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I dunno - I don't think things have to be a 1:1 allegory to work artistically
Wanda's shtick FEELS very resonant to me even if the moral links are all hazy and fudged https://twitter.com/nberlat/status/1380993534300459010
Wanda's shtick FEELS very resonant to me even if the moral links are all hazy and fudged https://twitter.com/nberlat/status/1380993534300459010
Are there many people in the world with a situation that specifically mirrors Wanda's? No of course not
Are there a lot of marginalized people who long for the "problematic" image of white picket fence domestic life? Absolutely
Are there a lot of marginalized people who long for the "problematic" image of white picket fence domestic life? Absolutely
It's not a direct 1:1 connection planned from the beginning - the sitcom thing is a retcon about her character, there's no "sitcom stuff" in her backstory from the movies explaining her trauma, they don't have much to do with each other
But like, so what
It works
But like, so what
It works
Like here's the hot take -- it's a common metaphor for the American postwar experience that the whole 1950s culture of "safety" and "stability" was a PTSD response
A reaction to the trauma of the Great Depression followed by the existential crisis of World War II
A reaction to the trauma of the Great Depression followed by the existential crisis of World War II
An oversimplification, surely, but a resonant one -- the overwhelming message of postwar politics and media was "bringing the GIs back home", creating an idyllic utopia to justify everything people had endured during the war
An echo of Warren Harding's "return to normalcy" after the Great War and the flu pandemic in the 1920s
Everything people dunk on quiet suburbs for as cringey and conformist now was an explicit selling point back then -- comforting rows of houses, all the same
Everything people dunk on quiet suburbs for as cringey and conformist now was an explicit selling point back then -- comforting rows of houses, all the same
And, like, I've mentioned in threads before the immigrant side of this narrative -- the advertisers and propagandists sold this really hard to American citizens at home but they sold it EXTRA hard to people abroad whose skills they wanted to exploit
People who were in a really shitty situation in the place where they grew up who were sold this tantalizing vision of The Good Life through American TV and music and movies
And some of them actually got it
And some of them actually got it
The dude from Passion Pit (Michael Angelakos, who is Greek-American) said his viral hit song "Take a Walk" (the dance-pop version of Death of a Salesman's critique of the capitalist American Dream) was very much about the immigrant experience
That especially if you hung out with the older men in his family -- a lot of them very culturally Greek, still speaking with accents, still rolling their eyes at a lot of garbage about American politics and culture, very socially liberal and anti-xenophobia and so on
But they were all capitalist *as fuck*
It was the one part of their politics that was unshakable
It was the whole damn reason they were here
They never stopped believing in *that part* of the American Dream -- anyone can get rich if they work hard, if they deserve it
It was the one part of their politics that was unshakable
It was the whole damn reason they were here
They never stopped believing in *that part* of the American Dream -- anyone can get rich if they work hard, if they deserve it
Beyond "Greek culture" or "American culture", beneath everything else, this was a core value that their whole identity revolved around they would not let go of until they fucking died
Fuck the socialists, fuck the taxmen, fuck the regulators, I'm still waiting for my come up
Fuck the socialists, fuck the taxmen, fuck the regulators, I'm still waiting for my come up
(This is... *extremely* resonant with my experience with older Asian-American guys
Like eerily so)
Like eerily so)
(It's also very reminiscent of Walter Lee's arc in A Raisin in the Sun, a play that revolves around the desperate struggle of one family to move out to the suburbs and everything the suburbs represent)
It's the theme of one of my favorite plays I've ever read in my entire life that I've never actually seen in performance (and am afraid to in case it ruins my memory of reading it), Chay Yew's Wonderland
Seek it out if you can, it's a gut punch
Seek it out if you can, it's a gut punch
To me that's like the core thing WandaVision is about
Knowing that the American Dream is a bullshit dream that hurts people
It's never really paid out what it advertised
Those white picket fences hide a whole legacy of repression and abuse and suffering and pain
