Fury Road is so open to whatever interpretation one would like to attribute to it, websites that usually find themselves in utter ideological disagreement have praised the film for being a fantastic example of the topic they normally write about. Jezebel, a popular feminist website, calls Fury Road a "feminist blockbuster" and praises it for confronting the "the obsession of fertility" referring to women's reproduction rights back in the real world. Breitbart, a comparably popular conservative website that one would assume shares little overlap in readership with Jezebel, likewise praises the movie and its depiction of women, but instead of referencing the female characters' independence regarding reproductive issues, the Breitbart writer focuses on the female characters' "breaking away from a cult of personality and its tyrannical central government." Depending on which site you're more likely to frequent, you may find either website's take on the movie to be reaching/reasonable. I think this is exactly what Zizek is saying about some works of art functioning as empty containers, open to all possible meanings.
Monday, June 1, 2015
Mad Max: Fury Road – An empty vessel anyone can fill?
Matt McKenna at 3 Quarks Daily:
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Filled to the brim and bursting would be my take, as they can spill out and radiate into all corners of landscape. So fully loaded rather than empty.
ReplyDeleteI will confess to finding a description of Zizek as an empty container open to all possible meanings, as emotionally satisfying, but I am not Dan Dennett (Zizek's statement reminds me of his position on the meme for some reason or other)
p.s. I don't think such things are filed with meaning but something that reinforces thought to find itself in such things.
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