Pages

Saturday, October 13, 2012

The Truth In Fiction: Titans

By R. Leinweber


Tragedy befalls us all. No one escapes loss or death. Thankfully, over the course of a lifetime, tragedy does not occur on a regular basis. That is not what this post is about. This post is about the losses we have all experienced, some more than others. The losses that have slowly turned the majority of the world's population back into Davids. David's Goliath might have been no more than an unfortunate person with acromegaly; possibly being described as "larger than life". Metaphorically speaking, today's Goliaths are closer to the ancient Titans.

This is not the world I grew up in.  This is the world we have been warned about, particularly through fiction, one of the methods used to circumvent suppression of opinion and truth. It is sometimes difficult to separate fact from fiction, especially when the media employs the latter so readily.

I was too young when I read the prohibitive future envisioned by George Orwell in his novel 1984.  Too inexperienced to appreciate its meaning or understand the context.  The current list of "something is wrong" is long: mergers, dividends, recession, collapse, climate change, globalization, overpopulation, dumbification, newsspeak, technology that permits control, the illusion of freedom and choices, the future cost of cutting funding to sciences and the arts, profit margins and call centers.

Even George Orwell did not foresee the unimaginable evil of call centers.  Call centers that pay employees a dollar per day to accomplish one thing; keep your money, while wasting your time so that profit margins for lemons increase.

This is Kratos:



Kratos, for the uninitiated non-gamer, is the protagonist in the series God of War. The plot is very brief, the gratuitous violence is not. Kratos has been wronged by the Gods of Olympus and seeks revenge. On his journey to destroy Olympus, Kratos eliminates a number of monstrous nobodies and mythological creatures until he encounters the Titans.

This is Kratos fighting the Titan Cronos:

Right there. Between Cronos' fingernails is Kratos.


Actually, there is not much or any fighting when it comes to the Titans. Kratos spends most of his time with the Titans avoiding being blown away or squished. Orwell's Winston failed where Kratos succeeded:

1. YOU DO NOT TAKE ON THE TITANS.
2. You figure out the puzzle on how to get around them.
3. There is a metaphor here.


16 comments:

  1. You know just how to say and place these things, Ant.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you, Claire. I know, you know.
      Unfortunately nothing one can do about the titans.

      Delete
  2. So many puzzles, so little puzzling.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. So very true. Then the puzzle pieces go missing...

      Delete
  3. Foul beasts! I shall send you back to the depths of Hades!!!

    Actually, believe it or not, playing God of War back in March 2005 did help me deal with some very tough personal titans of my own. True story.

    Nice post, Ant. I like the direction you went with. :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Lol. Yet they kept coming back.

      I believe that. Who says games are not educational? I wield the blades of chaos on a daily basis.;)

      Thanks. Thought this would only make sense to me.:)

      Delete
  4. So very true, so very depressing.
    I think you're right.
    Something IS wrong.
    And it's not just Honey Boo Boo.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Reality can be disappointing.
      Something is wrong when I actually know who that is.
      Not personally, I'm sure she's her mother's delight.

      Delete
    2. My niece made a reference to Honey Boo Boo. I didn't know who she was so I Googled her (which sounds dirty).
      Now I know.
      And feel so unclean.

      Delete
    3. Oh, I guess it's implied that I didn't know who Honey Boo Boo was. I know who my niece is. I think she's my sister's daughter.

      Delete
    4. Imagine innocent channel surfing and then BAM!
      Sometimes ignorance is bliss.

      Delete
  5. D'Oh! Go around them? Now someone tells me!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Amma' right? I kept going at them with a pointy stick.

      Delete
  6. BOL.
    Ah. So that's how you solve all of your problems?

    ReplyDelete

I get paid in com(pli)ments.
Comment, Discuss or Foruminate.
Feel free to talk amongst yourselves.