Another version of the past

[sigma7]

I'm deeply intrigued by the Year Zero alternate reality game, implemented by the same people who brought us I Love Bees, and as you might expect, this time it's refined, focused, and deeply disturbing. It's right up my alley, as it turns out, being a lifelong fan of apocalyptic/dystopic future storytelling, except I think we've hit a point where the number of thresholds we have to cross to go from present-day-life to horrific-dystopia is in single digits. But Year Zero's conceit -- that a planetary "subversive" movement uncovers a quantum-computing solution to send information back in time -- feeds into the form and function of its content (websites like IAmTryingtoBelieve.com, the chilling HollywoodInMemoriam.org, and my favorite, ThePriceofTreason.net, with their presentation similarly distorted by the time-travel), and despite recently-voiced warnings of the perils of worldbuilding, I'm waiting for the storyline to unfold further. Thematically it's a perfect synthesis of the fears of the future with the anxieties of today -- it's like a shelf of Aldous Huxley, George Orwell and Robert Heinlein crashed into a TV set showing FOX News -- with just a hint of potential redemption.

Of course, this has little to do with the actual Year Zero album, but I think it clearly transcends what we'd reflexively call "viral marketing" -- this isn't sticking Lite-Brites up in Boston; the ARG has become a narrative form in and of itself. What strikes me most about all of this, though, is that for all of the issues, for its potential relevance, for all of the ideas presented in Year Zero, it will never provoke as much discussion or dialogue as those Lite-Brites in Boston promoting a movie about a lump of meat, a carton of French fries and a hedonistic milkshake. Maybe we do deserve to be overrun by tin-hat tyrants and drugged into docility. And maybe we already have. I'm not giving up on the whole human race yet; I'm just starting one person at a time.

Comments

[ronwe.livejournal.com]

Just spent most of the evening reading up on the ILB ["Haunted Apiary"] thing, and am definitely intrigued by these ARGs, that up until now I had no idea even existed. These days there isn't much on the internet that really makes one think - at least not in the stuff that I typically peruse - so its refreshing to be introduced to something like this. So, thank you.

Friended once upon a time for the picspam, stayed for the intrigue heh ;)

[rainfletcher.livejournal.com]

Man, that broke my brain.

Seriously. That whole thing was a gut-punch to my primal fears and inherent paranoia. I had to back away from the computer.

Those guys are good.

It's scary to be reminded of how close we really are to that sort of future, isn't it? And the hint of potential redemption? Where exactly was that? All I found was Bleak, Bleak and some more Bleak.

[sigma7.livejournal.com]

Actually, now that you mentioned it, I found two:

There's the first victory in that the Solutions Backwards Initiative has already succeeded in sending data back.

And then there's The Presence. And that could be...anything. Even if it's a manifestation of the annihilation of the Year Zero future, you get the sense that it might be mercy.

[rainfletcher.livejournal.com]

Sort of the Hand of God reaching down to give the world the bitch-slapping it so desperately needs?

It will definitely be interesting to see where this leads (I spent some time checking out the ilovebees storyline, which was clever and fun without quite the same feeling of impending doom), though I need to be careful not to get too caught up. Serious nightmare fuel here, man.

[sigma7.livejournal.com]

Okay, having listened to the album (top link) at length, if there is that glimmer of hope, it's either (a) entirely in the ARG or (b) in the album's sequel. It manages to end on a note that's essentially "Hurt" on a planetary scale.

Yeah, not for exploring when you're in a Bad Place yourself, I've decided.