Ishi, “The Deer Creek Wild Man”
The man known only as “Ishi” was found wandering the outskirts of Oroville, California in 1911, emaciated and clad in buckskins. Taken in by UCLA researchers, Ishi soon revealed (through an interpreter) that he was the last of his people. His tribe, the Yahi, had been massacred by white settlers when Ishi was a boy. Along with his family and a handful of survivors, Ishi would spend the next 44 years hiding in the wilderness, the survivors slowly dying until only Ishi, his mother, his brother, and his wife remained. Once they passed, Ishi spent three years alone in the wildlands of Northern California, until a particularly harsh wildfire season left him starving and near death. With no other options, Ishi finally walked out of the mountains and into white civilization at the age of 50.
After spending years teaching researchers what he knew of his people’s traditions and culture, Ishi would pass away from Tuberculosis in 1916, his new friends by his side. His last words were “You stay. I go.”
“Ishi” which simply means “man” in the Yahi language, was not his true name. Yahi tradition dictated that one could only speak one’s name after first being formally introduced by a friend or relative. As Ishi’s friends and relatives were all dead, he forever lost even his own name, the last insult of a life plundered by the mechanical creep of western civilization.
“I have no name, for there are none left who can name me.”
If you live life the proper way (never say the word “kilometer” even one time), American heaven is basically Yellowstone National Park
If you commit an Unforgivable American Sin (learning a second language, recycling too much, etc.) you get sentenced to eternity in Gary, Indiana.
A Clockwork Orange — None of the Droogs truly grow at all
In both the book and film, teenage sociopath Alex DeLarge and his gang of Droogs carry out thoughtless crimes and “ultraviolence” in the streets of dystopian Britain, before Alex kills a woman in a botched home invasion and is sent to prison. After serving a few years, he agrees to undergo the experimental Ludovico Technique, which leaves him in terrible agony at even the thought of violence (and as a bonus side effect, classical music — Alex’s one passion outside of extreme crime). When he gets out of prison, he learns that his old gang members are police officers now, and are still the exact same violent thugs they were as kids, only now with legal authority. After they beat the shit out of him (just because) Alex is taken in by a man he once crippled in a home invasion (again, just because). This guy is probably one of two decent people in the entire movie, and he still (understandably) tries to torture Alex to death when he realizes who he is. In the movie, Alex tries to kill himself by jumping out the window of the man’s house. When he wakes up, he finds he is cured of the Ludovico Technique, and goes right back to being an insane criminal. In the book the same thing happens, although it goes on to explain that Alex eventually got bored of “Ultraviolence” and decided to go get a normal job. That’s it. No moral awakening or lesson learned. He just “grows out of it”.
It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia — The entire gang and everyone they know are menaces to society
Everyone sucks in IASIP, and that’s the point. The Paddy’s crew are all abusive, stupid alcoholics. So are their families. So are their associates. Literally every main and recurring character is just a caricature of a terrible person. And on the rare occasion that the gang does meet someone good, they almost always drag them down to their level by sheer proximity. Rickety Cricket was once a promising young seminary student. After he steered hanging out with the gang, he wound up becoming disfigured and homeless, giving out blowjobs for money. Even Charlie, who is generally regarded as the “least awful” member of the gang, is an illiterate stalker who once mailed a man a box full of wasps. On top of that, the writers intentionally make sure none of the characters grow or develop at all, making sure that when an opportunity to better themselves presents itself, that they ruin it every single time. Paddy’s just won’t be Paddy’s unless everyone involved is a complete scumbag
Raya and the Last Dragon — Trust blindly, even if it costs you everything
The core theme of the movie (which it makes very clear) is to have faith in the goodness of people, and to trust those you otherwise might not. Good, simple moral. But what they actually show is Raya being punished over and over for putting faith in people, even getting Sisu (the Last Dragon) killed because she “didn’t trust” the antagonist Namaari, You know, who currently had a crossbow pointed at her friend’s heart. In the end, everyone basically dies except Naamari, who only saves the day because she has a last minute crisis of conscience. So the takeaway is to blindly trust people who’ve repeatedly screwed you over, because not doing so might ruin your life. And if you (very understandably) view certain people with suspicion, whatever harm they might do to you is actually your fault.
Peppa Pig — Mr. Skinnylegs
This one isn’t serious but it’s fun so I included it. In episode 47, season 1 of Peppa Pig, Peppa and George find a little black spider hiding in their toys. The kids initially freak out, before being calmed by their dad, who explains that spiders are harmless friends. The episode ends with the kids holding the spider in their bare hands and having a tea party with it. In Britain, spiders by and large are harmless. In Australia, where the show is also popular, they very very much can kill you dead. So for a few years, the ABC had to take down the episode, lest Australia’s children start thinking huntsman spiders and redbacks are playmates. The episode has since been allowed to be shown.
It wasn’t until I discovered him lying still beneath the surface one morning, a black mass writhing its way from his mouth, that humanity learned horsehair worms had found a new host.
