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ResourceJeanette Schmid
You have probably all heard the claim that trans were victims of the Holocaust and Nazi genocide. Untrue but here’s a little slice of history which further undermines this narrative and gives a very specific example.
Jeanette Schmid was a professional whistler - quite a famous one who performed with other famous people. Born in 1924 in Czechoslovakia to a German family. He signed up for the military at 17 (so literal Nazi) but fled to Munich for refuge when Czechs began to fight against Nazi incursions into the Sudetenland. So a TIM who found safety in Hitler’s Germany. There he became a popular entertainer, presenting as a woman. He made no effort to hide his identity nor did he ever encounter any issues living in the Germany of the time. He underwent sex change surgery in Cairo in the sixties.
He can be found on ‘queer history’ sites but they seem to gloss over the inconvenient bits.
I love Severance. Unlike so much science fiction I see on television, it's smart, well acted, and absolutely logical. It reminds me of the work of Tom Disch, who dealt with a similar themes of mental splitting and servitude.
What Severance depicts is a new kind of slavery, in which workers are induced to enslave a part of themselves. It casts a fascinating light on corporate power, culture, the ways in which workers rebel (Dylan was my hero from the very first.)
I thought it was the best show I've seen in ages. My thoughts echo ones below, so I don't have much else to add.
Oh my gosh, so timely! I honestly tried to get through the first 2 episodes with some difficulty when it first began. I wasn’t going to try again but yesterday I couldn’t find anything that grabbed me and started over.
I re-watched episodes 1 and 2 and am now on episode 6.
I worked within a corporate setting for quite a few years. This show is pretty incisive about corporate culture and how upper management wants staff to be drones. Tiny spoiler:
I will continue watching because it is so well-written, acted and directed. I hope that I can get to the deeper messages after I finish watching.
It has been renewed for season two so I don’t expect all the plot lines will be neatly tied up in season one.
Brilliant show. One thing I didn't get though was Mark severing in order to deal with his grief. But how does he feel the benefits of it? He still experiences his depressed grieving existence continually, and mostly in the dark. I know a lot of that time is also him sleeping but it just seems like he is shortening his time alive which isn't very effective. I don't really understand the benefits to him.
Also, does anyone have any theories yet on what kind of work they're doing?
My theory was that the 'work' they are doing really is meaningless bullshit - it makes them feel like they are doing something useful with their time and lets them satisfy compliance reports. The severance technology is the main thing of value the company is producing and the point is to sell that to everyone, not to have their office drones use their time efficiently.
Yeah, maybe. The baby goats "not being ready" could suggest they in a testing/trialing period of the technology and the workers are the test subjects. But what about the scary numbers? It just seems too significant to be busy-work.
The scary numbers seemed to me exactly what busy work would look like - manipulating spreadsheets dumbed down to the maximal extent. But it is entirely possible there is a hidden meaning there.
I read an AMA with the show’s creator on reddit. He said they really are in a real place, they aren’t dead or in a simulation.
Oh interesting.
I'll go have a look at that AMA
>! Interesting idea, but it doesn't jibe with the fact that Lumen is an issue in the outside world. How would Mark's sister and BIL fit in?
What if what they are doing is marking specific individuals for death somehow? !<
True, it doesn't explain that bit. And yeah that was one of my first thoughts too, and it would explain why the numbers feel "scary".
So much mystery and symbolism. I'm definitely gonna be watching it through again.
I love this show. I love how creepy and mysterious it is and yet also offbeat and comedic. The 70s office decor juxtaposed with the "modern" outside world that is a bit off and empty is really intriguing as is the work they are doing. What's with the scary numbers and the goats? Why has Miss Casey only been alive for a few hours? Does she have an outie or is she just woken up when they need her? What the hell is with the strange "burlesque" show? What happened between the departments? I really hope they actually answer these questions and don't flake out like they did with Lost.
I also love how it depicts corporate culture specifically the weird kind of nonsense "gifts" workers get for essentially tearing themselves apart in servitude to the company - "dont worry that you can never go outside, here's a melon bar", "don't think about the fact that this is the only reality you'll ever know, you get to choose the music for a ten minute party", "don't worry that you can never be in love or even have a friend outside, we'll give you a weird waffle party which is designed to mess with you and make you more loyal to this place."
The other thing I love is how it shows how memory and experience shapes you and if you don't have memory, you're hollow. Things like Irving's obsession with rules and Dylan's finger guards (or whatever they were) become so crucially important to them because there's nothing else to draw on.
I just loved this show. I want to rewatch because there is tons of stuff I missed, but its so good IMO.
/end ramble
I think you love Severance as much as I do. Yay us!