Media General

Media General

This thread is dedicated to all discussion on modern leftist media.
Movies, Series, Books, Music
It would be nice just to have a casual decent tier thread where we can discuss shows like, Mr robot, black mirror or other media through a leftist perspective.

(No show show or movie theories unless the come from a leftist perspective)

Other urls found in this thread:

youtube.com/watch?v=YR7tYpX5REc
youtube.com/watch?v=VHrTTgmB_3w
twitter.com/SFWRedditGifs

Looks like Mr Robot is done with the radical hackers take down capitalism plotline. Which is probably for the best considering how it was being handled. Season 3 has been really good so far.

I feel like that plot line will still follow through to a certain extent. They might be exploring a capitalism in deep crisis with the elite trying to profit off the crumbling system. White rose seems to be a good example of the capitalist selling the rope they will get hung with.

Slightly off topic, but the new Anonymous video is kinda cryptic and dark.
youtube.com/watch?v=YR7tYpX5REc

Why do liberals like game of Thrones so much? I want to watch it because its fantasy but its tainted now

I like this view. I think it reflects todays relationship with china.

Normies like it because it has violence and boobs and gives them fake nerd credit.
Liberal normies like it because pic related.

oh god no, why did anyone shop this

GoT is one of the most popular shows, everyone is talking about it, that's why.
This also makes it not surprising since liberals have a tendency to relate fucking everything to pop culture, just like they do with Harry Potter.
The first couple of seasons are alright, the rest are garbage.

I find this so annoying, but is it really exclusively a liberal thing? Ive seen repubs and alt-cucks do it all the time.
Ive also never watched it because fuck all that, but I have always wondered since it is a show about politics (or so I'm told) would be considered the most lefty character?

Damn I just released I did the same thing.

pic related, bonus points for being woman hateric
polite sage because doing this is indeed cancer

It's a shame really. Even if I have issues with GRRM (he will never finish the books) it was such a guilty pleasure of mine and now it's utterly ruined. I have a hard time rereading it now and to not imagine those pathetic faces from the TV show.

The fantasy and horror genres are inherently right wing and reactionary.
Scifi is more left wing generally, although you do get stuff like starship troopers.

You mean the openly anti-militaristic movie or the subtly anti-militaristic book?

Fantasy is almost always playing in a feudal world. If you were living in the Holy Roman Empire in 1250, would there be any factions you could support that weren't reactionary? Give me a break.
How is horror inherently reactionary?
The novel was satire.

...

When you look at it from a dialectical perspective, the red priests of R'hllor are the progressive choice, as monotheism is a necessary step within the progression in western civilization as it's the inevitble break from polytheism.

On the other hand, the Seven Gods of Westeros are actually more Christian in character. They have churches and monasteries, and their priests are fulfilling the role of the clergy, so I'm not that sure.

Are there any fantasy books that focus on the peasant point of view?
Not a knight, or some fantasy creature.

I think it would take fantasy in a weird new direction if someone wrote a story about an unemployed wizard who lost his job due to automation and advancing technolgy.

Knights are assholes, the peasants hated them.They were basically body guards for the feudal lords.
I read a real story once about a peasant revolt were they captured a knight and shoved a hot poker up his ass and made his wife and kids watch.

Have you ever actually sat down and thought about harry potter?
The ministry of magic is basically an apartheid government.
The muggles are proles.
The "good" wizards like harry are fighting so mudbloods can get a piece of the pie, while the muggles continue to stay ignorant.
Sythern, death eaters, and voldermort are basically the far right who would rather just kill all non wizards.
The banking industry in harry potter is controlled by jews….i mean goblins.

Best not to dwell on it, GRRM totally neglected the religious issues, and gave religion no significant place in his character's lives besides.

Horror is pure reaction.
Horror is the towns people with fire and pitchforks trying to kill that fucked up freak faggot Frankenstein.

A horror story shows what happens when things go wrong, when reality (which is a stand-in for society) breaks down. Stephen King, who is a truly shitty writer that should have OD'd in the 80s, discusses this in one of the last acceptable books he wrote: Danse Macabre, the result of him teaching a semester on horror fiction at a university. In this book he lays out basic horror stories; the ghost story, the vampire, the werewolf, and (Doctor Frankenstein's) the Thing. All horror stories belong to one of these genres.

