The Fantasy of Downtime
Do you remember the last time you had…?
Lately, I’ve noticed that I’ve been attracted to dystopian or medieval themes in entertainment. I’ve found myself choosing to watch shows about the future where humanity is close to extinction, and the past, long before the industrial revolution. Sometimes I’ll watch fantasies about a magical, mystical world, with medieval technologies. No electricity, no screens, no notifications.
Examples include:
- Station Eleven
- Raised By Wolves
- Game of Thrones
- Valhalla
- Outlander
Those are the five main shows I’ve watched in the last year. All of them feature characters and plots with lots of downtime. There are no phones, few if any screens, and civilization is small, almost nonexistent.
In these television shows, people have time to think.
Yes, there is drama and trauma, but while I watch those shows, I see people who have time to sit around and not think about a phone, a screen, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, how well their latest blog is doing, or whether their internet-connected camera doorbell is working right.
Lately, I’ve been drawn to the fantasy of long periods of reflection.
