The Grain
The prospect of the technology within ‘Black Mirror’ is of course exciting and fascinating, but it also creates some very serious questions. As Brooker himself states: ‘this area – between delight and discomfort – is where Black Mirror, my new drama series, is set’.[3] Although we could delight in this technology that allows us to never lose a precious moment, we are also disconcerted by the potential to never forget moments, and for ourselves to obsess over once insignificant details. To an extent this is already possible, and has been possible as long as film and photography have existed and thus it does not seem implausible that the technology in ‘Black Mirror’ could be a thing of the not too distant future. Which merely serves to emphasis the space that it occupies by bringing the possibility to stand between the conflicting delight and discomfort, in the shoes of the characters ever closer. And to those of us living in this postmodern age, at the center of such rapid change and shifting reliance on emerging technology this knowledge is definitely disconcerting.
This sense of discomfort is explored to its fullest in ‘The Entire History of You’. Within five minutes of the opening of the show Liam Foxwell, the protagonist is already ‘re-doing’ parts of his interview to analyse the exact phrasing of the sentence ‘we hope to see you again’.
This is the first time in the episode that the viewers are exposed to the mechanics of the ‘grain’, which is an internal memory storage device, allowing memory to be replayed, much like TiVo for the brain. The protagonist replays the clip not only once, but several times, the continuous shots that show him scrolling backwards and the look of anguish on his face are presented in cross cuts.
It is clear from the first viewing that Liam has resigned himself to the fact that he will not keep his job, and this knowledge pains him. The replaying of the interview merely causes Liam more pain and removes any hope that he may have had. His reasons for replaying the interview are also not entirely clear, he could, on the one hand, be desperately holding onto a glimmer of hope, looking to review the scene and stop something positive, or, this could be an act of self torment, wallowing in his own self pity and foolishness for failing the interview. Here we are reminded of the problem of the grain, and technology that stores memory for us, which is the inability to forget. It is also important to consider that it would be impossible to anticipate how Liam would react without the grain, although it is a tool that facilitates his obsession, he is obsessive by nature and may obsess as much without the grain.
Nevertheless, the replaying of the interview and the anguish that it causes him is merely a precursor for the anguish that he experiences later in the episode, when he becomes obsessed with his wife’s interactions with an old friend. Fueled by the dejection he feels from his imminent job loss, he notices his wife chatting animatedly with another man, only for her to turn round and notice him with a coolness made apparent by the warmth conveyed in her interactions with the stranger. From this point onwards he observes her carefully as his suspicions begin. Later on he begins repeating the interactions between his wife and an old friend who he now suspects are romantically involved, using the technology to reconstruct their conversation that he didn’t hear and reviewing conversations where he feels that he has reason to be jealous. These actions only serve to fuel his jealousy, further causing him pain. His obsessive use of the technology caused him to commit acts of violence and resulted in the end of his marriage. In both instances of the technology use, Liam’s suspicions were correct, but the way in which he went about discovering these truths may have caused him more misery than the truth itself. With many negative representations of the technology within the episode it is clear that Brooker takes a negative or at least cautionary stance on the grain technology, and therefore on the role of technology replacing human functions in modern society. But what is important to explore is whether Brooker’s viewpoint is an important or valid one.
This sense of discomfort is explored to its fullest in ‘The Entire History of You’. Within five minutes of the opening of the show Liam Foxwell, the protagonist is already ‘re-doing’ parts of his interview to analyse the exact phrasing of the sentence ‘we hope to see you again’.
This is the first time in the episode that the viewers are exposed to the mechanics of the ‘grain’, which is an internal memory storage device, allowing memory to be replayed, much like TiVo for the brain. The protagonist replays the clip not only once, but several times, the continuous shots that show him scrolling backwards and the look of anguish on his face are presented in cross cuts.
It is clear from the first viewing that Liam has resigned himself to the fact that he will not keep his job, and this knowledge pains him. The replaying of the interview merely causes Liam more pain and removes any hope that he may have had. His reasons for replaying the interview are also not entirely clear, he could, on the one hand, be desperately holding onto a glimmer of hope, looking to review the scene and stop something positive, or, this could be an act of self torment, wallowing in his own self pity and foolishness for failing the interview. Here we are reminded of the problem of the grain, and technology that stores memory for us, which is the inability to forget. It is also important to consider that it would be impossible to anticipate how Liam would react without the grain, although it is a tool that facilitates his obsession, he is obsessive by nature and may obsess as much without the grain.
Nevertheless, the replaying of the interview and the anguish that it causes him is merely a precursor for the anguish that he experiences later in the episode, when he becomes obsessed with his wife’s interactions with an old friend. Fueled by the dejection he feels from his imminent job loss, he notices his wife chatting animatedly with another man, only for her to turn round and notice him with a coolness made apparent by the warmth conveyed in her interactions with the stranger. From this point onwards he observes her carefully as his suspicions begin. Later on he begins repeating the interactions between his wife and an old friend who he now suspects are romantically involved, using the technology to reconstruct their conversation that he didn’t hear and reviewing conversations where he feels that he has reason to be jealous. These actions only serve to fuel his jealousy, further causing him pain. His obsessive use of the technology caused him to commit acts of violence and resulted in the end of his marriage. In both instances of the technology use, Liam’s suspicions were correct, but the way in which he went about discovering these truths may have caused him more misery than the truth itself. With many negative representations of the technology within the episode it is clear that Brooker takes a negative or at least cautionary stance on the grain technology, and therefore on the role of technology replacing human functions in modern society. But what is important to explore is whether Brooker’s viewpoint is an important or valid one.
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