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Hi
Amphibeast,
Interesting that some interpret Hub Strategy's
Ill-Mobile as a “redneck” vehicle. One can certainly see the interpretation. Probably because it reminds us of the truck used in
“The Beverly Hillbillies”:
For Europeans reading this:
“The Beverly Hillbillies” was a long-running American sitcom popular in the 1960's -- see
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beverly_Hillbillies :
“The Beverly Hillbillies” was a strange comedic reprise on the tragedy of the “Oakies” in the 1930's, the dispossessed farmers who fled the Midwest during the Great Depression and Dust-Bowl, seeking work in California. Many of these farmers did not find work, and some starved in make-shift shanty towns, as vividly depicted by John Steinbeck's classic novel, the
Grapes of Wrath. Oakies often arrived in California in old trucks piled high with all their possessions:
They were not welcome in California, hence the pejorative nickname “Oakies” – i.e. migrants from Oklahoma.
The television series then makes comedy out of tragedy by inverting expectations: this time the Oakies arrive rich, because they strike oil at home before migrating. Like previous Oakies they travel to California in a truck piled high with possessions. But when they arrive they move directly into a colossal mansion in Beverly Hills, the land of
“swimming pools, movie stars”, where their homespun ways bemuse Hollywood sophisticates.
"The Beverley Hillbillies" was hugely popular, and some suggest it was the most popular American sit-com of all time. Nearly a third of American households watched it on CBS every week -- see
http://www.bloombergview.com/articl...llbillies-test-commentary-by-virginia-postrel . On the surface,
"The Beverley Hillbillies" seems like little more than social anesthesia, low-brow trash designed to lull the populace into complacency with a "corny", "quaint" vision of America considerably at odds with the upheavals of the 1960's -- see
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2012/09/29/celebrating-50-years-beverly-hillbillies/ . If one were a Marxist, one might argue that the primary social function of the show was to assuage middle-class guilt about continuing high levels of American economic inequality, and the persistence of the rural poverty. If one were an American Southerner, one might object that the show perpetuates northern stereotypes about southern rednecks.
The New York Times criticized the show as
“steeped in enough twanging-guitar, polkadot gingham, deliberative drawl, prolific cousins and rural no-think to make each half hour seem as if it contained 60 minutes.”
But as Malcolm Muggeridge deftly pointed out, at heart the show was really a series of morality tales. It evoked an innocence that appealed to a increasingly wealthy and cynical American middle-class:
“We, too, yearn after wealth which does not corrupt; after an innocence which triumphantly survives the possession of riches.” Jed may have hit the jackpot with that oil strike, but it hasn't fundamentally changed either he or his family, “constantly on the edge of succumbing to the lures of luxurious living, but always at the last moment pulling back and resuming their old, virtuous ways.” There is an irony to this, though, in that our cynical selves would rather admire the virtuous than emulate them: “In accordance with the principles of an Affluent Society as laid down by Professor Galbraith, we have rejected the outmoded Christian notion that the poor are blessed, but we should still like to be convinced that it is possible to be rich and blessed.” By watching the success of the Hillbillies each week, we are reassured that we can have our cake and eat it too.....
And this success bodes well not only for the here and now, but for the hereafter as well. “Week by week [the Hilbillies] demonstrate that, though possessed of great wealth, they can still just get through the needle's eye into the kingdom of heaven.” Muggeridge expands on this spiritual aspect, for it is one that is crucial to understanding the role of television in modern culture – it “is largely dedicated to providing reassurance on precisely this score”.....
[Modern television shows serve] to demonstrate that the two can coexist, “that, like the Hillbillies, we can be rich and still successfully repel the assaults of the Evil One.”
See
http://www.itsabouttv.com/2013/03/close-up-how-beverly-hillbillies.html .
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Now the images above suggest why Hub Strategy's
Ill-Mobile looks so redneck. Hub Strategy's converted
XM-410 looks like an open cab farm-truck up front, with all the “volume” piled high in back, just like the truck in
"The Beverley Hillbillies".
But as near as I can tell, this was not Hub Strategy's original intention. Their original intention seems to have been to create a really “sick” (i.e. terrific, fantastic, great) vehicle fully equipped for every possible kind of action sport. A vehicle that should have looked more like a home-built surf-camper on steroids. Interesting that they created something instead that makes many people think of "
The Beverly Hillbillies".
Design is funny that way: one's intended “concept” is often very different than the message received, even when the design is quite successful. Indeed, often designs prove successful precisely
because the message received bears little relationship to the original intent.
All best wishes,
Biotect
PS -- Hope you make it as a finalist for the Nat-Geo grant!
