OTHER SCIENCE FICTION SERIES

Philosophy in Dollhouse

POSTED BY: TELOS
UPDATED: Monday, March 2, 2009 00:54
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Saturday, February 28, 2009 1:39 PM

TELOS


So I am a philosophy student and almost all my friends are philosophy students, so I tend to see philosophy everywhere. But Dollhouse is, to me, dripping in philosophical implications. However, I think I may be reading to much into one line in "Stage Fright." I would like your opinion on whether I am stretching the material here.
The diva, when wangsting, said something like "God gave me this voice, but he forgot to make it mine." Before this she had been describing her life and situation in melodramatic terms ironically analogous to how Echo's life literally is. Then she dropped that line which made my jaw drop.
In Christian philosophy the Logos is the Word, and the Word is Logos.
Voice. The voice is the medium of words, as the mind is the medium of reason. She might have said "ability to sing," but it ammount to the same thing. And since the Word is Logos, and Logos is the rational movements of the Soul (to oversimply) it seems that Echo has the exact same thing.
"God" (Topher) gave her the "voice" (mind), but he did not intend for it to be hers.
Now here is where Echo differs from the Diva. Echo, by my theory, MAKES it hers.
Gorram, something else just occured to me. The whole idea of a Word Echoing. The Logos Echoing on what is meant to be a void, a blank slate.
Anyway, I have been rambling in what I meant to be an orderly presentation (I am not good at simplification. Things get jumbled).
BTW, anyone here familiar with Levinas? I am only a little, but aspects of Dollhouse keeps reminding me of bits of his metaphysics.

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Saturday, February 28, 2009 9:36 PM

ASARIAN


n/m

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Sunday, March 1, 2009 3:05 AM

STINKINGROSE


Echoes of past experiences. Ironic in this case because she's having them.

I was going to say that the whole "voice" thought train was reading too much into it, she was just whining. Your singing voice is a very personal thing, and it can be jarring when people start requesting it from you.

Then I remembered that this was Joss, who is a philosopher at heart. I wouldn't put it past him to slip something like that in there. We are, after all, only three eps in and have NO IDEA where he's really going with this ride.

I'll give you a firm "possibly?, but I'm not ruling deeper symbolism out.

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Sunday, March 1, 2009 11:00 PM

SHINYGOODGUY


I believe you may have hit upon something there. The Diva was not merely ranting. At first, I did think that it was so much gobbledeegook about the rigors of being famous, but then I remembered it was Joss speaking through this character and I tried thinking outside the box.

It is not that far-fetched to think this to be so.
I too saw the parallel that Joss was making between Echo and the Diva's existence. The Diva felt that she no longer had control of her life and chose to end hers, whereas Echo (Caroline) wants to make a difference (she said this in the pilot). Echo makes it hers.

SGG

Tawabawho?

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Monday, March 2, 2009 12:54 AM

THESOMNAMBULIST


Quote:

Originally posted by Telos:
So I am a philosophy student and almost all my friends are philosophy students, so I tend to see philosophy everywhere. But Dollhouse is, to me, dripping in philosophical implications. However, I think I may be reading to much into one line in "Stage Fright." I would like your opinion on whether I am stretching the material here.
The diva, when wangsting, said something like "God gave me this voice, but he forgot to make it mine." Before this she had been describing her life and situation in melodramatic terms ironically analogous to how Echo's life literally is. Then she dropped that line which made my jaw drop.
In Christian philosophy the Logos is the Word, and the Word is Logos.
Voice. The voice is the medium of words, as the mind is the medium of reason. She might have said "ability to sing," but it ammount to the same thing. And since the Word is Logos, and Logos is the rational movements of the Soul (to oversimply) it seems that Echo has the exact same thing.
"God" (Topher) gave her the "voice" (mind), but he did not intend for it to be hers.
Now here is where Echo differs from the Diva. Echo, by my theory, MAKES it hers.
Gorram, something else just occured to me. The whole idea of a Word Echoing. The Logos Echoing on what is meant to be a void, a blank slate.
Anyway, I have been rambling in what I meant to be an orderly presentation (I am not good at simplification. Things get jumbled).
BTW, anyone here familiar with Levinas? I am only a little, but aspects of Dollhouse keeps reminding me of bits of his metaphysics.



Yes that's deliberate. Her little soliloquy is all about Echo and the shot is set up in such a way that Echo is behind her shoulder listening over - and we're inclined to drift away from the singer and onto Echo. These sorts of things in TV are very intentional. That was a good scene actually. Nice one.


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