[HN Gopher] To Be Real: On Emily Nussbaum's "Cue the Sun "
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To Be Real: On Emily Nussbaum's "Cue the Sun "
Author : dredmorbius
Score : 31 points
Date : 2024-06-29 10:11 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (lareviewofbooks.org)
(TXT) w3m dump (lareviewofbooks.org)
| mortenjorck wrote:
| Some very interesting cultural through lines highlighted here.
|
| _> For Nussbaum, the clip shows COPS and America's Funniest Home
| Videos (both premiered in 1989) were also "the first draft of
| internet culture."_
|
| While this comparison is probably as old as YouTube itself, it's
| fascinating to look at the evolutionary parallels from those
| first clip shows to the comparatively far more elaborate reality
| TV that begins a decade later.
|
| Observe how the prototypical YouTube content, the "cat video,"
| has long since given way to something much closer in form to the
| evolution of reality TV described in the book review: vloggers,
| blending autobiography and contrivance with increasingly
| sophisticated production values, the rise of the influencer, and
| its proliferation across platforms including Instagram and
| TikTok.
| twoodfin wrote:
| Kind of strange not to comment on the absurdly prescient film
| that provides the title of the book in review: Peter Weir's _The
| Truman Show_.
|
| It's fair to say that reality TV and its tropes were not unknown
| when the film premiered in 1998, but they were seen as an MTV
| novelty. _The Truman Show_ made what was essentially a
| metaphysical argument about being the star of your own life that
| has stood the test of time and then some.
|
| I do wonder sometimes what a 20yo today steeped in the world of
| TikTok, Only Fans, and Donald Trump would think of _Truman_ --as
| someone that age when it was released I can say it seemed
| fantastic. If we only knew!
|
| _How will it end?_
| crazygringo wrote:
| Funny, I don't see it as being prescient or having parallels at
| all.
|
| _The Truman Show_ is the story of a man thinking he lives in
| the real world (he is not aware of being a star and has no
| desire to be one), and discovering his world is actually a TV
| show set. And whether he will choose to escape his entire
| gaslit "reality".
|
| I don't really see what it has to do with Donald Trump or
| TikTok. That aspect of the modern world is about people
| _wanting_ to be stars. While _The Truman Show_ was about the
| exact opposite of that.
|
| Sure they both involve reality TV, but I don't really see
| anything "prescient" about the movie. I do wonder if it was a
| little bit of inspiration for last year's _Jury Duty_ [1]
| though...
|
| [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jury_Duty_(2023_TV_series)
| ravi_m wrote:
| People on IG and TikTok are creating shows of their every day
| life. While they may want to be stars, those around them
| brought in to create the clip, surprised / accosted into
| reacting at home or on the streets, etc., are exactly like
| Truman from the movie.
| treebeard901 wrote:
| Nothing about Trumans life is equivalent with social media
| influencers besides filming their lives in an intrusive
| way. Someone earlier said it was fantastical, which implies
| a sort of positivity to the fame and Truman's situation.
|
| Truman lives as a captive, in a false world controlled by a
| corrupt evil person. Influencers have agency and awareness
| of their choices.
|
| Truman was a prisoner being abused since being a child even
| to the point of almost being murdered to maintain control
| as he discovered the truth and tried to leave.
|
| Maybe we are all Truman once the general public realizes
| the extent of the surveillance state and associated
| psychological control which is similar to the movie.
|
| There is a great episode of Analyzing Evil on YouTube that
| takes a close look at Cristof's character as well.
| qingcharles wrote:
| It's amazing; there is so much TV content out there now I was
| totally unaware of this show.
| twoodfin wrote:
| The prescience isn't about Truman--I don't think anyone was
| predicting an orphan baby would be locked and raised in a TV
| set, that's deliberately fantastical--it's about his
| producers and audience.
| dredmorbius wrote:
| That is mentioned in some of the interviews about the book.
| KQED's _Formum_ specifically addressed _The Truman Show_. That
| segment can be listened to here:
|
| <https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101906163/emily-nussbaum-
| tell...>
|
| (I've also caught Nussbaum on _The New Yorker Radio Hour_ , and
| possibly elsewhere, she's making the rounds at the moment.)
| myself248 wrote:
| One of my favorite lines in all of cinema. To literally play
| god, "let there be light", indeed. Gave me chills the first
| time I heard it, and still occasionally since.
| Stratoscope wrote:
| Same here. It is also interesting (and I am sure quite
| deliberate) that Ed Harris' character who spoke that line was
| named Christof.
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