“We’re All Going to the World’s Fair” and a Short History of Movies about the Internet

The Political Scene | The New Yorker

The New Yorker

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4.3 • 3.9K Ratings

🗓️ 18 April 2022

⏱️ 19 minutes

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Summary

The Internet can be a scary place in real life, and far more so in Jane Schoenbrun’s film “We’re All Going to the World’s Fair,” which premièred at the Sundance Film Festival last year and is being released in theatres and streaming. It’s a horror movie centered on a lonely and bored teen-age girl named Casey, who spends most of her time being online and trying to figure out who she is. She undertakes a ritual that she’s read about—the so-called World’s Fair Challenge—which is said to cause unknown and possibly dire changes. “Everyone wants to know, ‘Do you think the Internet is good or the Internet is bad?’ ” Schoenbrun told the Radio Hour’s Alex Barron. “That’s like asking, ‘Do you think that people are good or bad?’ There’s not a simple answer.” They spoke about the forty-year history of movies depicting the online world.

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0:48.4	This is the Politics and More podcast.
0:51.2	I'm David Remnick.
0:53.1	Hey guys, Casey here. Welcome to my channel.
0:57.4	Today I'm going to be taking the world's fair challenge.
1:01.5	Casey is a girl in her teens.
1:03.9	She's sitting in her bedroom, in the dark.
1:06.6	Her face is lit by the glow of her laptop.
1:09.1	And she looks into the webcam directly at us watching this scene.
1:14.8	And she says,
1:16.4	I want to go to the world's fair.
1:18.9	I want to go to the world's fair.
1:21.2	I want to go to the world's fair.
	...

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