https://youtubetranscript.com/?v=zfKjPeru_U4
You’ve analyzed the symbology in a number of current films, such as Shrek, Star Wars, Guardians of the Galaxy. I’ve got a background in film and TV, and I still watch quite a bit. I’ve noticed there seems to be kind of a real dearth of good or meaningful stories these days, and maybe it’s just me, maybe I’m just getting older and picky and I’m not understanding the kids or something. Even in superhero films, often the hero is not even very heroic, I’ve noticed, well, not often, but on occasion at least. They’re not trying to be the best version of themselves or be something that would be inspiring that we would move humanity forward, that sort of thing. Do you have any analysis of contemporary art that tells you something about the state of humanity? Well, I think that one thing that is definitely worth paying attention to is the idea of how, let’s say, media right now is constantly recycling old ideas, like the fact that every single movie is a remake of either another movie or a comic book or a novel or whatever. I think that that’s really important because it’s a sign of exhaustion. It’s a sign of the exhaustion of a culture where it’s like, yeah, it’s as if there’s no juice, like there’s no juice left. It could be it, or it could be that it’s setting up a more permanent storyline, let’s say. That’s also possible. It’s possible that some of these stories, like some of the superhero stories, will kind of sink down and become a more, let’s say, permanent storyline. I don’t know. It’s hard to know. I mean, yeah, I like, you know, it’s weird because I don’t, it’s like I don’t, I like the big Marvel movies. I like them because they’re like, they’re like watching fireworks. Like I like watching fireworks. Yeah, for sure. They’re pretty. Like the last Guardians of the Galaxy movie was like so pretty with like all these red, blue colors. They got a lot of color. But I usually watch movies trying to, yeah, trying to see the pattern in the movie as a sign of where the culture is. And I don’t necessarily ask myself if whether it’s good or bad. Like I just try to see the pattern itself. I think that’s the best way to interpret a movie is to kind of, the movie always, it tells you like what it’s about most of the time. It’s like, especially in the first, like the first 15 minutes, it tends to tell you exactly what it’s about. And then after that, it just plays out the basic, basic theme. And so that’s why like I don’t, whether it’s like, for example, like Shrek is really an upside, it’s like an upside down fairy tale. It’s like almost like a satanic fairy tale. But it’s like, but it’s like, if you know, if you can look at it and see that that’s what it is, then it’s like, you know, that’s fine. You just have to call it out for what it is. It’s an upside down fairy tale. And so, you know, you can see the same, you can see that you can just kind of turn it back on its feet and say, well, this is how a fairy tale should be. And then it’s like, you know, you can just go ahead and swap, put it back on its feet. So, yeah, so there’s there’s all kinds of ways to do that. Mm. Yeah, I think I’ve just it’s been killing me how often sometimes I start a show these days or something. I go, wow, I don’t like any of these characters. None of them are decent. They’re all just sitting around arguing and silly egotistical conversations. And there’s no nobody’s noble. Nobody’s heroic. Nobody. I’ve just seen a lot of that lately. I mean, we have a much wider selection, so I suppose that’s about it. There’s another thing happening. There’s another thing definitely happening. And there’s this whole idea of gray of the gray, like this whole idea of of not wanting to show clear opposites, let’s say, are not wanting to show clear figures. And so it’s like, you know, and it has to do with a lot of things that are happening. It’s not just in movies or whatever. It has to do also with wanting to discourage all kinds of clear identities, let’s say. And so and so you see that morally, too. And so you don’t you know, there’s not this idea of a virtuous character. Rather, it’s all these great characters with with that have different, let’s say, motivations that conflict with each other. And we just throw them in a room and it’s like you just watch them eat each other up. And so there’s something about that. To me, it shows that something that shows kind of like a decomposition of of of culture, for sure. But I think like there’s there’s still you still get glimpses of of this struggle for like virtue, let’s say, and the struck like, you know, I’m going to do I’m going to do an interpretation of the of Logan, the last Marvel movie, the last Marvel movie. And like in that movie, you really get this sense of this struggle for virtue. Like that’s, you know, Logan is just he’s just such a selfish kind of self-imbibed character. And he’s surrounded. You know, for the movie stars where he’s like in Las Vegas, you know, and it’s like like the party town and that it like you can feel like this kind of this just self self-indulgent world. And he just kind of moves slowly towards accepting his role kind of as a son, let’s say, towards Professor X. And then finally, as a father and then kind of giving his life for his his child, it’s like, that’s pretty cool. And you get to watch people you get to watch him like, you know, cut people’s hands off and stuff at the same time. It’s like, you know, not bad. Yeah, not bad at all. No, there are definitely some good stories. That’s I guess it’s the nice thing, even with a bunch of not so great stories, the good ones really stand out. And I’m very thankful for that, especially even on TV. We got a real golden age kind of going on with how much, you know, great TV is out there.