Is a Dissertation taking it to far?

[xbenblasterx]

Okay, so I'm currently very big into my 40k!, I'm playing it, I'm reading it I'm practically breathing the stuff and I don't believe it's an addiction to wargaming alone I think this is a love affair with 40k, the quality of the models and the expansiveness of the lore has stolen my heart and doesn't look like it's letting go.

From a guy who could easily poor 40 hours plus into skyrim in a week, I haven't touched Video games in about a month and this is because much of free time is dominated by either painting or playing and I'm loving it!

However I'm also battling through my third year of a university degree in film and am struggling to decide upon a dissertation question. I'd love to center it aaround the Warhammer universe in some way but I'm not sure how, am I taking my passion too far?

[Wolfshade]

Well there is the spacemarine film, ::shudder::

But moreover if you have a passion for something that makes writting your dissertation easier, though I would check with the tutor/supervisor first to ensure that it covers all the bases.

I am sure if you wanted to do it on that and needed other peoples' views then the BoLS community would be happy to help.

[Katharon]

From a literary perspective, the Horus Heresy is basically analogous to the Biblical "War in Heaven." Lucifer is the Fallen Son (Horus) who turns the Angelic Hosts (Legionnes Astartes) upon themselves and seeks to dominate God's (the Emperor) creation of Heaven and Earth (the Imperium of Man). I actually did a paper on WH40K lore in connection to these similarities for a Myths & Legends class I was taking as a free credit four years ago. Twas fun.

[Wolfshade]

The Horus Heresy all started because it was cheaper to have identical plastic figures and have one red and one blue then build a narrative for the game hence the seige of terra board game was born

[Psychosplodge]

40 hours in a week? You aren't trying hard enough, I managed that Friday night - Sunday the weekend I bought it

The other stuff. You could compare the literary universe of Black library with another sci fi setting like the Culture novels, Star wars EU, Star trek, or some other setting.
But be careful you don't turn your hobby into a chore.

[YorkNecromancer]

However I'm also battling through my third year of a university degree in film and am struggling to decide upon a dissertation question. I'd love to center it aaround the Warhammer universe in some way but I'm not sure how, am I taking my passion too far?

Having been where you are, I'd recommend against it; you're on a film course, and apart from 'Event Horizon', 'Ultramarines' and a few really execrable live action sequences from computer games, there's very little of 40K on screen. Yeah, you could argue that David Lynch's 'Dune' film is visually a 40K film (and thematically, given just how much of the 40K universe is cleanly taken from 'Dune') but it's a massive stretch.

I think you're making life harder for yourself than necessary.

You need to pick a topic that can be easily understood, but which has sufficient depth. Mine was a study of the films of Peter Jackson (and this was in 1998, long before 'Lord of The Rings') in relation to auteur theory. Before that, I had been considering a feminist appraisal of the films I was into (largely David Cronenberg and the 80's/90's wave of intelligent 'body horror' films). I wanted to do so because I was massively into feminism as a way of viewing the world, and body horror (because it's the type of horror I find most disturbing). It just wasn't a good fit, though. There's following your passions, and then there's shoehorning them into everything.

It's great you love 40K, but a straight dissertation on it related to films seems unworkable to me.

Why not identify what it is you love about 40K? Write a list of themes, aesthetics, ideas, etc... and then see if you can spin either of those off into a dissertation? For example, I love the dystopic satire of 40K, and the way it is used to highlight the many, many flaws of fascism. I could use that as a base to look at dystopic films which satirise culture: 'Soylent Green', 'Logan's Run', Ken Russel's 'The Devils', 'Demolition Man', 'Battle Royale', 'The Hunger Games', etc... Much more workable - it would be possible to refine that even further, to look at the use of the storytelling tropes that are deployed, patterns to satires from different countries (i.e.: is there a difference in the presentation of religion as a tool of social control in, say, American dystopias (i.e.: the Zion organisation in 'The Matrix') as compared to British (i.e.: the Catholic church in 'The Devils') as opposed to French (i.e.: the government in 'Banlieue 13')?

Ultimately, I think you could use a theme from 40K to spin some ideas off (satire; presentation of violence as heroic/a solution/noble; lack of representations of women; etc...) but if you just base it on 40K straight, you'll come a cropper, because you're doing a film degree, not a gaming one.

You could compare the literary universe of Black library with another sci fi setting like the Culture novels, Star wars EU, Star trek, or some other setting.

If you're on a pure film degree DON'T DO THIS. I mean, if you really want to, you could check with your lecturers, but I imagine they'll say no.

It's stating the obvious, but film degrees are not literature degrees, and film and literature have completely different ways of storytelling, means of production, etc... The two can be compared, but ony in the same way that 'Monolpoly' can be compared to the 'Mass Effect' trilogy. Film vs. literature is a HUGE topic, so don't go near it - not unless it's going to be the focus of your dissertation itself.

[xbenblasterx]

Cheers guys. I didn't expect the response from this post to be so helpful seriously! I appreciate all you're help, and I think avoiding 40k may be the best option in general as ytou say I wouldn't want my passion to become a chore and I believe I was simply trying to shoehorn it into my dissertation and making life hard on myself.

[Psychosplodge]

Also I didn't read the OP properly, I missed that you were doing film...

[Mr Mystery]

40k is also allegorical to post-war Britain. Urban decay, lost splendour....

[Wolfshade]

40k is also allegorical to post-war Britain. Urban decay, lost splendour....

I had never considered that.

Though I suppose you could also argue the same for any post-colonial power.