Warren Ellis’ (no relation) Crooked Little Vein is the BEST novel I’ve read in a long while. It sinks its teeth into the heart of American sexual fetishism and perversion in a weird tale that’s part alternate history, SF, and the New Weird. I read the first half of the novel sitting at Starbucks a couple of days ago, and I got stares from the people sitting around me upstairs. Why? Because I was laughing my ass off! There’s a lot to be said about this novel, but all I’m saying right now it go out and read this book so we can talk about MHP (macroherpetophile), saline injections, and roulette parties. Stay tuned for more!
Category: Review
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The Cigarette Smoking Man and Ms. Yutani in AVP2 Requiem
Another interesting aspect of AVP2 Requiem is the appearance of the Cigarette Smoking Man from The X-Files. Okay, so the character is called Colonel Stevens, and he’s played by Robert Joy and not William B. Davis. However, he serves a similarly shady function within the AVP2 narrative. This American government/military official donning a black suit instead of uniform, orders the nuclear strike on the small town Alien infestation. Additionally, after the survivors make it out of the blast zone, they are intercepted by Special Forces members, who disarm them of the Predator energy weapon. This weapon in turn is then given by Col. Stevens to Ms. Yutani (Françoise Yip). This is an interesting development, because it serves to strengthen the bonds between government and corporate bodies. As you may know, Yutani is the other half of Weyland-Yutani, the mega-corporation from the original Alien and Aliens films (the Weyland aspect of the corporate puzzle is explained in AVP with the appearance of Charles Bishop Weyland played by Lance Henriksen). AVP2 does not go into the reasons why a government official would give otherworldly technology to a corporation, and my assumption is that this is a retelling and continuation of Cold War tropes embedded in Eisenhower’s military-industrial complex. Perhaps this signifies the hard currency payback by the government for its wholesale purchase by corporate interests in the here-and-now.
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More Thoughts on Forced Fellatio in AVP2 Requiem
There’s one point that I didn’t make that clear in my last posting on Aliens Vs. Predator Requiem and that is the underlying problematic nature of the hybrid Alien-Predator. It signifies the ambiguous sex of transsexuals. Its body contains the Predator’s vagina-like mouth, which in turn houses the Alien’s phallus-like mouth extension. Through this imagery of design, the Alien-Predator hybrid represents both the female and male sexes. Which leads me to wonder if the Alien-Predator hybrid’s forcing a pregnant woman to have unnaturally impregnating fellatio represents a culturally derived fear of transsexuals and the intersexed? Is the Alien-Predator hybrid the new barbarian at the gates? Intersexed persons are most definitely individuals and human subjects, so how do these SF images of the marauding/barbaric/primitive/animal Alien-Predator hybrid Other challenge cultural progress in regards to sex and gender? It’s time to reread Sandy Stone’s “The Empire Strikes Back: A Posttranssexual Manifesto.”
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On Forced Deep Throat in Aliens Vs. Predator Requiem
On Christmas Day, 2007, I went to see Aliens Vs. Predator: Requiem with Ryan, Jarret, Bert, and Stacey. Considering the poor quality of the first Aliens Vs. Predator film, and the general decline of the franchise in general (Aliens is clearly the high-water mark), I wasn’t expecting much from this film. Despite the dreadful story and horror film hijinks, I was pleasantly surprised to see that there was something worth discussing embedded within the film. However, I don’t say that flippantly, because it involves serious subject matter in need of reflection away from the glare of the big screen.
This latest installment of the Aliens vs. Predator films is extremely troubling regarding gender, sex, and sexuality. As has been commented elsewhere, Giger’s Aliens are phallocentric with mouths extending beneath the foreskin of the upper cranial case. The crab-like parasites that implant/impregnate potential hosts with the alien egg/embryo are traditionally the means by which the Alien life cycle is completed (Queen lays egg > crab-like parasite implants host > an Alien emerges from the host, developing in part based on the genetic material of the host). Also, the crab-like parasites have a long tail for strangulating the host/victim and thereby forcing the host to accept the implantation from the parasite via a long penis-like extension from beneath its body that enters the mouth and throat of the host to implant the egg/embryo.
