This Is Not the Ford You’re Looking For

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Dear Roger, Dick and Gene,

Kudos for your podcasts on HBOs WestWorld. I’m not sure how you have time for it all, but three podcasts a week is impressive. Each version adds tremendously to our enjoyment of the series.

Below I will give you some observations on the show from the point of view of an Anthropologist. Although I am an anthropologist, I have an abiding interest in science fiction. I created a course called The Anthropology of Science Fiction where we look at the human condition as explored by sci-fi writers. I have to say that you have great listeners. I was inspired by a recent telegraph that brought up Brave New World by Aldous Huxley to include that book into the next generation of my course. I had forgotten how relevant it is.

A Brave New World as a Source of Inspiration

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My thoughts on Brave New World as an inspiration for the Westworld writers is as follows: the character similarities of Bernard and Ford in particular are shocking and probably not coincidental. Not much else in the book relates to the specific events we see in Westworld, but the show writers are definitely influenced by the future characterized in Brave New World. But honestly, Brave New World has had a profound impact on ALL science-fiction dystopian themes. Though its probably not fundamental to the show, It bodes well that the writers are astute historians of science-fiction who pay homage to Huxley.

The Man in the Maze of Anasazi Mythology
On a related note, a very important part of Brave New World is set on a savage reservation in New Mexico. Perhaps not coincidentally, this is precisely the homeland of the ancestral pueblo people (to anthropologists, the Anasazi). An important component of ancestral pueblo cosmology is the story of the Man in the Maze. The Anasazi symbolism of the Man in the Maze is so nearly identical to Westworld’s Man in the Maze logo that I would rule out coincidence. Although the story that Teddy rolls out to the Man in Black is not a version of the Anasazi Man in the Maze myth that I have heard, it is similar enough to sound like a variation on the theme. In the myth the maze is not an actual thing” a physical location. Rather, it is a journey” symbolic of life’s challenges, and/or the metaphorical walls people build to insulate them from the outside (cf. Pink Floyd’s ‘The Wall’).

I thought I was at a dead-end pursuing the maze in ancestral pueblo culture when I came across anthropologist Ruth Mary Underhill’s ethnographic work among the Papago pueblo peoples of New Mexico and Arizona. Ironically, Underhill conducted her fieldwork in the 1930s making it quite likely that her early publications informed Huxley’s version of the pueblo indians that occur in Brave New World. She was probably the world’s most knowledgable expert on ancient pueblo peoples’ mythology. She reported on a particular character, I’itoi (“ee-ee-toy), who is sometimes associated with the maze (the so-called first man in the maze).

I’itoi is one of two powerful entities who create the world. The stories are very clear that one figure, Earth-maker, actually created the world and that I’itoi, although a very important figure, came shortly thereafter. However, I’itoi steals the leadership role from Earth-Maker. I’itoi seems to have loved the people of the world whom he had created” he taught them everything they know. But the legend states that I’itoi became unkind and was killed by the people. He later self-resurrects and decides to sweep the world of its people and start over. A feat he accomplishes by bringing forth the people of Papago pueblo as his army. The Papago did not regard I’itoi or Earth-Maker as gods, but rather, as conduits through which divine power flows.

This is Not the Ford You Are Looking For
This has serious parallels to what we think is going on with Westworld. The only problem is that the roles are reverse of what we expect. We are led to believe that Arnold was the original creator, but it’s not the original creator who dies, but rather, the second creator.

One of the principal methods of the ethnographer is to record or write down everything that people say” every explanation that they give, every story they tell, etc., but the ethnographer must not regard this information as truth. It is data, like any other. Informants can lie, be misinformed, tell you want to hear, and/or have hidden motives. Ford says a lot of things, many of which seem to contain veiled truths. When you only observe Ford, his actions are not in step with his statements. His actions suggest that he wants the hosts to achieve consciousness. By introducing reveries he makes them not only more lifelike, but seems to be attempting to give them a method to evolve (episode 1). In other words, Ford acts like we expect Arnold to act, but talks like we expect Ford to talk.

The preceding paragraphs are not meant as theories for what is going to happen on the show. It would be surprising [to me] if the show writers copied the mystery of an earlier book, legend, or myth. I expect we are in for something new and interesting. However, if it turns out that the writers are cleverly recycling Anasazi myth then look for Ford to actually be Arnold, with the real Ford stuck in the maze.

Until next time, – Olaf

P.S. Westworld can not be set too far in the future because in Basement level 82 the computers use standard Dell keyboards (or similar) 😉

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