Fifteen Million Merits Essay take 2

“Fifteen Million Merits is not a postmodern text”.

From my research into the drama ‘Fifteen Million Merits’, I understand the film itself may be modern. Very straight to the point, with linear narrative, and hints of reality. What is however interesting, is that it includes postmodern text, with a futuristic version of ‘X - Factor’, but renamed ‘Hot Shot’. The film also uses other pastiches, such as the ‘Wii’ avatar, and the ability to buy clothes and props for your virtual character. The film stresses the point of technological dominance, by locking the doors for commercials, and forcing you to watch the TV.

This sense of non-reality and dominance reflects and most probably pastiches The Wachowski brothers’ ‘The Matrix’ where the characters again are ‘plugged into’ a virtual world that all the others believe to be reality, and the only world. In ‘The Matrix’, the characters are actually plugged into the machine, whereas ‘Fifteen Million Merits’ is more of a hint of being plugged into the system.

We also learn as the film progresses that in ‘Fifteen Million Merits’, a character’s life is “A lifetime of Fame’ or ‘back to the bikes’, which shows either they get famous, or they are forced to work the ‘bikes’ to generate electricity for the modern world they live in. Another film that would refer to this make or break theme, would be the ‘Hunger Games’, as ‘Katniss Everdeen’ and ‘Peeta Mellark’ to name a few are forced by the ‘Capitol’ to fight for themselves, and either die or survive; this following a theme of another well known film ‘Predator’.

In all of these films, the moral is faith. If you have faith and believe in yourself, you can rise up out of the system. In ‘The Matrix’ Neo becomes a computer hacker, and as the world is computerised all around him, he tries to gain control of ‘The Matrix’; fighting the computer programme ‘’Agent Smith’. In the same kind of way, Bing in ‘Fifteen Million Merits’ fights the system of Judges ‘Hope’ ‘Wraith’ and ‘[empty content]’. With the ‘Hunger Games’ Katniss and Peeta are supposed to fight each other, but find a way through by defying the rules of the ‘Capitol’ in order to take control. Predator has this idea as well, as a group of people have to fight against the alien ‘Predators’ in another fight to the death, by outsmarting the enemy and defying the rules of defeat.

Evolving from the simulated ideas of ‘Fifteen Million Merits’ and ‘The Matrix’ comes films such as ‘Inception’ and ‘The Source Code’. These films all fit into the ‘parallel world’ genre, with Leonardo Di Caprio playing a mastermind who can hack and live people’s dreams, in another plain of existence. This would closely replicate ‘The Source Code’ as ‘Colter Stevens’ wakes up in a realistic simulation, only to find he is trapped in a computer program, and has to find out vital information in ‘the last 8 seconds’ of someone who was actually traveling on a commuter train, before it blows up. Colter Stevens also defies the laws of ‘The Source Code’ by finding love and arguing with the programmers that with one last chance he could live in the source code. Films such as ‘Tron’ and ‘Total Rekall’ also follow these conventions; a quest to find the truth whilst living in a simulated reality.

So is ‘Fifteen Million Merits’ a postmodern text or not?

Well, arguably, it is, because it uses a lot of conventions of post-modern theory; pastiches, hyper-reality, and a pointer to Hegemony. However, unlike ‘Pulp Fiction’ it is understandable, and runs to an obvious conclusion. To an extent, it even uses the ‘Hero’s Journey’ theory by Jean Francis Lyotard, his theory of ‘outmoded myths’.

‘Call to adventure’ would be Bing finding Abi, and saying her voice is ‘the realest thing I’ve heard’. He aids her by buying her an entry ticket to ‘Hot Shot’, hence the name ‘Fifteen Million Merits’ as he has just got this sum of merits, and it costs this to enter. For the challenge, Abi sings the song Bing had heard her sing. She then agrees to Wraith to partake in ‘Wraith Babes’, this creating the Abyss, the death of Bing’s dreams. Bing tries to kill himself as he has run out of merits and is forced by the technological dominance to watch Abi on ‘Wraith Babes’. Bing then works hard each day, on a mission to save up his 15,000,000 Merits, as the rebirth of the hero, he goes through the transformation when he buys the ticket. For Atonement, he says his piece about the world being ‘nothing but shit’ saying, you buy ‘shit’ and ‘confetti stuff’ in front of the judges. But that’s where the journey ends, as he is snapped up into the fame of the simulated world, creating broadcasts about the world being ‘shit’ and he could kill himself.