Predators on the other hand have never been shown to reproduce on film, but it’s unavoidable to note the terrible resemblance between a Predator’s mouth and the myth of the vagina dentata. It’s only due to an assumption that I first considered Predators male. In the films, their sex and reproduction systems are not explored. They could be a species involving male/female sexing, or considering the fact that these are aliens, they could have a multiplicity of sexes involved in reproduction. In any event, what’s important to consider is the chosen appearance of Predators to have the male anxiety producing (disfigured) vagina dentata.
Aliens Vs. Predator Requiem begins where AVP left off. The fallen Predator warrior initiate is brought onboard the Predator starship, and a new, before unseen Alien potential bursts from the Predator’s chest: an Alien-Predator hybrid. This hybrid wreaks havoc onboard the Predator ship, which subsequently crash-lands in the woodland area near small town America. In this environ, the Alien-Predator hybrid matures into a formidable creature combining Predator strength and Alien voraciousness. Crab-like parasites onboard the Predator spacecraft escape and impregnate human hosts, which begins an epidemic in small town America.
It’s assumed that through some biological process, an Alien hive produces a Queen much like with ants or bees. However, the Alien-Predator hybrid of Requiem is unlike any previously presented Alien Queen. In the other films, an Alien Queen is very large and (initially) stationary in a warm place to lay eggs containing the crab-like parasite. The Alien-Predator hybrid of Requiem develops into a new kind of Queen. Instead of having an ovipositor (using ant terminology) at the rear of its body, the Alien-Predator hybrid is an evolutionary leap that does away with the need for the crab-like parasite.
The Alien-Predator hybrid has a unique delivery system for implanting hosts with an egg/embryo. As shown in the hospital scene toward the end of Requiem, the Alien-Predator hybrid leans over a pregnant woman, opens its Predator mouth folds (think: labia with claws), and forces the Alien-derived mouth extension down her throat. This represents an unavoidable image of forced deep throat, gagging, and swallowing. This already pregnant woman is made to swallow the “seed” of this hybrid sexed creature that in this juxtaposition fills a male role, but an unnatural one of oral impregnation. The result of this impregnation is graphically revealed when multiple Aliens burst forth from the woman’s belly (possibly having devoured the uterus and the unborn human fetus).
What does the Alien-Predator hybrid mean in a wider cultural context? Is this the extreme SF retelling of Knocked Up? Is this an example of male anxiety over childbirth and childrearing? Or, is this new film image a reflection of the backlash against women’s rights following Third Wave Feminism? What about modes of production and reproduction? Each of these are possibilities, as are others, and they should be considered further in regard to this latest film in the popular and on-going Alien and Predator series.
It would be interesting to learn more about the films written, produced, and directed by the team behind Requiem. Is this film part of a trend, or is this a one-off produced to titillate and gross-out the audience (building on the overt horror theme of the film)? Just glancing at the work of The Brothers Strause, they come from a visual effects background, so this could be nothing more than originating from a geek impulse to push the effects envelop. Nevertheless, this image is projected for many people to see, so it has significance beyond the intentions of the films creators and that’s the aspect in need of exploration.
For my friends not familiar with my work as an academic–this is the kind of research that I do. I look at the significance of cultural works in order to interpret and discover meaning. The intentions of the creators, perhaps compelling or interesting, are nonetheless unimportant and generally disregarded in terms of the way the work figures into a wider cultural sense. How can a work be read? How was a work produced (not necessarily literally by hands, but out of a cultural milieu or historical epoch)? How might a work reflect some aspect of culture, and what does that mean?
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Blake’s 7 Revisited
I just began watching Blake’s 7 [Wikipedia article here] again during my (limited) free time. I’m up to episode ten of season one, “Breakdown.” It’s a great episode that features Julian “General Veers” Glover playing Kayn, a Federation stooge neurosurgeon that goes nanners at the end.
Blake’s 7 is a terrific example of how good television SF can be. I’m not suggesting that it’s the best there ever was, but the first and last seasons–particularly the series finale–are stronger than most SF produced for television in that era.
