Mirror, mirror, originally means wonder at in Latin, and the translation is a surprising/wonderful thing. Is there anything surprising or wonderful about the mirror itself? no. However, just a little bit of Lacan's mirror theory will find that what is surprising is not the mirror itself, but the visual image reflected in the mirror. Both Lacan and contemporary child psychology will tell you that the first time an infant recognizes himself in a mirror, he feels what we call "surprise"; in other words, before that , the baby may have seen himself in the mirror countless times, but did not realize that the mirror image in the mirror is himself. Therefore, when he recognized himself in the mirror for the first time, the sigh in his heart was closer to: Oh, so this is/is me. Furthermore, repeatedly confirm the mapping relationship between yourself and the mirror in front of the mirror.
Being called "surprise" means not necessarily a pleasant perception; on the contrary, such an encounter may even be frightening, a horror - imagine waking up in the morning and discovering in front of the mirror that you have one. The face of an insect. However, the “horror” of fear is not only derived from the ugliness or horror seen in the mirror, but is more attached to the unexpected differences that are different from self-knowledge/imagination—the so-called first. Fright, then fear; it is these differences, first identified, that have the potential to be terrifying. Then, it can be seen by the same reason that for a melodrama based on science fiction such as "Black Mirror", what really makes people feel that the hair is standing on end is not how "dark" the technology presented in the play is. Or how fast thunder can drag people to the brink of death; instead, it lies in how ignorant the people in the play are to such technology, until one day they see such technology in the "mirror" and the already embedded ( embedded) the technology itself.
It is in this sense that the key to judging whether the "sacred drama" of "Black Mirror" can become a god is: whether the erection of the "mirror" in the play can be called antelope hanging horns, whether it can be done by a stroke of genius. (Like a baby facing a mirror) Initially blinded, but at a certain moment, it is revealed - as for whether the mirror reflects black, white, gray, or gorgeous, it is the second most important.
It is a pity that "Black Mirror 3" may have succeeded in depicting the so-called "blackening" of human nature and technology to a certain extreme at the story level, but it also accidentally lost the distance enough to set up a "mirror"-- -Be aware that when a person sticks directly to the mirror, he is almost completely out of focus; not to mention, the image of the mirror is closely related to distance.
How was the "distance" lost in Black Mirror 3? ep3 can be regarded as one of the negative typical examples: first of all, secretly opening other people's laptop cameras through plug-in Trojans is probably something that can be done with a little effort; but after the secret recording is successful, it is necessary to send an email. Asking for a mobile phone number is puzzling—for a real hacker, after the Trojan starts running, it is equivalent to completely opening a back door. Isn’t it easy to get a full set of personal information? However, the real flaw is that the camera without any technology endorsement in the play can theoretically only capture the teenager's masturbation movements, but cannot simultaneously record the screen or capture what kind of video the teenager is watching. ---Especially can't give the perspective of a teenager who is watching a child molester video masturbating. If this is true, it would give the teenager room to justify himself. The subsequent progress of the plot became even more absurd: first, the "handover game" was played, and everyone in the handover game chose to obey regardless of their identity; when they were forced to cooperate in robbing banks and fighting for life and death in aerial photography, it seemed that this series of The plot design of the show is designed to allow the audience to experience more of the "monitored and manipulated sense" of the characters in the play. So much so that at the end of the day, the final blow from the "righteous" person in the dark in the way of breaking his promise seemed to be hearty, but in fact it was a bit of a scratch.
With one blow, on the surface, everyone who "deserved" paid an unbearable price; but looking at the whole process, what I saw was an "organized and premeditated" cyberbullying (bully based on digital divide)---skilled people crushing technical idiots, that's all---it made me almost think I was watching a cybercrime version of CSI. After using so many audio-visual languages throughout ep3, it is just a big vernacular written on the screen: technology can manipulate people. Seiya said, but I don't need Black Mirror to tell me such a conclusion that is clear in everyday reality.