Knowing that the American Dream is a bullshit dream that hurts people
It's never really paid out what it advertised
Those white picket fences hide a whole legacy of repression and abuse and suffering and pain
The rich families who Had It All back in the Good Old Days had tons of alcoholism and drug addiction and kids running away from home and couples eventually messily divorcing and people hitting midlife crises and writing long screeds about how Everything Is Bullshit
People hated the '50s IN THE '50s, the whole "beatnik" movement was about people who hated the whole "stable house and job and family" thing so much they sold all their possessions and drove around the country doing nothing but fucking around and getting high
And yet holy shit
Even when you know it's a poison, that drug gives a powerful high
People resent it and dunk on it and hate it so much because it's got its hooks so damn deep in their soul
Under the skin of most cynics beats the heart of a wounded believer
Even when you know it's a poison, that drug gives a powerful high
People resent it and dunk on it and hate it so much because it's got its hooks so damn deep in their soul
Under the skin of most cynics beats the heart of a wounded believer
Especially those of us who *can't* have it, and never will
A lot of this Boomer vs. Millennial Discourse is classic Freudian reaction-formation sour grapes shit
"You will never, ever be able to buy a house"
Fine, houses are bullshit anyway, only drones live in houses
A lot of this Boomer vs. Millennial Discourse is classic Freudian reaction-formation sour grapes shit
"You will never, ever be able to buy a house"
Fine, houses are bullshit anyway, only drones live in houses
I *like* my tiny apartment, I *like* eating out all the time and never being able to save money because I've never had the energy to cook
My life is *so cool*, I'm not *boring* like my parents
(I know I'm owning myself here and yet)
My life is *so cool*, I'm not *boring* like my parents
(I know I'm owning myself here and yet)
Houses are bullshit, lawns are ridiculous social signaling garbage, office jobs were always filled with ass-kissing and bullshitting time-wasting bilge, the nuclear family was filled with dysfunction and abuse
And yet, and yet, and yet
And yet, and yet, and yet
Every day some Millennial who can recite at will the litany of why all the Boomers who lived this life helped destroy the world with car culture and climate change and sucked the life out of American cities and turned into a smug stupid piece of shit
Lies awake and wonders
Lies awake and wonders
After a day of the petty humiliations of modern gig work even at the upper echelons of the modern service economy
In a lonely apartment filled with screens
Thinking about mowing the lawn and the smell of fresh-cut grass as the sun sets through the trees
In a lonely apartment filled with screens
Thinking about mowing the lawn and the smell of fresh-cut grass as the sun sets through the trees
The nice job with the comfy office you've worked at for the past ten years and will continue to work at for the next twenty
The boss clapping you on the shoulder over drinks, "You're an asset to the company, son"
The pretty wife and the adorable kids, the big friendly dog
The boss clapping you on the shoulder over drinks, "You're an asset to the company, son"
The pretty wife and the adorable kids, the big friendly dog
The feeling of being safe, of being content, of *knowing where you're supposed to be* at all times
Being a stupid dumb complacent shithead, but *having no reason not to be* one
Being happy in your ignorance
Being a stupid dumb complacent shithead, but *having no reason not to be* one
Being happy in your ignorance
That smug Boomer confidence that the "OK Boomer" meme is about
How many wins do you have to rack up, again and again, every goddamn day, to feel *that good about yourself*
Sleeping soundly on a warm bed of accumulated handshakes and smiles and pats on the back and promotions
How many wins do you have to rack up, again and again, every goddamn day, to feel *that good about yourself*
Sleeping soundly on a warm bed of accumulated handshakes and smiles and pats on the back and promotions
Would it be so fucking bad? Is it so fucking bad to just *want* that? To want a *taste* of it?
They drank deeply of that well their whole damn lives and I can't even have a *drop*
They drank deeply of that well their whole damn lives and I can't even have a *drop*
Is it really a blessing to see the world more clearly, with fewer illusions? Is it "moral luck"?
To have to live like this every damn day? The world with the focus and contrast turned up so you can see every goddamn wrinkle, crack and stain?
To have to live like this every damn day? The world with the focus and contrast turned up so you can see every goddamn wrinkle, crack and stain?
