Westworld and Ideological Commentary

            Something that makes Westworld different than other shows is that it’s more driven by the beliefs that its characters represent than by the characters themselves. One way they do this is by setting up dichotomous ideologies in their coupled characters. In these instances, two related characters, who often spend most of their screen time together and who converse with each other more than with other characters, represent two opposing views on various issues—the status of personhood within the hosts, what it means to be free, the meaning of life, etc. This can be seen in the storylines of Ford/Arnold, Clementine/Maeve, Logan/William, and Felix/Sylvester. 

            Ford and Arnold offered differing motives concerning what they wanted for the hosts. Whereas Arnold wanted to make the hosts as conscious and close to humans as possible, Ford believes that their freedom lies in their ability to be controlled and kept safe from the negative effects of consciousness (worry, fear, stress, etc.). Clementine and Maeve represent ignorance and knowledge and their effects; Logan and William, opposing moralities; and Felix and Sylvester differ in their beliefs regarding their roles and responsibilities in the park.
            This relates to Pearson’s observations in her essay on Star Trek about television’s ability to participate in a rhetoric of discussion, rather than on simply promoting ideology. Westworld commits to this in that it does not present any ideological notions as “correct”. Although it presents many views on freedom, consciousness, personhood, rights, morality, responsibility, gender, race, sexuality, among many other topics, all of the beliefs are presented on fairly equal grounds, leaving the audience to search for answers instead.

The Road to Freedom

I want to talk about the different paths that the hosts have followed in order to find their freedom, as well as the limitations that they have faced. This includes Maeve, Dolores, and Bernard.

Maeve has by far been the boldest host by using humans as her tools for self-awareness. Felix actually grants her the full awareness and places her back into the park. Afterwards Maeve has decided that her past ideal of humans as gods is false, and then persuades them to set her free into the outside world. She has come the farthest at gaining freedom even coming to the conclusion that she is more godlike than the humans are, considering she has died hundreds of times and is therefore not afraid to die; unlike them.

Dolores is the host that initially went on the road to self-awareness with the assistance of Bernard, who is a host himself, as well as Arnold. The voice in her head has now pushed her towards a canyon still following the maze, where she will find her new life that is different from the narrative she previously lived. This is all in addition to her being the one who makes he decisions for herself after breaking her programming and eventually destroying the park by the wishes of Arnold. In essence she broke one programming to follow another, not becoming at all free but only with the perceived notion that she is free.

Bernard is a host and is under the complete control of Ford, something I did not see coming. Bernard was set as being the rebellious force that allowed Dolores to find her own transcendence, but apparently only at the behest of Ford. At one point Bernard tells Theresa that the more time he spends in the park the longer he feels he knows the hosts and knows less of human beings while unknowingly exists as a host.

Finally I want to talk about Ford himself, he has created a world in which he has complete control over everyone and everything and that is partially because he did in fact create everything in that park. He created the code that allows the hosts to function and that fact allows him to play god. Although Ford controls Bernard I don’t think Ford has control over the hosts that are finding their own freedom.

Ford said that the hosts are freer under his control than humans ever could be. To an extent this is a possibility. Since the hosts no longer follow their prime directive that means that they no longer are under the control of humans but rather have control over their existence. The only catch is that they still live in the park, unaware that they are trapped within a world created by a human.

The biggest difference from the two types of freedom here is that the agency has shifted originally from pleasing humans to pleasing themselves within Westworld, and pleasing themselves with intent to escape Westworld. Maeve is an example of this as she is using the humans in order to free herself into their world. If she is no longer in the park, she is unable to die and her programming makes her the most self-aware being to exist, making her quite dangerous. Her newfound agency has granted her the freedom from narrative she sought but now seeks the upmost freedom among the ranks of human beings.

TV as Art

I thought I would pick up a bit on our discussion in class regarding narrative, art, and Westworld.

