Pill Pod 134 - The Myth of the Automobile (Exclusive)
Added 2023-08-08 14:07:55 +0000 UTCToday we read car commercials (specifically American car commercials) for their mythic content, primarily as a myth of individual mobility and freedom (both spatial and social). As we cover, myth naturalizes its relations outside of the actual world and need not refer to the historical conditions that produce it.
If you are outside the (North) American version of this myth and notice that your automobiles are different mythic content, that'd be great discussion since the only ads we can really see are American.
The source for this method is Roland Barthes' Mythologies (https://amzn.to/47i5kpd)
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Comments
I loved this episode! I’m also a Patreon supporter of the War on Cars podcast, and they do an episode every year on the car ads in the Super Bowl. It’s a little different but not very different - they analyze the American mythology baked into those ads. Anyway, I highly recommend
Jonathan White
2023-11-07 14:57:51 +0000 UTCWe get the impression that his relationship to this machine is so very intimate that it is almost as if the two were actually conjoined-its mechanical defects and breakdowns often parallel his neurotic symptoms. Its emotional significance for him comes from the fact that it exteriorizes the protective shell of his ego, as well as the failure of his virility (Lacan).
Steve B
2023-08-26 22:50:12 +0000 UTCI drive most often in our family. I am obsessed with the fact that when there is a man and a woman in a car, the man, especially in a family, will be in the driver’s seat. I have conducted my own “study” in our town. It makes me livid, it is 2023, WTF??? I don’t like being in the passenger seat. The car is an extension of the self. Why are so many women still in the passenger seat? Maybe because so many people still follow patriarchal religions,( for the US)we have a national sport that only men play, and so many women still give up their last names and take the name of their husband. Driving has a power behind it; movement is agency.
Heather Harrington
2023-08-20 15:01:26 +0000 UTCSubservient mechanisations operate without us. If we do climb inside they begin to erase us. They tunnel through ecologies we are born intertwined with, draping a myth of nature across the bleak aftermath of invasion, domestication, and neglect. We are also subservient mechanisations
Alex B
2023-08-11 20:43:48 +0000 UTCI love Erik's mic bumps, lol
GuLL
2023-08-11 15:05:21 +0000 UTCAwesome vid! I'm from the rural East, opposite Pills, so I relate completely with their experiences. I found that reading McLuhen, learning of extension mediums and their messages hard disenchanted the automobile myth for me. Like all extension mediums, vehicles are necessary for attributing value to agents in the achievement society given their potential for increased productivity. Imo this myth perpetuation falls in line with the continued commodification of survival techniques under capitalism and is incredibly ignorant and inappropriate. Mind you, I'm pretty biased and jaded with a career in insurance - my intimacy with all related vehicle industries and how they maximize profit (reactivity vs proactivity) has granted me a concentrated perspective.
GuLL
2023-08-11 14:57:05 +0000 UTCAbsolutely loved this and the last. When does Pills Myth drop? Bet it would be neat. Dude that German factory porn comment at 41:00 cracked me up. It's so true, but it's also a real thing. Half of my company is Swiss, and from visiting I can tell you that's a real *way of life* there. Spotless assembly areas, everyone in slick work suits, everything orderly. It's simultaneously envious and cursed.
ageOfBumFires
2023-08-11 00:49:28 +0000 UTCI think Alexander the Great is worth mentioning when talking about myth and speed, his obsession with speed which hadn't been explored in ancient philosophies at that point is a large part of why he represents the destruction of the old world
Marid's Gift
2023-08-10 19:37:14 +0000 UTCErik hits his gong every time he's made an important point
Ichabod
2023-08-10 17:53:25 +0000 UTCI’m from Malta, a Southern European island right under Sicily, and here the experience of cars is different, as the infrastructure is so woefully inadequate that everyone and their mother drives: there are nearly 427,000 registered cars for a population of around 535k, which is an incredible statistic. While cars exist as status symbols here too ofc, they’re seen by most as absolutely necessary, almost as much as having a job or a place to live. Most job postings actually ask you about your drivers license, as if you don’t drive, there’s a real chance you probably won’t make it to work on time, and can actually hurt your prospects of being chosen for the job. So cars do represent a certain kind of freedom, but only to the 18 year olds who almost all start taking lessons as soon as possible so that they can stop asking their parents for lifts or taking the bus. After that, it’s pretty much a given that you will drive until you die or emigrate.
anacidcommie
2023-08-09 13:26:00 +0000 UTC
