Submitted by Lachlan Plain on Thu, 18/05/2006 - 11:16.
In the Senseless world the globe is divided into two. The last time the world was bipolar there was a whole group of nations that had no alignment or a continually shifting alignment. I was wondering where this Third World sat in the Senseless political landscape? I think it's important to figure this out considering that a lot of the disidents trapped in Senseless are probably from this geography.
I think that a lot of dystopic sci fi visions fall into the trap of simplifying the world by making it globally homogenous. I know that this is an element of the modernist ideal they want to expose the underbelly of, but in some ways I think that it's the easy way out. Global homogenity is not only culturally impossible but economically impossible, even where people do want the same things - the same lifestyle, it's not possible due to the restrictions of available resources and human greed.
Even if it isn't one of the focal premises of the show, I think it's important to give a sense of this mass of humanity existing within the artificial borders of TNA and UNE - in Africa, South American, the Middle East and Asia - but not necessarily under the same iron fisted rule as the multinational power's imediate constituencies...
...as it's always been since the globe was divided up by Europe. I think of Africa and all of the lines that were imposed across the traditional empires on the map of Africa in the late nineteenth century. Colonial powers never had a sustainable grasp on their colonies, except where they displaced the majority of the population with members of their own population.
After a century of independence movements - Pan Africanism, socialism, Islamisism - it's difficult to think that these blood-stained nations would just be subsumed again into such a colonial power. Especially China. Where does China - the new superpower of the 21st century - fit into that map that you drew up?
PS: An internet forum is an interesting medium for the creative process. You've spoken a lot about it being rhizomatic, and I believe that it is more rhizomatic than a writer sitting at a desk with a typewriter, but not as rhizomatic as a bunch of people in a room. I say this because when you return to a page on the net, the links are always the same, but when you return to a particular point in conversation there is a whole new set of potential links. This is not a criticism, just an idea that this process sits somewhere between an individual writing process and a collaborative workshop.
It is nice to leave a trace/map/web behind the creative process for future reference...
The Third World...and the rhizomatic process
In the Senseless world the globe is divided into two. The last time the world was bipolar there was a whole group of nations that had no alignment or a continually shifting alignment. I was wondering where this Third World sat in the Senseless political landscape? I think it's important to figure this out considering that a lot of the disidents trapped in Senseless are probably from this geography.
I think that a lot of dystopic sci fi visions fall into the trap of simplifying the world by making it globally homogenous. I know that this is an element of the modernist ideal they want to expose the underbelly of, but in some ways I think that it's the easy way out. Global homogenity is not only culturally impossible but economically impossible, even where people do want the same things - the same lifestyle, it's not possible due to the restrictions of available resources and human greed.
Even if it isn't one of the focal premises of the show, I think it's important to give a sense of this mass of humanity existing within the artificial borders of TNA and UNE - in Africa, South American, the Middle East and Asia - but not necessarily under the same iron fisted rule as the multinational power's imediate constituencies...
...as it's always been since the globe was divided up by Europe. I think of Africa and all of the lines that were imposed across the traditional empires on the map of Africa in the late nineteenth century. Colonial powers never had a sustainable grasp on their colonies, except where they displaced the majority of the population with members of their own population.
After a century of independence movements - Pan Africanism, socialism, Islamisism - it's difficult to think that these blood-stained nations would just be subsumed again into such a colonial power. Especially China. Where does China - the new superpower of the 21st century - fit into that map that you drew up?
PS: An internet forum is an interesting medium for the creative process. You've spoken a lot about it being rhizomatic, and I believe that it is more rhizomatic than a writer sitting at a desk with a typewriter, but not as rhizomatic as a bunch of people in a room. I say this because when you return to a page on the net, the links are always the same, but when you return to a particular point in conversation there is a whole new set of potential links. This is not a criticism, just an idea that this process sits somewhere between an individual writing process and a collaborative workshop.
It is nice to leave a trace/map/web behind the creative process for future reference...