I listed Commodification, Division, Monopolisation and Exploitation as forms of time control found in Sorry To Bother You.
Looking back on Sorry To Bother You, can you think of a scene where we see all of these different forms of time control? Or do you think they are always divided into different scenes?
Select one scene where someone is working and try to identify as many pressures on their time as possible. Remember to think about different scales of time (seconds, minutes, hours, years).
What forms of time control did I not list? Add your own form of time control to the list and try to find an example of that form in the film.
One method of time control that I listed in my video was Monopolisation – the idea that in dystopias more and more of your time gets taken up by something you don’t want to do. Another method is Division – the idea that you are forced to split yourself between a public self and a private self, depending on how you are spending your time.
In some ways these two forms of control work against each other. Make a list of pros and cons for each form of control, first from the perspective of a manager at RegalView, and then from the perspective of a worker.
Think about whether you would prefer to work somewhere where your time was monopolised or where it was sharply divided. Think about how these experiences affect the characters in Sorry To Bother You.
Cassius adopts a ‘white voice’ when he is at work. Looking back at your pro/con lists, think about whether the race, gender or sexuality of the workers might change the pressures their time is under, and the forms of control they ‘prefer’.
One of the difficulties of talking about the representation of time is that you cannot see time passing.
One way that Boots Riley addresses this is by putting two conflicting forms of time next to one another so that you can visually see the difference between, e.g., Cassius at work making calls and the people he is calling on the toilet/sitting at home/having sex.
Think about whether you found watching those scenes uncomfortable, funny or shocking and why they might have caused those feelings.
Can you think of any other scenes in the film where two very different activities are placed next to one another, and what do they make you think about how different groups of people spend their time?
What real life forms of time control inspire dystopias?
Make a timeline of how you have spent your day so far.
Try to include small details like brushing your teeth, stopping to buy something at a corner shop or messaging a friend.
Now, look back at the timeline and highlight the moments when your time felt most controlled.
Think about who or what was controlling your time and whether you can see a connection between that control and the dystopian world depicted in Sorry to Bother You.
A key idea for Marx is that, under capitalism, it is in the interest of bosses to squeeze as much productivity out of the workers that they employ during working hours.
Think about different methods of control that an employer might use to make their workers’ time more productive.
What role does technology play in these forms of control?
And how can these methods be adapted to different workplaces, e.g., when many more people started working remotely due to the COVID-19 pandemic?
Many games involve simulated work – from Animal Crossing and Stardew Valley to Papers, Please or Oxygen Not Included. Even Mario is a plumber. Pick a game and play it for five minutes.
If you don’t normally play video games a free game on your phone (like Tetris or Candy Crush) would do just as well.
Think about whether playing the game feels separate from work, or whether there are parts of it that you consider work and parts of it that you consider ‘just playing’.
Does your opinion change when you think about the fact that even free games collect your data in order to make more profits?
Can dystopias help us to imagine better times?
Turn back to the timeline you made of how you spent your day today. Now, create an alternate timeline where you map out how you would have spent this time in an ideal world.
You can still include elements of what you did today if you like and just show how you would replace particular moments with better ones (however you define better).
Or, you can branch off right at the start and create an entirely separate timeline.
Comparing these two timelines, think about whether changing how you spend your time is the only change you have made, or whether you have also altered the spaces you inhabit or the relationships you have with other people.
In Sorry To Bother You Detroit insists that spending time making art is political.
What barriers does she face which stop her making political art?
What compromises does she have to make and does this stop her art from being effective in your opinion?
And can we ask these same questions of Boots Riley and the production of Sorry To Bother You?
Write a definition of dystopianism focusing on how time is controlled in dystopian texts. Now see if the previous texts in this series ‘count’ as dystopias according to this new definition.
How would you adapt the definition to encompass The Matrix, Parable of the Sower and We?
Would you want to adapt it or do you think that Sorry To Bother You is a different/new kind of dystopia?
If you haven’t already, add a utopian element to your definition to show how dystopias critique forms of time control and, maybe, help us to imagine better ones.
Katie McGregor Stone 