The ghost story is a story of an environment - a haunted house, the afterlife, a nation built on theft - is beyond your control. The vampire is about uncontrollable sexual desire that poisons all relationships you have in a society. The werewolf is more primal, a purely male conglomeration of violence and bloodlust - the rapist, the serial killer, the berserk general with his hands on the nuclear codes. Important to both the vampire and especially the werewolf is the notion of public and private self and often uncontrolled transformations between the two. The Thing is a story about man's creations run amok - the golem, Jurassic Park, most sci-fi horror.

Horror encompasses both psychological and supernatural horror. Every genuine horror story of any subgenre can be boiled down into (primarily) one of those four monsters above. It doesn't have to have beasties, it's still horror.

Recently people have begun to see being an outsider - being the monster - as a source of strength, authority, and prestige.

Anyways, these modern horror stories aren't actually horror. They're fan fiction, where people use the stage dressing of horror as a way to larp about what they would do if they had superpowers.

The point of a horror story isn't the supernatural. It isn't having superpowers. It's what happens when something is beyond your control. Superpowers lend themselves to this because we all know deep in our hearts that if we could rip apart steel beams with our hands and fly, we would terrorize the world until someone kills us.

The Lord of the Rings is one character successfully mastering the ring away from being horror.

Liberals see the power of a monster in horror fiction, and they think, "I want that power" and "I wouldn't be a monster." Recent history proves the latter statement false.

I'm not sure which is worse; that liberals are so clueless that they are the monster, or that they degenerate the genre by turning it's tropes (which are beautiful to me) into window dressing for wish-fullfillment fantasies.
monsters are freaks who are shunned by society, not cool, not powerful, not something you want to be. its something that is out of your control, thats hororr

looks like bernie, tbh.

You know that's just one very specific subset of horror and a narrow interpretation. Even the whole "Wrong Turn" type of horror with the typical incest redneck axe murderers can be viewed as a social critique. Hell, Romero's entire zombie opus is left-wing as it gets. The 19th century is over. I don't like Stephen King either.
Again, you seem to be stuck in gothic novels from 150 year ago. Have you read The Picture of Dorian Gray?
Only partly true, and it ignores non-western horror tradition. Many non-western horror movies are about dread and alienation, with a deeply underlying social critique, such as Kairo (Japan 2001) or A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (Iran 2014).
Lord of the Rings (the books first and foremost) is nothing but a hommage to old Anglo-Saxon myths like Beowulf. Characters or plot don't matter that much.

Im just saying.
Leftards love HP lovecraft. But he would have posted on pol.

Isnt it more scary?
The idea that something is coming for you and you cant stop it?
That you have some unctrinallbal urge to murder and rape and kill and are turning into a monster and you cant stop it.
That something deep and ancient lurks in the unknown and if you look at it you go insane, and there is a death cult that wants to be the first to be killed. And there is nothing you can do to stop it

Nihilism, especially as a reaction to the indifferent cosmic void, always dents to push left. why u tripping about hpl?

eh… my sister says the same

But why is it so popular?

How did it change to appeal to normies?

The nukes are launching, the zombies are breaking through the doors, and pazuzu has taken possession of your body.
And there is nothing you can do about it.
Horror is about losing control.
The left emphasize with the plight of outsiders and envy their outsiderness and see it not something to be ashamed of but something to be proud of.
So when is the next meeting for the zombie power group comrades?
Boy i love zombie culture.
Those evil rightwingers just dont get it.
If it were like the bad old days they would just shoot them all in the head.

I wish i were a cool sexy vampire too.

He’s lefty in the books for sure. But since D&D are pop history liberals they are incapable of comprehending the idea of religious emancipatory movements, so they turned him into the closest thing that they can understand; a Christian fundamentalist.

the left cant into horror because they dont get you arent supposed to want to fuck the monster or want to be the monster.

You should kill the monster.
You should be mad that the mad scientist created this weird ass freak and lost control of it

fair enough. Haven't read the book and got bored with the show, so I cannot say I can make a coherent argument against him. Good to know.