I dunno man
One thing that hits hard about this show is that it's very, very much a retcon
Nobody when they were creating MCU Wanda Maximoff thought "Oh she's a throwback fan-of-the-past tradwife type, she dreams of being June Cleaver"
One thing that hits hard about this show is that it's very, very much a retcon
Nobody when they were creating MCU Wanda Maximoff thought "Oh she's a throwback fan-of-the-past tradwife type, she dreams of being June Cleaver"
Like they designed her to be the total opposite of that
She rocks the lowkey punk look, she's a cool alternative radicalized anti-American Euro-teen
Red leather jacket over a black dress with black fingerless gloves and whatnot
Joined HYDRA
She rocks the lowkey punk look, she's a cool alternative radicalized anti-American Euro-teen
Red leather jacket over a black dress with black fingerless gloves and whatnot
Joined HYDRA
But that's why the reveal works so well, I think
It's the repressed, achingly earnest little-girl version of herself that she's been trying to hide and built a wall around for years since the bombs fell
Something she never showed anyone, not even her brother, until Vision
It's the repressed, achingly earnest little-girl version of herself that she's been trying to hide and built a wall around for years since the bombs fell
Something she never showed anyone, not even her brother, until Vision
Like I absolutely headcanon that from the age of ten until the age of thirty Wanda would've angrily denied it if you accused her of ever having been a fan of black-and-white cheesy US dom-coms
Even when she's chilling in the Avengers compound whiling away the hours watching TV by herself she's switched to watching Malcolm in the Middle, which is much more subversive and less embarrassing than being a fan of Dick van Dyke
It's something she's in denial about
It's something she's in denial about
I mean, isn't everyone?
The 1950s American Dream is the most worn-out dunk target in, like, all of pop culture and academia
It's cringe af to say you actually want that shit
"I can't move to the suburbs, my soul would wither and die there", etc
The 1950s American Dream is the most worn-out dunk target in, like, all of pop culture and academia
It's cringe af to say you actually want that shit
"I can't move to the suburbs, my soul would wither and die there", etc
She doesn't admit it until she's completely broken down, eroded all the way to her exposed core, till she's lost absolutely everything real in her life and has nothing at all remaining but her dreams, her oldest dream, her last dream
The last thing that changes in that scene is *herself*, after everything around her changes
This defiant 21st-century badass rebel lady finally stepping into the empty hole in the picture and assuming the role of a Laura Petrie housewife
This defiant 21st-century badass rebel lady finally stepping into the empty hole in the picture and assuming the role of a Laura Petrie housewife
And I really do think the subtext is there, especially with the jokes in the commercials about rubbing in the over-the-top sexism of the era
"Yes, I know it's problematic
Yes, I know it's demeaning
Yes, I know I'm throwing other women under the bus
LET ME FUCKING HAVE THIS"
"Yes, I know it's problematic
Yes, I know it's demeaning
Yes, I know I'm throwing other women under the bus
LET ME FUCKING HAVE THIS"
Wanda blasting Monica out of her fantasy world is like if the "Shh, let people enjoy things comic" came back armed with a shotgun and filled with intense feral rage
Now that I think about it I dunno if this meta angle could possibly be intentional but it's definitely there
This is absolutely a meta show about Enjoying Problematic Media
About the sheer intensity of the emotion behind people who get ultra-fucking-defensive about their faves
This is absolutely a meta show about Enjoying Problematic Media
About the sheer intensity of the emotion behind people who get ultra-fucking-defensive about their faves
Like, that's my response to @nberlat's thing about the moral links being muddled -- how almost no one who has a Problematic Life in the Suburbs is problematic in a way that you can point to them and say "These are the specific people you horribly victimized"
A lot of people's moral critiques *are* very hard to make literal and concrete, especially about "messages" and "attitudes" and "media"
"This music is sending harmful messages about women, it's part of a larger social problem, and by playing it you're contributing to harm"
"This music is sending harmful messages about women, it's part of a larger social problem, and by playing it you're contributing to harm"
And the obvious response is "Who the fuck am I specifically harming
I'm not fucking 'brainwashing' anybody into thinking anything by listening to this music *myself*
If I'm the one being brainwashed, I have the right to do that
And I like it"
I'm not fucking 'brainwashing' anybody into thinking anything by listening to this music *myself*
If I'm the one being brainwashed, I have the right to do that
And I like it"
And like
They're right
But their critics are also right
If media never had any impact on anything then the world wouldn't be the way it is, and yet it's asking a whole fucking lot sometimes to ask people to give up something that gives them joy over seemingly abstract concerns
They're right
But their critics are also right
If media never had any impact on anything then the world wouldn't be the way it is, and yet it's asking a whole fucking lot sometimes to ask people to give up something that gives them joy over seemingly abstract concerns
I dunno, I think that as shallow as the writing may have been forced to be by being an MCU product there's absolutely something potent that resonated with a lot of people here
Dreams don't die easy
We don't *change* from our childhood selves so much as just add layers on top
Dreams don't die easy
We don't *change* from our childhood selves so much as just add layers on top
I dunno if this is intentional on the WandaVision writers' part
I *do* know the FaWS writers were thinking about this stuff, hence the one Flag-Smasher who sheepishly admits he was a fan of Captain America as a kid (setting him up for his ironic fate)
I *do* know the FaWS writers were thinking about this stuff, hence the one Flag-Smasher who sheepishly admits he was a fan of Captain America as a kid (setting him up for his ironic fate)
But like that one shot from the WandaVision penultimate episode (the true finest hour of the show) will stick with me a long, long time
More than the "Love persevering" line
That shot of the unexploded Stark Industries shell in the rubble, right next to the still-playing TV
More than the "Love persevering" line
That shot of the unexploded Stark Industries shell in the rubble, right next to the still-playing TV
The blinking red light telling Wanda and Pietro they're going to die at any moment, while the Dick van Dyke show still merrily plays Wanda's favorite episode -- the one where Dick has a silly nightmare of his world falling apart but he wakes up and everything's fine
The American Dream and the American Reality, side-by-side
America's broken promise, in one shot
America's broken promise, in one shot
These are the two things America gave the world
They literally give you *both of them* at the same time, served on the same tray
And you wonder why people's attitudes about this country are so fucked up? You wonder why people have no chill?