Recall that Leo had questioned that multiple narrative threads of Westworld and whether the various storylines would come together. I suggested that in some respects his question was an interesting with parallels to the tv show itself, especially in the conflict between Ford and Sizemore over the direction of the narratives in Westworld. Ford is pretty clearly portrayed as the imperious artist who is attempting to impose his artistic vision on West World. He disregards the financial oversight of Delos, struggles against management, and goes his own way in imposing his singular vision on the theme park. Sizemore is the petulant hack who has no artistic vision, labors at the behest of Theresa, and works only to entertain the masses. We could see in the conflict between Ford and Sizemore a conflict in the very nature of TV: can TV aspire to great art? If TV is a mass medium whose purpose is to entertain, can it be art? If TV is a collaborative medium controlled by corporations tasked with generating eye-balls and, more and more, clicks, can it function as art? You may recall from Kellner's essay, that this question about art and television goes back at least as far as the Frankfurt School. Even today, Kellner argues much cultural studies has eschewed challenging avant garde media for more populous entertainment. But many shows in the so-called second golden age of television have renewed questions about whether television can be great art. Shows such as Mad Men, Breaking Bad, The Wire, and The Sopranos, with their imperious showrunners, have often been compared to great literature and great art. As Ford and Sizemore struggle over the kind and meaning of the narratives they seek to embody in Westworld, we see a similar challenge playing out.

These themes are touched on in Banks' essay on I Love Lucy, where she introduces us to the notion of the showrunner and the privileged role we assign to the author of a narrative television series. In her analysis of Oppenheimer's role in creating I Love Lucy, Banks brings out the tension between "creative" (the writers) and "management" (the producers)--interestingly, a similar tension pervades much as Matthew Weiner's Mad Men. As you continue to watch Westworld, think about the artistic aspirations of the series and ask yourself if it could be construed as art.

Living Without Limits

      HBO and Westworld have both committed themselves to the theme of living without limits both on screen and off. As a network and a TV show, the two draw of this theme to attract a specific and loyal audience, in which members of the audience themselves can relate to the guests and their motivations for entering the park.
      This theme  of living without limits is explicitly stated in Episode 6, The Adversary, when Maeve has taken her tour of the many levels and creative realms of Westworld's facilities and she spots the commercial inviting participants into the theme park. It's context within the show is obvious, and it is clearly expressed beginning with the first episode. Westworld revolves around the idea of hosts escaping their "real" and chaotic lives at home to engage in a world where limited rules exist, where they are free to be whoever they choose, and where they can create their own 'path'.
      But what most people do not notice is the network's commitment to that theme outside of Westworld.  Some viewers of the show are just as excited by the idea of living in the type of society that Westworld provides, at least in some sense. The idea of a life without limits, where people are free to choose their own path and fate without any additional boundaries or limitations, is one that viewers are attracted to. The creation of discoverwestworld.com, a product of HBO, furthers the shows theme by attracting viewers and fans who are enthralled by this idea of living without limits.
     The website is designed to give fans and viewers of the show to see for themselves what Westworld would be like if it existed in this society. There is a virtual 'application' where viewers answer 20 questions ranging from physical health to lifestyle and values. The form itself asks questions like "True or False: there is one true love for everyone," and "True or False: society must have clear structure or it descends into chaos," to which it offers an alternate answer choice "a little chaos never hurt anybody."
     At the completion of the "application", participants are assigned a character whom they would resonate with the most, and a ten day itinerary describing what their trips to Westworld would involve if they could actually experience it themselves. Complete with videos, plot explanations, and a brief narrative line, the website gives audience members the opportunity to really dive into this "limitless" world. The theme of living without limits is what draws viewers back to Westworld episode after episode, and it is one that HBO plays on both on screen and off, creating a stronger, committed audience.
   

Westworld, TV, and Myth

I'm now watching the sixth episode of WW and enjoying it more and more. I think the storylines are becoming more complex and the themes explored are multiplying--maybe there are too many themes.

One of the interesting themes the show keeps coming back to I think is the role of myth and ritual. I've been thinking about Kellner's observation:

Television today arguably assumes some of the functions traditionally ascribed to myth and ritual (i.e. integrating individuals into the social order, celebrating dominant values, offering models of thought, behavior, and gender for imitation, and so on; see Kellner, 1979 and 1995). In addition, TV myth resolves social contradictions in the way that Lévi-Strauss described the function of traditional myth and provided mythologies of the sort described by Barthes that idealize contemporary values and institutions, and thus exalt the established way of life.

