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

The New Yorker Radio Hour

WNYC Studios and The New Yorker

Politics, Arts, News, Wnyc, Books, David, Storytelling, Society & Culture, Yorker, New, Remnick

4.2 • 6.2K Ratings

🗓️ 19 April 2022

⏱️ 18 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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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.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is The New Yorker Radio Hour, a co-production of WNYC Studios and The New Yorker.
0:10.3	I'm David Remnick, and this is the New Yorker Radio Hour.
0:13.5	Hey, guys, Casey here. Welcome to my channel. Today I'm going to be taking the world's fair challenge.
0:21.6	Casey is a girl in her teens.
0:23.6	She's sitting in her bedroom, in the dark.
0:26.6	Her face is lit by the glow of her laptop.
0:29.6	And she looks into the webcam directly at us, watching this scene.
0:34.6	And she says,
0:36.6	I want to go to the World's Fair. I want to go to the world's fair.
0:39.0	I want to go to the world's fair.
0:41.3	I want to go to the world's fair.
0:46.0	This is a ritual she's read about on the internet.
0:49.3	Repeat those words.
0:50.9	Smear blood on your screen.
0:52.8	Watch a strange video and something is supposed to happen.
0:57.8	Okay, that was the world's fair challenge. Thanks for watching. And I'll make sure to update if I start
1:04.7	to notice any changes. The nature of those changes is the subject of a new film called We're All Going to the World's Fair.
1:15.2	It's a horror film, but one that starts with a very real and eerie premise.
1:20.5	A lonely and bored kid spending most of her life online is trying to figure out just who she is.
1:27.8	World's Fair was written and directed by Jane Schoenbrun,
1:31.3	and our producer Alex Barron talked with Schoenbrun about the long line of movies about the
1:36.1	internet, horror and otherwise.
	...

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