Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

In Episode 9 of Dystopian Fiction Has Been Moved to Current Affairs, Clare Coombe and Masha Yakovleva are welcoming 2024 with a deep dive into Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, on its 20th anniversary. In this episode, we discuss the importance of memory for individuals and communities, and how these are impacted by social media, fake news, and whether or not the echo-chamber effect is affecting our attitude to history. We talk medical ethics, whistle-blowing, informed consent, and unscrupulous medical practitioners. Focussing on Joel and Clementine's relationship, we consider the idealization of relationships in the social media era, and where happiness is found within empty lives. Don't forget to follow up on our music references, and especially Tom Waits' '9th and Hennepin' by checking out our Spotify playlist: Sounds of Dystopia. You can find the reference to the song in the original screenplay (page 12). You can follow up the references to online echo-chamber research, as Masha discusses in the episode, starting here, here, and here. We were a bit weak on Nietzsche, but David L Smith offers far more astute insights in his article, 'Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and the Question of Transcendence'. Clare discussed the rise in populism and the far right, as expounded on The News Agents, and you can listen to the episode here. Please do follow us on Instagram, or send us an email at [email protected] if you have suggestions or comments for future episodes. If you like what we do, please consider making a donation via our sister project, Being Society.