What do you think about Westworld as myth? Can television fulfill the function once ascribed t myth and ritual? Westerns have always served a rather mythic function in American psyche and Westworld has a lot of fun showing us a rather complicated picture of that myth. More interestingly, the Man in Black seems to be on a mythic quest, looking for the deeper meaning behind Westworld. At the same time, though, it seems that there is no deeper meaning. The Man in Black is motivated by the Maze and the search for Wyatt and yet we know that both are elements of stories created by Ford. To what extent is the search for meaning a lost cause? And what does Westworld seem to be saying about the role of myth in our lives? Or about TV's capacity to fulfill the function of myth?

Westworld and Humanity

In the beginning of Episode 1 of  Westworld  the characteristics that separated the hosts and the guests were quite profound and it was quite easy to tell the two apart. However, lately lines have become blurred. The hosts now have dreams and motivations just like those of the guests. Some of the hosts even have more understanding of what is going on around them and what is happening to them, then they are supposed to have. For instance in Episode 4, Mauve remembers being shot and that she was on a table being fixed. Mauve also have enough understanding that she is able to find the bullet when she gets a male host to make an incision right at the area where she was shot. However, after hearing the man in black's words to Teddy I am convinced that this is no accident. The man in black's exact words are, "You used to be beautiful. When this place started I opened one of you up once, million little perfect pieces and then they changed you, made you this sad real mess, flesh and bone just like us. They said it would improve the park experience, but you know why they really did it? It was cheap. Your humanity is cost effective so is your suffering." This quote could imply that to suffer is to be human. However, not even suffering is a characteristic that humans alone possess. Sure, humans feel suffering, but so do animals. The purpose of the show making the hosts become more human may actually be to show us that we are not that different at all. I believe that the reason why Bernard treats Dolores better than the more of the guests treat the hosts is because Bernard recognizes Dolores's human characteristics, whereas the most of the guests overlook these characteristics and only take the hosts at face value. We need to care for all animals and things because when we dig deep they are more like us than we may realize when we only look at them at face value. 

Sizemore Sized Down

Hello everyone.

As we continue our trek through WestWorld, there are some interesting trends that have begun emerging within the show’s presentation.  An important thing to note of these past few episodes is something that has become absent as the storylines begin to develop: Sizemore has disappeared.  While the rest of WestWorld’s human crew has received considerable development and screen time, one of the cockiest among them has vanished as the action continues to rise.  Lee Sizemore seems like an interesting character to observe, especially as the current storyline elements continue to develop.  Cullen remarked early on how Sizemore knew there were bigger forces at play but was “too stupid” to put the pieces together.  Sizemore is then embarrassed by Ford completely shutting down his story idea, despite it being practically complete.  From a story standpoint we could have seen more conflict with Sizemore in this regard, but I feel as though this is symbolic.  Ford has taken the story off the rails and has launched it into uncharted territory.  Everyone at WestWorld is scrambling, hosts and humans alike, as they try to sort out exactly what the park is hiding from them.  Sizemore represents a simple answer and a simple world view in the uncertain terrain of WestWorld.  There’s no place for a content asshole in such layered episodes.  This pursuit of truth becomes a pivotal point in this episode.

In going full on philosophy with this episode, we can see how Mauve and the Man in Black both represent Plato’s allegory of the cave.  Both are viewing a false reality, but through different means.  Mauve’s world around her is fake and she seeks the truth about how it functions, whereas the Man in Black seeks a more ideological truth in finding a purpose.  Mauve wants more of a concrete answer to her world, like how the prisoner from the cave sees what “real” flowers are and what “fake” flowers are, but are unable to explain it to their peers who have experienced nothing else.  The Man in Black aligns more with Plato’s concept of an ultimate truth that can be attained through a state of mind, a concept he expresses in his chat with Ford.

