The Girl Who Was Plugged In by James Tiptree: Gender, Identity, and Technology - Book Report/Review Example

Consider the ways in which the performance of identity and/or gender intersects with technology in The Girl who was Plugged in and Pattern Recognition 2010 Outline: 1. “The Girl Who Was Plugged In”: gender, identity and technology 2. “Pattern Recognition”: gender, identity and technology 1. “The Girl Who Was Plugged In”: Gender, Identity and Technology “The Girl Who Was Plugged In” by James Tiptree is regarded as a classical example of feminist science fiction. The main heroine Burke is a sexless creature with a repulsive appearance, which is lost in the large world. She is unnoticeable for the surrounding people. Nevertheless, there is a strong loving feminine under such ugly appearance. In spite of her ugliness and miserable way of life, the girl is able to love dearly and passionately. The novel is built upon contrasts of human-technology relations, woman’s love and world of high-tech advertising. For instance, in the new life Burke obtains movie star’s appearance and body (Delphi). Delphi is a perfect dream and embodiment of womanhood. Burke is fond of her new body and way of life, that’s why she strives for merging with Delphi’s identity. “To some extent, her new existence as a cyborg offers her a certain kind of happiness. The Delphi incarnation is admired for her beauty.” (Van Der Spek 2000, p. 49) Delphi is being followed by a production unit, which models her life in the plant modem field. In this case, Tiptree’s heroine can be examined as hauntological phenomenon. Though Derrida’s concept of hauntology was previously used only in history and economy, it was transferred into cinematography, painting and music. Also it is typical for modernist science fiction, because this period is “marked both by a vexed fascination with ghosts and by a persistent foregrounding of the temporal instability that ghostliness calls into play.” (Sword 1999) Thus, the novel and the main heroine can be subdivided into two layers: technological and human. Delphi in the dreamland is the first layer. This is an idealized girl, who leads a high life and exemplifies for millions of potential consumers. Power of Delphi’s femininity is unlimited, because it is strengthened by high technologies. She is being loved and adored. As advertising is outside the law, the girl indirectly propagates clothes, accessories, sunmobiles and imposes her tastes to her audience. Her life is planned according to Mr. Cantle’s scenario, who concludes unofficial contracts with manufacturers and sellers. Thereby Delphi is one of the largest technological innovations of International Communication Corporation. It seems to be an ideal woman for target audience. The second layer is hautological, because it undermines an idealized image of Delphi and her surrounding. She is an artificial cover of the ugly girl Burke, who spends days and nights under the ground. “But Delphi is in no sense a robot. Call her a waldo if you must. The fact is she’s just a girl, a real live girl with her brain in an unusual place. A simple real-time online system with plenty of bit-rate - even as you and you.” (Tiptree 1995, p. 12) Delphi’s life style, behavior patterns and tastes are preplanned. This situation is ironical, because any real girl can not satisfy all requirements of International Communication Corporation. Although Burke is ugly and narrow-minded, she has a big soul and is capable of falling in love. She fully devotes herself to animation of Delphi and transfers her all best moral qualities. Her love for Paul Ishem proves that real feelings and values still exist. It means that not all people are “zombies”; they can be independent and make important decisions by themselves. The world around the main heroes is structured according to commercial laws. The project of Burke – Delphi is innovative one, because there is an indirect and efficient contact between doll and puppet master. “Thus, the purest form of spectacle, the advertisement, moves beyond its boundaries to become more generalized; more diffused through a culture that is becoming more completely spectacular. Tiptree’s text narrates exactly this diffusion through an oracle named Delphi.” (Scott 1993, p. 318) The whole world becomes a stage for the artificial movie star. She marries an aged Spanish infant, buys up fashionable clothes or visits noisy parties. Everything is being noticed and followed. Delphi is the only opportunity for Burke to realize her dreams and express her feelings. Her creators notice that by behavior, gestures, manners Delphi can not be differentiated from an alive girl. Even when she sleeps she moves and whispers; it means that the puppet master has shared a large hidden charisma and soul with her. The majority of Delphi’s production unit, who are not aware of her real origin, do not suspect of her true nature. Thus, she becomes especially valuable for the Corporation. There is an evident confrontation of two characters within one body. On the one hand, Burke is fully involved into a roll game and forgets her past. Her memory is filled with Delphi’s life. Burke does not apprehend her real identity no more. She exhausts her physical body to get pleasure as