Weekend Reads: "Mortal Kombat," Captain America, Morrissey vs. "The Simpsons," Zima
Recommended weekend reading material for April 24, 2021.
Every week, I compile a list of interesting and thought-provoking articles to offer you some enjoyable weekend reading material.
A new Mortal Kombat movie was released this week, so the Polygon staff is taking a look at the venerable (and ultra-violent) video game franchise’s long history. For example, Nicole Carpenter looks at the moral panic surrounding Mortal Kombat’s violence, and how it lead to the creation of video game ratings.
Back in 1992, when Mortal Kombat came to home consoles, a lot of people hadn’t seen the game’s animated violence celebrated in a campy, rebellious way. It’s not like video games weren’t violent before the early 1990s, when Mortal Kombat, Doom, and others launched — after all, Mortal Kombat was already playable in arcades. But Mortal Kombat coming to a home console made the game more visible; what was once relegated to arcades was now something that could be played on the family TV.
Back in high school, my friends and I were obsessed with Mortal Kombat. We’d play it every chance we could, and of course, the gruesome fatalities were the main draw. I have a very distinct memory of grossing out one of my youth group leaders when he saw me (playing as Sub-Zero) rip out my opponent’s spine. Good times.
I haven’t played any of the Mortal Kombat games in years, but I will admit to being similarly grossed out by the latest game’s fatalities, which are far more detailed and graphic thanks to technological improvements (and may be damaging to the psychological well-being of their developers).
As for the movie: I watched it with very low expectations, and even then, I was sorely underwhelmed by this incoherent and anticlimactic attempt at a video game adaptation. I mainly watched it because it starred Hiroyuki Sanada, Joe Taslim, and Tadanobu Asano, but they were sorely wasted. And while the movie featured some of the game’s infamous fatalities (e.g., Kung Lao’s razor hat, which splits his opponent right down the middle like a table saw) and some of its catchphrases, their inclusion felt less like fun odes to the game, and more like contractual obligations.
Over at Thrillist, they’ve compiled a list of the 100 greatest movie quotes of 21st century.
We here at Thrillist Entertainment have made an effort to canonize the movie quotes of the modern era, starting with the year 2000 and running through today. Our process was highly unscientific. We thought (and fought) through what moments had lodged themselves into our brains and stuck there. Not every entry on this list has become a meme, though some certainly earn their spots because of that. Others we included simply because they astonished us in some way: the perfect punchline, the gut-dropping reveal, the brilliantly written axioms. Some are so silly we've developed a deep affection for them. (Ever hear the one about sand from Star Wars?) All of these 100 selections have made us cry, laugh, or nod in solidarity, and they frequently pop unbidden into our heads.
Disney and Sony have signed a multi-year contract that will bring numerous Sony’s releases to the Disney+ streaming service, including a certain web-head.
Disney and Sony Pictures have signed a multi-year “content licensing agreement” that will bring new Sony theatrical releases, starting with its 2022 films, to Disney-owned platforms. The deal also gives Disney the rights to many of Sony’s older films, including Spider-Man titles — meaning that movies starring the web-slinger, which are notably absent from Disney Plus’ collection of Marvel films, could eventually make their way to the streaming service.
K.B. Hoyle considers what the character of Captain America has to say about American values and history.
If Captain America is understood to be the quintessential American hero, then the virtues he embodies are supposed to be quintessential American virtues. But are they? In Captain America and Avengers films Steve Rogers’s strength comes from his servant heart. At the beginning of Steve’s story, he’s not the greatest, the strongest, the biggest, the best — he gets chosen for the super serum because of his willingness to lay down his life for others. In his own time, he’s the strongest Avenger (he’s the only Avenger), but he ends up leading a team that is stronger, bigger, and smarter than he is, and he does so with humility and deference.
Do any of those things sound like 21st century American values to you?
My boys and I have thoroughly enjoyed The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Some might view its commentary on race in America as preachy and heavy-handed — or even worse, “woke” — but not me. It felt almost prophetic, using a comic book adaptation to speak a little truth to power.
A recent Simpsons episode featured a Morrissey-like character who turns out to be a meat-eating racist (among other things). Not surprisingly, Morrissey has responded pretty negatively to the episode.
