Week 11 Response – Chloe Pope

How real is reality tv?

Studies into reality television and how ‘real’ it truly is have largely come to the conclusion that although it does show aspects of ‘reality’ – people, places, and situations – these are very rarely, if at all shown as they truly are. Instead, they are edited or filmed in certain ways that allow the ‘director’, producer, filmmaker, etcetera to portray what is on screen in a specific way. Therefore, it can be said that the ‘reality’ of reality television varies – but it is never wholly ‘real’.

In ‘’How Real Can You Get?’: Recent Developments In ‘Reality’ Television’, Richard Kilborn writes, ‘There is now a general recognition that all notions of ‘realism’ are historically determined and that the criteria for judging the realism…of a text have just as much to do with the audience expectations and with a set of established conventions…for the viewer the realism of an audio-visual text depends to a large extent on how closely it conforms to the style or mode of presentation he or she has come to accept as ‘realist’’. (Kilborn, 1994) Reality television, from the outset, has drawn on established styles of presenting ‘the real’ on television and film – most notably, the documentary style. However, within reality television, these techniques can – and often are – used to manipulate the audience and change the portrayal of what is happening on screen from how it really happened.

In his essay comparing 1966 British classic ‘docudrama’ ‘Cathy Come Home’ and the 2014 British reality show ‘Benefits Street’, Ben Lamb points out how both television programs make use of the same ‘documentarian’ techniques, but have drastically different effects on the audience and how they view the disadvantaged people on display in the shows. One such technique is the use of captions, often used within documentaries to provide extra context or information that isn’t immediately available to the audience through the filmed content. In Cathy Come Home, these are used at the end of the text, where it informs the audience that the events (unemployment, homeless, child uplifting) in the drama occurred within then-current day Britain, along with statistics on homelessness in the country. This is accompanied by a shot that mirrors the opening shot of the drama, with Cathy on the side of the road hitchhiking, only this time appearing much more dishevelled and beaten down. Lamb writes of the effect of the use of captions along with the image on screen, ‘Such a visual contrast between the opening and conclusion functions to emphasise the stark downfall of her character and the accompaniment of the captions stresses the typicality of her situation…The words on screen are an essential component within these emotional scenes to demonstrate how this harrowing downfall was commonplace for many.’ (Lamb, 2016)

Captions are also used in Benefits Street, as Lamb points out, but to a much different effect from that which is seen in Cathy Come Home. These captions come in the form of subtitles dictating dialogue that has just been said on screen; although often used to make muffled or accented dialogue more coherent for viewers, as Lamb points out, this is not always the case in Benefits Street, where it is instead often used to emphasize ‘controversial’ pieces of dialogue or manipulate them to portray the speaker or situation in a certain way. This takes place in one such scene where a member of the community on the street, after buying essentials from a neighbour who goes door-to-door selling them, says ‘the government cuts are fucking up everyone’. (Lamb, 2016) This captioned dialogue is accompanied by a shot of her young son eating lollies. Otherwise perfectly audible dialogue, the effect of emphasizing this statement with captions set over the shot of her son has the effect, as Lamb writes, of focusing ‘our attention towards Becky’s bad language and lack of personal culpability for the conditions her child lives in’. (Lamb, 2016) Instead of cultivating sympathy for the disadvantaged, as Cathy Comes Home does, it instead ‘others’ the people being portrayed in Benefits Street and positions the audience against them. This is a clear example of how documentarian techniques can be used to both portray the ‘real’ on television and film, but also manipulate the ‘real’ to the point that it can have two entirely different effects on the audience watching and how they react to what they are viewing.

It is also worth noting that while the ‘reality’ of reality television, as laid out previous, is dubious at best, it can be undisputed that reality television can have very real effects. As mentioned in Lamb’s comparison of Cathy Come Home and Benefits Street, the 1966 docudrama led to nationwide support of real-life support networks for homeless people and families; the 2014 drama, on the other hand, worked to garner support for the real life ‘Big Society’ government initiative, which made welfare and benefit cuts. (Lamb, 2016) These real life effects can be seen in other, more recent reality television programs as well – from the spate of suicides effecting the cast of Love Island UK to the suicide of reality star and professional wrestler Hana Kimura after her portrayal in Japanese reality show Terrace House led to relentless cyberbullying. (Codrea-Rado, 2019) (Margolis, 2020) Regardless of how questionable the reality of what is being portrayed on the screen is, it cannot be argued that it has a very real effect on people off the screen, within the real world.