Delphi. She looses her own identity within movie star’s life. On the other hand, Delphi’s appearance and status promote flourishing of a beautiful and eternal feeling within Burke’s soul. Love is parted between spiritual and physical covers. It makes Delphi-Burke rebel against her owners and run away with her beloved. Possible future of the world in “The Girl Who Was Plugged In” can be followed from the contrast of two hauntological layers. The first “technological” layer is inside “human” layer, which embodies the present. The world without advertising is an allegory upon the past, when it was not banned. Using Delphi and similar projects, manufacturers found a new flexible way to affect consumers. Although this influential mechanism turns out to be quiet efficient, it can hardly provide the creators with a long-term stability. Burke goes out of their control and subconsciously rebels. The author colorfully describes Burke’s sufferings and control through technology (wires, box). “What emerges is not a misogynist text, but a complex language which links its own spectacular rhetorical tactics to the strategic colonization of the woman’s image, the woman’s subjectivity, and, finally, the woman’s very being.” (Scott 1993, p. 319) The writer introduces several symbols for readers to understand possible future the world in the novel. For example, a doll-box means control over real and artificial halves of the heroine’s identity. Using a group of teen singers “Breathing”, Tiptree shows how perception of consumers changes. At the beginning of the novel the ugliness prevents Burke to see true nature of these “teen gods”. Having become a popular movie star and Spanish princess, she does not accept them as perfect and brilliant any more. Discovering human-technology relations within the novel, special attention should be paid to James Tiptree’s style. The sentences are often broken and unfinished as if something remains unsaid. For example, it refers to feelings and anxieties of Burke and Delphi. Dialogs consist of short and simple sentences to underline the difference between Delphi with her ideal dreams and the world around her built upon hidden commerce. Millions of Delphi’s admirers do not attempt to establish her origin and identity. Thus, “The Girl Who Was Plugged In” is built upon human-technological relations. These relations seem to be hidden, because society and International Communication Corporation try to deceive each. Both of them would like to be deceived. James Tiptree discovers womanhood in the society of the future. Example of Delphi proves that beautiful appearance, pleasant manners and boosting the image is enough to with audience and market. 2. “Pattern Recognition”: Gender, Identity and Technology In “Pattern Recognition” William Gibson represents his point of view of commerce and advertisement influence on the modern society. The writer places the heroes in the highly commercial society, where business interests, reputation, incomes, profitable contracts and career development are of primary importance. The novel is filled with commercial brands and names such as Cosmopolitan, iBook, Hotmail or F:F:F, specific abbreviations such as Man from U.N.C.L.E. room, LGA, G4. The heroes work in the field of Internet and high technologies and their lives are inseparable from them. “Reflexively, like a slot player pulling the lever in hope of bringing down a better reality, she clicks hotmail in case another message has arrived in the meantime.” (Gibson 2008, p. 153) In this case, the main heroine Cayce Pollard communicates with her friends and colleagues on the forum. William Gibson hints that human-technology relations can not be broken in the world of business corporations. On the examples of Cayce, Parkaboy, Hubertus Bigend, Damien Pease and others the author shows the importance of high technologies in professional sphere and everyday life. People will be helpless without mobile phones, Internet and e-mails. Traditional material values, social position and gender identity will also change. To underline specificity of gender identity in the novel, Gibson introduces a term “gender-bait”. Communicating in the blogs, Cayce uses either male or female nicknames. It depends on topic of discussion and allows her to feel gender-neutral among the bloggers. Blogger’s nickname predetermines form of address and communication style. The writer “directs this criticism against those who assume the naturalness of binary heterosexual identities and so the unproblematic congruity of anatomy, gender identification, and sexual desire.” (Kaufman-Osborn 1997, p. 654) Cayce Pollard is an advertising consultant, who lives in New York and works under contracts all over the world. “She is queen of market research, divining trends in social and cultural patterns that big business pays big bucks for to move their products.” (Perley 2003) Gibson embodies in Cayce an example of lonely and successful businesswoman, who is overburdened with psychological problems. She fully devotes herself to work and does not have a beloved. Professional career and psychological trauma after 11th of September terrorist acts affect her character and identity. The young woman wears only black clothes, Levi jeans without trademarks