Transistor: Postmodernism Celebrated

Maik Biekart published an interesting essay on the “Care and Play” blog, in which he argues that the key to Supergiant Games’ story-driven action-RPG Transistor’s storyline is the struggle between modernism and postmodernism. The thesis clearly resonated with the developers, given they gave the essay a retweet on their official Twitter account. You can judge for yourself whether there’s any merit to it, starting from this snippet:

For the sake of clarity, I will briefly define the movements of modernism and postmodernism, as they naturally can only be seen in relation to each other, highlighting the most important factors for this analysis. Modernism, a movement inspired by modern life of the 1920s and briefly continued in the 1960s, is a rejection of all things romantic. It rejects harmonic aesthetics, replacing them with plainness and abstraction; the mantra goes, (less is more.) It rejects the classical narrative structure, dismissing the omniscient narrator, the closed ending, etc. It invites experimentation, switching to an impressionistic style, a merging of genres, a play with form and reflexivity (i.e. the meta-narrative). Most vitally for the comparison, modernism is melancholic, longing back to the age of Enlightenment, where ruled a sense that all of society’s struggles could be resolved by following one true reason.

As far as devices go, postmodernism is very similar to its predecessor. The rejection of classical narrative continues, as does the experimentation with genre, form, and reflexivity. But the first important difference is a switch in mood. Modernism is largely defined by its asceticism, its minimalist aesthetic, and this aesthetic is the result of the attitude that nothing better is possible in the modern age. Postmodernism rejects this pessimistic point of view, and instead celebrates its experimentation with form, genre, and abstraction, through excess and display. As a celebration of modern life, postmodernism looks down on the old societal structure that modernism longs back to. It realizes that a singular philosophy can never lead to utopia, and instead highlights the efforts of individuals or groups, empowering smaller circumstances. (These definitions are largely paraphrased from Peter Barry’s Beginning Theory. For more elaborate explorations of postmodernist theory, look up Lyotard and Baudrillard, whose writings define the movement.)

…

Applying the above definitions to Transistor, it is immediately obvious that the Camerata play the role of the modernists. Their aim is to overthrow the societal systems of Cloudbank, to assert a singular philosophy; the Transistor is meant to assemble that singularity through the assimilation of all of Cloudbank’s popular voices. It may not be the Enlightenment they harken back to, but there is a definite melancholy behind their aims, a wish to return to a less fragmented city and have it flourish under a single movement, a single narrative. To further emphasize their modernism, the Camerata’s tool of choice, the Process, rejects all the aesthetic of Cloudbank and returns it to its barest form: geographical shapes, hues of white and grey. Especially Fairview, an area likely to be designed by Royce personally, embodies the modernist aesthetic, with its reflexive level design and its play with perspective, doubtlessly inspired by Escher.

It is harder to define the Camerata’s philosophy.
Transistor highlights several reasons for the creation of the Camerata. Grant’s biography states that, after years of selfless service as administrator, he began to harbour wishes of his own. Asher’s biography highlights that (the two shared a passion for seeking the truth of things.) Only Royce seems to actually believe in the statement by which he defines the group: (When everything changes, nothing changes;) indeed, Asher’s biography states that, thanks to the Camerata’s efforts, (Cloudbank would enter a new era.) So the true philosophy of the Camerata remains ambiguous; however, their methods are clear. They assimilate a wide variety of voices through the Transistor, thanks to which they will be able to give the people what they do not know they want (as says Asher, on Bracket Towers recording 3). They want to turn the individual experiences that shape and reshape Cloudbank into a singular, perfect experience for everyone, an aim that is inherently modernist, and counter to postmodernism. It is also this methodology that makes them the antagonist of Cloudbank, and the game.

The postmodernism of Cloudbank is most readily apparent in its aesthetic. The design of the city is highly impractical in many places, from the many dead ends around Goldwalk to the extreme height differences in Highrise. The former emphasizes the fragmentation of the city, how every area and every corner has its own identity without relation to the rest of the city. The latter highlights the use of geographical shapes and play with perspective, with every skyscraper somehow achieving greater height than the previous. The same hierarchy of perspective play over practicality can be seen in the Empty Set; it seems as if the audience sits both far below and far above the stage, and none of it is accessible to the player. Unlike Fairview, though, these areas are vibrant in colour and cohesive in design, not confusing or alienating to the player. The fragmented, experimental aesthetic enhances the vibrancy, instead of challenging it.