Therefore, based on this journey, the film is mostly modern, but the modern doesn’t quite add up, and there is a horrible twist at the end. For the journey to complete, the judges would have either given in, or Bing would go on to rebel against the system. Consequently, the film appears to be post-modern, as it contains elements of both, and we can’t strictly tell if it is one or the other. Whatever the intention of Charlie Brooker, the outcome of the film is still enjoyable, and quite forceful and emotive, attacking our emotions near the end.

Explain How Certain Types Of Media Can Be Described As Post-Modern

Post-Modernism can be seen as the trend for media to move away from the purely factual reality to a combination of hidden meanings, parodies, and imitations. By using well known themes and subjects, and distorting them, the users of post-modern media provide a system of delivering messages that are not as direct or truthful as factual statements and could be viewed as a superficial ‘reality’ where ‘we have lost all ability to make sense of the distinction between nature and artifice’ (Jean Baudrillard, post-modern theorist) . Where there is no distinction between the reality and its representation, this is known as simulacra (simulacra is the plural of simulacrum). An example of this would be the newspapers; considered a mirror of the real world that sometimes distort and sometimes make up the truth - in which case, actually create it! Newspapers and the media generally are particularly good examples of where post-modernist theories come into play. They are full of Lyotard’s ‘outmoded myths’ - simplified stereotypical judgements of people that make life easier to understand.

Other examples of the use of Post-Modernism in the media are as follows:

Types Of Media and Examples of Post-Modern

1. Advertising Media

Advertisement for ‘Demand More’ parodies the old class system: A stand off between two men with guns turns out to be bubble bath guns. Our expectations are set up because we recognise a familiar code, that is the gun duel, but then this is completely subverted by the guns turning out to not be real. There is a clear mixing of class codes and comic codes.

Another example would be the firm ‘Specsavers’, who take an original idea of a walk in the park and an elderly couple sitting down on a bench to eat a cheese sandwich. The scene then shifts as a rollercoaster harness suddenly clamps them into their seat, and they experience a horrible ride through water and doing loop the loop. There is also a final joke at the end, as the old man says ‘What sort of cheese sandwich was that?’

The reason this advert works so well is that it plays around with our sense of reality and expectations by setting up the reality of the park and suddenly making it collide with a completely different reality, ie a theme park. The advert freezes on a shot of the bewildered couple, with the strapline ‘Should’ve gone to Specsavers’ which is the punchline. The whole advert is an effective example of simulation, as it blurs the boundary between reality and representation, and is also a pastiche (a term favoured by the theorist Jameson) as the opening scene is an imitation of the classic park bench scene.

2. Social Media

Facebook encourages narcissistic tendencies by constantly talking about oneself’s own activities in the belief they are of interest to other people. Facebook has almost turned into Twitter, with people ‘tweeting’ bland updates such as: ‘woke up and forgot to put my slippers on!’. This is an example of Baudrillard’s hyper-reality, as people are living their lives through a simulated online version of reality.

3. Films

James Bond demonstrates the post-modern concepts of intertextuality and parody by making comments that reference topics outside the film. For example, Bond says ‘Last man standing’ when he kills the enemy in Skyfall.

Pulp Fiction uses references from other films and doesn’t run a predictable course. Talks about irrelevant stuff before something happens; irrelevant dialogue between two people before they do something really big. – Bricolage and Parody

4. Magazines/Comics

5. Novels

6. Games

7. Music/ Music Videos

8. TV Programs

9. Artist Appearance

10.