In his lengthy letter on Monday, Morrissey noted that he doesn’t have “a determined business squad of legal practitioners ready to pounce,” adding, “I think this is generally understood and is the reason why I am so carelessly and noisily attacked. You are especially despised if your music affects people in a strong and beautiful way, since music is no longer required to. In fact, the worst thing you can do in 2021 is to lend a bit of strength to the lives of others. There is no place in modern music for anyone with strong emotions.”
If Morrissey’s pissed off at you, then I think you might be doing something right, especially given his own history of outrageous statements. Then again, earning Morrissey’s ire doesn’t seem to require all that much effort.
I love reading about websites that have long since been consigned to the dustbins of internet history. Case in point, the website for Zima, which was more than just another branded website; it was an attempt to create a cool online destination where people wanted to hang out.
For legal reasons, Zima couldn’t sell their product directly to consumers via the web. But that hardly mattered; Modem had something much bigger in mind. They knew that digital-minded Gen Xers would never go for that type of obvious, corporate-tinted direct marketing. They needed to make Zima a destination, a brand synonymous with Generation X nightlife; the life of the party, the counter-culture drink of choice. They needed to make Zima cool. What they built was one of the first branded websites, an interactive experience targeted at creating a dedicated portal of cool stuff for the digital demographic.
Astronomer David A. Weintraub considers how some of the world’s major religions might react to the discovery of alien life.
For the religious, knowing that life on Earth is not unique may demand radical new ways of thinking about ourselves: How special and sacred are we? Is Earth a privileged place? Do we have an obligation to care for beings on other planets? Should we convert ET to “my” religion? These questions point to a deeper issue about whether our religions can adapt to the idea that humans are not the only sentient beings in the universe capable of worshiping God.
I’ve recently become a fan of The Guardian’s “Experience” columns, which reveal interesting details about seemingly ordinary or mundane individuals. For example, a Welsh farmer sings the praises of his simple life.
I have a routine, just like nature. That extends to what I eat. I’ve had the same supper for 10 years, even on Christmas Day: two pieces of fish, one big onion, an egg, baked beans and a few biscuits at the end. For lunch I have a pear, an orange and four sandwiches with paste. But I allow myself a bit more variety; I’ll sometimes have soup if it’s cold.
When I go to the supermarket, I know exactly what I want. I’m not interested in other food. I’ve never had Chinese, Indian, French food. Why change? I’ve already found the food I love. It would be a job to alter me. My uncle, a bachelor and farmer like me, had the same food for every meal. He had bread, butter, cheese and tea for breakfast, lunch and dinner (although he would bring out the jam for visitors).
I know some might scoff at this fellow, or pity him for his limited palate. But I admire his devotion to simplicity and stability. (Though I certainly enjoy a nice, big plate of chicken tikka korma every now and then.)
We’re so used to demanding and having countless options and choices, and we equate that with freedom. But having so many options can be restrictive (i.e., the tyranny of choice), and resisting the desire to always find something new or novel can be liberating in its own right.
Of course, I practice no such restraint when it comes to finding new music or movies.
Finally, Matthew Sweet offers some helpful tips for debunking online conspiracy theories (e.g., claims that face masks fail to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and actually have negative side-effects).
Bad work like this circulates because it appears to be academic research in the same way that Mickey Mouse appears to be a mouse. Its apparatus — abstract, footnotes, references, tables — beguiles the eye, particularly one already convinced it can discern the shape of an authoritarian New World Order. When challenged, conspiracy theorists often tell their detractors to do their research — by which they usually mean sharing online articles they haven’t quite finished. Dr Vainshelboim’s paper is a perfect addition to the reading list, and can now take its place in a pseudo-scholarly system where rotten sources move endlessly along lines that were established long before Alex Jones or David Icke were born.
Via Alan Jacobs. Jacobs, by the way, has also posted some useful advice for reading stuff that’s posted online, especially long-form articles and essays that may actually be more difficult or draining to read online.
From the Blog
This past week, I posted several concert videos that I recorded back in the early-to-mid ‘00s:
Look for more concert videos in the days and weeks to come as I upload them to YouTube.
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