References

Codrea-Rado, A. (2019, June 4). ‘Love Island’ Returns Amid Debate About Contestants’ Mental Health. Retrieved from The New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/04/arts/television/love-island-mental-health.html

Kilborn, R. (1994). ‘How Real Can You Get?’: Recent Developments in ‘Reality’ Television. European Journal of Communication, 421-439.

Lamb, B. (2016). Cathy Come Off Benefits: A comparative ideological analysis of Cathy Come Home and Benefits Street. Journalism and Discourse Studies.

Margolis, E. (2020, July 17). The Fall of ‘Terrace House’. Retrieved from The New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/17/arts/television/terrace-house-suicide.html

Referring to Mountfort et al. (2018), in what ways is cosplay analogous to citation

Cosplay is made up from the two words ‘costume’ and ‘role play’ or ‘costume’ and ‘play’ (Crawford & Hancock, 2018). Cosplay is defined as the practice of dressing up as a character from a book, film or video game. (Oxford dictionary). A citation on the other hand is the a means through which readers understand that the material in your work is derived from another source. Cosplay is analogous to the citation as it references materials from other texts, by editing the original source to produce an image or identity of one’s own.

Cosplay is a source of citation for fans who use this medium to dress up or transform their bodies into characters from a variety of media texts (Mountfort et al., 2018). A cosplayers body is metaphorically a text that references or cites another text, this is shown in their dress and even behavior (Mountfort et al., 2018). The cosplayer is required to put a lot of effort into researching their chosen text and character, they would like to dress up as. Only then can their cosplay, and performance be successful; through the perfect reference. (Mountfort et al., 2018). It is not limited to the perfect costume but rather the portrayal of the essence of the true character that is being imitated, this includes pose and gesture. For the audience, it is crucial that cosplayers make strong references back to the characters so that the audience are immediately able to identify who they are imitating. Unlike other forms of costumes for different purposes, cosplay is heavily reliant on its source material order to be able to portray the correct image, therefore comparable to citation. (Mountfort et al., 2018).

Additionally, some cosplayers even choose to use mannerisms from that of the character or pretend that they are present within a specific setting from the text that they are citing. This is beneficial to the audience as they now have a much stronger sense of how much research and thought was put into the costume. As well as the fact that they are able to cite materials, while expressing themselves as freely as they would like to be. Moreover, cosplayers are not limited to character adaptations but can also source “parody, pastiche, satire, burlesque, and caricature.” (Mountfort et al., 2018). They have the full freedom to cite multiple materials from a single source in order to enhance the character, or perhaps incorporate the different versions of the character into one, and portray it to the audience. Multimodal texts can also be cited in order to represent a character. Their opportunities to cosplay are limitless, and there is not a set structure or boundaries to follow other than sourcing correctly. For the above reasons, cosplay is analogous to citations.

References

Crawford, G., & Hancock, D. (2018). Urban poachers: Cosplay, playful cultures and the appropriation of urban space. The Journal of Fandom Studies, 6(3), 301-318. https://doi-org.ezproxy.aut.ac.nz/10.1386/jfs.6.3.301_1

Mountfort, P., Peirson-Smith, A., & Geczy, A. (2018). Planet cosplay: Costume play, identity and global fandom. Intellect. Lamerichs, N. (2011). Stranger than fiction: Fan identity in cosplay. Transformative Works and Cultures, 7(3), 56-72.

Week 11 response – Leo Ballantyne

How real is reality television?

The diversity that exists within the broad category of reality television, along with the significant diversity that can occur between individual texts that exist within the same sub-genre means it is fundamentally impossible to make a categorical claim regarding how ‘real’ reality television is. That being said, what can be discussed is the capacity of reality television to utilize artifice or manipulate the narrative in the process depicting real life events – how unreal reality television has the capacity to be in the right hands. As highlighted by Kilborn (1994), the primary motivation of most forms of television is to some degree to entertain the audience due to the financial incentives of high audience engagement. Even when a program or media organisation’s main goal is to inform, there are often ideological leanings they desire to transfer to the audience, derived either from a sense of genuine ethical concern or because these ideologies may benefit the owners of these organisations either politically or financially. This can be seen especially clearly in US news organisations, which are often funded by financial elites who desire to propagate political leanings which most benefit them (Vinton, 2016). Even these less directly entertainment based mediums often have a flair for the dramatic in order to ensure prolonged engagement. Between the need to elevate drama and sneak in ideology, reality television has developed a significant number of techniques which manipulate reality while maintaining the facade of authenticity.

