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Full-Text Articles in Other Film and Media Studies
Finding Tomahna: Myst As 1990s Time Capsule And Community, Maxx Hirsch
Finding Tomahna: Myst As 1990s Time Capsule And Community, Maxx Hirsch
English Honors Theses
The original Myst took the 1990’s by storm, quickly becoming the best-selling games in the world after its initial release in 1993. Many gamers and reviewers look back now, accustomed to lightning-fast loading speeds and razor-sharp graphics, ask why? I believe that Myst was able to find such wild popularity because it was a relevant reflection of its time period. In all of its oddity and solitude, Myst is an excellent representation of the feelings of American adults in the 1990’s. This thesis examines Myst as a product of wartime, new technology, and of community.
"A Kindler, Gentler Time": How Pleasantville And The Truman Show "Fix" The 1950s Suburban Ideal, Sophie Cohen
"A Kindler, Gentler Time": How Pleasantville And The Truman Show "Fix" The 1950s Suburban Ideal, Sophie Cohen
English Honors Theses
The Truman Show and Pleasantville both present a vision of the 1950s that is manufactured and mediated by television. I attempt to explain this using Lauren Berlant's model of the pilgrimage narrative, in which a character encounters true America in Washington, DC. Instead of locating America in the nation’s capital, though, I argue that these films locate America in the idealized suburbs of the 1950s. I propose that this pilgrimage differs from the one Berlant outlines in one crucial way: the capital can be visited at any time, but if America is really located in 1950s suburbia, then citizens of …