Klingons, Yogurt and Uncle Tom's Cabin

March 28, 2016 3:20 PM

This year marks the 25th anniversary of the collapse of the Soviet Union. AV Club is commemorating the occasion by having a "Cold War Week", which launches today with a Cold War Pop Culture Timeline.
posted by AlonzoMosleyFBI (41 comments total)

Still blacklisted in the United States, an exiled Charlie Chaplin tackled the Cold War in his final starring role. Chaplin’s deposed monarch travels to Manhattan to promote atomic power, only to find commercialism, TV, and anti-Communist scaremongering. It’s a world where people are sold all kinds of crap that keeps them from thinking, and technology isn’t being used to build a new world but to distract people from the current one.

Oh shit. I grew up in the Cold War and never even heard of this. The propaganda machine worked. Wolverines!
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 3:27 PM on March 28, 2016 [7 favorites]

I wonder if they'll cover The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming. I don't see it in the timeline.
posted by ckape at 4:26 PM on March 28, 2016 [1 favorite]

I'd like to start a Cold War Rennactment Society, we'd meet in windowless rooms and redact documents. (Details on where to meet can be found in the cryptically worded personals ad in Monday's newspaper)
posted by The Whelk at 4:33 PM on March 28, 2016 [22 favorites]

Props for including MAD Magazine's Spy Vs. Spy, created by Cuban expatriate ‎Antonio Prohías 55 years ago and still running (but not quite as good since Prohias' retirement) and giving White Spy and Black Spy victories in approximately equal measure. (Not related but I am SO glad Sergio Aragones and Al Jaffee are still active at MAD at their advanced ages)
posted by oneswellfoop at 4:37 PM on March 28, 2016 [3 favorites]

The Whelk: "I'd like to start a Cold War Rennactment Society, we'd meet in windowless rooms and redact documents. (Details on where to meet can be found in the cryptically worded personals ad in Monday's newspaper)"

And then the Dr. Strangelove pie fight can actually happen!
posted by Splunge at 4:38 PM on March 28, 2016 [2 favorites]

From 1977-1987 the James Bond movies sucked in a new way, thanks to the series ping-ponging between droll escapism and the threat of nuclear winter. Perhaps its nadir was Octopussy, which took what should have been a silly James Bond romp and made it grimdark with rogue nuclear weapons, conventional ground war, etc.

One trend is that Western homegrown media consistently led big-money media in engaging with issues. In the fifties, novelty records discussing nuclear war appeared before the animated educational spectacle of "Duck and Cover." Spy vs. Spy was absurd long before Strangelove. Missile Commandgobbled quarters long before Red Dawn and WarGames. Even at the end, punk, new wave and reggae were bemoaning the Reagan and Thatcher's New World Order while Ivan Drago was still telling Rocky "I must break you."
posted by infinitewindow at 4:49 PM on March 28, 2016 [1 favorite]

Checkpoint Charlie seeks Able Archer for Sino-Soviet Split. Bring your own detente. Rapprochement accepted, but not required. Respond via dead drop under the park bench, you know where. I've got the minox, do you have the time? -- YOYOSTRING-418976 OBE.
posted by valkane at 4:50 PM on March 28, 2016 [12 favorites]

I was surprised by the omission of The Day After and WarGames, but otherwise, a great piece.
posted by vibrotronica at 4:54 PM on March 28, 2016 [3 favorites]

I'd like to start a Cold War Rennactment Society,

Maybe we could sit in a windowless room. Blinken lights and a zillion switches everywhere covering this big metal control panel. Just two of us. Sipping coffee, reading the paper, talking about Vietnam and the Mets. We're both in perfectly creased Air Force uniforms. Our chairs are comfy.

Radio comes to life. Yells out "Otter Crimson Kazoo!" You're the senior officer so you pull out the envelope for the day. Yep, that was Monday's code. We exchange a meaningful glance. I pull out my key. You pull out yours. Shall we turn? Do you panic? Do I refuse? Just a drill, isn't it?

Or maybe would be easier to meet for coffee. A little place we'll pretend isn't far from Checkpoint Charlie. A nice spring day so I'll take the seat closest to the window. You'll sit at the table not next to mine but just one over. We will not acknowledge each other. You'll get up, walk past me, stumble and drop the small box you're carrying. "Did you drop this?" I'll say while handing you a box which is not the one you dropped. You'll take it back to your flat. Turn on Armed Forces Radio at 0100. If the song is "The Lady in Red", you'll open the box. If "Sussudio" is playing, you'll abandon the box, abandon your flat, and take on a new mission somewhere else.
posted by honestcoyote at 4:55 PM on March 28, 2016 [16 favorites]

They should reserve a spot for Tom Lehrer, who satirized the Cold War in a number of songs in the late 50s and early 60s, including: We Will All Go Together When We Go, MLF Lullaby, So Long Mom, and Wernher Von Braun.
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 5:20 PM on March 28, 2016 [3 favorites]

Re: Tom Lehrer - I note that they're going to discuss music and the Cold War in another upcoming piece, maybe they'll give him a nod there.