The series continues to live on through fan-produced and BBC-produced audio dramas that star some of the original actors including Paul Darrow as Avon (by far the best television SF character ever).
This bit of nostalgia reminded me of the final paper that I wrote for LCC 3214 – Science Fiction at Georgia Tech back in 2002. It has only the faintest glimmer of potential, but it’s where a lot of this graduate school nonsense all began. Thankfully, Professor Lisa Yaszek doesn’t hold this essay against me heh. I’ve included it below for your enjoyment. Please laugh with me on this one.
Jason W. Ellis
LCC3214 Science Fiction
Final Paper Assignment
Blakes 7, the BBC science fiction television show that ran from 1977-1981, has many characters who are either computers/robots or cyborgs. These characters are either all technology or their person has been radically altered by technology. Their character traits or level of technical mediation often is reflective of their role as “good” or “bad.” These representations bring into question concepts such as “human” and “identity” in a world where technological mediation is dictated by an oppressive government.
Roj Blake is the main character of Blakes 7 and he is a cyborg. His life experiences have been mediated with the use of chemicals and psychological treatments designed to alter his memories and divert his way of thinking in a way different from how he would have wanted it to be. When the series opens in the episode, “The Way Back,” the first scene is of a menacing black video camera, topped by a red indicator light, diligently scanning the prosaic passing by of pedestrians along a corridor. The black video camera serves as an always watchful eye over the citizens of the Earth Federation. Among the pedestrians is Blake. He is meeting with a young woman, Ravella, who is going to take Blake to meet with a man who has news of Blake’s family–at least as far as Blake knows. As they are walking Ravella asks Blake, “And eating and drinking — you’ve managed to do without?” Blake answers in an irritated voice, “Well, since you were so insistent I’ve done without food or drink for thirty-six hours.” Ravella asks him if he feels any different. Blake says that he does not. She then says, “All our food and drink is treated with suppressants. Going without for a day and a half, they should be wearing off.” Blake says laughing, “Not that again.” Blake doesn’t know that he has been modified by the Federation after he gained prominence as a renegade leader against the Federation. Instead of making a martyr out of Blake, the Federation turned him into a pawn for their uses. They had him admit his guilt and then denounce the work he had once done against the Federation. Later Blake finds his way back to who he really is, but as is shown in later episodes the Federation programming is still a part of him. This long term programming does not cause him to be “bad,” but it will allow control over his thought processes to an extent that the Federation can bring Blake to them as part of a ruse.
An extension to Federation reprogramming of people to serve a purpose is the use of Mutoids. In the second season episode “Duel,” Space Commander Travis has set a trap for Blake. Travis’ helmsman is a female Mutoid. Prior to the space battle between Travis’ ships and Blake’s Liberator, the Mutoid takes a small vial of liquid and places it in a recess on her chest. During their discussion the Mutoid refers to Travis as “an unmodified” and Travis acknowledges her “need for blood serum.” The Mutoid also notes, “Opponents of mutoid modification call us vampires.” The reason for this reference is made later in the episode when the Mutoid is in need of serum and she tries to supplant her needs by draining the blood out of bat like creatures. Then the Mutoid captures Jenna of Blake’s crew and the Mutoid extends a long hypodermic needle from her arm gauntlet, but Travis stops the Mutoid before she is allowed to use it. On the night before Jenna’s capture Travis and the Mutoid are waiting up in a tree for daylight. Travis asks the Mutoid, “Tell me something, do you remember who you were?” Travis is referring to the Mutoid’s life before she was “modified.” Travis is clearly attracted to the Mutoid and he tries to interest her with information about her past, “Your name was Keyeira…You were very beautiful, very much admired.” Unfortunately for Travis the Mutoid had no interest in her past life. Her transformation from Keyeira to the Mutoid was complete and unencumbered. The chemical and technological alterations to her body made her a cyborg. Her mental programming however made her much more like a robot in that she was self aware, but uninterested beyond what her duty was. The role of the Mutoid is a tool. She is to follow orders and be a contributing officer of the Earth Federation.
