Chicken Soup for the Postmodern Soul: Philosophizing Spike Jonze’s Her Through the Lens of Evolving Modernity | Intellect Skip to content
1981
Volume 13, Issue 1
  • ISSN: 2042-1869
  • E-ISSN: 2042-1877

Abstract

Spike Jonze’s is a dystopian fiction that envisages a world wherein machine sentience has achieved the capacity to replace human experiences thereby leading to an ontological crisis of emotions and the inability to ground one’s thoughts in objective reality. While on the surface, the cinema displays the characteristic traits of a melancholic romantic drama with subtle futuristic elements, this article, however, explores the darker side of Jonze’s screenplay and the dominant political and philosophical ideas that come with it, thereby deciphering the nuances of what Jonze strives to put forward: a forewarning of the times that are approaching. This article also attempts at characterizing the world of by identifying the trajectory of late capitalism, alienation, and the realm of the simulation, all of which are critical themes that must be taken into account so as to make sense of the ethical dilemmas that technologically developed societies will have to face in the future. This research has been carried out through the analysis of articles, journals, interviews, reviews, and other secondary data sources available.

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1386/fm_00201_1
2022-03-01
2024-04-19
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

References

  1. Aronson, Ronald.. “ Albert Camus. .” The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, summer , 2017 ed.., 2011.
    [Google Scholar]
  2. Baudrillard, Jean,, und Arthur B. Evans.. “ Simulacra and Science Fiction. .” Science Fiction Studies, vol. 18, no. 3, 1991, pp. 309313.
    [Google Scholar]
  3. Bourdin, Jean Claude.. “ Hannah Arendt and the Enlightenment. .” La Pensée, 2009, pp. 6982.
    [Google Scholar]
  4. Caraway, James E.. “ Albert Camus and the Ethics of Rebellion. .” Mediterranean Studies, vol. 3, 1992, pp. 125136.
    [Google Scholar]
  5. Csicsery-Ronay, Istvan.. “ Cyberpunk and Neuromanticism. .” Mississippi Review, vol. 16, nos. 2&3, 1988, pp. 273274.
    [Google Scholar]
  6. Godkin, Edward Lawrence. “ The Economic Man. .” The North American Review, vol. 153, no. 419, 1891, pp. 491503.
    [Google Scholar]
  7. Hassan, Robert.. “ Digital Alienation. .” The Condition of Digitality, edited by Robert Hassan., University of Westminster Press;, 2020, pp. 160163.
    [Google Scholar]
  8. Leitch, Vincent B.. “ Review: Postmodern Culture: The Ambivalence of Fredric Jameson. .” College Literature, vol. 19, no. 2, 1992, pp. 111122.
    [Google Scholar]
  9. Levine, Norman.. Divergent Paths: The Hegelian Foundations of Marx’s Method. Lexington Books;, 2006.
    [Google Scholar]
  10. Lunt, Dennis.. “ World Spirit as Baal: Marx, Adorno, and Dostoyevsky on Alienation. .” The Journal of Speculative Philosophy, vol. 26, no. 2, 2012, pp. 486488.
    [Google Scholar]
  11. Margulies, Alfred.. “ Avatars of Desire and the Question of Presence: Virtual and Transitional Spaces Meet Their Liminal Edge: From Pygmalion to Spike Jonze’s Her, and Beyond […]. .” The International Journal of Psychoanalysis, vol. 97, no. 6, 2016, pp. 24.
    [Google Scholar]
  12. McCarthy, Todd.. “ Her: Film Review. .” The Hollywood Reporter, 12 Oct. 2013, https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/her-film-review-648073. Accessed 22 Mar. 2020.
    [Google Scholar]
  13. Nelson, Max.. “ Modern Love: Her. .” Film Comment, Nov./Dec. 2013, p. 10.
    [Google Scholar]
  14. Nunes, Mark.. “ Jean Baudrillard in Cyberspace: Internet, Virtuality, and Postmodernity. .” Style, vol. 29, no. 2, 1995, pp. 314327.
    [Google Scholar]
  15. Petrović, Gajo.. “ Marx’s Theory of Alienation. .” Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, vol. 23, no. 3, 1963, pp. 419426.
    [Google Scholar]
  16. Pourtova, Elena.. “ Andrei Tarkovsky: Stalker of the Unconscious. .” Journal of Analytical Psychology, vol. 62, no. 5, 2017, pp. 778781.
    [Google Scholar]
  17. Scheible, Jeff.. “ Longing to Connect: Cinema’s Year of OS Romance. .” Film Quarterly, vol. 68, no. 1, 2014, pp. 2231.
    [Google Scholar]
  18. Shaviro, Steven.. No Speed Limit: Three Essays on Accelerationism. University of Minnesota Press;, 2015.
    [Google Scholar]
  19. Tapley, Kristopher.. “ Cinematographer Hoyte Van Hoytema on capturing Spike Jonze’s ‘Her’ through a Non-Dystopian Lens. .” Uproxx , https://uproxx.com/hitfix/cinematographer-hoyte-van-hoytema-on-capturing-spike-jonzes-her-through-a-non-dystopian-lens/. Accessed 13 May 2021.
  20. Webb, Lawrence.. “ When Harry Met Siri: Digital Romcom and the Global City in Spike Jonze’s Her. .” Global Cinematic Cities, edited by Johan Andersson, and Lawrence Webb., Columbia University Press;, 2017, pp. 108110.
    [Google Scholar]
http://instance.metastore.ingenta.com/content/journals/10.1386/fm_00201_1
Loading
/content/journals/10.1386/fm_00201_1
Loading

Data & Media loading...

This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a success
Invalid data
An error occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error