4. We Feel The Secret Movements Of A World Beyond Us
Spy dramas have always fascinated us. Whether the classic dramas of James Bond or the many television and film dramas that have, at their heart, the world of surveillance, espionage, and double cross, we are intrigued with the sense of a clockwork operating behind the scenesa secret world that affects us and over which we have very little control. Spy dramas like James Bond have used the formula of the secret world to great successes, but in the case of Homeland there is a more startling use of this convention to offer us the idea that the stakes of the secret world are much more than an archetypal villain like Goldfinger's plans to destroy the world and James Bonds' efforts to stop him. With Nicholas Brody's rise from war hero to congressman to (had events transpired differently) Vice President, we are shown the real possibility that forces beyond our control could dramatically and negatively affect the course of our lives.
Scott A. Lukas
Contributor
Scott A. Lukas has taught anthropology and sociology Lake Tahoe Community College for sixteen years and in 2013 was Visiting Professor of American Studies at the Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz, Germany. He has been recognized with the McGraw-Hill Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching of Anthropology by the American Anthropological Association (2005), the California Hayward Award for Excellence in Education (2003), and a Sierra Arts Foundation Artist Grant Program Award in Literary–Professional (2009). In 2006, he was a nominee to the California Community College Board of Governors. He is the author/editor of The Immersive Worlds Handbook (2012), Theme Park (2008), The Themed Space: Locating Culture, Nature, and Self (2007), Fear, Cultural Anxiety, and Transformation: Horror, Science Fiction, and Fantasy Films Remade, (co-edited with John Marmysz, 2009), Recent Developments in Criminological Theory (co-edited with Stuart Henry, 2009), and Strategies in Teaching Anthropology (2010). His book Theme Park was recently translated into Arabic. He appeared in the documentary The Nature of Existence and has provided interviews for To the Best of Our Knowledge, The Huffington Post UK, The Daily Beast, The Washington Post, and Caravan (India).
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