One of the most prominent techniques utilized to construct drama, especially in game shows, but not exclusive to the genre alone, is how information is edited to construct a certain narrative. How scenes within a reality show are cut together as well as the superfluous layers added such as music and sound effects can completely alter the meaning of recorded scenes. Without the need to use a script, reality television shows can manufacture drama by cutting together dialogue and interactions which occurred in a different order or completely separately, while adding specific music to elevate the desired tone of the artificial moment (Walters, 2016). This technique is present beyond genres usually considered entertainment for ‘the lowest common denominator’. Nature documentaries often splice shots from various days of shooting together, with said shots sometimes being of completely different individuals of the same species. Along with the use of selective establishing shots and music among other editing techniques, such texts can construct a dramatic narrative viewers are more likely to engage and empathise with (Nguyen, 2017).

In a similar vein, how events are framed by context and additional information can be used to completely alter the audience’s reading of events or information. This technique is often exceedingly common in more biased news/infotainment organisations, where key pieces of information are excluded in order to craft a narrative which consists of half-truths. This occurs in more traditional forms of reality television as well. True crime producers are known to omit details on explored cases, and emphasise others in order to fit within the given dramatic narrative the producer is attempting to create through these real events (Leszkiewicz, 2016).

Additionally, two potentially manipulative techniques emphasised by Kilborn (1994) are the use of the reality television host and dramatic recreations of events. Hosts or narrators in reality television, fairly straightforwardly, provide additional layers of meaning to clips presented in the shows they host via voiceover and discussion. These added layers vary from merely implying a recommended audience response to explicit value judgements which are meant to more overtly direct the audience towards a specific response to the filmed scenes the commentator’s statements are connected to. These commentators can completely alter the tone and textual comprehension of the audience. Potentially more manipulative are dramatic re-enactments which are most frequent in docudramas and increasingly, news reports. These re-enactments are at face value used to fill gaps in the depiction of real narratives that occurred via artificially reconstructing them. Kilborn suggests that this technique can be used to smuggle in both drama and ideology. By emphasising specific senses, events and actors within these recreations, creators can evoke in the audience a different understanding of how certain events transpired compared to the realities of these situations. This can be used to intentionally elevate the dramatic or develop an account of events contradictory to dominant narratives. Both of these techniques have the potential to manipulate seemingly real events to the creators benefit.

While claims still cannot be made on how real reality television as a whole, looking at these prevalent techniques which are often used to obscure reality and construct fantasy in the guise of reality, we can make a fairly confident claim on reality television‘s capability to be false. When considering both the vast toolset reality television can use to potentially mislead, and the major financial incentives of dramatization and prolonged engagement, it becomes abundantly clear that most reality television texts manipulate us to some extent. The extent to which this manipulation occurs depends on both the nature of the text and our subjective understandings of what can be considered real, however what is made abundantly clear in this era of disinformation and rapid technological advancement is the desperate need for audiences to develop a critical toolset which can combat the more egregious instances of reality manipulation.

Kilborn, R. (1994). ‘How real can you get?’: Recent developments in ‘reality’ television. European Journal of Communication, 9(4), 421-439. DOI: 10.1177/0267323194009004003

Vinton, K. (2016). These 15 Billionaires Own America’s News Media Companies. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/katevinton/2016/06/01/these-15-billionaires-own-americas-news-media-companies/?sh=797dbd4d660a

Walters, L. (2016). Lights, camera and a whole lot of editing – making a reality TELEVISION villain. Stuff. https://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/television-radio/78140771/lights-camera-and-a-whole-lot-of-editing–making-a-reality-television-villain

Nguyen, H. (2017). How ‘Planet Earth II’ and Other Nature Docs Manipulate Footage to Mess With Our Emotions. Indiewire. https://www.indiewire.com/2017/04/nature-documentaries-fake-manipulated-video-1201809008/

Leszkiewicz, A. (2016). From Serial to Making a Murderer: can true crime as entertainment ever be ethical?. New Statesman. https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/television-radio/2016/01/serial-making-murderer-can-true-crime-entertainment-ever-be-ethical

Week 12 Question

Can reality tv still be thought of as a genre given the high level of hybridity that exists?

