[Severance] Message ≠ Medium
Anonymous (on Tumblr) asked: Why do you get so frustrated about the focus on the sci-fi in Severance fan theories?
Because it’s a show openly criticizing capitalist realism that has to up their marketability with the genre du jour and also needs the mediation of metaphor to force you to feel the rage and disgust and urgency to change things, and theorizing for months about the specifics of Lumon tech as if that was the point is a “the wise man points at the moon, but we keep looking at the finger” situation.
They integrate the world-building well, but it’s always there as a backdrop to the real world the viewer and the people working on the show live in. Media is a lens to clarify reality even when the artistry stands on its own (which, in this case, it also does).
I think a lot of money, personal risk, hours of work, and deliberate efforts to meaningfully reach the viewer on the other side were poured into making Severance. I see the way in which they look at all of us in the gallows with bluntness and honesty and compassion and encouragement, and I can’t imagine another way to return the favor than by actively listening.
The goats' mystery makes you uncomfortable, and trying to be the smart guy who figures it out before the characters is a way to avoid that discomfort. The characters feel the same dread and burning curiosity as the audience, and in finding yourself in the same spot, you are forced to confront the own realities of your place in material relations. It feels awful, and that’s real, and the power of metaphor is that the feeling is prompted by words/images but not contained by them, and it’s on purpose.
Why do you think Star Trek is so beloved? Disco Elysium is magical realism, and I don't see anyone missing the point so badly with as much frequency. Did Rulfo and Borges and Lynch make art for nothing?