#Godzilla: the perfect #monster for the age of #ClimateChange
May 31, 2019
A monster of awe
"In their 1987 book #AngelsFear, anthropologists Gregory and Mary Catherine Batseon proposed a fictional god called #Eco, one that would represent the importance of seeing the world as a system of interconnected organisms, or the 'unity in which we make our home'.
"They hoped that the existence of such a god might encourage humanity to behave more respectfully towards our world.
"However, in today’s world, a figure such as Eco does not inspire the awe or respect which our age of existential crisis demands. A monster is needed, and as I have argued in my co-authored book Monsters of Modernity: Global Icons for Our Critical Condition, Godzilla is the perfect monster to make us think about the #consequences of our actions.
"From the first Japanese Godzilla film in 1954, all the way through to Godzilla’s latest outing in this year’s aptly named Hollywood blockbuster Godzilla: King of the Monsters, Godzilla has been understood as a response to humanity’s mistreatment of the #earth.
"The first case of mistreatment to provoke Godzilla in 1954 was the use of #nuclear weapons. While developing a premise for the first film, Tanaka Tomoyuki, a young producer at Toho Studios in Japan asked himself: “What if a dinosaur sleeping in the Southern Hemisphere had been awakened and transformed into a giant by the Bomb? What if it attacked Tokyo?”
"Subsequent films, which vary immensely in their level of earnestness or goofiness, have referenced other environmental misdeeds, such the 1971 film Godzilla vs #Hedorah (aka the #SmogMonster) in which mankind’s pollution becomes a nearly invincible monster. Although Godzilla defeats the Smog Monster, viewers are left in no doubt that we ignore the effects of our #pollution at our peril."
Read more:
https://cosmosmagazine.com/earth/climate/godzilla-the-perfect-monster-for-the-age-of-climate-change/
#MonsterRevolution #CallingAllMonsters #KaijuRevolution #DestroyCapitalism #RespectEco #MotherEarth #MotherNature #ClimateCollapse #ClimateChange #ExtremeWeather
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