Recombinant Records cartoons by Stuart McMillen

July 24, 2009 10:40 AM

Recombinant Records cartoons by Stuart McMillen, e.g. Aldous Huxley vs. George Orwell. (via)
posted by kliuless (16 comments total)

Coming up dead for me at the moment. Sounds interesting though.
posted by Dr-Baa at 10:43 AM on July 24, 2009

While we wait, here's a mirror for the Huxley vs. Orwell strip from the 2parse page.
posted by Dr-Baa at 10:48 AM on July 24, 2009

Good stuff, here.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 10:53 AM on July 24, 2009

Very much alive for me! Huxley versus Orwell reminds me to check out more Postman.
posted by Sova at 10:54 AM on July 24, 2009

wow, that huxley vs orwell thing was illuminating stuff.

must remember to tweet it after I finish this video game.
posted by shmegegge at 10:59 AM on July 24, 2009 [2 favorites]

The wind power one uses a bit of hand-waving. OF COURSE THERE WILL ALWAYS BE WIND SOMEWHERE. Except for when the aliens remove the atmosphere. Where's your wind then, smart guy?
posted by blue_beetle at 11:02 AM on July 24, 2009

Heh, shmegegge.

Seriously, though, I hadn't ever read Postman, so I didn't know until the end of the cartoon that those were his words. Illuminating, and a bit depressing.

Good find.
posted by yiftach at 11:04 AM on July 24, 2009

"Amusing Ourselves to Death" is a great book, that has probably grown in relevancy over the years, especially now that internet has become TV for the new century. From Wikipedia: With the ever-increasing amount of information available Postman argues that: “Information has become a form of garbage, not only incapable of answering the most fundamental human questions but barely useful in providing coherent direction to the solution of even mundane problems.” What is not generally known is that Postman was associated with General Semantics, a "point-of-view" that has some great tools for dealing with all this overload.
posted by njohnson23 at 11:18 AM on July 24, 2009

I loved the Huxley vs. Orwell one. Will now read the rest. Thanks.
posted by RussHy at 11:18 AM on July 24, 2009

Thanks for these, kliuless!

I especially enjoyed that one about music. McMillen singles out and reverently appreciates so many of the musical traits that I also value... even though our respective collections probably differ quite a bit, it seems pretty safe to say that these differences aren't due to any kind of ideological divide; just to the different times in which we grew up.

The grownups are alright.
posted by Rumpled at 11:19 AM on July 24, 2009

I concede the Orwell vs. Huxley point, but 1984 is still more of a kick-ass page-turner than BNW.
posted by scratch at 11:47 AM on July 24, 2009

I feel there's a relevant Calvin and Hobbes for this (the sixteenth one down) where Calvin says "It says here that 'Religion is the opiate of the masses'...what do you suppose that means?" and the television thinks "It means Karl Marx hadn't seen anything yet."

I was always a bigger fan of Brave New World largely because it's so insidious. In fairness, I haven't read 1984 in many years but whenever I re-read Brave New World I find it really hard to put down.
posted by Mrs. Pterodactyl at 11:54 AM on July 24, 2009

Then again, there is the idea that both Huley and Owell "borrowed" from the novel We.
posted by P.o.B. at 12:05 PM on July 24, 2009

Or maybe that was Huxley...I guess we'll never know.
posted by P.o.B. at 12:38 PM on July 24, 2009

I'm not sure I think one or the other scenario (as illustrated, I haven't read this bit from Postman) is both inevitable and mutually exclusive.

They're both plausible, though, and I think elements of both are very real today. One serves to make the other bearable/ignorable.
posted by mjb at 12:59 PM on July 24, 2009

I loved the geek-level analysis of bike commuting and need the excuse to forward it to some people.
posted by ardgedee at 1:30 PM on July 24, 2009