Name: 1980s Christmas by Why Theory
Duration: 1 h 22 min 18 s
Description: In their annual Christmas episode, Ryan and Todd look at the 1980s Christmas film, focusing on Christmas Story, Trading Places, Scrooged, Christmas Vacation, and Home Alone. They discuss the nostalgia that predominates this period of Christmas films and how this limits the political reach of these works.

The problem with it being a "permanent" change is that the second movie starts off back at square 1. Kevin says to his mother something like "I wish you all would go away" and the mother snarkily comes back with "well you got your wish last year, maybe it'll happen again this year." It's like Simpsons/Family Guy/South Park continuity, where, unless it's a multi-episode arc, what happened in one episode doesn't really change the initial conditions of the following episode

Watching the movie today, and Kevin's dad frantically trying to find someone to help while on the phone at his cousin's in France also contradicts the theory that he hates him.  Merry Christmas, ya filthy animals!

Ryan and Todd attempt to show why the term "poststructuralism" is inapt for describing any of the thinkers that it usually is thought to indicate. They go through the major theorists known under this moniker and reveal why poststructuralism doesn't exist.

Poststructuralism

Ryan and Todd analyze Freud's essay "The Uncanny" and the broader implications of this concept. They discuss the importance of the uncanny for understanding the horror film and focus on the difference between a psychoanalytic approach to the concept and the notion of the uncanny valley.


Links from the episode:
Žižek & So On podcast:
https://open.spotify.com/episode/6S0mig3K8TiuJoXHOG5VnT?si=6a55de55c2f24b22
 
Shibui (minimal groove quartet):
https://shibuimusic.bandcamp.com/
 
Joseph Aisenberg’s Brian De Palma’s Carrie: Studies in the Horror Film:
https://www.amazon.com/Brian-Palmas-Carrie-Studies-Horror/dp/B09NH3BCCP/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3PCVQVVCQ49BW&keywords=joseph+aisenberg&qid=1689001285&sprefix=joseph+aisenber%2Caps%2C205&sr=8-1

Uncanny

Ryan and Todd analyze Freud's essay "Creative Writings and Daydreaming." They look first at the theory of fantasy that Freud develops in this essay and then turn to his conception of what generates the work of art, discussing it in terms of the current strike in Hollywood. In their concluding remarks, they deal with problems that Freud runs into in his theorizing here.

Creative Writers & Daydreaming

Ryan and Todd interpret the film Barbie while responding to both leftist and rightist critiques of the film. They discuss the film's exploration of fantasy, its highlighting of contradiction, and its emphasis on the role of desire in politics.

Barbie

Ryan and Todd offer their interpretation of Christopher Nolan's most recent film Oppenheimer. They focus on the relationship between the form of the film and its content, while considering the political implications of its depiction of the hero. They think about the film in relationship to the rest of Nolan's filmography.

Oppenheimer

Ryan and Todd unpack Marx's concept of surplus value and explore its fundamental role in the interpretation of capitalist society. They discuss the relationship between surplus value and profit, while considering how we should think about the drive to amass surplus value.

Surplus Value

Ryan and Todd explore the idea of surplus enjoyment as the basis for a theory of capitalism. They consider the psychic hold that capitalism has in terms of the surplus enjoyment that it both promises and provides.

Surplus Enjoyment

Ryan and Todd analyze Machiavelli's The Prince by tracing its influence on later political thinkers, including Hegel, Gramsci, and Althusser. They discuss Machiavelli's novelty and his limitations as a thinker of the political act.

The Prince

Ryan and Todd examine perhaps the founding text of modern Western philosophy--Rene Descartes' Discourse on the Method. They consider how Descartes articulates an egalitarian philosophy through his conception of radical doubt and examine the influence of this text of subsequent thinkers and on theory today.

Discourse on Method

In their annual Christmas episode, Ryan and Todd look at the 1980s Christmas film, focusing on Christmas Story, Trading Places, Scrooged, Christmas Vacation, and Home Alone. They discuss the nostalgia that predominates this period of Christmas films and how this limits the political reach of these works.

1980s Christmas

Ryan and Todd discuss Ludwig Wittgenstein's project in the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. They begin by looking at this project on its own terms and taking stock of its grand ambitions. Then they examine its intersection with the concerns of psychoanalysis and dialectics.

Wittgenstein's Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus

Why Theory brings continental philosophy and psychoanalytic theory together to examine cultural phenomena.

1980s Christmas

Why Theory

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