Saturday, October 27, 2007
Cyborg In a Human Costume
I just saw John Carpenter's 1978 film "Halloween" for the first time and I thought to myself that Michael Myers (the serial killer in the film) is an example of a human who is only fuelled on a drive to kill. He is devoid of any human emotions, conscience or any human behaviour really, no sense of reality. Rather he is kind of mechanical and robotic as the cyborg is in the Terminator.
When Michael Myers is 6 years old he initially kills his older sister on Halloween by stabbing her to death. He expresses no remorse nor emotions for what he has done. Furthermore, he doesn't even have a motive for murdering his sister, not that he should have one anyway. What struck me however, is the fact that he never spoke following the incident and never speaks in the whole movie. According to Lacan's three stages to self-development, Michael appears to represent the real. He is physically human; however, his body is a merely shell for a person that has no consciousness, no conscience nor ego for that matter. Furthermore, he doesn't speak which implies that he hasn't learned, or negates the use of language (symbolic stage, thus is still attached to the realm of the real.
The white mask which he dons throughout the whole film is somewhat symoblic of the real vs. reality where the reality of the white mask is a blank; expressionless face of a serial killer and through the small black holes where his eyes are, are the windows into a black abyss that lacks any soul or human substance within it, rather a darkness; a surplus that is the "real" part of him.
I found it interesting to note how no matter how many times he is shot, or stabbed he never dies. He always comes back from the dead. According to our lecture this week on Zizek's"The Social Context of Second Death," the deceased return because they are denied a proper natural, "real" event (burial) within our symbolic order or reality. Michael is always killed in violent ways, of course because his victims are attempting to defend themselves from him; however, in the processs' of killing him, he is always denied a proper burial, for example, being buried in a cemetary. Yet, as Michael appears to be independent from the symbolic (Lacan's symbolic stage), he keeps returning from the dead as a driven, relentless killing machine. He's pretty much a cyborg dressed up as a human.
When Michael Myers is 6 years old he initially kills his older sister on Halloween by stabbing her to death. He expresses no remorse nor emotions for what he has done. Furthermore, he doesn't even have a motive for murdering his sister, not that he should have one anyway. What struck me however, is the fact that he never spoke following the incident and never speaks in the whole movie. According to Lacan's three stages to self-development, Michael appears to represent the real. He is physically human; however, his body is a merely shell for a person that has no consciousness, no conscience nor ego for that matter. Furthermore, he doesn't speak which implies that he hasn't learned, or negates the use of language (symbolic stage, thus is still attached to the realm of the real.
The white mask which he dons throughout the whole film is somewhat symoblic of the real vs. reality where the reality of the white mask is a blank; expressionless face of a serial killer and through the small black holes where his eyes are, are the windows into a black abyss that lacks any soul or human substance within it, rather a darkness; a surplus that is the "real" part of him.
I found it interesting to note how no matter how many times he is shot, or stabbed he never dies. He always comes back from the dead. According to our lecture this week on Zizek's"The Social Context of Second Death," the deceased return because they are denied a proper natural, "real" event (burial) within our symbolic order or reality. Michael is always killed in violent ways, of course because his victims are attempting to defend themselves from him; however, in the processs' of killing him, he is always denied a proper burial, for example, being buried in a cemetary. Yet, as Michael appears to be independent from the symbolic (Lacan's symbolic stage), he keeps returning from the dead as a driven, relentless killing machine. He's pretty much a cyborg dressed up as a human.
# posted by Kathy @ 3:34 PM 
