One book explains Blade Runner 2049

[@atadadata]

There is a brilliance to the picture in picture footage of the film and you reading and enjoying the novel. Great production on one of my favorite topics. Much appreciated

[@chundercat1130]

This is a beautiful analysis between Pale Fire and Bladerunner 2049, thank you so much for this

[@deanerhockings-reptilianhu8701]

Blade Runner 2049 has stuck with me since the first time watched it. I think I get something new from the film every time I play it. Your theory was really gripping and made me want to read "Pale Fire". Well done!

[@QualiaRedux]

Well, thank you! It's an incredible book.

[@camillafrost229]

it seems like the voice track cut out between 22:33 and 22:39

[@QualiaRedux]

Oh, that's unfortunate. I'd have to re-upload.

[@agong802]

Absolutely incredible breakdown of themes. I'll have to go give BR2049 another watch with Pale Fire in mind.

[@QualiaRedux]

They are both SO good. Thank you very much for watching!

[@jacoblucas4259]

I have been meaning to read Pale Fire for a bit. Can't wait to crack into this video!

[@QualiaRedux]

Oh, it's very good and FUNNY.

[@dommice]

Excellent. Thank you so much. You have enhanced my enjoyment and understanding of both Pale Fire and Blade Runner. I am grateful for your insights.

[@QualiaRedux]

This is so kind. Thank you for saying it!

[@dendariimerc]

I really love this video. I’ve been following your content for a while now and have been delighted by the quality and rigor of your essays. It’s funny, I read pale fire recently because it gets referenced in a niche academic circle I contribute to, and mainly focused on its non-linearity. Your video encouraged me to zoom out and got me realizing, perhaps ironically perhaps poetically, that the project I brought to the book based on commentary about it narrowed its possible meanings for me. It’s getting richer in hind-sight than it was while I read it. Maybe that’s often how it is with a good book, but it leaves this dangling question of how commentary can expand or taint a text’s meanings… and whether we’re even able to suss out the difference sometimes.

[@QualiaRedux]

I am so glad it was useful to you! I definitely think that there are certain books (or films or whatever) that are all about their ambiguities and are meant to support multiple readings simultaneously… and that people often hate that and insist upon only one haha.

[@thenerdofalltrades8190]

Wow. Really great analysis! I’ve loved Blade Runner for a very long time and fell in love with 2049, which I think is a very beautiful film. After watching it three or four times, I did some research on the baseline test, which I thought was striking, and discovered Pale Fire. I’m reading it now, and this gives it wonderful context and really enhances my understanding of a challenging read. Thank you!

[@QualiaRedux]

Thank you for watching! I’m glad you liked it!

[@chrisdonley5723]

I gave you a thumbs up within 2 minutes of this video. I can tell you have a passion for this and I thank you for explaining these things!

[@kidkangaroo5213]

So glad to have stumbled across this video! It's possibly my favourite piece of writing on BR2049

[@hedonistmagik747]

I have not seen the movie or read the book and this video still gripped me. fantastic job as always ❤️

[@QualiaRedux]

Thank you so much!

[@jaywhangmakes]

I had a copy of that book. John Shade's poem was beautiful, but haven't gotten into footnote parts that explain its subtexts and meanings. I regret not finishing this book.

[@QualiaRedux]

The annotations are a REAL trip and a lesson in unreliable narrators! Pick it back up if you get a chance!

[@KillTeamHungary]

This video made the movie so much more to me. Thank you! I dont get why people say its a flop.

[@stratovation1474]

Worlds within worlds. I read Pale Fire as a teenager a long time ago. Thank you for this work.

[@yippeeyip4764]

Do you know what edition the version of pale fire in blade runner is? I'm looking to get the book with the cover in the film, but can't find it. Looking for an ISBN if anyone knows. Great video, thanks.

[@QualiaRedux]

It appears to be the 1980 edition. However, it is very very expensive!

[@phangkuanhoong7967]

I really love this reading. this movie is one of my all time favourites.

[@QualiaRedux]

Thank you! I loved this movie and I'm glad this interpretation resonates with you!

[@RebekahSolWest]

Wonderful video. Thank you for sharing this.

[@QualiaRedux]

You're welcome! Thanks so much for watching!

[@MannyCoon]

Did you mention to android dream of electric she I mean, that’s the book it was based on right?

[@sn-tired-croissant]

*just an observation - the correct accent is NabОkov.

[@Mnemonforempress]

Great work, as always. Also, if anyone hasn't yet, listen to the Blade Runner 2049 OST. It's... an experience.

[@TdotFC]

Almost all "video essays" on KZbin are pure garbaggio. Your analysis was wonderful, well done! Because of their jarring presentation in BR2049, I didn't recognize the lines from the poem, even though they're some of the best in the whole book. I quite liked BR2049 but originally thought of it as a pale reflection of the original, and considered that to be part of the film's point as a sort of commentary on itself and a generation of trashy reboots and unnecessary sequels. This video has made me reconsider that stance, and I'm looking forward to watching the movie again.

