MGSV & The Tyranny of Language
2,949“Language is deeply connected to ethnicity.”
-Code Talker
“the origin...of language itself [was] as a manifestation of the power of the rulers.”
- Friedrich Nietzsche (The Geneology of Morals)
METAL GEAR SOLID V: THE PHANTOM PAIN couldn’t be more explicitly connected to the concept of culture. It sets out to examine and also embody the interplay between interpretations and reality. But more specifically, MGSV wants to talk about the relation between culture and consciousness. It wants to talk about the psychological and political components to language. And lastly for our purposes, MGSV wants to talk about the threats facing the full mulitiplicity of forms of interpretation, facing the continued co-existence of multiple points of view: the threat by the unipolar hegemonic dominance of a single language-culture over the entire world: English.
2015's METAL GEAR SOLID V: THE PHANTOM PAIN was chiefly concerned with the subject of English, and its heritage of colonization. Since the end of the Cold War, English, alongside digital technology, has proliferated across the world, not by force, by 'consumer demand'. But is this peace, merely a certain kind of victory? One that depends in turn on endless war?
In this controversial video essay, I dive into some of the more subtle, cultural, literary, and linguistic subject matter indirectly conjured by The Phantom Pain. After covering broadly the meaning of two phrases - *linguistic relativity* and *linguistic imperialism* - we turn to the 4 specific texts that TPP directly and repeatedly references: Moby Dick, Heart of Darkness, Lord of the Flies, and Nineteen Eighty-Four...all of which just happen to be mainstays of English classes the world over.
By the end, we discuss the nature of pedagogy, 'canon', & culture, all as functions of language, and in turn, imperial so-called 'soft' power. It's bound to be an unpopular episode for some, but it felt necessary to match MGSV's own braveness for broaching this subject matter, however beneath the surface it does so. Just remember...
*WORDS CAN KILL*
0:00 - Introduction
1:13 - Prologue: On Words As Ideas
5:39 - Rulers & Language
12:05 - On Politics & The English Language
18:51 - Lingua Franca
28:55 - Moby Dick
33:51 - Heart of Darkness
40:25 - Lord of the Flies
41:40 - Nineteen Eighty-Four
44:46 - Conclusion & Credits
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