Glass Onion

[droqen]

Regarding Rian Johnson's
"Glass Onion"

[droqen]

I keep returning, in my mind, to the glass onion. Something that seems densely layered, mysterious, and inscrutable. But in fact, the center is in plain sight. . . . every complex layer, peeled back has revealed ANOTHER layer, and ANOTHER layer, and come to naught. And that was the problem, right there. You see, I expected complexity. i expected intelligence i expected a puzzle, a game. but that's not what any of this is.

It hides not behind complexity, but behind mind-numbing obvious clarity. Truth is, it doesn't hide at all. I was staring right at it.

[droqen]

I loved this movie as well as the previous one but in particular I want to shout out the glass onion thing. It's a term I found myself using to describe this stupid gameplay trailer for a particular 'self-aware' manipulate time-wasting mobile game which shall not be named here.

It's full of jokes at the expense of the type of thing which it is itself doing and being, and I found myself trying to describe that, that thing it was doing. Subtext. What does it mean for a time-waster to loudly and cheerfully say "WASTE YOUR TIME!" "NEGLECT YOUR LIFE!" ? The subtext is that you shouldn't be doing those things, and yet the game is encouraging you to do them. So is it making a point about how you shouldn't be doing those things but you can be manipulated into doing them? is it making a point about how I'm reading too far into the subtext, and in fact it's just cheerfully and refreshingly owning up to all of the things it's doing?

I felt exactly like Benoit Blanc in the moment he gave his rant, above. I was peeling back "every complex layer". "I expected complexity, I expected intelligence." It was only when I realized "it doesn't hide at all. I was staring right at it." "It hides not behind complexity, but behind mind-numbing obvious clarity."

So stupid.

It's a glass onion!

[droqen]

Also it's been interesting reading some thoughtful negative internet takes on the writing of Glass Onion, just as it was interesting to hear a friend's thoughtful negative take on the writing of Perdido Street Station! I won't dwell on the negativity in either case, just absorb it into my being :)