Fashioning the Body: Versions of the Citizen, the Self, and the Subject

I just watched the fourth Rocky movie, the one where he fights the Russian boxer Drago.  Near the end of the movie when Rocky is training for his big fight with Drago there's a training montage (of the sort Rocky movies are famous for) where Rocky has been placed out in the wilderness of Russia in the middle of nowhere where he has no access to modern training equipment.  The montage is shots of Rocky training by doing things like chopping wood and hauling sleds full of equipment interspersed with shots of Drago using modern industrial equipment, there's a lot of metal and clanging sounds involved.  This serves to humanize Rocky and associating Drago with all the metal establishes him as a cyborg.  During the boxing match at the end of the movie, Drago is starting to lose the fight to Rocky and says to his trainer, "he is not a man, he is made of iron." So there's something going on with shifting the boundaries of the body making a person able to win.

Drago and his wife are never seen being affectionate, and Rocky and his wife are always shown kissing and hugging.  So, the way the two men relate to their wives establishes Rocky as more of a "human" as well.  Drago's wife being de-sexualized also changes (removes?) her gender and establisher her as a robo character.

I was re-watching the NSYNC video for the song "it's gonna be me".  in the video the members of the group are dressed as dolls  and are shown on a store shelf as if they are for sale.  This video was made when there were a great deal of questions about their authenticity as artists or musicians because they were a "manufactured" group- that is they were selected for the boy-band by the record company. 

"it's gonna be me" appears on the album "no strings attached" the album cover for which depicts the members of NSYNC as puppets.  This is another comment on the speculations on group lack of validity due to the fact that their music was created by a group of people and not by the singers alone. 

A line from the song "it's gonna be me" is "all that I do is not enough for you,"  to me this is another comment directed at those who question the singers' validity as artists.

 

In 1995 Michael Jackson made a video for his song "Childhood" which is on the album History: past, present and future, book 1. Michael Jackson chose a little boy to play himself as a child for the video. The boy he chose is a white boy. who happens to be my brother in law Ryan. There are a number of things that could mean, he might see himself as a white person, or wish he was white as is commonly speculated, and he may be commenting on those speculations.

the video can be found here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVJscGa5vbc

the flesh Maria is associated with religion, and by extension righteousness.  When she's addressing all the workers in the catacombs she's standing in front of a bunch of crosses.  But you can also see the distorted shadows of the crosses in the background.  I'm not sure how that fits in, but it probably means something.  Maria spends a lot of time and energy announcing that Freder is the "heart" and that he's going to save the world.  I think that Maria did just as much active saving as Freder.  The book of revelations talks about false prophets being a sign that the real messiah is coming soon.   and there was a false messiah in Metropolis, the robot Maria. Maybe the distorted shadow crosses behind Maria in the catacombs had something to do with the flesh Maria and the robot Maria being part of the same whole.  If the flesh Maria had not been so perfect, perhaps the creation of the robot alter ego would not have been necessary to complete her self? I'm not sure I really think that.  It's just a thought.

just before screening the film we watched with all the loud banging noises where we saw each frame scroll through instead of one image afteranother, the hosts of the program said that it was significant that it had been produced on video, and the artist had used the fact that it would be shown on a monitor as a tool.  So, it is interesting that we actually watched it on film and not on video.  on a screen and not on a monitor.

I really enjoyed the film that was made in the woman’s kichen, where she was reading the wok directions.  At one point near the end, she said something along the lines of -and now you know everything you need to be a real asian- clearly this is a commentary on cultural approriation and she was making a joke about people who think that having “asian” things in your home makes you asian.  after the film was shown, the hosts said that that particular film maker would often just set up a camera in her own kitchen and record herself interacting with her own posesions.  So if we can assume that she really did have the electric wok and the japanese cook book in her home who was she commenting on? was  she just making a joke about her own cultural appropriation, or didI misinterprete it entirely?

#1

I can see your retina floating in the empty space between your forehead and your hair.
how do you walk with all six legs of yours?
it’s a quarter after the hour.
no wait, that watch has been stopped for decades. I have no idea
it is with your eyes, under the stairs or in the closet on the shelf behind you
resting on some couch, the end of it, near the wrist is purple and blotchy as if it were bruised in the severing
waves to me
it waits for you in some dark attic
where is your other hand?
the current which courses through your circuits is no different than that which coursees through those of any other woman.
soft hair and skin
you, universal different from any other woman
a fold, a ripple in no dance and no water
it would be a glitch
if G-d came and blew away with a single breath all you know,

#2

the object’s ability to function is not based on what is “there.” there is something there that is totally not there.  the pressence of something that does not have a form.  in order for he ritual to be effective.  they are also an extension of my femininity.  I bring out the feminine pressence of G-d in my on self in order to find it on my arm, on my head, and in the room with me.

#3

As I was floating down the street one day, I saw a park full of trees.  As it was a lovely fall day all the leaves were begginning to change their colors.  the leaves fell from the trees and driffted gracefully toward the ground.  I floated along through this enchanting scenery when suddenly, “FFFFFT!”
    “Oh my! Excuse me,” said a lovely young whoopie cusion.  
    “I’m terribly sorry, I was distracted by the foliage,” I said, flustered.
    “I didn’t see you either, I’m such a noodle head, I’m so sorry.”
    “There’s no harm done.  though it appears we are both a bit deflated.”
    “So we are.”

This is so funny! some one made a barbie who's accessories include tefillin and a torah scroll.  doesn't that beat high heels and a pink purse?

http://www.geniza.net/bar/barbie.shtml 

In the 1958 musical film tom thumb there's a musical number entittled "Talented Shoes" in which a man is at the market selling magic shoes, shoes which when put on enable the wearer to dance extraordinarily well.  The shoes are sort of a prosthesis in that they change the physical abilities of the wearer.  Sometimes, the shoes take over and the person cannot stop dancing.  In the film this never turns into anything terrible or dangerous, it's just wacky. 

 

Today in her lecture Julia mentioned the concept of social classes changing the way bodies look or act.  I don't know if anyone is familiar with or has read The Time Machine by H. G. Wells, but in that book a man travels into the future and learns that the working class has evolved into this sub-human race of monsters that lives underground and eats members of the upper class, who are basically just a bunch of beautiful idiots.  Clearly it's a commentary on how he saw the class system a the time he was writing (1890's I think) and not actually meant to be ho he thought the world would be in a few thousand years.

yesterday in seminar a couple of people brought up Thomas Kinkade and his paintings of cottages and whatnot. I ran across some paintings of his that are of white Jesus, and some landscapes of Israel, and one of a bunch of Jews at the wailing wall. I might be offended by that last one, but I probably just think these are all really funny. I've attached some of the ones I think are the best.  By "best" I really mean worst.