Ya gotta grow out of fantasy at some point, boyo.
The books sound just like Berserk is for manga though. Edgy fantasy thing that will never end that you'd have to have some kind of consumer stockholm syndrome to actually expect anything out of anymore.

most western 'nerds' like lovecraft, regardless of their politics.

Probably caues he was racist is all.


What a retarded post. Suggesting forces beyond your control == metaphor for niggers and mudslimes praise kek xdd
Monsters being 'outsiders' is incidental to horror, you can have horror where the horror of it is some dark secret about the in-group itself, nothing to do with an external intrusion on it.

on an unrelated note I havnt been here in a while and when the revolution comes im walling whoever suggested that 'SAGE!' crap. Sage is not a downvote. fucking redditors cant adjust.

Give one single reason other than "fantasy is for kids".

Man you are dumb. If you think Dracula is about unbridled sexual desire you are dumb. If you think frankenstein is about le ebul monster you are dumb. Also just to show how fucking stupid you are let's take a film I like very much which is ju on (the grudge). Infested house? Nope, the ghost is actually not tied to the house. Sexual or male violent desire? Nope, the ghost is a manifestation of rancor that kills you, if you think that is "violent male desire" than you never had on you the rancor of a woman. Created by man? Nope. Easy as fuck the first horror story that came to my mind really man. This just to show you and any of the people who shit on entire genres or categories of art, trying to make your petty analysises to sond cool and intellectual that you are acually shit, people like you don't like art, they like feeling superior because you don't involve with filthy breadncircuses, but it's all in your head and you are just a fag.

Why can't you just enjoy tv? Why does it matter if people you don't agree with politically watch the show too? It's a good show.

"Fantasy is for kids" sums up the point pretty nicely though.

Its literally a softcore porno pretending to be a deep drama

To be fair most fantasy is complete and utter trite in a worse way than most of anything is trite, youtube.com/watch?v=VHrTTgmB_3w serving as a good introduction into seeing just why.
Not all though. It even cites GoT as an example of the good stuff, though ive not seen it.

Smug dumbshit.

...

I would like a Soviet version A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. For example after Lenin is shot is in 1918 had finds himself in in feudal Britain yet the story contrasts communism with feudalism rather capitalism with feudalism like Mark Twain did.

Fantasy is escapism for man babies who can't handle the real world. Fiction in general is fine of course.

Read Gene Wolfe

Game of a thrones is a good show, guys. You don't have to try to look cool on/leftypol/ by saying you don't like it.

it's exactly because of idiots like you that crap like GoT is considered the saint graal of modern culture. It's "historical" enough for people to say it's not fantasy to avoid the childish remarks you are making.
"fantasy is for kids" is a meaningless statement. It does not explain why, it does not explain why not.
I expected better from you comrades.

This is probably a shitpost meant to be inflammatory, but don’t you think that this statement is self-contradictory? I mean, what specifically separates fantasy from the rest of fiction to warrant that criticism?

good god no. that sort of fantasy where its just the 1700s or something but with WIZZARDS AND DRAGONS!!! is garbage. generic 'Fantasy' cliches as either meaningless stamps because thats the genre lawl or just as arbitrary superpower/superpowered things is garbage. "Fantasy" is for the fantasical. See that mrbtongue video, really.
Otherwise, though, a medievalesque or lowfantasy story from the perspective of a farmer, craftsman, or vagrant or something, which brutally shit on monarchism, the church and aristocracy, Id enjoy that. It'd be good.
I dont think you'd need to make it "fantasy" though, or that it being 'fantasy' would add to it, you could just set it in a perfectly mundane fictional medievalesque world.
Though it probably wouldnt detract from it either, to use fantasy and convey it in a mythological, or folk-taleish, or aesopish fashion, or whatever else like that.

>I WOULD NEVER ENGAGE MY SENSE OF WONDER AND M YSTERY, IM FAR TOO MATTUUUURE FOR THAT OHOHO
Kill yourself.

I guess I'm walking a fine line here. Still, genre-fiction is the most obvious example of capitalist assembly-line art. Next you'll be telling me how must see the latest super hero film is.

I literally say horror is about losing control.

