{"id":12557,"date":"2026-01-12T20:13:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-12T20:13:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gamelab.ch\/?p=12557"},"modified":"2026-01-12T20:14:42","modified_gmt":"2026-01-12T20:14:42","slug":"popularculture-loses-a-major-influencer-vondaeniken","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gamelab.ch\/?p=12557","title":{"rendered":"#PopularCulture loses a major influencer &#8211; #VonD\u00e4niken"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" src=\"https:\/\/www.gamelab.ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/maniac-mansion-pc-mac-game-steam-wallpaper-3-1024x576.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12558\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.gamelab.ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/maniac-mansion-pc-mac-game-steam-wallpaper-3-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.gamelab.ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/maniac-mansion-pc-mac-game-steam-wallpaper-3-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.gamelab.ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/maniac-mansion-pc-mac-game-steam-wallpaper-3-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.gamelab.ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/maniac-mansion-pc-mac-game-steam-wallpaper-3.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">You didn&#8217;t have to like Erich von D\u00e4niken. But in terms of his influence on global popular culture, he is on a par with fellow Swiss artist H.R. <strong>#Giger<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">They both helped shape popular culture in the 70ies+. Both are hated in Switzerland for their success in the <strong>#popular<\/strong> sphere. But both are actually giants, one in visual &amp; narrative with his slender fitness monster <strong>#alien<\/strong> and his dark dystopias of the <strong>#1980s<\/strong> (also in his artistic work before aliens).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The other, <strong>#VonD\u00e4niken<\/strong> (<strong>#75<\/strong>+ millions sold books), on the other hand, is omnipresent in films, anime, manga, and games \u2014 his ideas are narrative mechanisms in themselves. It has become a narrative topos\/mechanism to flee into space when you get stuck in the story\/game mechanics and then return to earth (or vice versa). How many films and games thrive on this, from trash to high culture? Countless.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Now that he is dead, it will be possible to begin tracing his cultural influence. In <strong>#Switzerland<\/strong> too, even scientifically.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>#VonD\u00e4niken<\/strong>&#8217;s (a swiss citizen with a title of nobility) only mistake was probably that he never fully understood that he was operating in the realm of fiction with his Roadside Picnics (Strugatsky).&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>You didn&#8217;t have to like Erich von D\u00e4niken. But in terms of his influence on global popular culture, he is on a par with fellow Swiss artist H.R. #Giger. They both helped shape popular culture in the 70ies+. Both are &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gamelab.ch\/?p=12557\">Weiterlesen <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12557","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gamelab.ch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12557","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gamelab.ch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gamelab.ch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gamelab.ch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gamelab.ch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12557"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.gamelab.ch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12557\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12561,"href":"https:\/\/www.gamelab.ch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12557\/revisions\/12561"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gamelab.ch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gamelab.ch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gamelab.ch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}