Reality TV first emerged throughout the late 19th century and is ever changing with the amount of different categories that it is made up of. Reality tv is described as a genre that is made up of many other components which is why many people would call it a hybrid genre. The question that comes up when thinking of reality TV is, can it still be considered its own genre even though it has a high level of hybridity. Reality tv is commonly made up of two existing genres known as fiction and non-fiction. A lot of the time, reality tv is known to sell the idea that most of its shows are based around the truths of life and the people on these shows are supposed to be real instead of being actors. The reason that reality tv seems to be increasingly popular today is because many of the viewers watching see it as a factual experience that is non-scripted. Hill (2007) says that reality tv was renamed to reality entertainment and is more related to the factual end of the realism spectrum.

According to Wood (2004), television is separated into four different categories known as Fact, Entertainment, Fiction and Advertisement. Fact refers to television shows that share factual evidence such as the news and documentaries. Entertainment refers to a theatrical type of reality where people act as ‘themselves’ throughout. Examples of entertainment are singing shows, game shows and many different talk shows. Fiction refers to television shows that are primarily for the imagination of the audience and examples of these include drama and different forms of comedy. The fourth and final category is advertisement and this refers to short commercials that are shown in between the actual shows; these advertisements are supposed to entice the audience to buy them (Wood, 2004).

Wood (2004) explains that many professionals look at the hybridity of television as a corresponding genre. This would mean that even though reality tv is looked at as a hybrid of other genres, it should still be considered as its own genre. When looking at television categories, most people would consider reality tv its own genre along with drama and comedy. In the world today, there exists a vast amount of hybridity throughout many different media platforms, but just because hybridity tells us it is more than one thing, does not mean it can not still be classified as a genre. Aslama and Pantti (2006) describe reality tv as a complex concept that is made up of subcategories and different television programs, but although complex, it can still be considered its own genre even if it is a vast range of categories.

References

Aslama, M., & Pantti, M. (2006). Talking alone: Reality TV, emotions and authenticity. European journal of cultural studies, 9(2), 167-184.

Hill, A. (2007). Restyling factual TV: Audiences and news, documentary and reality genres. Routledge.

Wood, B. (2004). A World in Retreat: The Reconfiguration of Hybridity in 20th-Century New Zealand Television. Media, Culture & Society. DOI: 10.1177/0163443704039709

Week 9 Question

In what ways can cosphotography be understood as a form of “fan capital”?

Cosphotography has become a big art form during the 21st century and shows fans of the cosplay world taking part through social media. Cosphotography is a portmanteau of the words cosplay and photography used together to describe a newer genre of cosplay. It is explained by Mountfort et al. (2018), that photography is an important key element of a cosplayers life and in time, could help bring not only fame, but “fan capital” as well.

In the world of cosplay, money is a contributing element that helps many cosplayers stand out. Unless a cosplayer has made their entire outfit from scratch, it is guaranteed that they had to spend at least a little bit of money in order to do their make-up, hair, and even prosthetics if needed. Many of these items do not come cheap, and if a cosplayer wants to stand out as the best in a professional sense, then they are required to hand over their coins. This is where fan capital is helpful. Mountfort et al. (2018) says that many cosplayers hope for some sort of capital gain in return for their hard work and the time they have spent putting together their entire character.

Fan capital is explained as a source of income for many cosplayers with some sort of popularity behind them. However, fan capital can be hard to come by if the cosplayer does not have as much experience or speciality to them. Cosphotography can be understood as a form of fan capital because it includes making money through the actions of fans requesting photos and anything else to do with photography and media. Photography is a huge part of a cosplayers life because many of them have their photos taken, have music videos directed and many other forms of moving image media (Mountfort et al. 2018).

Cosphotography can be understood as a form of fan capital because it is one particular way that some cosplayers earn money. Because cosplayers spend so much time and money transforming themselves, in return they expect some form of money reward. Cosplay has become an ever increasing hobby for many individuals, however, for a lot of people it is their way of life. Dressing up and becoming someone else is a lifestyle for a vast amount of people and because it is their lifestyle and they have committed themselves enough to this artform, they deserve to be credited for their creativity.

