Authorial Intent: What Drives People to Create Art?
By Ignacio Zamorano
Staff Writer
Over Winter Break, I found myself watching the new season of Netflix’s hit show “Squid Game” in the wee small hours of the morning, surrounded by friends. There is a latent disconnect between the media giant du jour squeezing a hit—with Mr. Beast’s distasteful recent attempt to half-heartedly recreate the game—and what would drive one to write a script based on the shortfalls of capitalism in the peculiar South Korean setting. Concerns exist that the socioeconomic conditions of the country, which experienced an economic miracle in the latter half of the twentieth century (as opposed to North Korea), could represent a preview of what a dystopia could plausibly look like in North America and other countries of the developed world. As the show made its way through its visceral games, there was a change of pace. One of the contestants, an older lady with bladder control issues, was vouching for her right (and that of her pregnant acquaintance) to use the women’s bathroom during some sort of purge night. She had to plead her case twice to the faceless guards to be heard. After her emotional last plea, I looked to my left where my friend stated: “There was no point to that scene.”
The show is quite blunt with its themes of exploitation under capitalism, especially, which makes the aforementioned statement baffling. It certainly is visceral, with an edge that only a society whose youth coined Hell Joseon to refer to their country could bring, nonetheless, the aim to center the human tragedies that make the game possible seemed evident to me.
Fiction is the ultimate outlet to express one’s imagination; after all, the author controls every detail, no matter how minute. When a writer leaves little room to the imagination, as Hwang Dong-hyuk has done, it would be natural to assume that its audience understands the themes; yet, it is not an accurate assumption. Despite the best efforts of some valiant high school English teachers, the present-day era of “content” is prejudicial to any conception of media literacy.
Short-form video (see TikTok) is the perfect outlet for an audience that does not fully engage with the media they are consuming. It is a format that leads to disposable slop composing an ever-increasing share of media consumption. Corporate giants, such as Netflix and Amazon, have adapted to this brave new world where it is now profitable to assume that audiences are clueless, which is exemplified through their treatment of the “Squid Game” phenomenon. Through their treatment of the game, which they made into a reality show, they missed the mark exceptionally. A criticism of South Korea’s wealth inequality and relative social Darwinism is bastardized into “content,” which satiates these audiences’ desires to have something shocking on their TVs, where it competes with other screens for their attention. Trends are not encouraging, yet, for the sake of the continued existence of mass media that is not an utter disgrace, it is worth encouraging everyone to attempt to earnestly engage with the media they consume; it is an extension of a creator’s mind, and it should be honoured by understanding it comes with its unique vision.