During the second season the viewer is introduced to a clone of Blake in the episode, “Weapon.” Clonemaster Fen makes two clones of Blake based on the Federation’s “DNA identity profile” of Blake which the Clonemasters were able to deduce “a full genetic pattern” which they used to build the multiple Blakes. Clonemaster Fen says of these new Blakes, “We may copy life. We may not create new forms. This man is a copy of Blake, a physical copy only, because he was not grown from a cell taken from Blake. And since he has not Blake’s experiences, he cannot be Blake. We have given him some background knowledge, the beginnings of identity, and the basis of understanding.” This clone of Blake is a being grown in a laboratory and has its memory imprinted by technological means. It is a cyborg in that it was not born of woman and that its knowledge and mind were developed inside a computer and implanted with technological equipment. This clone soon meets up with another cyborg, Rashel.
Rashel is a labor-grade slave who Coser, the inventor of IMIPAK, brings with him on his escape from the Federation. At the beginning of the episode, “Weapon,” Coser and Rashel are watching their space craft explode. Rashel keeps answering Coser as “yes, sir.” Coser responds loudly to her, “And don’t call me, sir. You’re not a slave anymore. You’re with me now. I set you free.” Not much is said of how a labor-grade slave comes to be, but looking at how the Federation has a special corp devoted to reprogramming of persons to fitted roles in society, I venture that Rashel was likewise programmed. This could have taken the form of being raised with psychological conditioning and administered drugs as in Huxley’s Brave New World, or she was like the Mutoid in “Duel,” with a unique past which was taken from her when she was reprogrammed by the Federation. Coser who says he has freed Rashel has his own problems adjusting to Rashel’s new station as a free person. He constantly bosses her around and physically acts out in rage about her sometimes not understanding a situation or something that he has said. After Rashel has been assaulted by a monster inhabiting the planet they are on, she says, “Perhaps that was the only one.” Coser angrily says, “Perhaps, perhaps! Just get on with it, will you?!” Rashel yells back to Coser, “Stop treating me like a bond slave! [Coser picks up the projector] You set me free.” In a way it seems that Rashel was programmed to fill a certain role in society and those around her who know her station respond in kind. Coser has his own programming to overcome, but he is soon killed by the weapon he created so he doesn’t have the chance to deprogram the remains of Federation control over him.
Rashel and the clone Blake team up to make the Federation leave the abandoned planet where the action takes place in “Weapon.” Using IMIPAK they “tag” Servalan and Travis so that if anyone activated the trigger on IMIPAK Servalan, Travis and anyone else within a million miles range who has been tagged would be killed. The Clonemasters who made the Blake clone follow “the Rule of Life.” The clone Blake slips into this mode of thinking in his conversation with Coser when they first meet. Blake laces his fingers together and says, “All life is linked.” Servalan and Travis after obtaining IMIPAK wish to use it to demand absolute control over all. If someone is tagged with the IMIPAK projector then they could be killed at any point of their life with the IMIPAK trigger. When Coser was talking to the clone Blake about the potential of IMIPAK he said, “Selected victims, groups, whole populations. You can be like God.” The clone Blake understands the potential of this weapon and it violates the primary foundation of the Clonemaster’s programming. When the life of Rashel is threatened by Travis, the clone Blake throws his arms around her and says, “No! All life must have reverence.” The clone of Blake and the freed labor-grade slave, Rashel are more positive roles of cyborgs compared to Mutoids and the negative reprogramming done by the Federation. The Clonemasters value life and instilled that in the clone of Blake. Rashel was given the opportunity of freedom despite the one who freed her not quite coming to terms with that. Together they start out as Rashel says at the end of “Weapon,” “Then we could start to explore our planet.”
The Mutoid is the most cyborg of the characters in that her memory is erased and her body has been modified to handle much different situations than an unmodified human. The trade off is that her body is dependent on a blood serum. In being the most modified of the characters she is representative of the Federation and evil. The less technically mediated characters are those of Blake, Blake’s clone, and the freed labor-grade slave, Rashel. These characters break out of their assigned and programmed roles that the Federation has prepared for them. In doing so they become identified as “good” and they work against the Federation which is “bad.” Blake’s clone and Rashel work together to claim a planet for themselves by using a Federation weapon against that oppressive government. Blake reclaims his memories and identity after being forced to do so when the renegade organization he once led asked him back after he had been reprogrammed by the Federation to denounce them.
