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.

Fear of The Unexplained

In Primer, Limbo, and the War of the Worlds podcast, we find a common theme in fear of that which is not understood. In Primer, thought the film is classified as science fiction, we are struck with fear of the time travel we do not completely understand. This fear is propagated when we come to know that the time travel has caused some unknown damage, presumably in the minds of the main characters. Limbo represents more a fear of the unknown as the game is set in limbo, the state between life and death. With hardly any proof to the existence of this state, both the state of existence and the game may be classified as fiction/horror. This classification, however, does not detract from the fact that Limbo preys on humanity's fear of death and what waits beyond. Since we have no facts to offer concrete proof of what waits beyond death's veil, death and what lies beyond is constantly used to frighten audiences of all forms of entertainment. The War of the Worlds podcast also preyed on the human fear of the unexplained. With no concrete proof of intelligent alien life, people like H. G. Wells may only speculate what would occur should foreign entities attempt to invade. These fears of unexplained concepts, (time travel, alien invasion, what happens after death) are common to science fiction and provide audiences with not only a thrill, but possible explanations for that which cannot be explained. It is for that reason that science fiction has become so popular in recent years; everyone is looking for answers to unsolved questions in science fiction media.

The Little Boy

Limbo was a really fun game to play! Though simple and somewhat abstract in its design, it is sophisticated in its game execution. At first I was on the main screen for awhile before I noticed that there was a little boy (I thought it was still loading). Then I pushed the arrow keys and saw him rise from the bushes. I found out how to use the rest of the controls in the settings when you hit "esc." The setting is rather dark and dim, simulating soft and harsh textures of the environment from obstacle to obstacle that the little boy faces on his journey. This creates depth and represents a kind of realism. Through that type of realism and the character of the silhouette boy, it creates an uncanny world that the player feels connected to through the interaction that the boy makes. He struggles through obstacles as we can see through his humanistic movements, from pulling, pushing, climbing and jumping, and dying. This semblance to human movement makes the player attribute emotions of sympathy and empathy to the character, even though it is merely a silhouette of a small boy with bright eyes. Because of this, I felt super accomplished and gratified whenever I went through the multiple obstacles because I felt like I helped the boy on whatever destination he is trying to get to. The sound is pretty quiet, you only hear the rustling of his feet and natural sounds of water splashing, snapping booby traps, rolling boulders, etc. This adds to the sense of mystery and overall atmosphere of the game. The fact that the game is so mysterious and dark with no dialogue (so far) and no real instruction as to how to control the boy at first, enables the player to feel more engaged in it.I felt determined to go through the game to find out what it all leads to and if anything would reveal the story behind the little boy.

Primer: Science fiction without any explanation

Most science fiction that we read/ watch always explains how the science fiction actually works. In Paycheck, the SF by Philip K. Dick explains time travel by Einsteins theory. Much like the film directed by Robert Zemeckis, the time machine in Back to the Future also does not have further explanation of how the machine actually works. This attribute is interesting in that the direction the story can explore is literally endless. We do not know how the machine works, and it is unpredictable to us of what it's capabilities are just as much as it is to the characters in the novel. Many SF also decimate information by having one character not understanding the mechanisms of a system. In Primer, Abe explained to Aaron the concepts of what is happening. He brought Aaron to each one of the professors so that we as watchers understand how the time travel mechanism works.

Limbo

Limbo was very interesting in using its dark environment to create anxiety. Limbo was unique from many other video games, in that was made with only shades of black, white, and grey visuals. These visuals, along with the unsettling nature of the environment, were used to create anxiety for players. The video game gives no pretext as to what Limbo was about: you play as a boy that suddenly wakes up in the middle of the woods who gradually advances through this environment. What really caught me off guard was the amount of gore and detail that went into the boy's potential deaths, in that one would not expect such a level of violence in Limbo despite its already established dark nature. All these things come together to make a truly unsettling trial and error video game.