Irrational Games was taking a pretty huge ri sk when releasing Bioshock Infinite in
the summer of 2013. After the runaway success of the first game and the slightly less enthusiastic
response to its sequel developed by a different company, Irrational decided to break away
from the franchise norm and set Infinite in an entirely new location. Through it all though,
the game’s director Ken Levine made sure to keep Bioshock’s core themes about American
history and philosophy intact. But this time, instead of the Atlas Shrugged inspired world
of Rapture, Levine and his team set out to create an exaggerated version of the United
States at the turn of the 20th century. And much like Rapture, when it comes to historical
inspiration there’s a lot more than meets the eye.
First off, let's start with the actual name of Bioshock Infinite's new world: Columbia.
Though largely forgotten today, Columbia was once the shining personification of American
Exceptionalism. Originating in the 1700s, the word “Columbia” was derived from the
name of Christopher Columbus and was often used to refer North America by Europeans.
However, the origins of Columbia as an actual character come from 1776, courtesy of the
first published female African-American poet in US history, Phillis Wheatley, who wrote
a poem referring to Columbia as a woman and concluded with the lines: “The land of freedom's
heaven-defended race! Fix'd are the eyes of nations on the scales, For in their hopes
Columbia's arm prevails.” From there the image of Columbia as the personification
of the American Spirit took off, being featured on everything from official U.S. currency
printed right after the civil war, to World War 1 propaganda and countless statues. Solidifying
Columbia as America’s almost-official mascot. Oh, also in 1887 a small record company was
formed that was named after the character, Columbia Records, they went on to become one
of the biggest record companies of the 20th century and to found another little start-up
you may have heard of: CBS, or the Columbia Broadcasting System.
So...if Columbia was such a big deal, what happened? Well after The Statue of Liberty
was gifted to us from France in the late 1800s, Lady Liberty began to start hogging some of
the limelight as the popular patriotic symbol in the mind of the American public. But Uncle
Sam ended up being the final nail in the coffin, replacing ol’ Columbia on almost all American
propaganda during the second world war. Bioshock Infinite definitely hasn’t forgotten about
her though, not only is it’s setting obviously named after her, but you can also find an
angel-winged statue of her looming large over the city. Anyway, don’t feel bad for Columbia.
She still gets to be in like a ton of movies every year.
So now let’s move on to the founder of Columbia: Zachary Comstock. Ken Levine has said that
Father Comstock was primarily based on two figures from American history: former president
Teddy Roosevelt and founder of the Mormon church, Joseph Smith. According to Ken Levine:
“Roosevelt was a very progressive figure in many ways. But he was also what you'd probably
call a neoconservative in his view of America's role in the world”, this was obviously a
factor in Comstock’s view of the American Exceptionalism. Joseph Smith represents a
different aspect of the character, a charismatic preacher, Comstock mirrors Smith in both calling
himself a “prophet” and his ability to gain utter devotion in the hearts of his followers.
That’s not the only religious connection though, feeding into Comstock’s serious
messiah complex is the fact that his last words “It...is...finished” are also the
final words of Jesus Christ, according to the gospel of John.
Another important aspect of Bioshock Infinite is the Vox Populi. Meaning “Voice of the
People” in Latin, the group began as a populist response to Comstock before becoming something
a little bit darker. Ken Levine has revealed the inspiration behind them, saying: “Probably
the most similar thing to the Vox Populi is the Red Army faction in Germany in the 1960s
and 1970s. They started off as a very idealistic movement that was frustrated with the number
of former Nazis in the West German government. And as the government started cracking down
violently, the Red Army faction started responding in kind and the stakes kept going up and up.
And the original intent of the movement got very lost”. This of course mirrors the story
of Vox Populi, but you know, with a few less George Washington robots.
Onto our Comment Showcase! So this week’s good comment comes from Geo2640, who tells
us that Frank Fontaine from the first Bioshock game get his name from The Fountainhead, a
novel by none other than Ayn Rand, the writer of Atlas Shrugged, which inspired the Bioshock
franchise in the first place. Next is our Baaaad Comment, which comes from
Knightmare Gamer who says “In the background of HP Lovecraft’s photo there's a creepy
smiley face in the top right corner”. Okay, to be fair this is actually a really good
comment, there’s nothing wrong with it. But once you see this face you can NEVER UNSEE
IT EVER AGAIN. What have you DONE Knightmare gamer?!
So last week we gave you a ton of homework asking both a trivia question and whether
Skyrim or Fallout 4 referenced H.P. Lovecraft better. The answer to the trivia was A) A
Shadow Over Hackdirt. And now for the reference competition, drum roll or whatever. The votes
have been tallied up and it appears that you guys voted Skyrim as the One True Lovecraft
Reference King! It looks like Tamriel has beaten the Wasteland this time around. So
this week we have a Bioshock Infinite question: What does Booker DeWitt have tattooed on his
right hand?