Barbie and Oppenheimer by Chris Suellentrop

 

On Friday night, I took 11 middle-school girls to Greta Gerwig's "Barbie," for my daughter's 13th birthday party. 

Then, in a couple of weeks, a few friends who live in three different New England states will be driving for hours to converge on Providence, R.I., to watch Christopher Nolan’s "Oppenheimer" on one of the 30 screens in the world where it can be viewed in its 70mm Imax format, as its director recommends. 

This is the derangement that "Barbenheimer" — the internet name for the meme-driven obsession with the joint release of these two movies this weekend — has induced.

But both "Barbie" and "Oppenheimer" are evidence of a different, and older, convulsion: the geological evidence that humanity has altered the planet in ways that will be evident long after we’re gone. Jawless eels and dinosaurs are the evidence of previous eras — but our age, some scientists are arguing, will be measured by the lingering presence of radioactive isotopes and microplastics in Earth's rock layers.

The two movies "each offer a window into the creation of the Anthropocene, the suggested term for our present geological epoch, in which human beings have become the most significant influence on the natural environment at a planetary scale," writes Tyler Austin Harper in a lively essay with arresting graphics by The Post’s Amanda Shendruk.

J. Robert Oppenheimer's connection to the Anthropocene is obvious, but Barbie's is subtler and easier to miss. As Harper notes: “Barbie remains one of the most recognizable American brands on the planet, with approximately 100 dolls being sold every minute. Polyethylene, polypropylene and polyvinyl chloride remain the three most common variants of synthetic plastics in the world, and are among the primary 'techno-fossils' that help distinguish the Anthropocene from prior moments in Earth’s past.”

So Happy "Barbenheimer" to all who celebrate. I’m certainly one. But don't forget, when the lights come up, that there's a sobering subtext to your weekend at the movies. "The widespread introductions of plutonium and plastic into the geological record are deeply intertwined," Harper writes. "Perhaps the most substantial difference between 'Barbie' and 'Oppenheimer' lies only in their respective approaches toward their common subject matter — a difference in attitude that ultimately reflects our own."

-Chris Suellentrop, Politics Opinion editor, Washington Post