Date: Tue, 4 Apr 1995 11:27:16 -0400 (EDT)
From: Alan Sondheim <sondheim-AT-panix.com>
Subject: Re: human body transformation




On Tue, 4 Apr 1995, Patrick Hopkins wrote:

> 
> As for the gas chamber connection, I find it unconvincing.  The immediate 
> function of the gas chamber was to disrupt physical structure beyond which
> structure could be repaired.  Transporters are able to restore structure
> and, except for the possibility of accidents or sabotage, therefore have
> no necessary association with "elimination."
> 
> Patrick
> 
The connection would not/is not a surface one. But there is something 
about the easy transport/displacement/reproduction of identity that is 
problematic - a transformation of identity in which it's assumed that a 
human being is readable, i.e. information, in the first place. Just as 
Star Trek reproduces (for the most part) traditional gender stereotypes 
and in fact operates through them, it reproduces what Kristeva calls "the 
clean and proper body" (Powers of Horror), denuded of the abject, of 
otherness, of alterity. All bodies are readable in the transporter; just 
as the Family of Man (sic) exhibition of photographs from around the 
world was deconstructed by Barthes early on, so the transporter perhaps, 
based on the family of entities (organic and inorganic) needs a bit of 
the same/other.

Alan



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