There is a short story called "Eight O'Clock in the Morning" by Ray Nelson.
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There is a short story called "Eight O'Clock in the Morning" by Ray Nelson. You have probably never heard of it, but it was turned into a John Carpenter movie called "They Live."
In the story, a man named George Nada is hypnotized by a stage magician, but when he is told to "wake up," he wakes up completely and realizes he can see aliens living among us, whom he calls Fascinators because of their hypnotic powers.
The Fascinators hypnotize people into thinking they are normal human beings and they control everything from the media to the government. Their subliminal orders are everywhere. "MARRY AND REPRODUCE," "WORK AND OBEY," and most especially, "CONSUME."
George tries to convince people of what is happening, which doesn't work, and he eventually receives a phone call from one of the Fascinators, who instructs him to die at exactly eight o'clock the next morning.
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The Fascinators hypnotize people into thinking they are normal human beings and they control everything from the media to the government. Their subliminal orders are everywhere. "MARRY AND REPRODUCE," "WORK AND OBEY," and most especially, "CONSUME."
George tries to convince people of what is happening, which doesn't work, and he eventually receives a phone call from one of the Fascinators, who instructs him to die at exactly eight o'clock the next morning.
Refusing to go down without a fight, George storms a TV station, kills the Fascinator on the news, and uses its image to command everyone to "wake up," see the aliens for what they are, and kill them.
Humanity triumphs in the end but poor old George dies at exactly eight o'clock.
The John Carpenter version is snazzier. It's got a guerilla resistance and magic shades and pokes fun at the sociopathic consumerism of the Reagan Eighties.
But it's the "waking up" part that's important.
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Refusing to go down without a fight, George storms a TV station, kills the Fascinator on the news, and uses its image to command everyone to "wake up," see the aliens for what they are, and kill them.
Humanity triumphs in the end but poor old George dies at exactly eight o'clock.
The John Carpenter version is snazzier. It's got a guerilla resistance and magic shades and pokes fun at the sociopathic consumerism of the Reagan Eighties.
But it's the "waking up" part that's important.
Perhaps unfortunately, reality is a bit more subtle. It's more like the "fnords" from the "Illuminatus!" trilogy.
The idea there is children are taught not to see the word "fnord" so its subliminal presence causes anxiety.
The government liberally sprinkles it into the news, but the advertisements don't contain any so consumerism offers a sense of escapism.
Hence "I see the fnords" means "I see through the Man's bullshit."
Which maybe that's not subtle either.
But fascinators and fnords.
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Perhaps unfortunately, reality is a bit more subtle. It's more like the "fnords" from the "Illuminatus!" trilogy.
The idea there is children are taught not to see the word "fnord" so its subliminal presence causes anxiety.
The government liberally sprinkles it into the news, but the advertisements don't contain any so consumerism offers a sense of escapism.
Hence "I see the fnords" means "I see through the Man's bullshit."
Which maybe that's not subtle either.
But fascinators and fnords.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau: "There is no subjugation so perfect as that which keeps the appearance of freedom, for in that way, it captures volition itself."
They live. We sleep.
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Refusing to go down without a fight, George storms a TV station, kills the Fascinator on the news, and uses its image to command everyone to "wake up," see the aliens for what they are, and kill them.
Humanity triumphs in the end but poor old George dies at exactly eight o'clock.
The John Carpenter version is snazzier. It's got a guerilla resistance and magic shades and pokes fun at the sociopathic consumerism of the Reagan Eighties.
But it's the "waking up" part that's important.
@gwynnion
An aside: it's also why I never understood people's (>cough< chris >cough<) adoration for the Silence from Dr. Who. Derivative and lacked the actual cut to the vitals the story (and movie) had. -
Jean-Jacques Rousseau: "There is no subjugation so perfect as that which keeps the appearance of freedom, for in that way, it captures volition itself."
They live. We sleep.
Now why do you think some people are so hostile to "woke?"
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There is a short story called "Eight O'Clock in the Morning" by Ray Nelson. You have probably never heard of it, but it was turned into a John Carpenter movie called "They Live."
In the story, a man named George Nada is hypnotized by a stage magician, but when he is told to "wake up," he wakes up completely and realizes he can see aliens living among us, whom he calls Fascinators because of their hypnotic powers.
@gwynnion The cool part about the Silence were the responses to them - River shooting one just from the look on Rory's face, the Doctor's solution,that sort of thing. They weren't that interesting intrinsically.
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Now why do you think some people are so hostile to "woke?"
Despite "Illuminatus!" being an often unpleasant slog to read, I personally prefer fnords conceptually.
"They Live" has become something of a cliche, after all, and portraying the bad guys as a shadowy conspiracy of alien or foreign elites tends to invite obvious problems. John Carpenter had to repeatedly fight with Neo-Nazis over the meaning of the film.
And of course, it's not so secret anymore.
The wealthy white men and hangers-on of the Epstein class don't care if you know who they are.
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Despite "Illuminatus!" being an often unpleasant slog to read, I personally prefer fnords conceptually.
"They Live" has become something of a cliche, after all, and portraying the bad guys as a shadowy conspiracy of alien or foreign elites tends to invite obvious problems. John Carpenter had to repeatedly fight with Neo-Nazis over the meaning of the film.
And of course, it's not so secret anymore.
The wealthy white men and hangers-on of the Epstein class don't care if you know who they are.
After all, what are you going to do about it?
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Refusing to go down without a fight, George storms a TV station, kills the Fascinator on the news, and uses its image to command everyone to "wake up," see the aliens for what they are, and kill them.
Humanity triumphs in the end but poor old George dies at exactly eight o'clock.
The John Carpenter version is snazzier. It's got a guerilla resistance and magic shades and pokes fun at the sociopathic consumerism of the Reagan Eighties.
But it's the "waking up" part that's important.
@gwynnion you’d think it was a PKD story, but it wasn’t.
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After all, what are you going to do about it?
@gwynnion put Eels in their underwear, that’s what.
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After all, what are you going to do about it?
@gwynnion I still use "fnord" in conversation sometimes.
Yeah, I love "They Live" and I totally got what Carpenter was saying, but people can oftentimes see what they want to see in a conspiratorial story like that. Fnord is a subtle idea, but its meaning as control is clear.
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@gwynnion put Eels in their underwear, that’s what.
@MedeaVanamonde @gwynnion poor eels.
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After all, what are you going to do about it?
That said, one of the minor details in "They Live" which tends to get forgotten is that the aliens are encouraging climate change as part of terraforming the Earth to be more suitable to them.
I suppose even John Carpenter couldn't bring himself to believe -- then -- that humans would deliberately destroy their own planet.
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@MedeaVanamonde @gwynnion poor eels.
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That said, one of the minor details in "They Live" which tends to get forgotten is that the aliens are encouraging climate change as part of terraforming the Earth to be more suitable to them.
I suppose even John Carpenter couldn't bring himself to believe -- then -- that humans would deliberately destroy their own planet.
@gwynnion The same idea was used in The Arrival, iirc.
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Perhaps unfortunately, reality is a bit more subtle. It's more like the "fnords" from the "Illuminatus!" trilogy.
The idea there is children are taught not to see the word "fnord" so its subliminal presence causes anxiety.
The government liberally sprinkles it into the news, but the advertisements don't contain any so consumerism offers a sense of escapism.
Hence "I see the fnords" means "I see through the Man's bullshit."
Which maybe that's not subtle either.
But fascinators and fnords.
@gwynnion
I was going to mention the fnords but here they are! -
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