If a crime documentary is to be made, by intuition, should there be more information on the perpetrator, or more information on the victim? Obviously it should be the perpetrator, because in the model of [crime-victim], the victim is universal and has no particularity. He does not have to be a very special person, and is usually simplified to an "ordinary person".
But the perpetrator is abnormal and special, so more attention will be given to the perpetrator.
But in commercialized narratives about the oppressed, often the narrative cuts right from the victim, and there is a very clear information vacuum.
For example, "EVA" is based on an ordinary young boy, "V for Vendetta" is based on a female worker who is about to be killed, and "The Handmaid's Tale" is based on an ordinary married woman.
Of course, it is easy to understand from a commercial point of view, because the protagonist assumes a character who empathizes with the audience. A character who is close to the public is obviously more empathetic to the character than the criminal. From the perspective of the cultural industry, if the protagonist is a criminal, he actually has to bear a lot of business risks.
But such a narrative mode also creates a problem. From the narrative of the [oppressed], it will cause the [oppressor] to be symbolized. The most serious of them is "V for Vendetta". The description of the so-called centralized government and its behavioral motives and structure are very vague. The description of SEELE in "EVA" is also full of conspiracy theories. A few riddles in a small room determine the direction of the world. "The Handmaid's Tale" describes a little more, but it is actually stitched together. It is basically an inorganic combination of fascist Germany + the Soviet Union in the eyes of the West + extremist religions in the Middle East. Completely ignore the specific historical background.
The same is true of the recent so-called "forced labor" problem. The description of the Soviet Union at that time, coupled with the racism of the Nazis, created a forced labor of ethnic minorities.
Indeed, there have been forced labor problems in China in recent decades, such as the black brick kiln incident in 2007. However, this matter has nothing to do with the so-called dictatorship or race. We must find a word to blame, which can only be said to be caused by the free market economy + the lack of the rule of law.
The reason why there is such a funny accusation can only be said that the Western cultural industry has become familiar and slippery, and the business is too skilled, resulting in a lack of innovation (laughs).
Having said that, such a symbolic [oppressor] also leads to another problem: all narratives about resistance come to an abrupt end after the resistance is successful, and the [oppressor] is actually objectified into a cooperating [oppressed]. A tool for performing resistance.
Because it is conceivable that if the resistance is successful, a new government must be established next. Then this new government born from resistance must first solve a problem: why is there oppression?
At this time, the plot almost inevitably enters into the reflection on the symbol of [oppressor], but most authors have no ability to complete a reasonable [oppressor], because these symbols of [oppression] are originally stitched randomly , forcing things from different historical backgrounds together, making it impossible to reasonably explain why they appeared.
Because of this, in most of these narratives, the [oppressor] almost exists as a precondition, there is no reason, and once you start to trace the source, it will appear unconvincing.
For example, in The Handmaid's Tale, the fundamentalist government came to power simply because of insufficient fertility. I want to ask a very simple question: why did feminism arise?
The earliest reason for the rise of feminism in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries is very simple. After the Industrial Revolution, factories began to appear on a large scale. Women needed factories, and factories needed women.
The main activity of the first feminist organization in the UK, Ladies of Langham Place, was to promote women's employment. Wollstonecraft.
I don't know what kind of production method is the society in "The Handmaid's Tale". It can support nearly half of the country's people almost out of work, and at the same time maintain a large number of military + secret police, and maintain normal production and life in society.
Maybe they already have jingle cats (laughs)
In fact, to bring out such a background, there can be a better angle, but the author probably dare not write it, just look at the background of the rise of extreme fundamentalism in the Middle East. Hot knowledge: Bin Laden was supported by the liberal and democratic America~
In addition, it is very interesting that many plots in "The Handmaid's Tale" are clearly derived from Althusser's concept of the state ideological apparatus, encouraging people to resist the violence and ideological violence of the discourse system.
However, the relationship of "oppression - oppressed" advocated by "The Handmaid's Tale" itself constitutes a new ideology.
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