Severance is a show that is easily a show about employment and what it means to sell your labor in our society. On a deeper level, I think that we can examine more existential elements of the show. So in this post ill be doing that.
The Innies in severance are theoretically separate human beings with their own separate consciousness (Ignoring potential revelations in further seasons). This leads them to have an inherently different perspective of life and the universe. Their universe is the severance floor, with a structure imposed on them from the society they live in.
In this sense, Innies lives in a comparable world to us. Born into a confined world with a society that imposes rules upon them. And while our world itself is different in its scale and our society more lenient with its rules, the similarities allow for an examination of the human condition.
Let's look first at the confines of our world. In our conception, our world is large and expansive and even perhaps boundless. There are however limits to how we explore this world and a feasible boundary to where we cannot go beyond. The Innes world has quite a literal boundary in which they cannot leave without their consciousness being severed, but they are also confined within the severance floors, in their ability to travel or plain knowledge of how to get around. This is quite emblematic of the rules and structures in place that keep humans from moving around within the feasible confines of our universe. The Innies are repeatedly restricted whether through "rules" that they cant leave the MDR office or physical barriers like the doors. In our world, there are "rules" that we cannot go to different countries willy-nilly, and sometimes even physical boundaries that restrict us.
Next, let's look at the "Society" that imposes these rules. In the world of the Innie, they are born into the severance floor, and not permitted to leave. They are given rules that say they must "do their job" and are given incentives and rewards for fulfilling them, while also punishments for breaking these rules. This is a type of social contract, not too unlike the one that we are all born within. We, like the Innies, are expected to follow the rules set in place on us and react in various ways to how these rules affect us. The difference is that in some places we have agreed that all people should have a part in this society and these rules, while the Innes are just pawns to the cruel will of their autocratic bosses.
Lastly, I want to look at faith. In the confined and curated world of the Innie, they are provided a religion. That of the Egan family, and have a veritable bible and church to worship at. While we know this religion is false, the Innies have no reason to not believe the Egans to be gods, as they gave life to the innies, as a god would. Now, this is in stark contrast to the religions of our world, as they are not made by the actual creators of the universe, but the creator of our universe most certainly would not be a regular human. Nevertheless, religion is one of the many things providing comfort and rules within the world of the Innie, that also puts down and demeans others within this world.
So in all through these semi-connected ramblings of mine. I think that it is easy to see the world of the Innie as solely cruel and unethical. It is don't get me wrong. But it is formulated upon a structure that is strikingly similar to the world we live in ourselves, just exaggerated and crueler. Our world is what we make with others of it, not damned by our creators to toil, and for that, we should strive to make it better than that of an innie. And while their lives may be hell, one could see a world confined in that way that is not cruel but inspiring.
I may disagree with your take about the Egan religion. I think operating with your take that the innies are a microcosm of greater society is a good way to also examine the religion: Irving represents the elements of society that are religious and find purpose in them, Dylan and Mark don’t really care about it— having a more agnostic perspective when MDR visits perpetuity, and Helly who is a skeptic of the Egans being that great and mythical (rather ironic). I think in this sense you see how different people react to being “given” a faith— embrace, ambivalence, rejection. The interesting thing is that we know each innie is a different person from the outie, and the introduction of religion in severance may say something about the human capacity to believe.
ReplyDeleteYeah i feel like the bounds are perhaps a bit different for religion in the severance floor. They have direct contact with essentially angels, at least in the form of the people on the floor who aren't severed. This definitely promotes the idea that Eganism, isn't necessarily a religion, but more a part of life. The Egans created them, and they have contact with his agents in their world. Granted I do believe that the Egan philosophies are more religious, and Irving has a religious reverence towards them.
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