References

Mountfort, P., Peirson-Smith, A., & Geczy, A. (2018). Planet Cosplay: Costume Play, Identity and Global Fandom. Blackboard. https://blackboard.aut.ac.nz/

Week 10 Question

How does Dick use the I Ching and how did his views on the oracle and its role in the novel shift over time?

The I Ching is an old famous Chinese text that is often referred to as the ‘oracle’. The book refers to the idea that it can ultimately predict the future through the tossing of six coins and 64 hexagrams. Within the book, there are hexagrams that each have a different symbol/element used to help guide the reader with its wisdom (Mountfort, 2016). The I Ching is said to be related to the Zhou dynasty and has a long-lasting place in the history of Chinese history.

Philip K. Dick is the late author of the award winning masterpiece ‘The Man in the High Castle’. It is explained by Mountfort (2016), that throughout Dick’s famous novel, he did indeed use the I Ching as an oracle in order to actually write it. Dick used the I Ching to help develop the direction that he wanted to take when writing ‘The Man in the High Castle’. Throughout the journal written by Mountfort (2016), it is explained that the oracle is used because the I Ching represents the idea of chance and it suggests that because there are many different hexagrams, it could also mean that there are also different alternative outcomes. Almost like a game with dice, the I Ching relies on different possibilities.

Mountfort (2016), says that Dick often refers to the oracle (the I Ching) as the actual author of his book because he consulted it and it gave him advice on the direction that he should go when writing and even finishing the book. The Man in the High Castle is a book written about three main characters that consult the I Ching, and Dick explains that he used the oracle because his characters did. It was also explained that if the oracle had not directed the narrative in such a specific way, then Dick would not have had his characters act in the particular way that they do throughout the book.

Over time it was mentioned that Dick actually had a negative time with the oracle and that at one point he fell out with the I Ching. However, Mountfort (2016), says that over time, Dick eventually consulted the I Ching again and his ‘falling out’ shifted overtime. Dick’s novel is often depicted as being related to the uchronie genre which means that it is a piece of work consisting of a made-up time period through the real world.

Philip K. Dick was an American author who created a piece of work that he proposed was written partially by the I Ching or the oracle. He consulted an ancient Chinese text to create his famous novel, and it probably would not be as famous as it is today if he had not.

References

Mountfort, P. (2016). The I Ching and Philip K. Dick’s The Man in the High Castle. Science fiction studies. Blackboard. https://blackboard.aut.ac.nz/

Week 9 response – Leo Ballantyne

5. What are some of the tensions between productions like Sy-Fy Channel’s Heroes of Cosplay and fan-led Cosplay Music Videos (CMVs)?

Cosplay, at the core of its identity, has involved reappropriation and negotiation between performer and the source material from which each performance is inspired. As argued in my previous response, this relationship can be considered an intertextual form of détournement where via the cosplay community’s subversions and expansions, new understandings of source material is permanently altered. This fundamental interplay that occurs here has facilitated a certain set of cross-cultural characteristics which define the cosplay community and the hobby as a whole. Performers often play roles which are of a different gender to theirs within the source material, meaning gender roles are often challenged or disregarded both within performances and generally the community itself. This has seemingly manifested in a more progressive space which is supportive of a variety of gender and sexual identities. Similarly, race of characters is often subverted in cosplay performances, constructing a space where racial stereotypes, expectations and representation are openly discussed and frequently criticised. This subversive undercurrent leads to an implicit agreement within the fandom that cosplays are celebrations of source materials, not necessarily faithful reproductions, as such, physical and resource limitations are not points of contention between most members. These features encourage a generally supportive environment where values revolving around community, inclusivity, collaboration and experimentation are encouraged. Even in fashion/cosplay tournaments where this is a modicum of competition, the vast majority of the time a level of ludic and irreverence is present which prevents the more toxic modes of competition from occurring. As Mountfort (2018) suggests, the cosplay community when assessed by its best qualities is a “socially progressive/transgressive space where fans enact a kind of collective détournement.”

