From 2017: In some obscure corners of the Internet, people interpret Thomas the Tank Engine—at length—as a depiction of a premodern corporate-totalitarian dystopia.
When I was a child, I could spend all day at Shining Time Station, the fictive train depot with its own eponymous TV show, where Thomas the Tank Engine and all his plate-faced locomotive friends worked and lived. To my undeveloped brain, each episode seemed like a beautiful daydream, in which an orderly, magical, trance-inducing universe ticked on under bluebird skies.
If you have watched the series and not encountered such readings of it, you may assume that these interpretations are ridiculous. In that case, you should spend four minutes with “,” a segment from “Thomas & Friends” that aired on the second episode of the first season at PBS. It begins on a drizzly day in Sodor, the fictional island in the Irish Sea that serves as the show’s setting.
Realizing that the day’s workflow is irrevocably disrupted, Fat Controller decides that Henry must be punished—. “We shall take away your rails, and leave you here for always and always,” he tells Henry. As Henry’s face contorts into anguish and the background music toots a series of Oompa Loompa faux-glum flourishes, railway employees build a brick prison around Henry, leaving only half of his face visible. His train friends pass by: one snubs him, and another whistles hello.
The Thomas the Tank Engine universe was the brainchild of an Anglican minister, the Reverend Wilbert Awdry, who in 1942 began spinning stories about trains to amuse his son Christopher, who had come down with the measles. The first volume in Awdry’s “The Railway Series” was published in 1945. Awdry wrote twenty-six more books, the last one in 1972; after his father’s death, Christopher wrote sixteen more.
Australia Latest News, Australia Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Nissan Exec Says New European Emissions Rules Will Make Combustion Engine UnviableAshwani Gupta made his comments during an interview with CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe”.
Read more »
Nissan to halt nearly all gasoline engine development in EV shiftA report out of Japan says Nissan will cease developing new gasoline engines in major markets, except for the U.S. pickup segment.
Read more »
'Shark Tank' Star Kevin O'Leary Off the Hook in Fraud LawsuitMr. Wonderful won't have to answer to fraud claims from litigation brought against him last year.
Read more »
‘Mormon Land’: Why politics, done right, is a ‘religious activity’Retired federal Judge Thomas Griffith, who sat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, talk about why politics, done right, is vital to religion.
Read more »
‘Salt and Sacrifice’ brings 2D Souls-like action to PlayStation and PC on May 10th | EngadgetSalt and Sacrifice will make its way to PlayStation 4, PS5 and PC via the Epic Games Store on May 10th..
Read more »