Date: Wed, 26 Feb 2003 13:40:16 -0500
Subject: Re: terms



Steve/All,

The KFC story is cited in the npr weekend news program, wait, wait don't tell 
me.  To the Pentagon, evidently, KFC stands for (K)uwaiti (F)ield (C)hicken, 
but we all get the gag, right?  what i'm suggesting is that we un-gag this bit 
of script, that we gag on this play.  

Konsider: KFC as a reference to Fried Chicken.  One can be said to be sending 
the chicken in to "get fried" on the field.  There's a gallows humor here, yes, 
but this is a marked contrast, or so it seems to me to the metaphor that Eric 
describes: the coalminers relation to the canary houses that bird in a GOLD 
cage.  There's a relationship between the coalminer at the bird.

Konsider the Military Kontrast: Crates of chickens near the motor pool.  Unlike 
the coalminers or, perhaps, the native americans, these animals very much are 
treated with the mindset of the industrial revolution. These are crates of the 
already fried, already connected to kapital that is rolling across the sands.

I realize such a sensitivity seems a little over-the-top, Steve.  In fact, it's 
interesting that on the wait, wait program, Roxanne Roberts said that she would 
feel bad about having the chicken up there--she would feel for the chicken.  Of 
course, since this is a comedy show, one of the other panalists quipped about 
how it would only incite US troops all the more to say, "To Hell w/ you Saddam, 
this one's for Clucky!"  But, still, Roxanne's uncomfortableness is partly what 
makes this joke, right?

Shawn touches on what I wanted to say about Haraway.  The whole notion of the 
OncoMOuse is that it is NOT virtual.  It is a mouse developed by Dupont (w/ the 
use of DNA from woman) to make a copyrighted experimental mouse.  Haraway is 
suggesting that we identify w/ the plight of these animals and that we look 
carefully at the animal-ethics of such technology.

Chickens strapped to tanks?  Ya, maybe it's a stretch.  I doubt anyone will 
carry protest signs rallying on their behalf, but, I don't know whether 
is "unecessary" to bring up as a point.  (It most certainly is "Excessive," 
though =)

best,  geof     




Quoting shawn wilbur <swilbur-AT-wcnet.org>:

> Steve,
> 
> The Haraway take precisely abandons the security of a clear-cut
> human-animal divide that would justify such use. The cyborg is
> all about "leaky boundaries." Nothing is more fundamental to
> Haraway's approach. This is clear in the "Manifesto" and even
> more so in later work.
> 
> -shawn
> 
> steve.devos-AT-krokodile.co.uk wrote:
> 
> > Geoff
> >
> > A bit excessive and unnecessary. Using chickens in a sacrifical sense does
> > not require Haraway, rather the Haraway take (Cyborg Chickens) would
> surely
> > continue to extend the 'right of humans' to use the chickens as they see
> fit...
> >
> > A continuation of the tradition founded at the time of the neolithic
> > industrial revolution or before perhaps.
> >
> > regards
> > steve
> >
> > >
> > > Quoting Eric <ericandmary-AT-earthlink.net>:
> > >
> > >
> > >> I sometimes feel like a canary inside a golden cage trapped inside a
> > >> coal mine.  In times like these, every song echoes death.
> > >>
> > >> eric
> > >
> > > This is a wild tangent, but I heard on NPR how the US tanks in Iraq are
> > > being  outfitted with live chickens in the event of a biological
> > > attack.  It's called  Project K.F.C., though I can't recall what it
> > > stands for.
> > >
> > > These chicken-canaries,
> > > caged to tanks,
> > > bound for the Iraqi a coal mine.
> > >
> > > ...can we, following Donna Haraway's lead towards the OncoMouse, regard
> > > these  strapped birds as a shared flesh?
> > >
> > > geof
> 
>