Pontypool Does Change Everything

Pontypool is one of my favorite movies, mainly due the deep themes and meaning embedded in the story.  While this is not a review of the book or the movie, it is my way of exercising the demons in my mind over this story and the deep implications in my own life that I have noticed particularly over the past year.  It is a way for me to write my thoughts about how profoundly the book and movie have changed my view of language, words, and truth forever.  Don't read any further if you have not read Pontypool Changes Everything by Tony Burgess or watched the movie Pontypool (2009) and plan to do so.  Here is the trailer, if you are interested in checking it out.  I highly recommend both of them. The book is much different than the movie.  Even though Tony Burgess worked on both, the ideas from the book were more fully developed in the movie.  I recommend watching the movie first, then if you are obsessed with the story like I was, read the book.

*************STOP HERE. SPOILER ALERTS*************************

On the surface it seems like a "zombie" movie or just another horror story.  But in reality it is about language and our ability (or inability) to work through the problems that our language can present. It is about confusion in language.  Hearing the world.  Listening to what we are saying and to what is being said. And understanding it.  As we, in the movie, are "crude radio signals. Seeking." But not always connecting in a meaningful way.  The tagline "Shut Up or Die" is not just about being quiet but about being mindful of the language and words being used out loud.  The message can be confusing to you and cause you to have an unexpected, violent reaction because you can be infected and confused by words.  You can get hung up on one word, or many, and babble them.  Repeat them with not clear understanding of what the word means.  In the movie the doctor explains that it's a suicide of sorts, but the infected person needs a victim to suicide with, so they seek one.  If they find a victim they try to chew through their mouth because of the confusion in the words.  If they do not find a victim, their insides explode through their mouths where the words originated.  Hence the English language has been contaminated with a virus.  The zombie-like beings babbling the confusion are referred to as "Conversationalists."  Interesting reference.

I completely believe this, of course, to a different extent that the movie depicts, but language IS contaminated and many do not know this and those who are aware do not always seem prepared to fight the virus.  Language is so delicate.  Sometimes it's useful but so often people do not know how to put their thoughts and/or questions into uncontaminated words that make sense (to them or to their intended target).

In the movie the government breaks into the radio station's broadcast with a message in French when when translated states:  "For your safety, please avoid contact with close family members and restrain from the following:  all terms of endearment, such as honey or sweetheart, baby-talk with young children, and rhetorical discourse.  For greater safety, please avoid the English language.  Please do not translate this message."

"All terms of endearment, such as honey sweetheart, baby-talk with young children, and rhetorical discourse."  ALL terms of endearment. So this has been something that I have been dealing with for awhile, but it amplified that past July.  Infected language.  Infected terms of endearment. Some people in my circle would tell me the sweet sweet nothings but not because they meant them or, as based in Pontypool, actually understood them, but used them because they had an agenda.  A self-focused agenda. And contaminated language within all terms of endearment.  They were seeking.  But not for the return of sweet sweet nothings but for more contaminated language.  This virus was circulating in my world without my absolute knowledge at the time.  I grew up with the ideals that language is to be the truth.  Pure. Always.  Much like Grant Mazzy's ideals. But it is very challenging to find and to cure.  Now I am aware of the "language apocalypse" within my sphere.  For safety's sake.  And I know how to shake it off.

At one point in the movie, Grant becomes infected and was able to shake it off.  He discovered a cure of sorts.  And then his station manager, who was not following the safety instructions became infected.  Grant was able to help her shake it off by confusing the infected word:  Kill is kiss.  "Kill is kiss.  Kill is kiss.  Kill is kiss.  Ok.  I feel better now."

"Kill the word that's killing you."  This is a sort of motto or anthem with me as of late.  "Kill the word that's killing you."  Pontypool represents the plague of miscommunication in our language, in our conversations, in our relationships. Pontypool Changes Everything.  It does.  It changed everything for me.  When communication is infected, it does more harm than good.  It can hurt.  It can forever damage relationships.  And the perception of relationships.  But it can be shaken off or cured if you possess the appropriate critical thinking skills and tenacity.  And if you apply these things to the language.

"So what does it mean?  Well...it means something's going to happen.  Something big.  But then, something's always about to happen."  Pontypool changes everything.

As Bruce McDonald stated in an interview, "the virus could effect something as abstract as the English language, it can leap into reality itself.  Change the fabric of how reality is perceived." So how is reality perceived?
Pontypool.
P ntypo l.
ntypo.
typo.

So now where am I going with Johnny Deadeyes?  "To a new place that isn't even there yet."