Hermione Granger and SPEW — Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (book)
In the fifth HP novel, Hermione Granger is outraged to discover that Hogwarts has a small army of enslaved House Elves that do nearly all of the domestic duties around the castle, including cleaning the Gryffindor common room every night. When she tries to convince the elves to fight for their own rights, they refuse, saying they prefer servitude. Her fellow students and friends mock her for caring. She manages to free one elf, Winky, by deception when she refuses her freedom willingly, leading to Winky becoming a depressed alcoholic. By the end, the elves boycott cleaning any Gryffindor areas of the castle because they hate Hermione specifically
Samwell Tarly and Democracy — Game of Thrones (show)
In the season 8 finale of the television series, the surviving great lords of Westeros gather to discuss the future of the kingdom following the devastation wrought by 7 seasons of war and backstabbing. When Sam, who has proven to have “novel” ideas, suggests that maybe the millions of Smallfolk who suffer at the hands of noble houses should get some representation in the government, rather than be the pawns of rich lords with absolute power. We are then greeted by a prolonged, cringy segment of the other lords laughing in Sam’s face, asking if the dogs and horses should also get a vote.
Jurgus Rudkus — Upton Sinclair’s “The Jungle”
Upton Sinclair’s classic 1906 novel and its main-character, jaded Lithuanian immigrant Jurgus Rudkus, became iconic in American culture for exposing to the public the abusive, disgusting, disease-riddled conditions of Chicago’s meat packing industry, which at the time supplied much of the world with canned and preserved meat. Readers were outraged by descriptions of workers falling into vats of meat and being ground into sausage, or of rat droppings and tubercular organs being mixed in with the finer cuts of meat to add weight. Yet Sinclair’s intention with the book was to expose the plight of the American immigrant worker, and to extol the virtues of socialism. Jurgus is a man who comes to America full of hope for a better life, and is left utterly broken by the uncaring world of American capitalism. Yet most readers of the day conveniently overlooked a full half of the novel, with their primary takeaway being “meat packing plants are gross, let’s change that.”
Uncle Tom — Uncle Tom’s Cabin
Published in 1852, Uncle Tom’s Cabin follows the story of Uncle Tom, a slave from Kentucky who is sold away from his family to serve various masters in the Deep South. Tom is portrayed as an almost Christlike figure, a good Christian with good values who is held in bondage by horrible men. The book highlighted the physical cruelty of American slavery, such as when Tom is brutally whipped or when the enslaved woman Eliza escapes into the night in order to stop her son being sold. While the book became a rallying cry for abolitionists in the lead up to the Civil War, with Tom meant to be seen as a moral paragon, to be called an “Uncle Tom” today is to essentially be called a race traitor. A servile, perfect slave willing to accept any abuse by the wider power structure.
Clark is a man who fundamentally projects his insecurity, self-loathing, and deep seated anger onto other people, namely his wife, and later Mary. But I think we can add the Captain to that list.
Though Clark was certainly unaware at the time, his proximity to the Backrooms projected all of his negativity onto/into Captain Clark. If the other Still Lifes are essentially skewed snapshots of someone at a single moment in time, Captain Clark is a walking slideshow of Clark’s lowest point (aka all the time he spent living in the store).
If the Backrooms were able to “scan” Clark enough times to not only render his worst emotions but to create actual flesh and bone in the Captain, who’s to say it didn’t also copy Clark’s constant drunkenness into the Captain too? What if the Captain, on top of being a crooked creature born of hate, is literally impaired? The Backrooms wouldn’t “know” being drunk is a state that eventually ends.
The Captain is probably not totally in control of his own actions, and that too is Clark’s fault
Professor Horace Slughorn — Harry Potter
Introduced in the sixth installment of the series (HP and the Half-Blood Prince), Professor Slughorn mainly serves to provide the “exception to the rule” for the almost comically evil Slytherin House. While he embodies the Slytherin ideals of being ambitious and greedy, he does so mostly without malice, and is crucially helpful to the main characters without much coercion. Every other living Slytherin character we’ve been exposed to across six movies/books has been either evil, and asshole, or both. But not my man Horace, he’s alright.
Boc the Seamster — Elden Ring
An optional NPC quest giver and helper, Boc is a Demi-Human, a savage race of primitive beast men who populate The Lands Between. He’s the only friendly, intelligent, and non-hostile member of his entire species that can be encountered by the player. Boc js also keenly aware of how horrible his people are, leading to deep self-loathing. Rejected by the other Demi-Humans as a freak and disgusted with his beastly appearance, Boc eventually seeks to rebirth himself with the power of Queen Rennala’s Amber Egg, an extremely risky act that often leaves the reborn brain damaged and defective. The player can either convince Boc that he is beautiful the way he is, or allow him to undergo rebirth. If he does so, he successfully becomes a blonde human man, but is left in a coma and soon dies.
“Have you considered it could be anxiety?”, he asked, looking bored as he glanced at my chart.
“Use any means necessary”, I told the doctor, smiling as Dad’s rib cage cracked under compressions as he coded for the seventh time.