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The situation of Martha, the protagonist, (feelings of pointlessness and loneliness) seems to recall the anomic post-modern individual. Metanarratives have fallen and there is no hypothesis of meaning in order to face experiences in which the anthropological questions emerge deeply over time. The atomized society and the nature of post-modern life make her sister unavailable in order to be supportive to Martha. Where does Martha find a solutionto her anxiety? On the internet, in the technological apparatus. It is only there where she can manage her devastating feelings.
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Professor: Jorge Martínez Lucena
Black Mirror 2.1. “Be Right Back”
• Synopsis: Martha becomes a widow because her partner dies in a traffic accident. She is pregnant and finds herself going through this situation alone. In absence of human companionship she find the solution to her melancholy in the internet. An uncanny website provides some apps and a technological device which could manage her sadness.
“Be Right Back”
Conclusion: At the end of the episode the spectator appreciates how the virtual substitute of the partner of the protagonist seems to not be able to play the same role as the original partner.
“Be Right Back”
The situation of the protagonist (feelings of pointlessness and loneliness) seems to recall the anomic post-modern individual.
• Metanarratives have fallen and there is no hypothesis of meaning in order to face experiences in which the anthropological questions emerge deeply over time.
• The atomized society and the nature of post-modern life make her sister unavailable in order to be supportive to Martha.
Where does Martha find a solutionto her anxiety? On the internet, in the technological apparatus. It is only there where she can manage her devastating feelings.
I
A Metaphor About Post-modernity
What does Martha need in order to continue with her own life?
1. She needs to be gazed upon by someone in order to feel and acknowledge her own identity because she is feeling lost.
2. She needs human warmth, because she is feeling sad and abandoned.
3. She needs to discover that she belongs to a, because the couple has vanished and she wants a human place from which to depart and build a future.
A Metaphor About Post-modernity
4. She also needs to know that love is something stronger than death, because without this judgement life becomes worthless.
“Macbeth: She would have died later anyway. That news was bound to come someday. Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow. The days creep slowly along until the end of time. And every day that’s already happened has taken fools that much closer to their deaths. Out, out, brief candle. Life is nothing more than an illusion. It’s like a poor actor who struts and worries for his hour on the stage and then is never heard from again. Life is a story told by an idiot, full of noise and emotional disturbance but devoid of meaning” (William Shakespeare, Macbeth).
A Metaphor About Post-modernity
Does she really receive what she missing? She only obtains an artificial and inauthentic (dumb) substitute which lets her have enough psychological strength to get through the suffering she faces.
She realizes that this man-machine response is not enough. It amuses her when she needs it. But it is not a rationally somebody able to provide her with the rational fulfilment that she is looking for.
The virtual partner becomes a kind of pill that alleviates pain but doesn’t cure the cause of the suffering. It doesn’t suffice anthropologically speaking but instead lets the protagonist cope with her psychological difficulties.
A Metaphor About Post-modernity
Is this micro-myth portraying our present-day searching for happiness?
The post-modern individual tend to reduce his anthropological demands into his activities as a consumer.
The post-modern individual tends to search for love, relationships, companionship, human warmth and a feeling of belonging somewhere in social networks and other technological resources which are available in our present-day societies.
A Metaphor About Post-modernity
Does technology solve our existential demands?
• Perhaps, technology is no more than a means to look for answers to anthropological questions, but not a response itself.
• Perhaps, we, if we are modern people and believers in the myth of the progress, consider that science and technology are the natural bearers of our happiness.
A Metaphor About Post-modernity
• Perhaps, we should realize that the myth of progress and the myth of the man-machine are still operating in our unconscious social imagination.
• Perhaps, we should also realize that these two myths don’t convey reality, because we cannot produce our own happiness or salvation (progress) exclusively through scientific and technological work (man-machine).
A Metaphor About Post-modernity