Although the premise of the article seems to be asking why so many musicians seemed obsessed by nuclear war; it seems obvious to me - this living under the constant threat can fuck your shit UP.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 5:25 PM on March 28, 2016 [1 favorite]

Have you ever seen a dog or a small child get SO EXCITED about something, they quickly become overwhelmed and can't even deal for the moment, but need to go lie facedown somewhere or something similar?

That was approximately my reaction to this zomg this is going to be amaaaaazing and I will love every part of it. I'm of an age that I just about remember the Cold War, but I was mostly a wee tiny thing, so it's hazy and diffused in that way that very early memories are.

Also, it feels both shorter and longer than 25 years ago.
posted by kalimac at 5:29 PM on March 28, 2016 [1 favorite]

It is my belief that American popular culture has produced exactly zero works of any note or value since the fall of the Berlin Wall.
posted by Faint of Butt at 6:04 PM on March 28, 2016

honestcoyote: Or just live your life and occasionally wonder. "If it happens, how bad will it be? Will my town get hit? What'll happen to my family and loved ones. How will we get food?" Think about the options. Debate trying to find a place at maximum distance from any military facility. Dismiss these thoughts, until the next time you're suddenly aware that civilization is a handful of bad decisions and 30 minutes flight time away from ending.
posted by Grimgrin at 6:13 PM on March 28, 2016 [4 favorites]

For a specific subset of Cold War reenactment there's this FPP from a couple of years ago linking to a VICE video about Vietnam War reenactors. The protagonist now has his own show on the VICELAND television channel.
posted by XMLicious at 6:26 PM on March 28, 2016

Grimgrin is right about that - hell, it's so much a part of the Cold War that Douglas Copland even included a few nods to that kind of speculating in his Generation X book, including the sidebar definition for mental ground zero.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:42 PM on March 28, 2016 [1 favorite]

No mention of the vast genre of 1980s nuclear war films, but a shitload of pop singles no one has ever heard. Great work everybody!
posted by Senor Cardgage at 6:52 PM on March 28, 2016 [1 favorite]

Remember, all launch codes are "0000".
posted by telstar at 7:04 PM on March 28, 2016 [1 favorite]

I visited Berlin in 1988, went through the checkpoint, tried to spend my Marks -- the whole bit. Last year I bought some DDR coinage on Ebay, and when I opened up the envelope I was kind of agog: a handful of the wages of oppression, mine for only three bucks.
posted by wenestvedt at 7:32 PM on March 28, 2016 [1 favorite]

In other words, I am still having trouble processing that the USSR is done & gone.

Don't even get me started on the 1980s-era, bright red nightshirt (which my mom's friends got in Sweden) that features "CCCP" and Mickey Mouse in front of St. Basil's cathedral: I don't know whether to wear it or sell it or offer it to the Smithsonian...
posted by wenestvedt at 7:34 PM on March 28, 2016 [2 favorites]

Welcome to the Cold War Reenactment Society, I look forward to learning all your assumed names. Everyone planning on being a double agent please raise your hand. Everyone planning on turning in your Oxford lover from the other side please tap your shoe lightly.
posted by The Whelk at 8:08 PM on March 28, 2016 [4 favorites]

Or just live your life and occasionally wonder.

I had my pre-teen years during Reagan's Cold War Revival Tour. This part I don't have to re-enact as I had the pleasure of doing it once and I'd rather not repeat.

Anyways, if I have to relive my part of the Cold War years, I'm joining The Whelk's re-enactment, basing myself in Berlin, and working for the CIA, KGB, and Mossad simultaneously while doing a tremendous amount of coke. Seems like a much better way to anticipate the apocalypse than being a scared kid in a small suburban house.

I just hope this re-enactment has me sitting in a secret room in my flat, listening to a numbers station while I frantically transcribe and try to keep up. Always wanted to do that.
posted by honestcoyote at 8:49 PM on March 28, 2016 [4 favorites]

There's also a lot of tweed jackets and multiple wives that don't know about each other.
posted by The Whelk at 9:30 PM on March 28, 2016 [2 favorites]

I'm kind of amazed that they included Dr. Strangelove, but not Fail Safe?
posted by trackofalljades at 9:39 PM on March 28, 2016

This is the choice they gave us.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 10:01 PM on March 28, 2016

FWIW, here are the long pieces posted so far in the Cold War Week series (separate from the timeline): Soviet science fiction, the G.I. Joe animated series, Star Trek.
posted by alexoscar at 10:28 PM on March 28, 2016 [1 favorite]

Is there any way to read this as just (mostly) text without the underlying popup timeline mechanic? My browser is struggling with the underlying code. :C
posted by Faintdreams at 3:34 AM on March 29, 2016

Your all under arrest for watching subversive propaganda!
posted by clavdivs at 4:09 AM on March 29, 2016 [1 favorite]

On a more serious note -

NPR has been airing a news series about how Brooklyn has been (and is being) gentrified, and this morning's installment made a very good argument that it was the Cold War that started the whole thing off.