[@maxmax-k4z]

I don't think Pale Fire criticizes readers for having ideas, feelings or personal interpretations of art. Instead; I think the book is examining the sad and tragic nature of emotional transference, self mythology and para social obsession. Kinbote is implied to have lived in the soviet union and something bad happened the nature of which Kinbote actively wants to repress and not think about. If you read the Lord Charles passages as being a self deluding self mythology with the reality of his life buried underneath it seems he was married to woman he loved romantically but not sexually but was attracted to his best friend. For whatever reason he had to leave the Soviet Union presumably because of some threat to his life. He talks about Zembla as being a wonderful country but shadowy government assassins wanted him dead. If Zembla is meant to be the Soviet Union then the implication seems to be that he still sees the Soviet Union collectively in idyllic terms and struggles to reconcile his beloved country with the governmental forces he needed to escape from. Whatever is that happened he was forced to leave the Soviet Union and move to the United States where he doesn't fit in, no one likes him and he doesn't like other people. People treat him with judgement partially because of his eccentricities but it seems like he wasn't well thought of before he fell into self delusion. He lives in a country that is hostile to the country he grew up in and loved and feels utterly out of place there. In his isolation he chooses Shade as the one special person who can ever truly understand him and needs his final poem to be about him and his false life as a beloved king of a fictional country because for this famous author to affirm his self mythology is what he psychologically needs to live fully in his own delusion. Its not enough for him to believe it because he knows that the people around him don't. He craves that validation which never comes. Nabokov like Kinbote was a writer who was forced to flee the Soviet Union and I suspect he sympathizes more with Kinbote then I think people give him credit for. I don't think Nabokov is entirely sympathetic to Kinbote as he is creepy, misogynistic and probably sexually predatory but there are aspects of his character that are meant to read as tragic. I think the tragic aspects of Kinbote's self mythology is what ties Pale Fire to Blade Runner 2049. In Blade Runner 2049 K; like all replicants wants desperately to be the one special person who had a childhood and a life before adulthood that he never really had. Its another form of self mythology centered around trauma and personal dehumanization. Every replicant came into this world by being birthed by a giant plastic bag. Their first moments are as a naked adult with no history in a world that doesn't care about them. And so K tries to grasp onto the possibility he had a life that he never had much like how Kinbote creates a false life for himself which is preferable to one he actually lived. Its worth noting that in Blade Runner Los Angeles is represented as a rainy Tokyo/Hong Kong style city but in Blade Runner 2049 the city has moved in the direction of wintery Soviet Union era brutalism tying Blade Runner 2049's setting to the Soviet Union. K's Joi device plays "Peter and the wolf"; a piece of classical music about a irresponsible, selfish young man who does a heroic selfless thing and is rewarded by the Soviet Union for having done so furthering the connection. The replicant agents are encouraged to be like Peter at the end of the story; someone who acts without personal thought or self interest for the benefit of the state. He says he doesn't like the book Pale Fire probably partially because of the mandatory tests but also because it probably hits a little too close to home for him.

[@QualiaRedux]

Knowing about Nabokov, I am pretty sure he had way more negative to say about reader entitlement and very little sympathy for reader emotional transference. This was not a warm and fuzzy man.

[@penelopegreene]

How about Kafka's The Trial?

[@copacelu93]

22:31 - mising sentance there Other than that it's a fantastic video. Great work

[@ShadowofWednesday]

As someone who really disliked Blade Runner 2049 because of my own issues that I was dealing with at the time related to a newly diagnosed reproductive disorder and infertility, I felt called out by Nabokov in this video. Maybe I need to give 2049 a fair rewatch and see what I get from it.

[@QualiaRedux]

I think it's a fair critique of BR 2049 to treat children as sort of symbolic of what we leave behind. Children of Men does a very similar thing! It can be a bit of a lazy shorthand.

[@danielkibira4064]

Stupendously insightful and transparent review 👌🏾 I loved it 💯👍🏾 I wonder what your thoughts are on NAKED LUNCH the novel?🤔

[@coachbiff09]

Kimbote is not his real name. It is an anagram of his real name. This is given to us in the index. I won't say anymore about this. Also, he did not kill John.

[@DiegoFernandoLoaiza]

Wow!

[@craigwarner6156]

I've subscribed because of this video, very good

[@QualiaRedux]

I’m glad you liked it!!

[@BackwardTravisty]

Your camera angle choice is interesting.

[@QualiaRedux]

🤷‍♀️ Trying stuff out!

[@DuanTorruellas]

Great video. Nabokovs book is still confusing.

[@magicbooksio]

This was wonderful🙏

[@QualiaRedux]

Thank you for watching!

[@MannyCoon]

Hale buyer I thought they were the same guy

[@reaganwiles_art]

Pale Fire yay-Bladerunner yuck-Do Androids Dream...yay. Shakespeare okay. This vessay let's partay.

[@sethnajmon5163]

Minor correction: Denis Villeneuve's name is not Dennis. There's videos out there where you can hear how it's pronounced. Really good video!

[@hermanhale9258]

You don't have to read or study any of this stuff. It is just shadows on the wall of Plato's cave. Better to study the men who concocted this stuff. Who were they? Where did they come from? What did they want? Probably all social engineers of the worst kind.

[@riquipoo5578]

Deckard being a replicant is ridiculous because wouldn’t the miracle then be his ability to impregnate someone?

[@dominicgodfrey8015]

There are three words in the English language that end with -gry, how does one live on? 17th March Patricia Lasker 😉

[@MannyCoon]

Did you mention to android dream of electric she I mean, that’s the book it was based on right?

[@MannyCoon]

I was gonna say we could remember it for your wholesale, but that’s total recall