When asked about VR, Shonda Rhimes describes the possibility of intimate engagement with a character. Totally fits the vision of metafiction. Great to watch.
Ten Reasons Why Rick & Morty is a fine piece of MetaFiction (and poetry)
Photo by Tommy Tang on Unsplash
- Multiple Ricks and Mortys indicate an awareness of mass production as well as multiple dimensions. This means that the Morty on your screen is (and isn't) the same as the Morty on my screen. To quote Rick at the end of the first episode, "Rick and Morty dot com forever!"
- Rick Sanchez sure loves to talk to us. His infamous catch phrase at the end of the episode, "wubba dubba dub dub" ("I am in great pain, please help me,") is also addressed to us, reinforcing the notion that he wants us to rethink the archetype of the asshole-genius.
- Jerry and Beth's tour based on the Titanic film is such delicious commentary on fiction; and obsession with it. Ironic when you consider the obsessive behaviors among fans of shows like Rick and Morty....(this blog post included)?
- Jerry: "Sound like our stories were connected by a theme." // Rick: "Not really. probably a cosmic connection your mind mistakes for thematic." // Jerry: "Oh." // Rick: "Old Rick! Ruining everything!"
- Interdimensional cable! Absurd animated improvisations mimic the YouTube tradition.
- From the episode "Look Who's Purging Now," Rick explains Morty's violent outburst by assuring him that it's due to the candy bar he ate "from the first act." We are worried that Morty may have acted inconsistently, but Rick assures us both: "your character is totally protected."
- (After a slow motion moment) "Knock it off, SlowMobius."
- Jerry about James Cameronion rings on the Titanic tour: "Great. Not only is the ship not sinking, but the fourth wall has been broken."
- Rick: "I don't want to be the 'a little help' guy, but, a little help?"
- Morty's response to the movie trailer about Jan Michael Vincent: "Is it important that we know who Jan Michael Vincent is in order to get this?" No, Morty. No, it isn't. We both know it.
I'll leave you with a question: If Rick and Morty are from Earth C-137, where are we?
Returning to your Passion After a Break
Sometimes you have to finish something not because you have anything new to offer it, but because it has something to offer you. If we jumped up and abandoned our commitments every time we ran out of novelty, we wouldn’t learn anything.
Starting anything new is fun. You’re full of inspiration and ideas. Every moment you spend on it, whether it’s a relationship or a project, feels like an act of self expression, and that’s because it is. You’re giving a lot in the beginning, and it’s fun. A huge part of maintaining stamina for a long project is getting rest from it.
After getting a break, though, the project seems smaller.
When you are inside a problem, everything aspect of it is big and important. After stepping away it seems trivial. You can’t see the consequence of what you’re doing. It seems to have no purpose. All the effort, time and even vulnerability that you invested in the project suddenly seems like a waste, and that is hard to confront.
This presents an enormous challenge when you’re trying to get back in the game. Some people find this haunting them not only for a single project, but in returning to a particular lifestyle or art practice. We get disillusioned by more experience and even desire for more experience.
The novelty won’t necessarily come back when you get back to work. In fact, it’s likely that it won’t. What happens may not be as exciting but it is at least as valuable: if you insist on returning to your passion, it will have something entirely new to teach you about yourself. You’ll get sudden insights or understandings. You’ll have an easy opportunity to face things about yourself. Some that were difficult and too hard to bear before, and some that were great but just hidden from view.