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Starship titanic theme12/12/2023 ![]() ![]() As she is launching into her tale, elderly Rose says, "It's been 84 years.," symbolizing the chasm of time that now separates her current experience from her memories. The clock represents the fact that Jack and Rose are able to experience a whirlwind romance together in a matter of days, but also that their time together is limited by the ship's tragic fate. Cameron uses the ornate clock engraved in the first-class lobby of the ship as the meeting-place for Jack and Rose, which she dreams about at the end of the film. Time is a key theme in Titanic, one that is conveyed primarily through the symbol of the clock. Cameron also shows how third-class passengers, caged below deck, perished at greater rates than first-class passengers, who bribed and cajoled their way onto lifeboats. The penniless artist Jack, on the other hand, values experiences over possessions, and encourages Rose to do the same. Only Molly Brown, as an example of "new money," retains her moral center. Bruce Ismay's arrogance dooms the ship, Cal Hockley's abusive behavior shocks Rose, and Rose's mother Ruth shamelessly uses her daughter as a pawn. ![]() Rose feels so suffocated by her the expectations of her wealthy family and friends that she nearly kills herself in the film's first act, and Cameron portrays the upper class to be overwhelmingly amoral. James Cameron once described the film as " Romeo and Julieton the Titanic," but instead of staging a battle between Montagues and Capulets, Cameron dramatizes the hostility between the rich and the poor. Rose dropping the Heart of the Ocean diamond back into the sea at the end of the film, rather than turning it over to Brock, reflects the fact that love is a mysterious and powerful force beyond measure, something not reducible to material wealth. Rose's interactions with Jack, however, convince her that an authentic, passionate relationship is more valuable than any riches. In the film, the upper classes are shown to be largely incapable of love: Ruth would prefer that her daughter enter into a loveless marriage with the steel magnate Cal Hockley so that they can preserve their riches. The blossoming love affair between Jack and Rose is the central narrative of the film, one that leads them to make risky, fateful decisions in order to stay together. "Just when people were beginning to accept that graphics and video could replace text along came the Web and e-mail and suddenly we're all typing again.Love is the overriding theme of the film, which is symbolized by the Heart of the Ocean diamond. To add to the entertainment stew, Adams believes we are on the verge of a "post post-literate" era anyway - thanks to the Internet. "The only reason we need to call new media interactive at all is to differentiate it from print, which isn't!" He suggests that before print all story- telling - on stage or round the camp fire - was interactive in the sense the audience shouted questions and suggestions to the story- teller. Now, they think it's going to do the same thing."Īdams's belief is that the interaction involved in new media is returning people to ancient forms of entertainment. Then, they believed the coming of print heralded the end of story-telling. "Those who bemoan the death of print culture are the 20th century equivalents of those who feared its arrival all those centuries ago. So it follows that Adams has little time for the doom-mongers who condemn new media for heralding the decline of the printed page. And that is where the game comes into its own. Of course, the comedy invested in these characters only comes to light when the player interacts with them. There is the dreaded liftbot who drones on about the war, the Maitre D bot who is charm itself until contradicted, and even a talking bomb who becomes furious when he loses count. All except one (a parrot, in fact) are robots who display that familiar Adamsian mixture of bureaucratic incompetence and British rudeness. The Starship Titanic is filled with appalling characters like that. The attendant's response to his pleas was a withering "Oh yeah, and whose budget will that come out of?" On arrival at the airport he found it had not. He was sent standard tickets but was told an upgrade had been arranged. Adams found inspiration for this key element of the game when he was asked to fly to Australia for a promotional event and agreed, provided he could go first class (not as avaricious as it sounds - Adams is 6ft 4ins tall and so does not exactly fit into an economy-class seat). Player motivation is provided by "one of the most powerful forces known to man" - the desire for a free upgrade. ![]()
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