Crime in Cronenberg’s Videodrome: A perversion of the everyman’s subconscious
Rena King:
“Don’t you feel such shows [of soft-core pornography and hardcore violence] contribute to a social climate of violence and sexual malaise, and do you care?”
Max Renn:
“Certainly I care. I care enough to give my viewers a harmless outlet for their fantasies and their frustrations…”
Videodrome stars James Woods as Max Renn, president of an independent, Canadian (more specifically, a Torontonian) television station, Civic-TV. At a time when everyone seems TV-obsessed, addicted to the emissions of the all-powerful Cathode Ray Tube, Max’s station offers to viewers sensational programming – specializing in a unique mix of illicit sex (“smut”) and violence (“snuff”) – which earns it the dubious slogan of “the one you take to bed with you.” Fearing that his station – and indeed all of North America – is getting too “soft”, Max embarks on a quest to find “tougher” material for his audience. The plot thickens when he discovers pirate tapes of an experimental show called “Videodrome”, a raw, seedy program without plot or characters, only merciless acts of violence, torture and murder. Max quickly becomes infatuated with the scrambled images from the single-camera operation – in which a screaming victim is tortured, whipped, chained and beaten to death by two hooded figures – and develops an obsession with the “purity” (simplicity) of its message.
iMac – the making of an iCon
The masses are always “in the know” about pop culture; although trends change routinely, we can almost automatically recognize (without much consideration) the cultural icons that are currently worthy of our admiration, and those that aren’t. Yet I wonder: what qualifies an item to be a part of “popular culture”?
Raymond Williams defines objects of popular culture as those which are (a) widely accessible, (b) popular and (c) intentionally constructed to be popular. [1] What, then, distinguishes Williams’ objects from other mass-produced, accessible and well-liked items? Where is the distinction between shoelaces or paper clips (objects that meet all three of Williams’ requirements, yet do not instinctually appear to “perform” popular culture), and cultural “relics” that, without contest, symbolize societal trends and values?
I would therefore like to amend Williams’ definition; I assert that the quality which separates these two types of objects is a seamless integration of function and form (aesthetics). The visual design of pop culture objects allows one to experience a product that seems elite, whilst also encouraging the consumer to personalize and “own” a product. Thus, in promising a prestigious lifestyle tailored to meet a consumer’s desires, the object’s aesthetic qualities promote it from mass-produced object to mythical cultural icon. To illustrate these claims, let us examine an object which, although largely excluded from the discourse, is undoubtedly a staple of contemporary Western/North-American/”developed” culture: the personal computer (PC).
“Joyriding” in Kunstler’s and Spiegel’s Suburbia
Question
Television and suburbanization can be seen to have had a symbiotic relationship. As a result of suburbanization, Kunstler says that community life was replaced by "little more than cars and television." Furthermore, Spiegel calls television "the suburban home companion." Making direct reference to these authors, discuss the relationship of suburbanization and the social use of television.
Response
The 1950s can be seen as a time of unprecedented family values, in which young, white, middle-income nuclear families arrived en masse in the pre-planned community living areas of suburbia. In the article "Joyride", Kunstler identifies the reasons for, and attraction of, a grand public relocation to previously uninhabited areas outside main city centres. Kunstler argues that it was, in part, the replacement of the streetcar (or trolley), and later the automobile, from the horse-powered transit of earlier 20th century life, that ignited weekend traffic to expand outside urban centres.