They focused on the East New York neighborhood, and discussed how a lot of white homeowners were seriously pressured into selling their homes in the neighborhood and moving away in the 1950's, which cleared the way for a lot of people of color to move in. But the pressuring white homeowners to move was connected to a civil defense policy to try to move "essential" citizens (read: white and educated) out of urban areas for their own protection; any bombs were going to target major cities, therefore....
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:55 AM on March 29, 2016 [1 favorite]

I went on a Cold War re-enactment evening last year, in a nuclear-bunker-turned-museum just outside London. It's not really a museum - when the place was decommissioned in the early 90s, the government sold it back to the farmer whose fields it's under, and he just kept all the bits in it. More a time capsule.

We were treated as survivors coming into the bunker after the bomb had dropped, so given decomtamination training, shown the ropes, and had various lectures on what had happened and what might happen next. Most of the comms and other equipment was still in place - surprisingly few computers, as the last major update had clearly been in the late 70s/early 80s with a lot of the original 50s/60s stuff still there, so it was mostly rows of teleprinters with the odd old 8-bit computer. rubber suits and so on.

It really brought home to me how much of a figleaf it all was. This place would probably have been the main seat of government post-bomb (Duncan Campbell called the place 'der Thatcherbunker') and the idea of anything remotely useful happening there while millions of people were dead and dying in the shattered country above was just ludicrous.

But I highly recommend a visit to any accessible Cold War infrastructure near you, if you can. It's not going to be around for ever, and it's an eloquent reminder of a global madness that we like to pretend is over...
posted by Devonian at 7:37 AM on March 29, 2016 [1 favorite]

Threads LARPing seems like a terrible idea.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 7:40 AM on March 29, 2016 [1 favorite]

On the other hand, '70s-era John le Carre style, Sandbaggers-esque shadow games LARPing sounds fantastic.

I call dibs on the French-Hungarian ex-Legionnaire triple agent who works as an art dealer but is actually selling explosives to the PLO and ETA; and who is obsessed with American baseball, has a secret heroin habit, and is haunted by what he did in Algiers.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 7:52 AM on March 29, 2016 [1 favorite]

Metafilter's own Nasreddin has a by-line on that Soviet sci-fi article.
posted by Iridic at 7:58 AM on March 29, 2016 [2 favorites]

On the other hand, '70s-era John le Carre style, Sandbaggers-esque shadow games LARPing sounds fantastic.


I'm secretly in love with the East German garment factory owner I'm assigned to but I have to kill him because of spy reasons.
posted by The Whelk at 8:28 AM on March 29, 2016 [2 favorites]

Also, I hope that the episode discussing pop music includes two of my favorite songs about nuclear annihilation:
Atomic Power and Final Day.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 8:37 AM on March 29, 2016 [1 favorite]

> Metafilter's own Nasreddin has a by-line on that Soviet sci-fi article.

That was a pretty good article, but it doesn't sufficiently tout the genius of the Strugatskys (who were head and shoulders above even most Anglophone sf writers, and way way above poor Ivan Evremov, who was essentially "Doc" Smith a few decades too late), and this is just wrong:

Far from being crushed by Stalin’s jackboot, under the Soviet experiment, science-fiction flourished in a way both recognizable and totally its own.

In fact, science-fiction was crushed by Stalin’s jackboot (along with essentially all artistic or imaginative literature); it didn't revive until after his death (the first prominent novel, Efremov's The Andromeda Nebula, was published in 1957—not 1955, as Greg writes), and even then was looked at with suspicion by Party ideologues.
posted by languagehat at 9:30 AM on March 29, 2016 [2 favorites]

Is this a thread where I can post a link to the Threads film?

"You'd be able to taste it, if it were contaminated...Anyway, we have no choice"

This movie was a great comfort to me during the hot days of the BP disaster, and is a comfort now, in the cold aftermath of the BP disaster.

How come there is no equivalent of this movie for the climate issue, now that we live in the age of Mutually Assured Climate Destruction?
posted by eustatic at 12:12 PM on March 29, 2016

Because The Day After Tomorrow was legitimately terrible.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 12:26 PM on March 29, 2016

They have the songs up but for some insane reason they're missing Two Tribes.
posted by kersplunk at 7:13 AM on March 30, 2016 [1 favorite]

No discussion of Star Trek and the influences it took from the Cold War is complete without Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.
posted by hanov3r at 9:14 AM on March 30, 2016 [2 favorites]

They have the songs up but for some insane reason they're missing Two Tribes.

They also skipped The Sun Is Burning.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 9:53 AM on March 30, 2016