They literally give you *both of them* at the same time, served on the same tray
And you wonder why people's attitudes about this country are so fucked up? You wonder why people have no chill?
I don't fully stand by everything I said when I wrote this years ago
But I will stand by the hot take that I don't think "native-born" Americans will ever understand the "American Dream" the way many immigrants do
Some things are only defined in negative space
But I will stand by the hot take that I don't think "native-born" Americans will ever understand the "American Dream" the way many immigrants do
Some things are only defined in negative space
The American Dream is everything the American Reality isn't, after all
By definition
It's what Martin Luther King called an "uncashed check", the accounting discrepancy between what is owed and what has been paid, accruing interest through the generations
By definition
It's what Martin Luther King called an "uncashed check", the accounting discrepancy between what is owed and what has been paid, accruing interest through the generations
And goddamn is that one hell of a yawning gap
Maybe some of you are so used to hearing it as background noise it doesn't register anymore
But those are some wild fucking promises to make people if you never intend to keep them
There's consequences for doing that
Maybe some of you are so used to hearing it as background noise it doesn't register anymore
But those are some wild fucking promises to make people if you never intend to keep them
There's consequences for doing that
From the high-minded abstractions -- freedom, dignity, equality, opportunity -- to those saturated colorful images of the concrete life they're supposed to represent beamed onto everyone's TVs
Those beautiful homes, those clean, safe streets
Those beautiful homes, those clean, safe streets
A decent job with a fair wage for an honest day's work
A new land and a fresh start where anyone can decide who they want to be and make themselves into it
Forty acres and a goddamn mule
A fucking chicken in every fucking pot
A new land and a fresh start where anyone can decide who they want to be and make themselves into it
Forty acres and a goddamn mule
A fucking chicken in every fucking pot
And the conservative politicians look at our changing world full of resentment and conflict and anger and think that means "the American Dream is dead"?
All that negativity is because the Dream *didn't die*
All that negativity is because the Dream *didn't die*
That crimson rage is the Dream still pulsing hard beneath the skin of every radicalized "anti-American"
It's having a vision of how life could be -- of how you were *promised* life *would* be if you put in your hours and took your lumps -- that *didn't* die
It's having a vision of how life could be -- of how you were *promised* life *would* be if you put in your hours and took your lumps -- that *didn't* die
No matter how many bland, polite men in business suits looked at you from across your desk and told you it was never yours to begin with
Something they tried to bury but *would not die*
Something they tried to bury but *would not die*
That play about the desperate, possibly doomed struggle for a working-class Black family to get the damn house in the suburbs, A Raisin in the Sun, is named for a line from Langston Hughes' poem "Harlem", whose first line is "What happens to a dream deferred?"
It's that whole galaxy-brain thing Foucauldian thing about how every seemingly subversive text has a reading where it upholds the status quo and yet also every conservative text invites a subversive reading
The cheesy commercial propaganda they try to feed you to tell you everything is okay and no war needs to be fought refutes itself
The contrast between the lie and the reality awakens a greater rage than before the lie was told
The contrast between the lie and the reality awakens a greater rage than before the lie was told
The cheesy sitcoms that were intended (insofar as there was any coherent intention behind moneymaking media moguls pumping this shit out) to make good happy prolefed citizens awakened the Scarlet Witch
You know what Langston Hughes said about what happens to dreams deferred, and all...
"What is a revolution, if not a dream persevering?"
"What is a revolution, if not a dream persevering?"