For the most part, static (or image based) cosphotography as a practice has done nothing to impede these values while providing a treasured means for cosplayers to show off their technical and creative talents in a non-competitive means. Due to the anonymity and far reaching nature of the internet, online dissemination of cosphotography has tragically enabled the proliferation of harmful gazes such as those that sexualise unwilling performers or those which are critical or mocking of a performer’s ‘ exotic geekiness’ or inability to faithfully replicate the source material. These negative consequences, although harmful, have more to do with the nature of the internet than cosphotography, and cosplayers can mitigate the effects of these gazes by selecting more judiciously who can see their performances. This relative harmlessness cannot be equally applied to the newer genre moving image cosphotography. When it comes to moving image, there is a tense conflict between various types of cosphotography and how they depict the practice and community. According to Lamerichs (2015), CMVs (cosplay music videos) are predominantly an extension of the cosplayers showing off their passion, while also enabling greater performative control on the side of the performer. CMVs being performer mediated also means that cosplays are able to transcend their traditionally fragmentary performances to create more purposeful and complete narrative explorations, enhancing the core role of cosplay as subversion and expansion of cited materials. When cosplay media becomes no longer performer mediated however, especially in regards to video content, a number of issues can arise where the creator misunderstands the core identity of cosplay and the community surrounding it. This is certainly the case for the Sy-Fy channel’s Heroes of Cosplay and similar non-performer created media.

Mountfort (2018) suggests that while most cosplays and by extension CMVs are acts of détournement, they are at threat of falling victim to the opposite phenomenon – récupération – where radical and fringe subcultures are subsumed and co-opted by the mainstream and corporate. This is what can often occur in outside productions such as Heroes of Cosplay, where marketable elements of cosplay are elevated while others are diminished. In the instance of Heroes of Cosplay, common criticisms suggest that sexual appeal, competition and craftsmanship are emphasized due to their ability to attract casual audiences while neglecting the primarily inclusive, supportive, collaborative and subversive nature of cosplay (Scott, 2015). This selective portrayal of cosplay leads to a form of moving image cosphotography which is decidedly corporate in its over-dramatization and problematic depictions of beauty standards and gender roles (Hanson, 2013). With this in mind, tension can be said to exist between CMVs and larger non performer mediated productions because while they tend to share the same medium, CMVs extend the inherent purpose of cosplay as citational acts which expand upon and subvert texts, while their corporate counterparts act to diminish it. It can be argued these corporate acts of récupération act to undermine the very identity of cosplayers and the cosphotography, such as CMVs, which they seek to create, by constructing false characterisations of the practice in pursuit of monetary gain.

Mountfort, P. (2018). Cosphotography and Fan Capital. In P. Mountfort, Peirson-Smitth, Anne, & A. Gaczy, Planet Cosplay (pp. 45-74). Bristol: Intellect Books.

Lamerichs, N. (2015). The remediation of the fan convention: Understanding the emerging genre of cosplay music videos. Transformative Works and Cultures, 18. https://doi.org/10.3983/twc.2015.0606.

Scott, S. (2015). Cosplay Is Serious Business: Gendering Material Fan Labor on Heroes of Cosplay. Cinema Journal. 53(3), 146-154. https://doi.org/10.1353/CJ.2015.0029

Hanson, B. (2013). Seven Reasons Why Heroes of Cosplay Is Terrible. Topless Robot. https://www.toplessrobot.com/2013/09/seven_reasons_why_heroes_of_cosplay_is_terrible_1.php

Week 10 Response – Chloe Pope

How does Dick use the I Ching and how did his views on the oracle and its role in the novel shift over time?

Dick uses the I Ching in a multitude of ways in both the construction of the novel, The Man in the High Castle, and in the novel itself. In the novel itself, it is used by the characters – Frank Frink, Nobusuke Tagomi, and Juliana Frink – as a consultation device to receive answers to their pressing questions. This much is abundantly clear upon a surface reading of the novel. The I Ching, however, is also used by Dick to great extent within the the novel’s construction. When posed with pressing questions himself about the direction of the novel – such as the very decisions the characters are making within the novel – so too would Dick consult the I Ching. In this way, the I Ching was what formed and guided the direction of the novel. Dick said of using it to write The Man in the High Castle, ‘I used [the I Ching] in The Man in the High Castle because a number of characters used it. In each case when they asked a question, I threw the coins and wrote the hexagram lines they got. That governed the direction of the book’. (Dick, 1974)