Also genre fiction is for plebes you fucking moron

Every artwork produced under capitalism isnt bad because capitalism overall degrades art. Not everything "fantasy" is a pile of genre cliches strung along shit plot.
"fantasy" is hardly even material for a genre, its a characteristic some story may have, which most writers of 'fantasy' fail to evoke.

The film is satirizing the book. I don't really think the book can be considered anti-militaristic in any sense. It's literally about a society where you have to serve in the military to earn the right to vote, and this is presented as being justified and healthy for society.

Heinlein was an all around reactionary, his books go out of their way to praise both libertarianism and militarism. He also writes female character in a way that indicates he was sexist. He used his platform to personally campaign for the military and expanding America's nuclear arsenal.

That's not what I said. Art that is easily categorized and marketed is of course much more preferable for porky to try to sell than something actually original that might challenge it's audience.

Oh really? Are you really implying that there arent writers purposely writing fantasy novels because they know there's a reliable market for the genre which will thus raise their chances of being published? I mean the user who firat brought up GoT in this very thread said he only wanted to watch it because it was "fantasy".

Do you have any sense of enjoyment? I honestly could not imagine scrutinizing media to the extent some people here do. You're missing out on a lot of good tv shows tbh. Just because is focus tested, or made solely for profit, people were exploited, etc. doesn't mean the end product is not good.

Are you a grill?

You haven’t answered my question. Why should fantasy be given flak for being escapist as opposed to other genres of fiction? It’s a genuine question.

Genre-fiction is trash. The question was answered all along.

Well clearly this thread wasn't for you. Not sure why you decided to shitpost in it.

Again I never said all art under capitalism is bad. It is merely the tendency of capitalism to make brain-dead art. This would be a great thread if it wasn't talking about fantasy garbage.

Also sage isn't a downvote so not sure why you're saging a thread you like.

you're fucking miles off.
those woul dbe the writers who "fail to evoke" fantasy. their work is trite.
the point is not everything that gets labeled as "fantasy" is that.
as a 'genre' the term is used to refer to anything vaugely in-the-past-feeling with supernatural somethingorother in it. being a smug fuck and conflating that with 'genre trite with wizards' is stupid. That is not every thing that is somehow in the past feeling and has something supernatural.
albiet good fantasy is often escapist just as much as crap, but escapism is not bad, its just bad to not expose yourself to anything other than escapism.

I know. I did it unconsciously. I'm so disappointed in myself.

But really Game of Thrones is a solid show. I think you're being a little harsh because of some preconceived notions you have of the genre. I realzie there are ton of shitty fantasy books out there - but that's mostly because they're derivations of actually good fantasy like Lord of The Rings and A Song of Ice and Fire. They're certainly not for kids and I think you're missing out by dismissing them.

Haha ok I agree with your whole post.


I've had a gf before so naturally I've seen the first three seasons. Have to disagree with you. Was very bad after the first season. I've also seen some off GRR's writing which is puke worthy. Go ahead and enjoy your show tho, you're obviously a lost cause I think.

That isn't the issue, I haven't seen GoT, I'm curious about it but weary

How softcore are we talking?

Fuck no. Now, what follows is just going to be a partial defence of Heinlein, not an attempt at rehabilitation. Obviously he WAS a bit of a militarist and a Libertarian, but I don't think he was by any means a reactionary.

For a start, he got involved with Upton Sinclair's openly Socialist (or at least Berniemode DemSoc) End Poverty in California (EPIC) movement, working as publisher on their newspaper and standing for State assembly in 1938. This is not a reactionary thing to do.

Secondly, regarding Women. I claim that, for the time he wrote, he wrote dozens of really strong women, including rulers, who advanced their own interests and were unafraid to shittalk their men. Yes, he did have a few pinup-girl type sidekicks, but even they were generally strong and added capability to the team, rather than being helpless 'prizes'. He also wrote the entire set of Puddin' stories, which featured life from the point of view of an intelligent, bookish, none-too-slender teenage girl. He went on to 're-use' the Puddin' character as Podkayne in the full-length Podkayne of Mars, which has much the same narrative voice and perspective. He also had basically lefty beliefs on the order of 'my body, my rules'. He was obviously writing with an aim to provide young girls with role models that they could aspire to be - scientists, spaceship pilots, assassins, whatever - rather than just being housewives.

