Thursday 25 April 2013

Nostalgia in Fallout 3

I posted a bit on nostalgia earlier and I'm very much into video games and many games such as Fallout 3 fit into this postmodern nostalgic subversion of the past, by using period aesthetics to present an idealised view of the past but also using the ideologies from the era and presenting them in a new way.

Fallout 3 is a science fiction set in post apocalyptic world caused by an extension of the cold war during the 1950s. The player experiences the future wasteland, centuries after 1950s nuclear war, filled with early Cold War iconography, including songs by bands like The Ink Spots and propaganda posters in the style of post-WWII government messages. Much of the game's visual design is referencing 1950s and 1960s sci-fi novels and early sci-fi films.
The game doesn't just visually represent the period through it's design,  "Fallout 3 is also trying to subvert any kind of nostalgia of the 50s by presenting a landscape that existed in the minds of all those who could do no more than sincerely get under their school desks during bombing drills." - 


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Manifesto

The word ‘post’ in postmodernism suggests that it comes after modernism, however both postmodernism and modernism both exist together at the same time. Modernism seeks to give meaning and solid definitions to what things are while postmodernism denies the rules laid by modernism.
Postmodernism denies the existance of scientifc, philosophical or religious truths to explain everything for everybody, while modernism seeks to give meaning and solid definitions to what things are while postmodernism denies the rules laid by modernism. It allows for personal interpretation, with personal experience being placed above abstract principles which paradoxically means that postmodernism can not truly be defined.
Postmodernism spans various different disciplines including art, culture, architecture, literature, entertainment, technology ect, and focuses on de-structered humanity meaning that disorder and fragmentation are acceptable represention of reality for postmodernists. Modernists viewed this view of fragmented humanity as bad while postmodernists seems to celebrate this, accepting ambiguity.
There are no final truths or definitions in postmodernism, it is an attempt to give new meanings and interpretations to everything.
Throughout the coming weeks we are going to explore how postmodernism is evident in various different aspects in our society in an attempt to better understand what postmodernism is and how it affects our lives. We will be looking at examples of postmodernism in pop-culture and entertainment, feminism, architecture, and art and design movements.