However, Dick did not merely use the I Ching to make individual decisions for his characters in singular moments. Dick uses the I Ching in the craft of the novel to create a sense of connection between the characters – a sense that their decisions, the paths they choose to take, are interconnected in some way, running parallel, touching at points. ‘What these twelve readings reveal, when considered as a whole, is a kind of occluded patterning at the core of the novel,’ writes Mountfort, P. in his essay ‘The I Ching and Philip K. Dick’s The Man in the High Castle’ (2016), ‘encapsulated in alternating doublets, pairings, and other complementarities between characters, in terms of their questions, the hexagrams they receive, and when they receive them’. (Mountfort, 2018) Alongside this, Dick’s use of the I Ching also inserts key philosophies from the I Ching into the novel – most notably around the passage of time, with the key events or ‘moments’ of the novel flowing in synchronicity, as opposed to in a wholly linear and causal form. This is perhaps most emphasized at the famous – or infamous – conclusion of the novel, where the reader is left with the open-ended question as to what is real and what is fiction – our world, where the Nazis lost World War II, or the world within The Man in The High Castle, where they did not. Jumping off from this, as the I Ching and the synchronous flow of time suggests that any one outcome may be a possibility at any moment, than any number of ‘realities’ could be the ‘real’, as any number of ‘fictionalities’ could be the fiction; as written in Mountfort’s ‘The I Ching and Philip K. Dick’s The Man in the High Castle’, Dick’s notion of history is certainly synchronic rather than diachronic… both in his evocation of a web of interrelationships and in his sense that the profusion of possible realities could radically undermine our sense of the real.’ (Mountfort, 2018)

The authenticity of Dick’s use of the I Ching in the writing of The Man in the High Castle, along with how steadfast he held on to his belief in the I Ching’s voice in later years, has come into question, however. There have been questions as to whether Dick truly took the I Ching at it’s word – it’s first word, specifically – and did not instead manipulate or ‘re-interpret’ it’s messages to suit the direction he already had in mind. (Mountfort, 2018) Such implicit human bias is hard, nearly impossible to avoid even in clinical settings, and in the environment of a writer such as Dick could easily influence results. This is suggested by such scholars as Emmanuel Carrere in I Am Alive and You Are Dead: A Journey Inside the Mind of Philip K Dick, ‘“[Phil] didn’t need [the I Ching] to help him come up with the exact structure for his novel, he maintained, but it did lead him to see better the organization he was already struggling to build by helping him understand the importance of structure”’ (Carrere, 1993/2005) and even implied within the novel itself, where the fictional novelist – an implied stand-in for Dick in this fictional world – is implied to have done the same when consulting the I Ching. In later years, Dick himself also questioned and even seemed to outright resent the way the I Ching ‘wrote’ the novel, saying, ‘The I Ching failed me at the end of that book, and didn’t help me resolve the ending. That’s why the ending is so unresolved…the I Ching copped out completely, and left me stranded’. (Dick, An Interview with Phillip K. Dick, 1976)

References

Carrere, E. (1993/2005). I Am Alive and You Are Dead: A Journey Inside the Mind of Phillip K Dick. (T. Bent, Trans.) London: Bloomsbury.

Dick, P. K. (1974). Vertex Interview with Phillip K. Dick. (A. B. Cover, Interviewer)

Dick, P. K. (1976). An Interview with Phillip K. Dick. (D. DePerez, Interviewer)

Mountfort, P. (2018). The I Ching and Philip K. Dick’s The Man in the High Castle . SCIENCE FICTION STUDIES, VOLUME 43 (2016), 287-309.

Week 11 Questions

1. How real is reality TV?

According to Hill (2005), reality TV is categorized as popular factual programming and includes various themes, styles and techniques such as “non-professional actors, unscripted dialogue, surveillance footage, hand-held cameras [and] seeing events unfold as they are happening in front of the camera” (Hill, A., 2005). Kilborn (1994) states that one of the founding principles and objectives of reality TV, or RTV, is to provide their viewers with an “unmediated view of reality”.

So, how real is reality TV? Kilborn (1994) argues that viewers of RTV have grown to understand the inner workings of RTV and are aware that what they are watching on screen is in fact a “constructed reality” and that not everything presented to the audience is what it might seem. The primary objective of RTV is to entertain, in order to do so RTV producers make use of “necessary manipulation” through the use of various production techniques. Allen and Mendick (2013) discuss the representations of authenticity within RTV through three common themes: identification, such as beautiful people vs. people like me, situation, common goals vs. uncommon surroundings, and production, the unscripted vs. necessary manipulation.