Thirdly, Starship Troopers is definitely an ambivalent book. Do you think Heinlein missed the fact that the stratified caste system of Earth, based on employment, plus the military machine and selection system, was very similar to the Bug society? Imagine a bug studying human society - they could easily have come up with the same theories of humans as a mechanised caste-society that the humans came up with for the Bugs. Again, he also wrote a world of female starship pilots in the fifties, when the only people with serious female aviation at that time were the Soviets.

He was definitely in the vein of the American anti-communist, and a Libertarian, but he didn't love capitalist exploitation and was basically committed to human flourishing. Leave Heinlein alone.

Curiosity defeated me and I actually went to see the first ep of GoT.
It is the most dense trite I have ever come across. The fact that this is what passes as quality television these days is painful.
You guys have seen that fake north korean tweeter that made a headline that went like "Amercan journalists can't stop talking about henry potter and game of thrones because they can't read pass elementary school level" that tweet was truth, if you're an adult and you think GoT is smart you're clinically dumb.
I'm disappoint and I wish I was angry

This thread seems to mainly an argument on Heinlein and GOT. From my limited knowledge on Heinlein I've heard most film critics have come to the consensus that star ship troopers a pretty clear satire of the military.
IMO GOT seems to be complete escapism having almost no message that can be taken from it apart maybe for "The bad guys get it in the end". I've watched a couple episodes and read some of the books but it's just been mind numbing gore, sex and power struggles.

I'll divulge in a bit of theorizing but if Elliot goes after china and the dark army as revenge for betraying him, he could very well bring the down the last strong hold of capitalism in china.

Honestly surprised you could see how shit it is. Watch new twin peaks

is lo-fi/simpsonwave leftist?

Why are you surprised? And why should I watch Twin Peaks?

Do you have any idea of what are you talking about?

I think its capitalist nostalgia so quite far from the left.

You sounded like the kind of person who would like it earlier, no offense.

Well other than it being the most influential thing to ever air on american television it's also really damn good. It also had a 10/10 movie sequel/prequel and a recent third season that was less a tv show and more like a really really long movie cut up into 17 parts.

Have you really never watched anything from Lynch?

What do you mean? What kind of person are you talking about?
No, I haven't seen anything by Lynch, I wasn't big on TV or movies until a couple of years ago.

It's a mystery.
In my experience most TV is GoT tier tbh. I usually stick to movies or books.

There's been a ton of great TV recently. Now If you want really good movies you have to delve into smaller productions.

I will be forever left unsatisfied
And that is something I agree with, I fucking hate pretty much every TV drama. I specially hate how self serious they are.

Feel free to prove me wrong I guess. I gave up on TV back when GoT first brought on the next big wave in "serious tv drama". All I know is it was all worth it because in ended up in Lynch tricking Showtime into letting him do whatever the fuck he wanted.


I think I know what you mean. Pretty much the only enjoyment I get out of tv these days is catching an old Seinfeld rerun.

Still seems like not many are watching Damnation yet. It's central plot is open up front leftism. You don't even have to speculate.


Something is probably going to happen to Darlene that would push Elliott. I am a bit confused on the whole plot about the Dark Army and White Rose and how that ties into everything with E Corp. It's hard to follow that.

I'd like to hear your take on the matter

Just to name a few there's Mr Robot, Black Mirror I guess Breaking bad is kind of a social critique. Fargo season 1 and 2 are pretty great. Narcos can have deeper meaning. Those are just the ones that really stimulate my gluons. But I heard the new star trek is alright

You got that from watching one episode? I think you're being a little silly and dismissive.

I was just being nice. I have no idea what you mean. My problems with tv dramas is that 9/10 shows are just shit movies at best. They almost always feel like a clusterfuck of writers with no real artistic vision behind the project. TV dramas are really just a blackhole of talent.


Marxist Media? You need to read more. Nothing but video games and tv are gonna rot your brain out.

so the only thing that wont rot my brain is video games and tv

suck my cock, nigger?

I only suck cia nigger cock

this can be arranged
On second thought, don't read more. I don't want you to have to abandon your fledgling youtube career when you grow out of video games.

what the fuck is that comment, are you reffering to the terry a davis youtube videos, do you not know terry a davis.