Cuaron’s Existential SocialityA Conception of Hope in Children of Men

Hope CoM is NOT1.represented as rational desire with expectation (typical definition)2.a future oriented perseverance or spirit (Obama’s “audacity of hope” or even a politics of hope)3.aligned with a measured, critical realism about global conditions (general argument of scholars in documentary)4.aligned with a concept of rootlessness (Zizek)5.mediated by “faith/chance” coordinates (Jasper)6.symbolic in any way (Kee’s preganancy, Human Project)

Cuaron’s Existential SocialityRevisiting the BOAT

Frame not SymbolReading the boat as a symbol of rootlessness or the “answer” misses the way it functions visually as a framing device, and narratively as the “between” moment of intimate human relations. It is what is IN the boat that matters to Cuaron and in the narrative.

Ambiguity? No. The stand-in for the outcome of hope is ambiguous, the “act-content” is not. The Tomorrow/Human Project (HP) is a kind of trap that catches the unproductive attitude of hope that has the potential to fail (Fishes, Britain), but Cuaron does not emphasize this future. If viewers put stock in the HP, the will miss the point, AND the film collapses into arguments of ambiguity (i.e. “ooh, we don’t know what could happen” type of readings). Look to what is represented….

Cuaron’s Existential SocialityVisual Emphasis of Representation

Backdrop: Sterility of Human Relations

Cuaron’s Existential SocialityVisual Emphasis of Representation

Backdrop: Sterility of Human Relations

Cuaron’s Existential SocialityVisual Emphasis of Representation

Backdrop: Factionalization/Stratification of Peoples

Cuaron’s Existential SocialityVisual Emphasis of Representation

Foreground: Family, Basic Sociality

Cuaron’s Existential SocialityNarrative Framing, Emphasis

Theo Faron : Apathetic Gambler to “Human”

Cuaron’s Existential SocialityNarrative Framing, Emphasis

Theo Faron : Apathetic Gambler to “Human”

From Audacity to AmbiguityBarack Obama on Hope (DNC 2004)

“In the end, that's what this election is about. Do we participate in a politics of cynicism or a politics of hope? John Kerry calls on us to hope. John Edwards calls on us to hope. I'm not talking about blind optimism here -- the almost willful ignorance that thinks unemployment will go away if we just don't talk about it, or the health care crisis will solve itself if we just ignore it. No, I'm talking about something more substantial. It's the hope of slaves sitting around a fire singing freedom songs; the hope of immigrants setting out for distant shores; the hope of a young naval lieutenant bravely patrolling the Mekong Delta; the hope of a millworker's son who dares to defy the odds; the hope of a skinny kid with a funny name who believes that America has a place for him, too. The audacity of hope! In the end, that is God's greatest gift to us, the bedrock of this nation; the belief in things not seen; the belief that there are better days ahead.”