The motif of the “lost paradise” in blockbuster films set in the post-apocalypse
Considering that mythology and storytelling are an integral part of the human experience, in this paper we will take a look at contemporary iterations of certain archetypal myths. While the authors do not espouse the idea that “science fiction is the mythology of modern society”, we believe...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Institute of Ethnography, SASA, Belgrade
2023-01-01
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| Series: | Glasnik Etnografskog Instituta SANU |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doiserbia.nb.rs/img/doi/0350-0861/2023/0350-08612303117Z.pdf |
| Summary: | Considering that mythology and storytelling are an integral part of the human
experience, in this paper we will take a look at contemporary iterations of
certain archetypal myths. While the authors do not espouse the idea that
“science fiction is the mythology of modern society”, we believe that there
is something to be said about popular culture as a medium of narrative
transmission in post-industrialist society. In this sense, the paper
analyses the utilization of origin myths in post-apocalyptic science fiction
movies: Waterworld (1995), The Matrix franchise (four installments
1999-2021), Wall-E (2008), the Mad Max franchise (four installments
1979-2015), among others. Common to all of these narratives is that they are
set after a global catastrophe that frames the “Earth before” as a paradise
that was lost due to human agency. Some of these narratives also feature a
search for the remnants of that lost world (most notably Waterworld and Mad
Max: Fury Road), as well as “lesser” origin myths that pertain to groups of
survivors themselves (e.g. Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome). In the context of
current debates on the Anthropocene, an era rapidly leading towards a global
catastrophe, and following Donna Haraway’s work on storytelling, we believe
that the act of telling these stories, and the ways in which they are told
is of vital importance if we, as a species, are to survive. Furthermore,
post-apocalyptic science fiction offers not only a warning but also possible
outcomes exemplified through new, emerging and different naturecultures.
These naturecultures range from the emergence of new and better adept bodies
of a minority (which triggers stigma), to bodies which are increasingly
dependent on other actants, e.g., AI. We argue that within the genre of
science fiction these novel postapocalyptic naturecultures are framed as
imperfect, and that such framing strengthens the myth of Earth before the
apocalypse as a lost paradise. Consequently, posthumanist bodies are seen in
a Biblical manner as bodies “after the Fall”, rather than as bodies which
have not only the potential to survive but also to prevent the catastrophe. |
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| ISSN: | 0350-0861 2334-8259 |