Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Humans without Desire
(Advanced apologies for rambling on; my thoughts are all over the places and I'm sure I've digressed in more ways than one, but it's near midnight and I have another paper due tomorrow! =\ But go me, for not posting my shopping list instead . . . :p)
In class this week, we examined the Terminator, which involves a robot/machine (the Terminator) operating solely on the basis of drive [to kill Connor], without desire. To quote (courtesy of Wikipedia), "Listen! And understand! That Terminator is out there. It can't be bargained with! It can't be reasoned with! It doesn't feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop, ever, until you are dead!"
I thought it interesting that there exists quite a few instances of human characters in popular culture who are very much in line with this theme. To start off, we could take a look at Agent 47 from the popular video game series, Hitman.
Now, whether or not we can consider this character to be an entirely human character is up for debate, since he is, in fact, a clone created for the sole purpose of killing (more details here), but I think he's a good starting point in our transition from machines (or, indeed, characters of some supernatural origin) to 'ordinary' humans. Although 47 does develop some 'deviations' from the original plans of Dr. Ort-Meyer (the scientist who created him), notably free will, he is still distinctly bound by his drive and we can observe throughout his story that there is very little, if any, true human desires in him. He operates purely on his 'drive' to accomplish the missions (i.e. assassinations) assigned to him by the Agency -- as well as to survive, which is where he strays slightly from the Terminator theme. He does not reserve much affection for women nor men -- Diana is slightly exempt to this, but I highly doubt that there's any 'desire' in Lacan's sense of the word involved. Money, while he makes a point of receiving what he was promised, is not something he inherently desires either.
There are two small exceptions that I can recall at this time: the canary he is seen keeping as a pet in Hitman IV: Blood Money, and the temporary period of voluntary 'redemption' spent at Father Vittorio's church in Hitman II: Silent Assassin. I don't feel that we can necessarily say that either desires were circular, but we can certainly see that his drive triumphs over both (to make long story short, he kills the canary when its noise serves against his situation, and he leaves the church after seeing that he could never find peace there). In spite of his desire to repent and lead a righteous life, the very nature of who he is prevents him from making any permanent changes to his circumstances due to external forces that desire either to kill him or to employ his services.
One thing of interest to note is that his drive itself seems in part to stem from some distorted manifestation of what very closely resembles circular desire. His first 'desire' was to escape the crude facility in which he was born, and as an extension of that, to kill Dr. Ort-Meyer (which he does). Perhaps what drives him to accept the Agency's assignments is a circular manifestation of the same desire transferring onto other targets. The key, I think, is to determine whether he needs to kill (drive) or he simply wants to kill (desire). The reason I do not call this pure desire, however, is that 47 is not portrayed to be some psychopath who has an innate bubbling desire to go on some gleeful murdering spree (though that can certainly be done if player desires so in-game). He certainly takes no enjoyment in his work, nor does he have any sort of personal vendetta at stake against the vast majority of his victims.
A question that I would ask at this point is if he personally discriminates his list of targets. In the game, the targets are invariably, without exception, what one might call 'villains' who slipped through the nets of the legal justice system (murderers, mob bosses, violent political figures, known child molesters, and so on). It is never explained if this is by 47's choice, or if the Agency only assigns these types of missions. The latter is implied by the fact that the Agency seems to be allianced with some sort of royalty (Diana addresses 'her/his majesty' at the end of Blood Money, and the insignia of the Agency closely resembles a fleur-de-lys). However, if it is by 47's choice, then there must be some shred of morality involved, which would indicate desire rather than drive.
Another reason I used Hitman as an example is that there is an instance of Second Death at the end of Blood Money. Technically, this is not what Lacan would have referred to as true Second Death, since 47 did not actually die (it was a 'Romeo and Juliet'-esque scenario where a serum was used to imitate death), but it nevertheless seems in tune with the idea of the dead returning to extract revenge against the living. I do not see it fit to delve into the whole story here (available here for your reading pleasure), but to cut to the chase, 47 is revived surreptitiously during his funeral procession and has a field day with the corrupt members of the Franchise (a rival agency).
A third reason I used Hitman is that the game itself illustrates the neutralisation of death and violence in modern popular culture. Not only does the game revolve around the act of ending other characters' lives (the issue of whether or not 'justice' is served in so doing notwithstanding), but the gameplay leaves plenty of room for 'collateral damages,' especially if some poor NPC comes walking on their merry way into 47 engaging in a suspicious behaviour and turns into a liability that could compromise the mission, or starts shooting at 47 for no good reasons (e.g. examples). This very problem is wrought throughout countless action/adventure themed materials, where the hero/protagonist saves the day (or whatever s/he is trying to protect/accomplish) -- and leaves trails of innocent corpses behind (which we conveniently never see on screen, and which everyone in the story seems to ignore or forget).
Moving onto more fully 'human' characters without desires, I would like to turn to the Bourne series. The novels are not quite as good examples for this purpose (although Bourne does become the ruthless agent we see on the films, he is driven by a very strong desire for a specific goal rather than acting with a senseless drive as an agent of the government), but the film, I think, portrays a good instance of such a phenomenon; not so much in Bourne himself, but in Treadstone/Blackbriar 'assets.' "I can see their faces," Bourne is quoted as saying. "Everyone I ever killed -- I just don't know their name." We do not know what desires motivated any of them, including Bourne, to enter the program (not that it really matters, since it is made clear that they were 'tricked' into believing they would be 'saving lives'), but once they have undergone the extensive series of conditioning, we can definitely see strong semblance to the Terminator in each of them. "Look at what they make you give," says the Professor -- a phrase echoed by Bourne near the end of the film trilogy.
