Doesn't Look Like Anything To Me: How 'Westworld' is Showing Us What Resistance Looks Like

Westworld is a futuristic story that, with technological advances being made on a daily basis, doesn’t seem that far-fetched or fantastical in the way that audiences assumed after watching these envisioned futures of sci-fi in the 60’s or 70’s. In the past, a main theme in science fiction has focused on suggesting how technology will advance and impact mankind. Today, technology is ever-present and as much a part of us than ever. The reality that the technology proposed in Westworld doesn’t challenge our beliefs about technological evolution suggests that contemporary viewers are, instead, being challenged to think about how the fictional world of Westworld relates to our own, and how the behavioural norms that structure those worlds frames our experience, and how we respond when those frames are disrupted.

Ari IssacMarch 3, 2017westworld, women, resistance, revolution, evolution, marginalized, future, social, society, label, identity, identitiesComment

Writing About The Hard Stuff

bookAri IssacJanuary 9, 2015memoir, book, topics, subject matter, reflection, personal, comedy, writing, process, creative, vulnerabilityComment

The Happiness Hypothesis

I've always wanted to write a book. I just realized that, last month, when I cleared my whole room out and took a really good look at all the copious notes I would write, and leave scattered underneath my bed to collect dust. They were mostly lists, and usually, lists of goals. Since I am an achievement junkie, I often spend time writing lists of the things I most want to get out of my life. Every time I cross something off, there is always something else to take it's place. Yet, the things that keep reappearing on my lists, time after time, are all the important things - the things that scare me the most, and the things that most people believe that I can't achieve (and for some reason, I've let myself be convinced of that too).