Week Fourteen: Satire and Sci-fi

     For the final week, i enjoyed listening to the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I found the story to be quite interesting and comedic to sit through. Arthur Dent is a reasonable character to feel sympathy for in the beginning, albeit a silly chuckle once Ford Prefect gets involved. He appears to be a serious yet lighter-hearted character, similar to the doctor from the famous British series Doctor Who. It follows some similar lines of thought as well, exploring the galaxy and running into interesting yet questionable characters and aliens.

     The comedic portrayal of events undermined the seriousness of the situation and spurred some interesting thought. We have a tendency to use humor to cover up and undermine the gravity of a situation. This is continued with the movie seen in class, Idiocracy. It is a hilarious portrayal of the future that seems, in a way, to be experiencing some fruition. These stories for this week delve into the self denial of futures we feel are more impossible. For instance, a majority of science fiction sees humanity exploring space and the cosmos, acquiring knowledge and making a mark on the stars. With Hitchhikers guide of the galaxy as well as Idiocracy, we see a very different depiction. We see main characters full of self questioning and denial over the loss of the world and events they know. However, these stories are told through a satire in order to make them more enjoyable and palpable for most audiences. This ties into recent events, particularly the latest election. A seemingly serious event such as an election to determine the future of an entire country was seen as a joke, as people laughed at the election until its specific end. During its time, a great amount of memes and other internet satire was created to instill laughter over the events and a few times saw the candidates come under fire from it, such as the Presidential elect and his "itty-bitty" hands. It has even been claimed that as many as 11,000 voters voted for a dead ape known as Harambe. It wasn't until the presidential elect was finished that many understood the effects of these consequences. Similar to the presidency of Idiocracy, the people in charge are not entirely the most qualified people to run a country. It is more of miscommunication and blind faith that govern. The use of Brawndo's electrolytes on the crops that lead to the crop issues in the movie, misinformation can become seen as true fact and the misinformation begins to snowball. Arthur is in the same boat, because of his birthplace being on earth he is believed to possess a greater knowledge and the meaning to the answer of life. 42 May be a legitimate answer, but people feel it is easier to hide the truth and lash back at others than to understand the truth of the situation.  On a lighter note, physiologically we try to find optimism in any unfortunate situation.