What really does it for me though is the fact that still, a week after watching it – I still have a little bit of trouble sleeping.  There are scenes in this film that will stay with me, and what makes that so amazing is that on their own, the scenes shouldn’t be all that scary.  Put into context however and they become mortifying.

If the measure of a good horror film is being scared, then the measure of the best horror film is one that keeps you scared.  What’s even weirder than the fact that for five minutes each night, I’m haunted by visions from Paranormal Activity… is the fact that I like it.

The hype machine wins this one, and I’ll gladly concede.