Media outtake 3: Radioactive

     When reading the short story, “Sweat” by Zora Neale Hurston, I couldn’t help but notice the animal cruelty – amongst the emotional, physical, and verbal abuse on his wife – which Sykes partook in. He kept a live rattlesnake in a tiny cage for an unknown period of time. While at first the snake had been fed and was still in the processes of digesting its food, it is clear that it was kept in captivity far after its food was digested since it became aggravated with trying to escape. Sykes bragged about his total control and power over the creature he used to frighten his wife to the entire town. Ironically, and almost karmically, the snake ends up biting and killing his oppressor.

     There is a new popular song out in society called “Radioactive” by the Imagine Dragons. The song is quite beautiful, and the music video – which really has nothing to do with the song – is both bizarre, powerful, and almost parallel to the scenario in “Sweat.” The main ringleader of this stuffed animal cage fighting arena, controls his main stuffed animal into beating his competitors stuffed animals. While the ring leader has ultimate control, having his hand on the lever that drops down into a giant cage of captive stuffed animals, he eventually is overthrown. However, it was by a competitor’s stuffed animal that was moments from being enslaved. Instead, this one, tiny stuffed animal forced the ring leader over the trap door, and imprisoned him to the cage where the ring leader kept all the other stuffed animal. It is never uncovered, but it is pretty obvious that the stuffed animals killed the ring leader.  I just think that the parallels – albeit a few details – were quite uncanny; and that they both pose a political statement about the abuse of something weaker than oneself and karma.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktvTqknDobU