![]() ![]() The power to convince comes from showing, not telling - from requiring the audience to actually engage and think critically. Stating a moral makes it pedantic and easy to ignore. This mindset cheapens the force of art if everything must be stated overtly, there’s no ability to play with concepts or subtlety. “Don’t Look Up” was one of the most heavy-handed movies I’ve ever seen, yet people missed its warning about climate change because it did not mention the term critics even complained that its messaging was ineffective because it was too subtle, not because it was too didactic.Īnd though shows such as “Succession” and “Billions” depict the corrupting power of money, some critiques complain that the characters are too well-developed, too human, and therefore glorify the wealth the shows skewer it feels worth pointing out that a show without character development would be unwatchable. Unfortunately, this mindset is becoming increasingly common people argued that “Squid Game” was not a critique of capitalism because the show never mentioned the word, despite the fact that the show was about people playing a murder game for rich people’s entertainment because they had no other hope of survival. (The Auschwitz numbers, which were tattooed by hand, also varied in size, writing style and placement.)įans unwilling to acknowledge the Holocaust resonance are paving the way for specious arguments - would a swastika not symbolize the Nazi regime if it was green? As antisemitism and white nationalism rise, will people deny the historical parallels because we’re American, not German, and the propaganda is spread using computers instead of physical posters?Ĭonnect with your community every morning. ![]() In “Les Miserables,” Jean Valjean is known by his prisoner number, 24601, and in “Squid Game,” the participants in a sadistic murder game are identified by the numbers on their uniforms.īut most fictional worlds avoid tattooing those identifiers on the forearms of their characters, probably to avoid the overt Holocaust association “Stranger Things” has made no such effort. Changing the font or size of the numbers, or shifting their location by a matter of centimeters, is not sufficient to eradicate the relationship to concentration camps. And inmates have been assigned numbers to help track them for centuries, up to today.Īnd “Stranger Things” is not the first fictional work to recreate the practice. In antiquity, tattoos, often with the name of the Roman emperor, were inked onto prisoners’ foreheads as a sign of punishment and dehumanization. “Like what’s next, scream at a dude who has his granny’s death date on his arm because there are numbers in it?”Īdmittedly, while the Holocaust is the most famous example of prisoner tattoos and numbers, it is certainly not the only one. “There is no connection to the Holocaust in the show so there isn’t any hidden meaning that could give them an argument,” said another Redditor. I just think people are trying to connect dots that aren’t there,” wrote one commenter on the “Stranger Things” subreddit. “The tattoos look vastly different from the ones in the Holocaust, those were on top of the arm, with a different font, while the ones in ST are smaller, and go on the wrist. And fans seem confused by those who have criticized the choice numerous posts deny any similarity between the numbered wrist tattoos and the Auschwitz prisoner numbers tattooed on forearms.Ī shot of two of the children’s’ tattoos in “Stranger Things.” Fan tattoos usually look nearly identical, though some rotate the number. The show has even reposted these tattoos to its official Instagram account. While the show’s creators, the Duffer Brothers, haven’t directly mentioned the Holocaust, the references seem obvious enough - and the pair draws heavily from directors such as Steven Spielberg.īut, apparently, the fans only picked up on the shallowest of meanings behind the tattoos - that it’s a special marking for children with superpowers - and decided to prove their fandom mettle by marking themselves in the same way. “ Stranger Things” has always played with Nazi themes there are experiments performed on numbered children with shaved heads, held captive in a lab, evoking Dr. Sign up here to get the latest stories from the Forward delivered to you each morning. This story was originally published on June 10 by the Forward.
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