#Dirtycomputer Parableofthesower

[aksoria-blog]

Dirty Computer

Dirty Computer by Janelle Monae is an important concept to understand because she is breaking barriers of what it means to have an Afrofuturism. Before analyzing the concept of the film its important to know how she also incorporates the use music to state her statement. The film is sci-fi and it's set in virtual reality future, the protagonist who is an android named Jane 57821 realizes she wants to become human again. In this society, humans are referred to as computers and not as human beings. She tries to break free from the society who is forcibly controlling her and her friends. What I love about the film is that incorporates music and in a sense we are able to feel her feelings. She wants to break free because she feels, loves, and laughs. She’s holding on tight to her personality to what makes her her. And in that society you are seen as dirty.

In the beginning of the film Jane says, “They started calling us computers. People began banishing. And the cleaning began. You were dirty if you looked different. You were dirty if you refused to live the way they dictated. You were dirty if you showed any form of opposition. At all. And if you were dirty. it was only a matter of time.” This intro explains the overall concept of the film and what Janelle Monae is trying to state. This is terrifying future because of how technology and humanity will connect. What I also like about the film is because as she says “you are dirty if you looked different” this is something that is actually happening today on the LGBTQ community and people of color get treated in America. It's a scary thought to think something as technology that help society advance could be used against us. In a sense, Dirty Computer could be seen as a warning for the future. But also as a message to the present to stop listening and trying to adapt into society. To stand up and speak out in what you believe in and to never lose your humanity.

Janelle Monae is more than just an artist because of how she uses Afrofuturism. But I also enjoy the film a lot because she connects with a great author, Octavia Butler who also works with Afrofuturism. Octavia Butler has a novel called, “Parable of the Sower” and is a work about Afrofuturism, she envisions a black future through sci-fi and speculative fiction that is drawn from their cultural and historical heritage. The novel begins in the year 2024 set in Southern California that has become a dystopian landscape. California is ruined by corporate greed, inequality, environmental destruction.

The protagonist, Lauren Olamina, lives in California and like most of the country, society has fallen into deep decline, but the lucky people like Lauren’s family still have homes, food, and water. They live in a neighborhood, surrounded by a wall, police protection has declined in which they must defend themselves from the poor and the emaciated people who wait hoping to steal from the community (Butler 11). Lauren grows up in a terrible future and a lot of the book is focused with religion she has created, Earthseed. She soon leaves her community as a survivor and travels with other survivors and eventually begins walking north with a growing community, the first members of the Earthseed movement. Although, Octivia Butler’s novel is science fiction, it is important to understand because she focuses on Afrofuturism by drawing science fiction, history, and religious texts to draw attention to the past and current challenges Black people are facing in the US and she images a terrifying future of what might happen next.

It is important to understand both Dirty Computer and Parable of the Sower because each introduce a dystopian future of inequality. Butler is a famous black author that began the movement of Afrofuturism to influence other authors, artists, etc to create their version. Which is exactly what Janelle Monae created in Dirty Computer because she still connects to black culture roles and roots. It’s pretty crazy how both artists gives us a warning of what America might become. Dirty Computer argues that marginalized identities are in danger of losing the freedoms that they have long fought for. Dirty Computer tells us that we need to celebrate what makes us different while protecting our freedom and identity because if not we are pretty close to having a future as in the Parable of the Sower.