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Tsk. Nobody should do Lynch but Lynch. Nobody should do Murakami including Murakami.

Well, Fuller kind of did Lynch here and there. Fuller excepted. And Lindelof at least Murakami-ed a lot better than Esmail in a couple Leftovers episodes (doubtless while thinking he was Lynching).

Ahem. Mr. Robot 2.11:



Best guess: White Rose thinks Angela has a Christian Slater of her own trapped in there somewhere - her mother, or a cast-off. And at the end of the episode has either found it or convinced Angela it's there. Lured out by an appeal to motherly instincts: the lash marks, the threat of the lil' Angela being hurt, the crying during sex (er, maybe some back story there?). The fish in the tank reminds us of Qwerty in Elliot's S1 dream, where he was a monster who wanted to be freed to see out the window (like "us" and maybe Elliot himself at the beginning of the series - with "hello, friend" and related bootup stuff). But this trapped fish-self may run out of water/time before ever being freed. Hence WR's shock tactics.

Lolita was/had/suggested the key how? Was it White Rose's hacker handle that was Dolores Haze or was that someone else's? Dolores was Lolita's name as well as her mother's, IIRC, so maybe their dynamic fits - protectiveness, rivalry, role confusion? (And Humbert is doubly named, if that matters. Can't see how, but it's certainly interesting. The universe really wants me to finish that book, it sometimes seems. NO TIME YOU DAMN UNIVERSE.)

Sounds like there really was a deal struck. Maybe Slater is anti-oligarchy because he fears the ghostmaker technology will be reserved for the few? Level the playing field THEN set the spirits free?

If you can only be implanted in your descendant (because of sufficiently similar brains?) that would explain why White Rose remains frustrated. It's proof that what he wants is close, though.

Of course since it's referred to Angela as a matter of belief perhaps the parent stuff really is an imposture. "Is it or isn't it" can be milked for suspense for a long while. Since Elliot rather than Mr Robot may BE the "implanted" self, modified versions of ourselves rather than others may be what's sought after here. Fits all the self-fashioning/mold-fitting stuff with Tyrell, Angela, and Dom, and Slater's tirade against internet-era irreality in 1.10.

Nice catch from Julie: Dom's Alexa stuff isn't unlike how Elliot talks to "us." If the PDA in Her is a girlfriend, here they seem to be either castoffs of yourself (Black Mirror did something along that line) or of your parents. Seeking love and acceptance from technology entails merging with it, I guess. I hope this show stays away from the event horizon of the Singularity, as it were. That picture on WR's screen in the China episode where Mao's head is emerging from a sea of unhappy peasant ones suggests otherwise.

Date: 2016-09-16 01:50 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] grashupfer.livejournal.com
Dolores Haze was Darlene's handle. Mother (the Haze woman) is Charlotte. I'm struggling to find the link except that HH is the classic unreliable narrator. Deeper maybe, Angela fits with Dolores in that she is playing a game not definitely visible w/ o close reading - or is she?

Presumably Elliott gave Angela some piece of code or a solution that will require them both to be kept alive? Maybe she doesn't even know she has it. Ugh. Who knows.

Date: 2016-09-16 05:47 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] proximoception.livejournal.com
How is HH unreliable? He's talked himself into a lot of bad actions but sort of admits that throughout, doesn't he? What does one need to reconstruct about the events he's related by reading between the lines? Always been confused about that argument, though the 2nd half I've only skimmed.

You're not convinced by my reading of Whiterose's weird exorcism staging? Seems to capture all the elements except Lolita. If the mother's a passenger she's been witnessing Angela's terrible love life, thinks of her as still a child despite her suit, worries she'll be hurt by White Rose, was a tech-y mom so likely bonded with her over old video games etc. (though Angela was presumably born in the mid-80s, so maybe not Commodore ones). The significance of the fish detail seems clear in light of the Qwerty dream - though the question there would be why White Rose would be using the same symbol.

Maybe Darlene and Angela were good friends? Enough to have a shared interest in the book? Can't remember if that was ever stressed. But the Lolita copy would seem to be aimed at the lurker in Angela and not Angela herself (though Angela could have also read it and merely be playing White Rose, I guess? Seems a stretch, since it would mean she'd have some idea what's going on, which she hasn't seemed to).

Date: 2016-09-16 06:49 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] grashupfer.livejournal.com
Humbert contradicts himself a lot. He'll claim for example to have a photographic memory and then say repeatedly he can't recall s detail then again claim to be a perfect recorder. Also fantasy burns bright (usually with cliche) then is struck down by a vivid original image that reveals truth like the bare arm of the neighbor reading the newspaper that he dreams is a nymphet undressing in a mirror.

Date: 2016-09-16 09:29 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] proximoception.livejournal.com
That's fascinating. Need to revisit this book!

Date: 2016-09-16 06:51 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] grashupfer.livejournal.com
And forgot to add I love the reading about Angela you've done. Would the audience stand for that trick twice?

Date: 2016-09-16 09:29 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] proximoception.livejournal.com
Anyone left will stand for anything, I imagine.

Date: 2016-09-16 05:49 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] proximoception.livejournal.com
Oh, and: wasn't the child actress about the age Angela would have been when her mother died? Elliot's father died shortly after he was 8, and if the "trade" was made at the same time maybe their deaths were on pretty much the same timetable.

Date: 2016-09-16 07:02 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] grashupfer.livejournal.com
Yes great point.

Date: 2016-09-16 06:25 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] proximoception.livejournal.com
And: Ecodelia = revelation of a habitat. Since the only cousin term in use is psychedelia (druggy stuff supposed to bring to light the spirit or unconscious), maybe we're thus primed to think of the psyche AS a habitat? Fits the fish, given the dream-Qwerty call-back. WR is trying to wake up the daemon to its own existence, hence powers?

Someone on reddit reminded me that a lot Lolita's interest in HH was because he paid attention to her in a positive way, unlike her mother, hence her tolerating the abduction. Which explains Darlene identifying with Dolores, but not the connection to Angela or her mother.
Edited Date: 2016-09-16 06:26 pm (UTC)

Date: 2016-09-16 07:09 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] grashupfer.livejournal.com
I think you can push that Lolita point deeper. Humbert's spirit gets crushed when he has a moment of realization that the entire relationship with Lo is basically prostitution. He has entirely delusionally misjudged her side of it. This ties in with my theory that Lo has already eaten the apple of knowledge when Humbert meets her. I am certain this has nothing to do with the TV show Mr. Robot. lol
Edited Date: 2016-09-16 07:09 pm (UTC)

Date: 2016-09-16 09:30 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] proximoception.livejournal.com
I thought that was explicitly acknowledged? Something about kids experimenting on an island? Or was that another unreliablism?

Date: 2016-09-17 08:30 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] maundering.livejournal.com
I don't watch Mr. Robot, but "Nobody should do Murakami including Murakami" gave me a good chuckle.

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