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kindkitSome reactions to The Magnus Archives 169, "Fire Escape," under the cut.
The hardest episode of TMA to listen to so far, for me, and the most horrifying. Jonny has said that he no longer sees the show as "escapist" horror necessarily, because he's got angrier and more committed to examining his own politics. That's clear in episodes like this. I can't remember at what point I realized "Oh, fuck, this is about Grenfell." I was already distressed, and then it got much worse.
I've only listened to the episode once. I'll probably relisten to the meta parts, but I don't know if I can go through the statement itself again.
Not everyone found it as exceptionally hard as I did, and I'll admit that I have a particular fear of death by fire. But no other Desolation episode has made me react this way. It wasn't just the fire; it was, I think, the mundanity of the fire. Even while S5 has given us apocalyptic cosmic powers manifesting on earth, the show has been in a way less supernatural than before. The Fears are ours; in a sense, they're us, and they just continue the oppressions and cruelties we inflict on each other. That's always been clear in TMA to an extent, but now it's explicit. (An interesting thought occurs: if we were less exploitive and callous and cruel to one another, the Fears would--pre-apocalypse, anyway--have much less purchase in the world, because there would be less to fear.)
As for the meta-plot: WTF, Jon? Why would you put Martin through avoidable pain and distress for your own petty revenge? (I think, on the actual meta level, this is Jonny underscoring that it's pointless to destroy individual avatars. Jon as our protagonist, and Martin as (once again) the audience stand-in, had to see how much it does no good and isn't worth the cost. Killing Elias will also, I suspect, turn out not to be worth it.)
The extent to which this season is political is starting to make me wonder whether the ending I thought we were heading for, with Jon sacrificing himself to try and save the world, is what we're really going to get. Individual action, individual heroics do no good in a world of systemic evil. The show has already undermined the whole "Chosen One" idea (Jon's only Chosen in the sense that Elias chose him, which only happened because he had the bad luck to have arrived at the Institute already marked by a power), and I'm starting to think that "one hero, or a small band of heroes, saves everything" will be the trope that's ultimately on the chopping block. If so, I'm reminded quite a lot of Un Lun Dun, a YA novel of China Miéville's that tends not to get talked about because YA, but that does some really interesting things in terms of thinking about collective struggle in a fantasy context. (It also, perhaps not coincidentally, specifically dismantles the Chosen One trope. I wonder if Jonny's read it.)
And in conclusion: WTF, Jon? DO NOT HURT MARTIN. THIS IS NOT OKAY.
The hardest episode of TMA to listen to so far, for me, and the most horrifying. Jonny has said that he no longer sees the show as "escapist" horror necessarily, because he's got angrier and more committed to examining his own politics. That's clear in episodes like this. I can't remember at what point I realized "Oh, fuck, this is about Grenfell." I was already distressed, and then it got much worse.
I've only listened to the episode once. I'll probably relisten to the meta parts, but I don't know if I can go through the statement itself again.
Not everyone found it as exceptionally hard as I did, and I'll admit that I have a particular fear of death by fire. But no other Desolation episode has made me react this way. It wasn't just the fire; it was, I think, the mundanity of the fire. Even while S5 has given us apocalyptic cosmic powers manifesting on earth, the show has been in a way less supernatural than before. The Fears are ours; in a sense, they're us, and they just continue the oppressions and cruelties we inflict on each other. That's always been clear in TMA to an extent, but now it's explicit. (An interesting thought occurs: if we were less exploitive and callous and cruel to one another, the Fears would--pre-apocalypse, anyway--have much less purchase in the world, because there would be less to fear.)
As for the meta-plot: WTF, Jon? Why would you put Martin through avoidable pain and distress for your own petty revenge? (I think, on the actual meta level, this is Jonny underscoring that it's pointless to destroy individual avatars. Jon as our protagonist, and Martin as (once again) the audience stand-in, had to see how much it does no good and isn't worth the cost. Killing Elias will also, I suspect, turn out not to be worth it.)
The extent to which this season is political is starting to make me wonder whether the ending I thought we were heading for, with Jon sacrificing himself to try and save the world, is what we're really going to get. Individual action, individual heroics do no good in a world of systemic evil. The show has already undermined the whole "Chosen One" idea (Jon's only Chosen in the sense that Elias chose him, which only happened because he had the bad luck to have arrived at the Institute already marked by a power), and I'm starting to think that "one hero, or a small band of heroes, saves everything" will be the trope that's ultimately on the chopping block. If so, I'm reminded quite a lot of Un Lun Dun, a YA novel of China Miéville's that tends not to get talked about because YA, but that does some really interesting things in terms of thinking about collective struggle in a fantasy context. (It also, perhaps not coincidentally, specifically dismantles the Chosen One trope. I wonder if Jonny's read it.)
And in conclusion: WTF, Jon? DO NOT HURT MARTIN. THIS IS NOT OKAY.
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Date: 2020-06-01 03:01 pm (UTC)Hmm. Martin's been the one most vocally advocating smiting avatars up to this point, even when Jon's been uncomfortable with it.
And Jon makes it clear Martin's more important to him than revenge, and that he doesn't want to make Martin suffer for his revenge, and offers him the choice about what they do; Martin chooses to hand that choice back to him.
Maybe Martin was secretly hoping Jon would decide not to go into the fire! But he's going to have to learn how to voice that directly (and obviously, there are SO many reasons why Martin has a hard time expressing what he wants, as opposed to things he thinks someone else needs).
I don't see it as cruel on Jon's part, just taking him at his word (and very possibly underestimating just how scary/distressing this stuff is for non-avatar people).
There was a good meta I saw somewhere about how at the moment, they're both tossing "No YOU decide" back and forth; they haven't yet figured out how to collaborate and develop a plan together. I do continue to think they're doing AMAZINGLY well under the circumstances, though.
(Obviously, I am braced for the next ep to prove me wrong about everything, of course.)