In class this week, we examined the Terminator, which involves a robot/machine (the Terminator) operating solely on the basis of drive [to kill Connor], without desire. To quote (courtesy of Wikipedia), "Listen! And understand! That Terminator is out there. It can't be bargained with! It can't be reasoned with! It doesn't feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop, ever, until you are dead!"
I thought it interesting that there exists quite a few instances of human characters in popular culture who are very much in line with this theme. To start off, we could take a look at Agent 47 from the popular video game series, Hitman.
Now, whether or not we can consider this character to be an entirely human character is up for debate, since he is, in fact, a clone created for the sole purpose of killing (more details here), but I think he's a good starting point in our transition from machines (or, indeed, characters of some supernatural origin) to 'ordinary' humans. Although 47 does develop some 'deviations' from the original plans of Dr. Ort-Meyer (the scientist who created him), notably free will, he is still distinctly bound by his drive and we can observe throughout his story that there is very little, if any, true human desires in him. He operates purely on his 'drive' to accomplish the missions (i.e. assassinations) assigned to him by the Agency -- as well as to survive, which is where he strays slightly from the Terminator theme. He does not reserve much affection for women nor men -- Diana is slightly exempt to this, but I highly doubt that there's any 'desire' in Lacan's sense of the word involved. Money, while he makes a point of receiving what he was promised, is not something he inherently desires either.
There are two small exceptions that I can recall at this time: the canary he is seen keeping as a pet in Hitman IV: Blood Money, and the temporary period of voluntary 'redemption' spent at Father Vittorio's church in Hitman II: Silent Assassin. I don't feel that we can necessarily say that either desires were circular, but we can certainly see that his drive triumphs over both (to make long story short, he kills the canary when its noise serves against his situation, and he leaves the church after seeing that he could never find peace there). In spite of his desire to repent and lead a righteous life, the very nature of who he is prevents him from making any permanent changes to his circumstances due to external forces that desire either to kill him or to employ his services.
One thing of interest to note is that his drive itself seems in part to stem from some distorted manifestation of what very closely resembles circular desire. His first 'desire' was to escape the crude facility in which he was born, and as an extension of that, to kill Dr. Ort-Meyer (which he does). Perhaps what drives him to accept the Agency's assignments is a circular manifestation of the same desire transferring onto other targets. The key, I think, is to determine whether he needs to kill (drive) or he simply wants to kill (desire). The reason I do not call this pure desire, however, is that 47 is not portrayed to be some psychopath who has an innate bubbling desire to go on some gleeful murdering spree (though that can certainly be done if player desires so in-game). He certainly takes no enjoyment in his work, nor does he have any sort of personal vendetta at stake against the vast majority of his victims.
A question that I would ask at this point is if he personally discriminates his list of targets. In the game, the targets are invariably, without exception, what one might call 'villains' who slipped through the nets of the legal justice system (murderers, mob bosses, violent political figures, known child molesters, and so on). It is never explained if this is by 47's choice, or if the Agency only assigns these types of missions. The latter is implied by the fact that the Agency seems to be allianced with some sort of royalty (Diana addresses 'her/his majesty' at the end of Blood Money, and the insignia of the Agency closely resembles a fleur-de-lys). However, if it is by 47's choice, then there must be some shred of morality involved, which would indicate desire rather than drive.
Another reason I used Hitman as an example is that there is an instance of Second Death at the end of Blood Money. Technically, this is not what Lacan would have referred to as true Second Death, since 47 did not actually die (it was a 'Romeo and Juliet'-esque scenario where a serum was used to imitate death), but it nevertheless seems in tune with the idea of the dead returning to extract revenge against the living. I do not see it fit to delve into the whole story here (available here for your reading pleasure), but to cut to the chase, 47 is revived surreptitiously during his funeral procession and has a field day with the corrupt members of the Franchise (a rival agency).
A third reason I used Hitman is that the game itself illustrates the neutralisation of death and violence in modern popular culture. Not only does the game revolve around the act of ending other characters' lives (the issue of whether or not 'justice' is served in so doing notwithstanding), but the gameplay leaves plenty of room for 'collateral damages,' especially if some poor NPC comes walking on their merry way into 47 engaging in a suspicious behaviour and turns into a liability that could compromise the mission, or starts shooting at 47 for no good reasons (e.g. examples). This very problem is wrought throughout countless action/adventure themed materials, where the hero/protagonist saves the day (or whatever s/he is trying to protect/accomplish) -- and leaves trails of innocent corpses behind (which we conveniently never see on screen, and which everyone in the story seems to ignore or forget).
Moving onto more fully 'human' characters without desires, I would like to turn to the Bourne series. The novels are not quite as good examples for this purpose (although Bourne does become the ruthless agent we see on the films, he is driven by a very strong desire for a specific goal rather than acting with a senseless drive as an agent of the government), but the film, I think, portrays a good instance of such a phenomenon; not so much in Bourne himself, but in Treadstone/Blackbriar 'assets.' "I can see their faces," Bourne is quoted as saying. "Everyone I ever killed -- I just don't know their name." We do not know what desires motivated any of them, including Bourne, to enter the program (not that it really matters, since it is made clear that they were 'tricked' into believing they would be 'saving lives'), but once they have undergone the extensive series of conditioning, we can definitely see strong semblance to the Terminator in each of them. "Look at what they make you give," says the Professor -- a phrase echoed by Bourne near the end of the film trilogy.
# posted by Raye Lee @ 8:42 PM 
