Videodrome

Videodrome is odd, disturbing, and difficult, but I'd like you to write a blog entry by Wednesday's class (10/17) attempting to explain what the film has to do with the ideas of Marshall McLuhan and how they are dramatically realized in the conflict between Spectacular Optical and Barry O'Blivion's "Cathode Ray Mission," with protagonist Max Renn's Civic TV caught in the middle.

Some prompts to get you going:

-- In what way does Videodrome create visual metaphors for McLuhan's theory that technology and media are extensions of our bodies and minds? In what way does the film imagistically realize McLuhan's theory that viewers themselves are screens upon which television is projected? Think of Max Renn's mental and corporeal transformations.

-- John David Ebert: "Paranoia is one of the primary side effects of the electronic age. In the electronic age, what you have is an implosion of the personality and the creation of the multiple-egoic personality." In other words, the electronic age generates personalities anxious and confused by the awareness of a plethora of possibilities, opinions, and subjectivities, an awareness brought on by the instantaneous and widespread connection to the entire world as brought about by electronic technology. How is this paranoiac process literalized in Max Renn's journey, and what form does his paranoia take?  Think of the film's consistent and unresolved blurring of fantasy and reality.

-- We've recently discussed McLuhan's idea of television as a cool medium that invites participation, or "fill-in," from the receiver. How does the Videodrome signal encourage participation to frightening degree, and why? What is the Videodrome signal used for by Spectacular Optical on the one hand and Barry O'Blivion on the other? What are their philosophies that are so dangerous?

As a reward for chewing on the many ideas contained in this dense blog post I offer you the music video for "Rapture," a classic by Videodrome actress Deborah Harry's legendary band Blondie. Though always a welcome presence in any medium, Harry's attempt to rap on this otherwise stellar track may be more disturbing than anything in Videodrome.