When Twin Peaks first arrived on television in 1990, it signalled a substantial shift in American television, featuring a morass of conflicting techniques and traits, from soap opera-ish theatrics, metafictional comedy, and supernatural elements which would go on to influence other shows such as The X-Files and Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
Our sense of self may just be malleable enough to where we could come to identify (at least temporarily) with the characteristics of online profiles; the more others respond to us as the characters we’ve created, the more we might come to internalize a sense of self that resembles the character. While this does not mean that we’ll likely ever mistake ourselves consciously for the character, we might temporarily forget (when talking to others) that the “us” others see is anyone other than “us in RL.”
Personhood in Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood By Darian Shump Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood follows the adventures of Edward Elric, a State Alchemist employed by the military of Amestris, and Alphonse, his younger brother. After an aborted attempt to resurrect their mother through an illegal form of alchemy, the pair finds themselves on the brink of death.…
Check out this interview about the Blackwell Philosophy and Pop Culture Series at Four Letter Nerd.
J. Edward Hackett, editor of House of Cards and Philosophy: Underwood’s Republic has written about Season 4. Warning: spoilers. Click here to read all about it.
30 Years of Master of Puppets and Philosophy “Honesty is my only excuse” By William Irwin It was 30 years ago today, March 3, 1986, and I was about to turn sixteen. Actually, I remember hearing “Battery” for the first time on my friend Joe’s boom box weeks earlier. He had taped it off…
Plato and the Groundhog Michael Ventimiglia People are always surprised when I mention my favorite holiday. There’s no party in Times Square. No fireworks or barbeques. It doesn’t come with presents. It’s the sort of day you forget about until someone reminds you, and then you forget about it again. But, for me, it’s my…
Red Dwarf and the Gift of Life by Zoran Kojcic Red Dwarf is a British sci-fi sitcom that follows the adventures of the last human being in the universe, David Lister. Because he was being held in suspended animation as a punishment, Lister survived a massive accident on a mining space ship, Red Dwarf. After…
Confucius, Nietzsche, and Wolf Totem: The Culture of the Wolf versus the Civilization of Sheep George A. Dunn We have learned differently. We have become more modest in every way. We no longer derive man from “the spirit” or “the deity,” we have placed him back among the animals. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche, The Antichrist…
Read what Kevin Decker and Jason Eberl, the editors of The Ultimate Star Wars and Philosophy, have to say about The Force Awakens at the Daily Nous. Click here to read all about it.
The Blackwell Philosophy and Pop Culture Series 