What was Biden-Era Art?

Peach Parchment #9: November 4th, 2024

Regardless of the outcome of Tuesday’s election, it will begin to usher in the ending of the Biden-Era.

This past week, I was reflecting on the ending of the era, and I recalled a 2017 article which claimed Lynn Nottage’s SWEAT as the first “Trump-Era” play.

But the Biden-Era seems more slippery, lacking as clear a definition.

So, what was Biden-Era art?

What were our dreams? Our hopes, our anxieties, our fears? What stories did we tell ourselves and what promises did we make? Which ones did we keep? Which ones did we break?

Here’s a non-comprehensive meditation on some Biden-Era ideas.

[Mostly movies are discussed, to keep this Newsletter as short as possible.]

1. THE BIDEN ERA began with: COVID, Lockdown, Vaccines, Health Scares, Mask Mandates. It was also colored by:

   1. January 6th

   2. Ukraine & Gaza

   3. Remote Work & The Rise of TikTok

      1. Unlike Vine & Twitter & Instagram, TikTok allows people to directly address audiences with their individual “narratives”, stories, or hot takes.

2. The Biden-Era began with a desire for the “Status Quo”, a return to normal. The Biden Era could be defined by not being the Trump-Era. And also by a desire to escape the pandemic’s lockdowns.

   1. Yet there was a reaction to the inability to return to “normal”.

      1. A normal.

      2. The post-COVID oxymoron: The New Normal.

3. TikTok and Online Discourse helped us to understand our interconnectedness in a larger way than ever before. We seemed to reckon with the the figures and institutions we uphold.

   1. Trump Era Movies: The Avengers vs. Thanos, Get Out, Parasite, Joker.

      1. There is a “system” in place that means to do us harm.

4. The Biden-Era reexamined systems of oppression and we asked ourselves to redefine our responsibility to theses systems.

   1. Trump Era: Us vs. The Machine

   2. Biden Era: We are the Machine.

5. Look to: WandaVision as the first super-hero story of the Biden-Era. Premiering January 15th, 2021, a little over a week after January 6th.

   1. Wanda creates her own world; her own “new normal”.

   2. She isolates herself in a dream bubble of domestic bliss

      1. But the world is artificial; fake

      2. The world only benefits the one’s in control of it (Wanda)

      3. The world is built on the suffering of others

   3. Wanda learns— she is the witch; who has built the machine.

      

      If only I could forget the role I play…

6. 2019: Jordan Peele’s US & Bong Joon Ho’s PARASITE; there are people below our feet, who have remained hidden from us.

   1. 2021-2024: There are people below our feet, and we have put them there.

      1. The Zone of Interest, Triangle of Sadness, Wakanda Forever, Asteroid City, The White Lotus, Leave the World Behind, Barbarian.

7. A MANTRA of the Era: “It’s me, HI, I’m the problem, it’s me.” (TS, 2022)

8. BARBENHEIMER; arguably the biggest movie-going event of the past handful of years. Both films ask us to re-examine our culpability, as Americans.

   1. Opp built the bomb.

   2. Barbie is the bomb.

      1. Both films showcase protagonists who are alienated by their own American individuality.

         1. Not only are they parts of the machine, but like Wanda, they are the progenitors of it.

            1. Barbie World. Los Alamos.

               

               The atom. The open mouth of a Sandworm.

9. The proliferation of Multi-Verse movies seems to not be a coincidence, as it tries to counteract this anxiety.

   1. A MULTI-VERSE is the dream of not being held back by culpability.

   2. A Multi-Verse is a promise of infinite possibilities.

      1. Anything that could happen, has happened. So, nothing matters.

      2. There’s no personal responsibility, because there’s no singular person. You’re everyone. You’re no one. You’ve done it all. You’ve done nothing.

10. You’d think a Multi-Verse would create an optimistic hope, but the multitude of multi-verse movies are cynical about the endless possibilities.

    1. Dr. Strange & the Multi-Verse of Madness, Spider-Man: No. Way. Home.

    2. The Flash, showcases Michael Keaton’s Batman as a failure. A loner. A loser.

    3. Deadpool & Wolverine, showcases a endless capitalist Dune-like desert, where forgotten figures have been rejected & discarded, to eventually be recycled.

    4. Everything, Everywhere, All At Once.

11. Thinking about Joker 2 [with spoilers coming] as the waning Superhero story of Biden-Era

    1. It turns it’s own culpability back on the audience

    2. The premise: How could you have liked Joker (2019)?

    3. Even the filmmakers reject your admiration.

       1. Todd Phillips: "The first film is called Joker. It's not called The Joker, it's called Joker. And the first film under the script always said 'An origin story'. Never said THE origin story. It was this idea that maybe this isn't THE Joker. Maybe this is the inspiration for the Joker."

    4. The final image: Phoenix’s Arthur Fleck, dying on the floor.

       1. A Joker kills a Joker- Joker 2 killing Joker 1. And what’s left?

          1. Nothing has been built; this story doesn’t connect to Robert Pattinson’s The Batman; Or Margot Robbie’s Harley ‘Barbie’ Quinn.

          2. It’s an island to itself.

             1. Leaving no legacy, other than destruction.

             2. Fleck inspiring only madness. & murder.

                1. The final IMAGE: We watch Fleck’s Murderer, carving a Joker smile into his face.

                2. The film trying to escape itself: “There’s gonna be another JOKER no matter what we did, no matter what we said here, so it doesn’t really matter what was actually accomplished. If anything.”

What comes next? Change?

Or a further digging our heels into what we’ve always done?

Dune & Dune Part II, are Biden-Era movies. Paul as the faux-hero; the villain. The colonialist, the murderer, the emperor, the grim reaper. The Prince.

Is that where we go?

Paul Atriedes becoming the Worm; detaching from humanity. Burying our heads in the sand? Eating, feasting, taking, and taking, and taking.

More Batman? More Spider-Man? More, of more, of more.

Re-start Marvel, Re-Start everything, just perform the same scenes. Perform the same roles…

-do it again.

The same things over again…

and again and again.

**

Final Thoughts:

This is a myopic view.

That is colored by the uncertainty of where the election will go.

The tension of: What’s next?

What did I miss? What patterns did I forget (ex= A.I.)?

Or didn’t recognize? Didn’t see?

Drop a note.

The bagel.

November 2024.