Heroes with a Half Life: <i>Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles</i> and American Repression of Radiophobia after Chernobyl

Falkof, Nicky

doi:10.1111/jpcu.12061

Cited by 5 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…Dealing with the different media incarnations of the Ninja Turtles, particularly the 1987 TV series (Falkof), the 1990s live‐action films (Bisges; Kinder), toys (Masters), and video games (Ward Gailey), existing literature also attempts to interpret the underlying messages and explain the lasting appeal of the “heroes in a half‐shell.” George Lewis, for instance, describes them in terms of the American monomyth—as outsider heroes who defend a once perfect, paradisiacal community from evil—while Joseph Noshpitz emphasizes their status as adolescents, interpreting the main storyline as a process of male maturation. Calling them the “quintessential hybrids” (33), Richard Rosenbaum claims that the Ninja Turtles address issues central to the western postmodern condition.…”

Section: Overview Of Literature On Tmntmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Calling them the “quintessential hybrids” (33), Richard Rosenbaum claims that the Ninja Turtles address issues central to the western postmodern condition. Most pertinent to the present discussion, John Bisges and especially Nicky Falkof explore how the TMNT address ambivalent attitudes toward nuclear energy in the post‐Chernobyl United States. Falkof interprets the 1987 animated series as a reaction to post‐Chernobyl radiophobia in the United States and a vivid illustration of ambivalent attitudes toward nuclear energy, which was perceived both as a threat, in the form of radiation, and as power enabling the United States to become a leader in the fields of technology and economy.…”

Section: Overview Of Literature On Tmntmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Most pertinent to the present discussion, John Bisges and especially Nicky Falkof explore how the TMNT address ambivalent attitudes toward nuclear energy in the post‐Chernobyl United States. Falkof interprets the 1987 animated series as a reaction to post‐Chernobyl radiophobia in the United States and a vivid illustration of ambivalent attitudes toward nuclear energy, which was perceived both as a threat, in the form of radiation, and as power enabling the United States to become a leader in the fields of technology and economy. Bisges discusses the positive representation of nuclear energy/radioactivity, embodied in the Turtles themselves, in the first two films from the 1990s trilogy: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990) and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze (1991).…”

Section: Overview Of Literature On Tmntmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Bisges discusses the positive representation of nuclear energy/radioactivity, embodied in the Turtles themselves, in the first two films from the 1990s trilogy: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990) and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze (1991). While energy—more specifically nuclear energy—presents the central focus in both Bisges's and Falkof's arguments, it is important to note that they are less interested in energy per se and more interested in the ways in which the TMNT address public perception and attitudes towards nuclear energy in general and mutagenic effects of radioactivity in particular. But the portrayal of energy in the 1987 show reveals a specific focus on energy's (un)sustainable utilization in the TMNT universe.…”

Section: Overview Of Literature On Tmntmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Powering up the Technodrome: Energy Sustainability in the 1987 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Kujundžić¹,

Mišík²

2018

The J of Popular Culture

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Section: Overview Of Literature On Tmntmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Overview Of Literature On Tmntmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Overview Of Literature On Tmntmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Overview Of Literature On Tmntmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Powering up the Technodrome: Energy Sustainability in the 1987 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Kujundžić¹,

Mišík²

2018

The J of Popular Culture

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“…Si bien explorada por académicos tanto desde las ciencias duras como desde las ciencias medioambientales, Chernóbil ha adquirido recientemente una mayor popularidad también en el ámbito de las ciencias sociales, en campos como la geografía humana (Davies, 2013;Rush-Cooper, 2013), la antropología (Petryna, 2002(Petryna, , 2011Phillips, 2005Phillips, , 2012, la sociología (Kuchinskaya, 2011(Kuchinskaya, , 2012(Kuchinskaya, , 2014, la historia (Kalmbach, 2013), los estudios de turismo (Goatcher & Brunsen, 2011;Stone, 2013;Yankovska & Hannam, 2013), la cultura (Falkof, 2013) e incluso los estudios visuales (Bürkner, 2014). Todos estos académicos comparten la idea de que el desastre de Chernóbil tiene múltiples interpretaciones y dimensiones, con impactos discutidos que van desde dentro hasta más allá del espacio post-soviético.…”