Looking at "Black Mirror 3" from the same perspective, it is not difficult to find that all the episodes in this season choose to exaggerate our current daily life to a certain extent and then construct the plot direction: the scoring behavior in ep1 is almost entirely derived from the current social interaction Like, five-star praise is not a "term" that we are familiar with, even if we only use it to select Taobao sellers; the VR game in ep2 is just adding a VR framework to the horror movies of the past, its time The confusion at the perceptual level is actually tantamount to our daily dream experience; ep6, nesting conspiracies with looming conspiracy theories, vividly presents the revenge of a genius hacker who has placed himself in the position of the creator against the "keyboard man"...
This kind of plot trend actually reflects the screenwriter or producer's understanding of "fear": the closer the disaster is to reality, the more afraid people will be. Only in this way can they choose the strategy of "exaggerating" and "magnifying" a technical detail to create fear and horror. However, this is not fundamentally different from the magnification of spiders, snakes, and mosquitoes in the name of mutation in traditional horror films, which in turn makes "Black Mirror 3" no different from horror thrillers as a genre. The psychological mechanism (trick) that makes horror films prosperous is to let the audience breathe a sigh of relief after experiencing tension, anger, and fear (when watching the film), and then return to the peaceful reality of the years with peace of mind and tell themselves. : Everything I just saw is far away from me, no matter how bad it is, it is also a case. The core of horror films is precisely "security".
Obviously, no previous seasons of Black Mirror (including specials) fall into the category of horror/thrillers described above. The most fundamental difference is that every ep in the past "Black Mirror" contains a very complete and complete "socio-technical" architecture setting - that is, every item in it seems crazy and cool. The technological application of the technology corresponds to a set of social norms that are matched with the technology and have undergone a long period of running-in and adjustment. Under such a strong setting, technology and society are almost two sides of the same coin, inseparable. For this reason, any accident in the application of technology (in the play) is enough to become a butterfly that triggers El Niño, causing a huge (ethical) impact on the social norms in precise operation.
Perhaps it is precisely because such a strong setting is too difficult to structure that it led to the difficult production of "Black Mirror" in the past - only 2 seasons + 1 sp in 5 years, and only 3 episodes per season. And Netflix plans to push 12 eps in a season after taking over, so just building the future "socio-technical" structure is enough to make the screenwriter feel haggard and can't take care of himself---this part of the work is actually similar to "Pirates of Dreams" Architect in Space. In this way, even if the screenwriter has not changed, the level of "Black Mirror 3" is not guaranteed.
To paraphrase an online catchphrase: no comparison, no harm. If you take the eps of "Black Mirror 3" and make a juxtaposition with the previous "Black Mirror" eps, you will find that: ep1 and ep6 in "Black Mirror 3" and ep1 of "Black Mirror 1" actually enjoy the same The same core---digital daily life, this daily life also includes politics that is not so daily in the eyes of Chinese people, including the already digitized "democracy"--- either ranking, voting (voting) ) is computable in the final analysis. Personally, the VR setting in "Black Mirror 3" ep2 is far less thrilling than the stripping and copying of consciousness in the Christmas chapter; since consciousness can be copied and stripped, then send consciousness into a virtual city (San Junipero). , s3ep4) can also be regarded as a matter of course; the social punishment of being sent to prison for a low score in the third season ep1 is many times more merciful than the mosaic shielding mechanism in the Christmas chapter! As for the subplots such as ep5 in the third season, it is more like a compressed version of the movie "District 9", and it even seems a bit simple and rude in the processing of details; and about the ability of memory as a "weapon" to destroy people's hearts, Almost no one has been able to make "Black Mirror 1" ep3 right.
It can be seen that, to a certain extent, the previous two seasons of "Black Mirror" + Christmas have almost exhausted the screenwriter's imagination of future life based on the current level of technology. It must be said that the screenwriter Jiang Lang has all his talents, but it seems a bit mean. On the contrary, the "lost distance" of "Black Mirror 3" accidentally polished itself into a transparent mirror, reflecting why the previous two seasons of "Black Mirror" were able to become the dangling boots," "Anytime" smashes down, bringing fantasy into reality. The so-called fearful thinking, nothing more than this.
Last but not least, it should not be overlooked: even a mirror can only see itself through its (self) mapping mirror, and see whether it is black, white or gray... And in this mirror-superimposed structure Later, the roles of the mirror viewer and the mirror grinder (borrowed from "Nie Yinniang") gradually revealed their importance.
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