Beautiful people can be classified as guests that fit societies views of the ideal person, while people like me introduces guests that are considered “ordinary”, this allows RTV to relate to their audiences while providing ideal aesthetics (Allen, K., & Mendick, H., 2013). While situations focus primarily upon cooperative psychology and location and setting, whereas unscripted are interactions, situations or consequences which arise from unknown or unpredictable variables and necessary manipulation are actions of the host or production to dramatize and exaggerate interactions between guests, alternatively for shows like Survivor, where guests are placed within highly competitive situations that challenge their physical skills as well as their intellectual and mental abilities (Kilborn, R., 1994).

In conclusion, Reality TV is both reality and unreality. While it includes aspects of reality with genuine reactions to certain themes and elements of reality, it is also largely manipulated by staging, editing, and ingenuine motivation from outer influences.

References

Allen, K., & Mendick, H. (2013). Keeping it real? Social class, young people and ‘Authenticity’ in reality TV. Sociology, 47(3), 460-476.

Grindstaff, L. (2012). Reality TV and the production of ‘Ordinary celebrity’: Notes from the field. Berkeley Journal of Sociology.

Hill, A. (2005) The reality genre. In A. Hill, reality TV: Audiences and popular factual television. (pp. 14 – 40). Oxon: Routledge.

Kilborn, R. (1994). How real can you get?: Recent developments in ‘reality’ television. European Journal of Communication 1994 9: 421 DOI: 10.1177/0267323194009004003

King (2010) describes Horror as being defined through three basic elements. Explain, using references, what these three elements are. Think of a horror story you’ve read/watched/heard that makes use of all three of these elements and show how King’s definition is at play in that narrative.

According to Stephen King, horror can be broken down into three elements; these include the horror element, the revulsion element, and the terror element. The revulsion element is the act of physically revolting the audience through grotesque animation. Additionally, it is the lowest level of trifecta yet still disturbs the audience, and makes them squirm. To simply sum, it is the scene in which the audience are in a way forced to close their eyes, or peek in order to continue watching. An example of revulsion as a form of horror, is present in the movie saw II, where there is a syringe with an antidote which is hung, in a see through box with fatal poisonous gas, it can only be accessed if one slips their hands through the unavoidable razor lined sleeves. This is gruesome as you can watch the gore of the hands oozing with blood as it hits the blade. The second element of horror is called horror. This is when the audience are exposed to something that seems graphically unbelievable. Accumulating to a state where the audience are shocked out of fear, and sense an inability to comprehend what actually occurred on the screen. An example of this would be the abundance of large creepy crawlies or a scene in which the dead rise from the grave, as seen in Zombieland. The final element of horror is terror. This is the highest form of fear. Viewers are presented with the ability to imagine the horror that has or is yet to take place. The suggestion of the unknown allows the viewers to fill in that space with something that is terrifying to them. Stephen King describes the terror element of horror as ““when you come home and notice everything you own has been taken away and replaced by an exact substitute. It’s when the lights go out and you feel something behind you, you hear it, you feel its breath against your ear, but when you turn around, there’s nothing there…”. An example of this is in the Indian movie raaz in which the woman is in a haunted forest at night, the audience’s immediate reaction, of all the terrifying creatures or possibilities that may cause her harm in her possessed state. King further states mentions how all three elements are necessary to truly embed horror within the viewers hearts, he states “it is not the physical or mental aberration in itself which horrifies us, but the lack of order which these aberrations seem to imply.”

An example of a movie that contains all three elements of horror is, ‘The Sixth Sense’. The movie is about a child psychologist who attempts to help a young boy who has the ability to see the dead, he is mentally traumatised by this ability. The revulsion factor within the film is the scene in which the audience are able to visualise the explicit gorey dead people walking around everywhere. They are able to see what the boy is able to see. The horror element is presented in the scene in which the boy is exposed to a ghost female vomiting vigorously, followed by the revelation that her meal was poisoned by her own mother. The terror element in this movie is slightly different- it is the unsaid realisations that are suggested to the audience. These include the terror of regretting things that an individual never got to carry out due to deep regret, sorrow and emotional trauma. The realisation that it is too late now.

References.

King, S (2020). Danse Macabre. Retrieved from https://cpl.catalogue.library.ns.ca/Record/5394/Excerpt

King, S. (2010) Danse Macabre.

Nellan, D. (2017) Stephen King Breaks Down the Different Levels of Horror https://www.avclub.com/stephen-king-breaks-down-the-different-levels-of-horror-1806112160