and tags. She carefully selects logos and advertising to work with. She suffers from phobia towards old-fashioned corporate mascots. “And finds a Michelin Man, its white rolls executed in felt, garroted to the doorknob with a thick black cord. Starts to scream but catches herself.” (Gibson 2008, p. 68) According to Judith Butler’s theory, Cayce can be regarded as a performative gendered body, which shapes her reality by its own acts. Thus, the heroine has developed a set of psychological stereotypes and is afraid to break them. All her life is based upon avoidance of imaginary horrors and detachment from the outer world in her work. These problems are typical for highly-urbanized and technologically-dependent society. Cayce is afraid of artificial images, names and symbols. Besides, the woman witnesses terrorist attacks in New York and it makes her highly suspicious and nervous. From point of view of haultology, “Pattern Recognition” consists of two layers. The first layer is Cayce’s life before the terrorist attack, her childhood, memories of her parents. Due to the attacks they have been lost forever. This is a turning point for millions of American citizens, who have lost their relatives, friends and hope for the future. Plenty of them start looking for answers and signs from heaven to find a new sense of life. After that Cayce’s horrors and phobia reinforce and she devotes herself only to work. The second layer includes events, which have impacted Cayce’s world outlook after the attacks. Offer of the Blue Ant to discover origination of video clips involves her into a chain of mysterious events. “The images of September 11 just a year old, these video images of a young couple embracing, then disappearing in a flash of light, touch off feelings of dread. The deeper Cayce delves into the source of the video, the more convinced she becomes that the images are more than a clever marketing gimmick.” (Perley 2003) For Cayce the footage represents obscure future after the terrorist attacks. At the end of her investigation the film turns out to be created by a disabled Russian girl Nora. The topic of the attacks is close to Nora and Cayce, because both of them have endured similar tragedy. This is an intersection of human and technological aspects. Gibson represents technological achievements of civilization as self-destructive. They are used not for human flourishing, but for mass murders. In spite of her disability, Nora tries to express her feelings through video clips. Images, logos and figures in this clip represent female vision of the September tragedy that is full of sufferings, screams, blood, broken hearts and fates. This is a female vision of the world after the catastrophe, because both heroines have lost dear people and their world outlook has changed forever. To forget the past Cayce fills her life with job, stereotypes and superstitious beliefs that might surround her. Video is the only method of self-expression for Nora’s diseased imagination. The girl attempts to fill life vacuum with memories of the past and their future vision. “Pattern Recognition” is of large importance in modernist science fiction, because the writer analyzes present human-technological relations. Special attention is paid to male and female identity in the highly technological world. Psychological disabilities and phobias are typical for modern and future society and readers should not forget about it. Everyone must have an outlet for artistic impulses or relaxation. Cayce, Hubertus Bigend, Nora, Dorotea Benedetti and others embody problems of the present and future, that’s why readers should try to understand and analyze them from their points of view. Bibliography 1. Byrt, A. 2007. Milgrims Progress. New Statesman, vol. 136, no. 4859, p. 49. 2. Gibson. W. 2008. Pattern Recognition. Pocket Book, New York. 3. Kaufman-Osborn, T.V. 1997. ‘Fashionable Subjects: on Judith Butler and the Causal Idioms of Postmodern Feminist Theory’. Political Research Quarterly, vol. 50, no. 3, p. 649 – 657. 4. Leverette, M. 2007. ‘Spirits in a Material World: Hauntology, Historical Materialism, and Phenomenological Medium Theory.’ Western Journal of Communication, vol. 71, no. 4 , p. 10 - 13. 5. Perley, M. 2003. ‘Cyberspace, Artifacts a Dragon, Immortality.’ The Washington Times, 23 Oct., p. B06. 6. Phillips, J. 1996. ‘Mars Needs Women: the True Fiction of James Tiptree Jr.’ The Village Voice, vol. 41, no. 36, p. V18. 7. Scott, B. 1993. Terminal Identity: The Virtual Subject in Postmodern Science Fiction. Durham, NC, Duke University Press. 8. Schrift, A. D. 2001. ‘Judith Butler: Une Nouvelle Existentialiste?’ Philosophy Today, vol. 45, no. 1, p. 12 - 22. 9. Sword, H. 1999. ‘Modernist Hauntology: James Joyce, Hester Dowden, and Shakespeares Ghost’. Texas Studies in Literature and Language, vol. 41, no. 2, p. 180 - 184. 10. Tavin, K. 2005. ‘Hauntological Shifts: Fear and Loathing of Popular (Visual) Culture.’ Studies in Art Education, vol. 46, no. 2, p. 101. 11. Tiptree, J. 1995. The Girl Who Was Plugged In. Penguin Book, New York. 12. Van Der Spek, I. 2000. Alien Plots: Female Subjectivity and the Divine in the Light of James Tiptree’s A Momentary Taste of Being. Liverpool University Press, Liverpool, England. Read More