More Than Meets the Eye

[graymatterspeak]

Do you ever go to see a movie and end up watching a trailer that spins off of a fad you wish you'd been a part of?

For me, its Transformers.

Somehow 80's culture when by without including me. Of course my family had just left a cult and was trying to figure out how to reintegrate into society, so that probably explains things. Nevertheless, that

Comments

Transformers and the 80's

[selfishlyme]

First a request. Your family was in a cult? Wow! really need to hear more about that. I find cults scary yet fascinating.

Anyway having been born in 1979 most of the 80's passed by without many real memories. But I do remember being a huge fan of Heman! So I can relate in not quite being in the loop where the 80's are concerned. My husband and i laugh about this because he is 9 years older than I and will talk about shows he watched that I have not heard of or don't remember.

I owned many transformers because they were my brothers hand me downs. He is 8 years older than me. But you really need to rent the Goonies. It's a classic.

[firmament]

I could tell you about Transformers, but Wikipedia already has you covered. Be sure to check out the original animated series, the animated movie, and the toy line, especially. (Also, note the Nietzschean overtones in the original movie poster.)

[graymatterspeak]

Yeah...I already checked out Wikipedia, but I was curious to find out what details have stayed stuck with you.

Yeah, that poster definitely pulls for a Nietzschean tone with the "beyond good, beyond evil" bit. Although since we're just talking about robots, does that take us out of the realm of the ubermensch? Or is technological advancement just another expression of that?

[firmament]

Actually, at some point, I think during the cartoons, it is made clear that the Transformers aren't robots, but that they are living machines. (This occurs when they meet the living rock-people, who are living in virtue of the same whatever that makes the Transformers alive.) But, good question about technology and Nietzsche. Maybe technology is another expression of (or is itself) power?

Not a lot sticks out at me, really. There were good guys, there were bad guys, they could transform into cool things. I always liked Bumblebee, the Volkswagen Beetle autobot, and Soundwave the tape-player decepticon, with all his little cassette-tape-transformers.

[graymatterspeak]

Wow...the plot thickens! That's pretty cool! At some level I knew there had to be some type of humanoid agency, but how the cartoon resolves that in its plot was a mystery to me. Well, I'll actually have to get off my butt and rent some episodes, but I definitely see the technology as expression of power working for the Transformers.