Magical Realism in Limbo

(In the interest of full disclosure, I've played this game before, though this is of course my first time throwing literary terminology at it.)

One thing that jumped out at me when I played this game recently was that it seemed to have many of the traits associated with magical realism, in one form or another. Authorial resistance is one of the more obvious ones; at no point does the game offer any concrete information about the nature of the setting, the protagonist, or even the controls. As is typical for magical realist works, this serves to make the whole thing much more bizarre and mysterious than it would be if we knew what was going on. I'd say there's also a strong sense of metafiction, though this is somewhat inevitable in many video games; when controlling a character directly, there's much less distinction between the character and the viewer/player/reader than there is in a medium with predetermined outcomes.

I just wish we had been assigned the entire game (it's short) so that I could see what people thought of the ending.

Limbo

I downloaded this game and made my roommate play with me because I was scared stuff was going to pop out and it would be like the exorcist maze game. Luckily it was not; although it was somewhat garish, overall it was not too bad.

When I first started the game I wasn't quite sure what to think so I started over analyzing EVERYTHING. I thought the idea was to experience limbo or it was some sort of sick trick. Then as I went along and actually made achievements, I began to realize there was actually goal. I thought it was fun and challenging and I liked having to use my surroundings to get to the next step.

 The concept of the game directly relates to this class because it uses horror in a suspenseful way. The entire game is shrouded in a gray mist, complete with creepy forest, traps and monsters. I love the idea of surviving, using your mind, and horror were all combined into this enjoyable, creative game.

Tme Travel

In the movie Primer two friends unknowingly create a machine for time travel.  Upon discovery they use the machine to make money and save a friend’s life.  Time travel is a concept that fascinates humans; the idea to go back and undo mistakes in the past to better your own life  The idea to be able and go back and change events that have occurred in the process undoes who we think we are and makes us capable of taking actions we would never have taken.  The fact that if we make a mistake we can go back and fix it and just keep repeating this cycle till our life is how we want causes us to be capable of actions that we would see as immoral and overall wrong without this ability to undo it as seen by the two friends who bring harm upon themselves and others. Mankind’s biggest wish is to be able to change what is in the past to change the course of their life. However, what makes time travel   such an intriguing concept is what changes in other people’s lives will they be the same or will that one change cause the butterfly effect.  The butterfly effect is the theory that a minor change say stepping on a bug could completely overturn the future.  This concept is extremely popular in science fiction and is common issue in time travel movies.  The ultimate question that is the central conflict within time travel scenarios is can one small difference change the future in drastic ways. 

Time out of Control

Primer uses time travel as a warning to the future about the advancement of technology, including but not limited to the concept of time travel. While Carruth's Primer revolves around time travel, the message is the same regardless of the type of human advancement: we cannot allow technology to escape our control. This is similar to the idea of artificial intelligence, in that even if we come to have the resources and knowledge to create something, if we cannot control its actions or its outcome, then mankind is better off without. We are at a point in our society where innovation is more about the improving conveniences in life, not purely for survival. Technology such as time travel is far too risky, because while it could benefit the human race, the consequences that could come from it are too great. Another way to look at time travel is sort of like nuclear weapons, because both are completely unnecessary, as well as catastrophic if everyone had the power to use them. Primer uses the butterfly effect in the same way that Ray Bradbury does in "The Sound of Thunder" where humans can go T-Rex hunting, and one man steps off the designated path and ultimately alters the course of history with his small mistep.

Primer

        At the risk of sounding like a simpleton, it didn’t hit me until watching “Primer” for a second time on Netflix after class that the bewildering “boomerang” sequence of events in the film was likely intended to mimic the experiences of Abe and Aaron as they adjust to reliving the same 24-hour time loop. The problematic creation of character “doubles,” which we have encountered in previous works such as Fuentes’ Aura and “The Father-Thing” also engage the audience with the characters’ growing disorientation. With so many circuits of the same events being made and a new set of “Abes and Aarons” emerging from each subsequent circuit, we, and the authentic Abe and Aaron (whoever they are) begin to question which “set” is at the heart of the narrative.

                On a bit of a different note, I could see this film as a whole being used as a criticism of the exaltation of laboratory research. While Abe and Aaron have somehow stumbled upon a way to successfully manipulate time under very specific conditions and within a closely monitored environment (“the Box”), their attempts to alter even minute details of their current lives (investing in stocks, etc) are complicated by unexpected consequences (Aaron telling his wife about the invention and Mr. Granger discovering and using the Box). Ethical and/or philosophical grievances aside, the failure of the protagonists to account for factors like Granger’s intrusion could be compared to the potential dangers of certain real-world scientific experiments that, while successful in contained environments and thus theoretically viable processes/solutions/etc., cannot or should not be “toyed with” in a world outside the lab, where conditions are never ideal and in which innumerable external variables exist that “theory” has no ability to regulate.

The Cabin in the Woods

There is just so many things to talk and write about this fantastic movie. First, we have the parodying of horror tropes in the film itself, then just the uncanny idea of someone controlling our every move. I personally think that everything in the film was nicely done. One aspect that I want to talk about in particular is the combination of genres into one big movie. The Gothic aspect of the film was present through the ritual and setting itself. It was scary, secluded and in a controlled environment. Not once did the characters have a chance of surviving the outcome if not for the super-always-high Marty. The ritual is very Gothic in that it is done to appease the "Old Gods" because there is a belief that these higher, stronger beings exist and need to be placated through the suffering of mortals and through the spilling of blood. It is also Romantic as well because there is this notion that the five individual have to play a certain role in order to accomplish their goal. It is goes back to the idea of society needing these positions filled because without a paragon of virtue being a example of goodness then how would people know that being a whore is a bad thing?

Radio as a Science Fiction Tool

The best stories are ones that make you feel like they are real, and the best way to do that is to present them in a believable way, through logical character development and plot. Even in "absurd" situations, like science fiction and fantasy, the audience can feel like it could happen, if not now, or on this planet, then certainly someday or in a far away place. In the past, the only ways to create this feeling was through books and plays. Radio provided a new means for realism in fiction, and Orson Welles and his broadcast team took advantage of it to great effect.

Radio at this time had helped to bring the nation together, and it was a main form of communication as well as entertainment. It was interesting how this dual nature of radio broadcast helped shape the fear of the listener, suspending the listener in a state of uncertainty. Even for those that knew the broadcast was merely a story, it was told in such a way to draw the audience in, to make them think about the possibility of such a world and such an event actually taking place.