Scott Pilgrim vs. Itself
A term paper focussing on Henry Jenkins' Cultural Logic of Media Convergence and the convergence at work in
Bryan Lee O'Malley and Edgar Wright's
Scott Pilgrim vs. The World.
It will become clear when you take
a look inside, I promise.
- ENGL 4115, Carleton University
The End (also known as Conclusion)
Well, folks, we’ve come a long way. Quite literally, as this assignment is roughly 2,000 words over the required minimum. But we’ve learned a lot from each other - how to live, how to love, how to, if not prevent, be aware of the increasing influence of media on our lives. Right?
Scott Pilgrim Vs. The Trailer
Mash-Up #4: Final Fantasy
“ Scott Pilgrim is kind of the hero of his own movie in his head. ”
“ Edgar described it really succinctly once. In a musical, when the emotion gets to be too much between the characters to be expressed in dialogue, they break out in song and nobody ever comments on it before or after. And in the Scott Pilgrim Universe, when it gets to be to much for the dialogue, they break out in a fight. He called it a “fightsical. ”
Like it or not, Annie Hall isn’t the crux of this post, but it’s a good starting point. Mostly because we are going to talk briefly about Marshall McLuhan.
In this 1967 interview, McLuhan discusses the concept of point of view in an electronic age, and basically says it does not exist.
“You have to be everywhere at once, whether you like it or not. You have to be participating in everything going on at once and that is not a point of view.”
This arouses questions regarding online identity in this day and age, when an identity is so splintered across social networking sites like Tumblr, Twitter, Facebook, et al. McLuhan was right when he said we have to be everywhere at once, which incidentally has eliminated point of view as we post and re-Tweet fragments of the online world we feel most closely applies to us. This can’t exactly be called a point of view, as it is a manufactured of construction of who we want to be, or think we, that has be remediated for quick online consumption and hyperlinking.
“[It is] certainly true that the book has had an enormous amount to do with individuality. It’s true that competition and repeatability has tended to create a great amount of sameness.”
Bringing this back to Scott Pilgrim, I had an interesting conversation with a classmate of mine regarding the film and the character (incidentally the same classmate who forwarded the above videos to me). He suggested it was only natural for the written character of Scott Pilgrim to re-tell his life story in the media hodge-podge format, as this is the environment in which he lives. And to a point, I think this is how we are all used to living which is why viewers are so comfortable with the format of this film. We get it, because it’s very close to what our own lives look like when we log onto Facebook while playing Halo 3 and listening to Canadian indie music all at the same time. Or something along those lines.
Making of: Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World Part 1/4
For your viewing pleasure, I have posted the first in this four-part series. I highly encourage you to check out the remaining parts available on YouTube to become as scarily obsessed as I am with this text.
Scott Pilgrim Vs. The Trailer
Mash-Up #3: Pirates of the Caribbean
Scott Pilgrim’s box office results didn’t yield the kind of reception expected, but the film was critically acclaimed across the board.
Rotten Tomatoes: 81%
The Guardian UK: 4 Stars
Rolling Stone Magazine: 4.5 Stars (from Pete Travers, no less!)
Can these low digits be compensated by the sheer engagement of the audience that tuned in virally (either legally or otherwise), own the soundtrack (either legally or illegally), or are in general examining all of these aspects of the Universe after having seen a trailer or engaging with any one of the available Scott Pilgrim products?
“ For the foreseeable future, convergence will be a kind of kludge - a jerry-rigged relationship between different media technologies - rather than a fully-integrated system. Right now, the cultural shifts, the legal battles, and the economic consolidations that are fuelling media convergence are preceding shifts in the technological infrastructure. The way in which those various transitions play themselves out will determine the balance of power within this new media era. ”
Media Convergence in the Scott Pilgrim Universe
Pretty much all I’ve been talking about this entire time is the vast amount of media that perpetuates Scott Pilgrim. Graphic novels, as texts, are as dimensional as any given work of fiction, which is all well and good for someone who wants to flip through a comic book on an airplane, and maybe buy a second copy to keep in the original packaging for collector’s credentials. But this century has seen a clear shift in consumer trends, as predicted by Henry Jenkins. Put simply, audiences want more. Not just more action, more drama, more skin, but more of the same, more versions of the text they love and more ways to engage with it.
