Final Presentation Q&A Forum

Film: Metropolis
Argument: The future is thought to be a place where the body and technology merge. This merging creates a "machine man" that becomes a part of technology, and like technology is controlled by another. The exertion of power over the "machine man" is shown through violence done to him and his manipulation into conducting violent acts.

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Prompt 11

Cronenberg's use of sex and violence gives his perspective on the relationship between the body and technology By using sexualized violence, he pucks an issue that we as humans identify as wrong. Therefore, by associating this theme of sexualized violence with technologized Max, Cronenberg gets his point across to the audience. Cronenberg takes the issue of violence, which is already seen as bad, and makes it worst by associating it with sex- something pleasurable. By doing this, Cronenberg accomplishes a twisted level of violence that no one can dispute. He builds this idea through the main character Max. First, Max simply pierces Nikki's ear while having sex. Though it is unusual, as a viewer, I did not think of Max as a bad person. It was unusual the extent to which Nikki enjoyed it, but I thought of it as simply getting her ears pierced. Cronenberg then built on this idea and Max was shown in a scene where Nikki burnt her breasts with a cigarette. The sudden end to that scene caused me to question if Max engaged in that act with her. Eventually we see Max enjoying whipping the TV screen he thinks is Nikki. As Max becomes more technologized, as a viewer, I lost sympathy for him. He wanted to engage in sexualized violence and once he did, he lost my sympathy. Therefore, Cronenberg developed Max into a technologized body and paralleled this with Max's sexualized violent acts, resulting in a negative, unsympathetic view of Max in this respect. This is how sex and violence was used to support Cronenberg's argument of technology and the body.

Prompt 11

My movie is Metropolis- a silent film that explores the issue of social classes. Surprisingly technology plays a major role in this film because it is supposed to present a futuristic view of society. Technology is present in the underworld where the workers live and above the earth where the thinkers live. The workers in the underworld are the ones who constantly deal with technology because they not only built the city the thinkers live in but also run it through the technology in the underworld. The bodies in Metropolis argue a violent relationship with technology. In the first part of the movie when Freder goes to the underworld, a worker dies while performing his job on the machines (technology). It was not just one man who died, the entire row of workers died, and they were simply replaced by a new row of workers. Bodies passed in front of Freder who was shocked by the number of workers who died in the "machine room" accident. When he runs to tell his father, his father responds saying "such accidents are unavoidable." This is the first incident of technology being associated with the body and it is in terms of violence. When Freder runs to tell his father of violence, his father responds by saying that they (the workers) belong in the depths. It is as if the father thinks of the workers as machines. Joseph, the father's right hand man, after being fired took a gun out of his jacket pocket. Again, associating technology with violence. After being introduced to Rotwang the inventor, he tells of his newest creation that is a robot that is going to replace the workers. Rotwang and the father plot to create robot that looks like Maria (the leader of the workers) so they can manipulate the workers and break the confidence of the workers that a better day is soon to come. Each time the viewer sees technology it is always associated with violence toward the body (mainly the worker body).

Prompt 10

In Neuromancer, Gibson presents two views of sex. He shows sex as something meaningful and engaged in by two individuals that truly care of one another. He also presents sex as something strictly physical and deeply twisted, often associated with two other motifs- death and violence. Gibson first mentions sex when he tells of Case and Linda Lee. The act was not condemned because it was obvious Case had deep feelings, maybe even loved, Linda Lee. As the book progresses, Linda Lee is seen to be the one person that Wintermute spoke through that could emotionally affect Case. In encounters with Linda Lee is when we saw emotions from Case. Linda Lee is even said to have loved Case herself, and in the Land of the Dead, when they are together, things are good. I would have been satisfied with an ending to Neuromancer where Case ended up in the Land of the Dead with Linda Lee forever. Gibson's association of sex with love makes it meaningful. Even when Case had sex with Molly, though they were not in love, they truly cared for one another and that is enough. Sex with caring and loving emotions has been taught to be "good" sex, the sex we should engage in ourselves. Gibson also presented another view of sex, as strictly physical. This side of sex is shown through Molly's past as a prostitute. The reason this view of sex does not take away from Gibson's positive argument of sex in the novel is because Molly's prostitute sex was only physical. She could not and was not suppose to remember it. Therefore, Gibson is saying that if sex is not with the one you care about, you shouldn't be tortured to remember it. He stresses this point by always associating death and violence with unwanted sex, for example, Molly's experience as a prostitute after she got her body modification finger nails.