After Blake, Jenna, and Avon take control of the alien space ship that Blake calls the “Liberator,” they are introduced to the ship’s computer, Zen. In the third episode, “Cygnus Alpha,” Zen introduces himself and the crew begin to see how he operates and what his and the ship’s capabilities and limitations are. Zen can control the ship on voice command. It can also monitor ship’s internal (how badly have we been damaged?) and external sensors (are there ships following us?). Zen’s integration with the ship is not completely revealed. One way of looking at Zen is that of a robot who follows certain rules and obeys orders. The difference is that the robot is built into the ship and is referred to as a “computer.” Zen is not merely a device to figure things out and process information. Zen is able to perform assigned tasks and monitor other maintenance systems onboard ship such as the automatic repair function. There is a negative side to Zen’s abilities in that it can be “taken over” and controlled by remote. Another computer/robot called Orac was able to do this, and the alien builders of the “Liberator” were able to take control of Zen and fly the “Liberator” back to its home station.
Blake’s crew also encounters another computer called Orac who becomes one of the crew. This computer is able to view all Federation communications traffic as well as it has access to all computer stored information owned by the Federation. It is able to do this because it was built by the creator of the computer chips of most of the Federation’s computer systems. In his chip design there is a special part that Orac has access to–a kind of backdoor. Orac’s processing ability and it’s almost infinite access to information reveals that it is a very powerful computer. Again, Orac is also much like a disembodied robot in that it is able to perform assign tasks and it operates on a set of built-in rules. Orac is able to control other computer systems including Zen in the “Liberator.” Orac is subject to subversion on some of the carrier waves it uses for communication with other computer systems because it extends into dimensions outside of our own. An intelligence in another dimension once tried to use this carrier wave to enter our universe/dimension through Orac.
Zen and Orac serve positive roles in that they serve Blake and his crew. But they are subject to the same kind of problems that affect any centralized computer system. If the central computer is compromised then the whole system is compromised.
The prison ship serves as an analogy for the Federation in general. The ship relies on the central computer. Blake is trying to convince Avon to assist with the takeover of the ship. Blake knows that Avon’s skills are invaluable to his plan. Blake quizzes Avon on his abilities to operate the prisoner ship’s computer in the second episode, “Space Fall.” Avon responds, “ I could open every door, blind all the scanners, knock out the security overrides, and control the computer. Control the computer and you control the ship.” The Federation is also integrated to a great deal with it’s computer systems. In later episodes which culminate to the second season’s finale, “Star One.” Star One is the hidden base of the Federation’s central computer system. This computer system organizes and modulates all systems of production, economies, and weather systems on all the Federation’s worlds. It’s location is hidden even from upper command of the Federation because knowledge of its existence and its control would be the ultimate power in the Federation.
Centralized computer systems are the norm in Blakes 7. Those that serve good are often more humanized than those that serve the forces of oppression and the Federation. Orac and Zen have names whereas the computers of the Federation are merely “computers.” Orac and Zen talk and have a higher level of interaction with the characters than do the computers of the Federation. Federation computers often involve Federation personnel reading off displays and dials what is going on. Orac and Zen have human elements of thought and action. The Federation computers require a human mediator to supply information and retrieve information.
Computers and cyborgs in Blakes 7 both offer insight into the ideas of human and machine integration and interaction. Computers fill the role of the robot and information processing systems. Computers which are on the side of “good” are often more human than those on the side of “bad.” Cyborgs are presented as varying degrees of humanity reprogrammed and modified to serve a role dictated by the oppressive Federation. Some cyborgs are able to break out of this programming and in turn innovate their own programming. Others must maintain their role because of chemical necessity as is the case of the Mutoids. Those cyborgs who are less chemically mediated tend to be the more positive roles such as Blake, the clone of Blake and the labor-grade slave, Rashel.
