2025. The ultimate spectacle is now a blog post.
The fourth and final entry in this American Dystopias series, Americathon, is now live. This turned out to be an odd choice, as its vision of a down-on-its-luck America is more hopeful and, frankly, desirable than the real life one we got. The post was written weeks ago, but this newsletter is being composed the day after the U.S. launched strikes on Iran for no real good reason. So yeah, I’m even less enamored of “oh noes the cars are all gone” than I was before. Next week, if we’re still here, a new series begins, which still has the name Animal Apocalypses unless I come up with something better. That’s going to be six films about nature going buckwild, a popular ‘70s genre, so popular that six films barely scratches the surface. Hope to see you, and me, there. A snippet from today’s post:
One thing that's obvious to the 2025 viewer is that this is the most "I'll have what she's having" cinematic dystopia ever. Everything that's "bad" is a result of America not being the top dog anymore. If everyone had to bike and jog everywhere, can you even begin to imagine the health and climate benefits? The story's stakes are that if the telethon fails, the country will somehow become the property of an 80 year old member of the Tsleil-Waututh Nation. No indication what that means in real terms, why that would be bad, other than the symbolic nature of the land returning to the original peoples. (To be both clear and fair, I'm fairly certain the writers understand how nonsensical this all is. The satire here is about America's insecurities, not Indigenous People. Still, stakes is stakes.) The President is depicted as a kind of average American dolt, able to be seduced by both New Age philosophy and the raw sexuality of Vietnamese rock stars. A President who doesn't have an Ivy League air about him is intended to show, again, how America has "fallen." Yet, he's... likeable? Relatable? Normal, even? I mean, whatever his faults, he doesn't seem malicious. A President that isn't malicious. Wonder what that's like.
Today’s game material, inspired by Americathon’s Mouling Jackson, is a new focus for the Cypher System, Shock Rocks, for players who want to make an Alice Cooper or KISS-style shock rocker. It’s basically a rewrite of the Cypher System’s Entertains focus, and as such, really deserves a more bespoke treatment. Maybe one day it’ll get it!
NEXT TIME, ON AGAINST THE ‘70S:
