The End of the World with Michael and Stu
The Apocalypse is Everywhere. The End of the World with Michael and Stu is a (hopefully) insightful and (hopefully) humorous exploration of the rise of apocalyptic news, apocalyptic thinking and apocalyptic culture. Each week, we’ll be looking at a work of art, a piece of media, or an historical event related to the (hopefully not) impending End of the World.
The End of the World with Michael and Stu
Episode 27: I'll Never be your Beast of Burden
This week we're discussing Bertrand Bonello's 2023 filmThe Beast. Starring the brilliant Léa Seydoux and George MacKay, the movie is set in a not too distant future where AI rules human society and has deemed our petty, combustible emotions the enemy of productivity. Therefore, in order to advance in society, individuals must undergo a psycho-surgical procedure whereby they can be "purified" of their excessive emotionality by means of the excision of their inherited, generational traumas.
Reflecting on Henry James's novella The Beast in the Jungle, from which it takes its title, the picture explores multiple eras, concentrating specifically of the sense of foreboding and doom that is so central to that classic early twentieth century tale. This material leads us into a conversation about automation and the alienating aspects of modernity and indeed post-modernity, and how technological progress on the current trajectory may have been an enormous mistake. We also discuss recent anti-migrant riots in the United Kingdom as well as the ominous financial downturn that may have just commenced.
This episode contains spoilers for The Beast and The Beast in the Jungle.
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