Content
Mobility and Technologies Through History
The Automobile in Movies: Herbie the Love Bug (1968)
The Love Bug
- “The Love Bug” (1968): Notes and Quotes
- Select scenes from this movie will be shown in class: from Racing at Riverside to the streets of San Francisco (Jim looking for Herbie).
- When you watch and try to analyse this film keep the following in mind
- We can read the story and the arc of the characters as a metaphor of the modern interactions with technology and, more generally, of the relationship between consumers and various kinds of products
- From a functional point of view, the car would be seen as an extension of the individual, with regards to mobility
- From a consumerist point of view, and within the frame of the role of modern individual technologies, the car (like many other products) participates in the construction of the self of the user/owner, to the point where we might say that the user is an extension of the product, using the product in ways that go beyond its primary functions (transportation or racing in this particular way), or using the product just for the sake of it, without a utilitarian goal (as in the case of driving without a planned destination)
- Jim cannot grow fully, mature and realize himself as a man, as a racecar driver and as a companion or a husband, until he acknowledges how much he owes to his little car, Herbie, to his close friend and mentor, Tennessee, and to his romantic companion, Carole
- The car, as a technology or a product he uses heavily, has a pivotal role in the construction of his self, of his identity (personal, social [for his circle of friends and his partner] and public)
- Since Disney was family oriented, the emphasis on technology is paralleled by the importance assigned to becoming a mature member of society and a husband who is aware of his own limitations, i.e. that he cannot be a winner in racing, in society and within the family all by himself, relying only on his strengths
YouTube Videos
Fall 2024
https://youtu.be/jI-hEfdydm8
https://youtu.be/vMNHiurehtw
Fall 2023
CCS 325: Lecture from September 5, 2023
CCS 325: Lecture from September 7, 2023
Fall 2022
CCS 325: Lecture from August 30, 2022