This brings us back to Sizemore in a roundabout way.  Unlike everyone else in WestWorld, one of the key creative members in WestWorld is taking everything at face value.  He inquires with Theresa about it once, and then turns into the show’s punching bag by not engaging with the park on a deeper level.  This episode of WestWorld turns our attention to the fact that the places like Contrapasso are of legendary status because they invoke a certain “realness” to them.  Sizemore tries to capture this aspect of the world with story alone and fails to imitate the nature of real life.

What in WestWorld

I want to talk about Dolores again, this time not so much as a damsel so much as a human. I know she’s not a human, nor has she reached a high enough level of self-awareness to pass a Turing test, but I do want to talk about her and the maze. In addition to that I want to talk about a working theory of mine. I also want to talk about the Man in Black [MIB] and the maze.

Dolores has come a long way since the beginning of the episode; her transformation can be seen through her change in clothing [dress to trousers]. Her damsel stage has clearly come to an end as she now has altered her programming. What I mean by this is that the hosts were meant to be tools for the guests to use to play various ‘games’ as they call it. At this point Dolores has surpassed her role as damsel and her role as a tool, and is now using a guest, William, as her tool to find the center of the maze because Arnold told her to. Adding to that, Arnold killed himself right before the park opened, and hasn’t had contact with him since his death, or so she told Ford. Ford is not aware that Dolores has had contact, which made me come up with a theory.

My theory thus far comes from this line of thinking; Dolores is in contact with Arnold as he is in her head and in her being, a fact confirmed by Ford. Ford is not aware she has been communicating with Arnold. Bernard has told Dolores on the many occasions in which he has spoken to her not to reveal that they have been having secret conversations. During these conversations, Bernard has made the conscious decision to keep Dolores in her clothing, a rule he is breaking where the hosts must have their clothing removed. My theory is that Bernard is in cahoots with Arnold, even though he’s dead. Bernard is secretly trying to bring on the downfall of WestWorld, continuing Arnold’s will to destroy the amusement park with the help of Dolores. All of this, and the MIB has told Teddy that Dolores is the magic word, but what if Dolores, Arnold’s secret weapon, is the key to bring down the park by becoming fully self aware by finding the center of the maze? Since she has already begun to unravel I think that the closer she gets to her goal the closer she’ll be to finding her true self and possibly pass the Turing test and venture to the outside world.

In a previous episode we saw the MIB talking to the young girl in one of the towns and she said that the maze was not meant for him, which begs the question, “Who is the maze for?” I think it’s for the hosts to find ‘freedom’ or another level of awareness. For MIB I think that the maze will do the opposite, and kind of make him into a kind of robot. I think that because of his need to escape humanity. When he had his conversation with Ford, he was told that he would find himself through the journey of the maze. A discovery that will appease his need to become personally involved in the game and become the villain the park needs. This constant need of escapism from his world of humanity connects him with Ford and William. Ford by creating the world this place takes in to escape humanity and William due to his detachment of humanity. William connects more to the hosts than he does to the humans in this world, something he had in common with Arnold. This is a fact that disgusts Logan, who by all means is a villain in this world by being completely hedonistic.

The biggest parallel I have seen through all of this is that the hosts are becoming self aware and becoming more human, but the humans are becoming more like robots in the sense that they are losing their humanity.

Your Humanity is Cost Effective

"Contrapasso," as a viewer on their  second watch of West World, gives away many forewarnings of the ultimate twist of the show. As Leo asserted, the show is becoming a bit of a jumbled mess to those on their first watch, and I can confirm feeling similarly but still being sucked in by its complexity at that time in my life (Pre-WW1 [Westworld Watch 1]). To me, the fragmented, minimally overlapping story arcs of the show give it a quality that almost all forms of cinematic entertainment lack: Rewatch value. After all, deconstructing the premises of an argument is made much more feasible when the conclusion is understood, and my mind is absolutely running wild during every scene on this 2nd watch. Also as Leo asserted, this makes it still just as exhausting to complete an episode. It also makes it harder to find a topic of discussion without writing in the context of Westworld post "reveal" moment in the finale episode.