Section: Chernóbilunclassified

Informalidad y supervivencia en Chernóbil: etnografía de un espacio nuclear

Davies

Polese²

2015

m.rcs

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ResumenRecientemente, el debate sobre el fenómeno de las actividades económicas informales se ha ido alejando, por lo menos parcialmente, de aquellas lógicas estrictamente monetarias, desplazándose hacia esquemas más complejos donde, dentro de perspectivas a largo plazo, se asumen paradigmas no materialistas. Sin embargo, el papel de la informalidad en numerosos aspectos de la existencia individual sigue sin ser verdadero objeto de estudio. Este artículo desvela qué ocurre cuando el Estado se retira (véase el fin de la garantía de prestaciones y servicios sociales) de una determinada área geográfica y qué tipo de mecanismos, prácticas e instituciones surgen en su lugar. Sugerimos que en el contexto de la desaparición de un Estado de bienestar y en ausencia de alternativas por parte del sector privado una miríada de transacciones y de actores logran colmar el vacío y ofrecer así una cobertura de carácter informal. Nuestro caso de estudio se centra en la Zona de Exclusión de Chernóbil en el noreste de Ucrania, afectada por el accidente nuclear homónimo, revelando con ello cómo todos aquellos que han quedado excluidos y abandonados, y a quienes identificamos como inmersos en la "nuda vida" post-nuclear (Agamben, 1998), han logrado crear mecanismos de seguridad social independientemente de los esquemas estatales, ofreciendo un papel complementario, y ello hasta hoy en día. Arreglos informales, locales y no oficiales en un espacio nuclear resultan cruciales para la supervivencia en un entorno marginal y peligroso como es este.Palabras clave: Chernóbil, economías informales, informalidad, nuda vida, post-socialismo, Ucrania. AbstractRecent informality debates have started exploring, in addition to monetary and pure economic transactions, non-monetary ones, often embedded in long term and established social relations. In spite of this, the role informality plays in various aspects of people's lives has been studied only partly. In our work we explore the case of a retiring state that stops providing benefits and social services to a given area of a country. We concentrate our analysis on the practices and mechanisms that emerge from this de jure and de facto abandonment by both the state and the private sector. By so doing, we concentrate a large variety of transactions and actors that emerge to replace the state and shed the basis for a large and comprehensive informal welfare mechanism. The geographical area studied here is the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone in Ukraine. We maintain that these areas have seen the establishment and consolidation of mechanisms of social security completely independent from, but yet complementing, the state welfare provider. We will show that informality, and informal practices, are vital to survival in a marginalised and risky environment.

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Informality and survival in Ukraine's nuclear landscape: Living with the risks of Chernobyl

Davies

Polese

2015

Journal of Eurasian Studies

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Recent debates on informal economic activities have partially switched away from a pure monetary logic towards a more complex one, embedded in long term relations and reckoning with non materialistic paradigms. The role of informality in certain aspects of people's lives has however, remained largely unexplored. This article uncovers what happens when the state retires from (providing benefits and social services to) a geographic area and what kind of mechanisms, practices and institutions are created to make up for this. We suggest that, in the face of de facto abandonment by state welfare, and the absence of a private sector alternative, a myriad of transactions and actors can make up for this by replacing these forms of welfare informally. Our case study focuses on the nuclear landscapes around the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone in north–central Ukraine as we reveal the ways the excluded and abandoned, which we frame as post-nuclear “bare life” (Agamben, 1998), have created a mechanism of social security that is independent from the state and yet complements it. Informal, local and unofficial understandings of nuclear spaces are central to survival in this marginalised and risky environment.

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Heroes with a Half Life: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and American Repression of Radiophobia after Chernobyl

Cited by 5 publications

References 8 publications

Powering up the Technodrome: Energy Sustainability in the 1987 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Powering up the Technodrome: Energy Sustainability in the 1987 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Informalidad y supervivencia en Chernóbil: etnografía de un espacio nuclear

Informality and survival in Ukraine's nuclear landscape: Living with the risks of Chernobyl

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