In Persuasion Nation Imagery

In Persuasion Nation Imagery

Family imagery

Many of the stories feature depictions of various family units. Most depictions involve children. The children are growing and learning to be adults, but they are being shown the ropes by their elders, who have been influenced by their culture. The depiction serves as an illustration of the way a child learns from its environment. The imagery also underscores the betrayal and tragedy of allowing the mainstream culture to have its effect in the home.

Mainstream media

The most central imagery in the stories has its full expression in "CommComm," where the entire world is literally concrete imagery depicting money-grabbing advertisers. The world is literally composed of marketing strategies. They are completely overt. The imagery is a reductio ad absurdum of the general direction of the times. Since the invention of screens, the marketers have been playing a game about how much they can advertise, increasing that threshold over time. Eventually, the future might look like "CommComm" suggests.

The vibrant human animal

The children in the stories are a depiction of a kind of humanity that the parents and grandparents have long forgotten. They are wild and vibrant, and often shocking and wonderful. To the parents in "I CAN SPEAK!" the voice of a child is downright horrifying. Why? Because there is something exotic and powerful in the human nature that art has historically served to explore, but to the entertainment-indoctrinated parents, that version of life is confusing and uncomfortable.

Big business and money

When the classroom features the eye of CBS's logo as its sun, that is a suggestion that the "religion" of the classroom is helping make CBS money. The commercials and entertainment through the stories are also reminders to spend money, to honor the institutions that have so graciously deigned to give such comfort and such entertainment to the masses. The imagery is a subtle suggestion (abstractly) that the economic interests of the elite are enforced by using people's religious aspect against them. Their "religion" is to keep up with the Jones and to enjoy luxury.

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