From: Bilbix <Bilbix-AT-aol.com>
Date: Sun, 7 Dec 1997 02:58:07 EST
Subject: Re: Aliens:Ressurection


Speaking of militaristic sci-fi, has anyone seen Starsip Troopers?  It
functions in nearly the same way as Aliens, in fact, it was almost as if
Virilio's essay in Incorporations was written about Starship Troopers.  Mark
Poster's essay in Incorporations on Verhoeven's Robocop is also pertinent.
Starship Troopers works as an effective recruiment film for the 21st century,
you leave the theater ready to take on the "bug" aliens (virtually the same
role as Cameron's aliens, the third world, the denial of colonialization).  
   Also on Alien Resurrection, I was wondering if anyone has seen some Joss
Whedon's, the scriptwriter, other work.  He co-wrote Toy Story (which I think
there has some the qualities of his film being hidden with the
Hollywood/Disney film- the arcade alien society scene) and created, produces,
sometimes directs and writes for Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Seriously a good
show). 
    I love Buffy (and Delicatessen and City of Lost Children), but I had
problems with Alien Resurrection.  I wonder what anyone thinks of how the
dynamic was changed by disbembering the corporate elements and switching to
the totalized military-industrial complex and the aliance between human/alien,
human, and cyborg?
     I thought the ending (I'll try by best not to be spoiler-free)
compromised the alien's otherness, it's ability to instill "fear" and turned
them from something monstrous to something familiar.  With the gaze of the
"new" alien suddenly Ripley becomes the new mother/father in a reborn Oedipal
triangle, undergoing a Lacanian mirroring (now seeing itself in Ripley) and
torn between its love for its "mother" and its hate for its "father"  It is as
if through the mixing of human and alien DNA, the human genome
reterritorializes the alien genome and closes off its lines of flight and
ability to deterrorialize (the reason the corporation was so infactuated with
it in the first place, the alien was the war machine incorporated and the
struggle through the films is similiar to the state trying and failing to tame
and harness the energy and deterrorializing capacities of the war machines).  
Please be kind in your responses, I somewhat out of practice with my Deleuze
and not so well read ( I am still an undergraduate and the last time I posted
(which was awhile ago) I regretted it, I still feel the sting from it.  I can
handle and would greatly appreciate criticism but not outright condescension).
                                                                            Aa
ron
                                                                            (P
S I been reading a little about superstring theory, I was wondering what
anyone thought about it.  Thanks)