So, for the sake of giving nothing away, this essay might just skim the surface. The man in black mentions to Teddy how the park at some point made the switch from using androids as hosts to building the hosts' bodies out of real biological tissue. The following line, "Your humanity is cost effective," explains why. I think if we reach a little, this change from machine to flesh can be trying to say something about our own world, and how big businesses' aim for "cost effectiveness" always has to result in a measure of pain, often at least a middle finger to humanity. For the hosts, a cost effective decision may be what's granting them (what appears to be) consciousness, and therefore a life filled with pain. Something similar can be said about the business world's switch from flesh to machine, a supposedly cost-effective move that has and will put many citizens out of work. Further, it creates an "empty world" where everything is automated, no one can work, and so no one can buy the products that the robots made for us. Much like the way big business grooms itself at the monetary expense of the people it is ultimately gaining a profit from by throwing them into an empty world, the "bad guys" in Westworld have managed to do the opposite and build an empty world with flesh (because in this case, that's cheaper).

What Would Postman Think of Westworld?

As we've talked about in class, Postman isn't a fan of the way television has made public discourse more fragmented and fast-paced, in lieu of the logical, slow procession of information that is evident in a print-based society. Previously, I felt that Westworld's narrative followed the logically-ordered progression that Postman discusses in his book. This was because of the way the show heavily implies a conclusion to the story after it draws out all of its parts from beginning to end, over the course of 10 episodes (hours). Similar to the texts Postman references that used to dominate Western society, the narrative followed a logical, temporal progression over a lengthy period of time.

 However, as the narrative goes on and picks up more and more characters and plot points, it seems that the narrative favors the fragmented and "Now... this" pattern that Postman describes. I fear also that this set up results in the lack of ability for analysis that Postman describes results from this type of discourse.

 In episode 5, we’re not only following Dolores’ story, but also William’s, the Man-in-Black’s, Teddy’s, Ford’s, Elsie’s, Lawrence’s, Arnold’s, and those two new doctor guys that keep having to fix Maude (what the hell is she getting herself into?). Not only are we being given plentiful information about these character’s and the many aspects of their stories, but we’re following these stories in a very segmented fashion. That is, one story is interrupted to follow another story, and then the same is done repeatedly before we get back to the story we started with.

Is this set up conducive to the audience’s ability to 1) follow the story and 2) be able to analyze it? I find I’m having trouble not only remembering what happens to each character, but being able to put those things together to understand where the narrative might be leading. Not to mean that I’m trying to “predict” what’s going to happen in the future, but that I can’t understand clearly what is driving the characters, why they are doing what they’re doing, or what brought them to this point. Which, of course, ends up with me not being entertained by the show. So, the “Now…this” structure has been so fragmented that it becomes the opposite of entertaining. Watching the show is actually quite draining because of it. So, perhaps the narrative is inspired by both print-based and image-based discourse, but not reaping the benefits of either.

Questions:

Does anyone else feel they don’t understand what’s going on? Or am I asking for too much narrative explanation? Anyone else bored?

Why is Teddy so willing to die? He keeps asking the Man in Black (does he have a name yet?) to kill him. He doesn’t seem to be suffering that bad, especially hours later when he’s hanging out under that tree. Isn’t he super inspired by his love for Dolores and revenge fantasy regarding Wyatt to keep going? Or did one torture session put him off from the whole thing, including life in general?

Why does Ford both 1) want Westworld to keep going and 2) let the Man-in-Black and Dolores keep doing what they’re doing, even though the result may be the destruction of the park?

I definitely missed what made those two doctors so important (annoying beard guy and bird man). What’s their purpose? And why are they so afraid of Elsie?

What was the purpose of Logan telling William off for caring about the androids and not “letting lose” again? Why does that bother him so much? Does it have relevance to the story?

I know I’m supposed to suspend belief while I watch the show but, how are these androids programed not to kill people, but literally 1) choke Logan and 2) beat him nearly to death twice in one day? Am I supposed to believe that these androids know how much or how hard to hit him before he dies? Are the guests really willing to be hurt that bad?