#tron 1982

like how a story about settling on an alien planet isn't always about colonization of countries on earth. and superheroes or mutants or vampires or werewolves aren't always about specific marginalized groups of humans.

or like "those books have always been bigoted to the core, they have a storyline about slaves who are happy and like being slaves"

...and whenever I see that particular line-- although of course it's never actually in reference to TRON-- my mind always starts trying to think of it in terms of TRON, and try and articulate just what about TRON's version is different, to me.

Because... yes. it is a dangerous minefield to try and write a story about a group of conscious, intelligent beings whose innate nature and greatest happiness is to be subservient to another group.

Especially if the writing is heavy-handed enough to express an unambiguous stance on what's actually happening in the story, and how we ought to feel about it.

But in the hands of a more nuanced writer, there is potential to explore some very fascinating philosophical questions through such a storyline!

Like: How inseparable are intelligence and consciousness from what we call "the desire for freedom"? How universal is the way people define "freedom"? Is any one definition correct? Is freedom-to-captivity an infinitely shaded spectrum? And if so, what parts of the spectrum are acceptable and healthy to want, and what parts are not?

Can any qualitative line be drawn between being a 'happy slave' and, say... being a religious worshipper? Or loving your relatives? Or loving your job, in a world where having a job is never actually a choice?

And, if we know what causes us to have a feeling-- even a feeling that's detrimental to us-- if we know why we feel safest in a life that does not permit full freedom, why our own feelings hold us trapped-- how do we cope with the persistent reality of the feeling?

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine explored this with species genetically engineered by the Founders-- such as the Vorta and the Jem'Hadar-- who knew their instinct for loyalty was built into them, but still, usually, welcomed it as a true part of themselves. Charles Sheffield's novels often addressed a similar relationship between the Cecropians and their various servile species. And these portrayals can ring very true, because we, as the audience, can connect it to many of our own social bonds.

Bonds that we may even have explanations for-- in evolutionary theory, or the history of the society we've been raised in-- or perhaps our own personal history, our psychological response to conditions that may not even be relevant anymore in our lives. And yet, knowing those causes may still do nothing to change the emotion, and how it still keeps us in a particular role (whether happily or unhappily, or somewhere in between).

I think the reason TRON (1982) worked so well for me, as an exploration of these many complicated topics.... is that it never took the heavy-handed route, on any of them.

I mean, yes, it was very clear on the point that it was wrong for the MCP to steal programs away from the jobs they loved, and make them do other things against their will. But there was a glorious freedom of interpretation on the topic of why most programs seemed to instinctively love their "true" jobs, the jobs they'd been assigned by their Users.

And just how immutable this love was. And just to what degree it should be considered a good thing. You could argue a lot of different interpretations there, without too much of a stretch from the source material.

Also, crucially, the portrayal was complex and weird enough to be very difficult to take as an allegory for any one thing in human life.

Difficult to cast the programs as any particular race or class of humans. And their relationship with their Users had countless facets, all offering brief reflections of different kinds of real-world relationships as the story progressed-- but never settling on one kind of relationship.

Family? Work? God? Kinky sex thing? Loyalty to one's own inner self? Contrast of your real self to the "version of you" that exists in databases of collected information, at the dawn of this frightening new computer age?

well my friends, i come to deliver. as promised

FLYNN CROP TOP PROMOTION 🔥🔥🔥🔥

Yori