DeconRecon is short for Deconstruction and Reconstruction. Simply put, we take apart pop culture, subject the moving parts to scrutiny and (to our best efforts) measured fangasm, then put it back together to appreciate or critique the bigger picture.
It strikes me that the only reason to take apart a pocket watch, or a car engine, aside from the simple delight of disassembly, is to find out how it works. To understand it, so you can put it back together again better than before, or build a new one that goes beyond what the old one could do. – Kurt Busiek, comic book writer
In creative works, deconstruction and reconstruction are common storytelling approach. Deconstruction breaks down a genre convention or trope, picks at its parts and prod at its inconsistencies to separate cheap plastic from meaningful gears. Essentially, it is asking, “So how will this work in real life?”
While deconstruction casts realistic light on fictional tropes, reconstruction puts it back together. Reconstructed works acknowledge the shortcomings of a trope or genre unearthed during the deconstructive process, yet still embraces its best values because these are what made the genre so widely beloved.
After all, what drives us at DeconRecon is love (we’re not afraid of that word here). The love for stories and all the meanings they hold. At its core, we are just a bunch of Malaysians peering a little harder at pop culture through our – literal and figurative – spectacles.
Shouldn’t we? Asians spend millions of dollars on films and games alone to show us what it means to be heroes, to be villains, to be in love, to be weak, and to be humans. Pop culture shapes our reality. It is time we talk about that.
