Human Boundaries & Multiple Time Paths

Human Boundaries & Multiple Time Paths Minority Report: the film and the novel

Outline • Starting Questions • Sci-fi Films and Human Boundaries • Ref. Two Theoretical Models on “posthuman” identities • Philip K. Dick & Minority Report

Starting Questions • What questions do recent sci-fi films ask? • Are the boundaries between the human and the non-human still meaningful?

Sci-fi Films I. Definition: "A good science fiction story is a story about human beings, with a human problem, and a human solution, that would not have happened at all without its science content.“ (Theodore Sturgeon source) • Alternative possible worlds as reflections on our present world. II. Kinds: • Disaster films  environmental issues • Monster films • Alien life forms • Robots • Mind and identity  memory and social surveillance • Time travel  thru’ machines or in the mind • human vs. monsters, alien, robot (Who is the monster) • ‘mad scientist’ (Father) Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_fiction_film#Film_versus_literature

Sci-fi films: Examples • Disaster films: Armageddon (1998)The Day After Tomorrow (2004); It's All About Love (2003) • Monster films: Jurassic Park(1993), King Kong (2005) • Alien life forms: 70’s-80’s-1998 –Star Wars & Star Trek; E.T. (1982); Alien (1986) • Robots: Blade Runner (1982);Men in Black (1997), A.I.: Artificial Intelligence (2001); The Island (2005); I, Robot (2004) • State, Mind, Machine and identity: Videodrome (1982);The Handmaid’s Tale (1990), The Net (1995), Gattaca (變種異煞1997), Enemy of the State (1998), The Matrix (1999), Vanilla Sky (2001); Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) • Time travel: Back to Future (1985)

Sci-fi films: Recurrent Themes • nostalgia for the past (e.g. the 50’s), pastiche of stereotypes -- Back to Future (1985) ; King Kong (2005). • Father/Creator Complex, and parent-children relationship:Alien (1986), Blade Runner (1982);A.I.: Artificial Intelligence (2001); The Island (2005). • Can be traced back to Frankenstein. • State surveillance and dictatorship (through zoning, computer, video, implanted device and genetic manipulation, etc.) : Videodrome (1982); The Handmaid’s Tale (1990), Enemy of the State (1998) • The human and the machine/animal -- Men in Black (1997), I, Robot (2004) • Nature of memory, and its erasure: Vanilla Sky (2001); Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)

Human Body, action Mind, thought Relation Ads & Commodities Shaping bodies, Creating desires. State categorization, Discipline, Surveillance & punishment Machine & Science device implantation, computer interfacing (voice, hand, virtual reality), enetic manipulation Sci-fi Films: Penetration of Human Boundaries

Ref. Two Theoretical Models(1) Cyborg –Donna Haraway • Identities have to be “contradictory, partial, and strategic'.” • Cybord identity: "a kind of disassembled and reassembled, postmodern collective self", breaking the dichotomies between "mind and body, animal and human, organism and machine, public and private, nature and culture, men and women, primitive and civilized.

Ref. (2) Body without Organs • Body not as a totality, or organic whole; "body" is a discontinuous and non-totalized series of processes, organs, flows, energies, corporeal substances and incorporeal events, intensities and durations. (source)  nomadic subjects • Anti-Oedipus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia (1983) • Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari problematize previous models of subjectivity by eliminating the opposition around which the subject is constructed: "There is no such thing as either man or nature now, only a process that produces the one within the other and couples the machines together." (2). •  Anderton and his eyes?

Philip K. Dick (1928-1982)--General Introduction • Had a vision on a rural California road in 1960’s: “a cold, metallic and malevolent face that filled the entire sky.” (Gale) • Developed a deep sense of paranoia--as well as a serious drug habit, which clearly didn't help matters--during the early 1960s and it continued off and on until he died. • In 1972, Dick started sending letters to the FBI, alleging that a sinister political organization was trying to recruit sci-fi writers to plant coded information in their novels. • After five marriages and artistic poverty, he died the year Blade Runner was released. (Barsanti)

Philip K. Dick (1928-1982)--General Introduction • "My major preoccupation is the question, 'What is reality?'" Dick • In novel after novel, Dick's characters find that their familiar world is in fact an illusion, either self-created or imposed on them by others. • His work-- favorite source texts of Hollywood sci-fi films – • Blade Runner (“Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?”), • Total Recall (We Can Remember It for You Wholesale), and • Minority Report (1956)

Film Characters: Chief John Anderton Pre-Crime Director Lamar Burgess Lara, Sean Witwar Minority Report:

Minority Report: Questions for Discussion • What do you think of the world of 2054 constructed in this film? • What are the problems with Precrime? • Are there any recurrent symbols in this film?

The World of Minority Report • DC—power center vs. highrise off from the Potomac River Precrime department: beautified image of precogs Vertical Buildings

“Vertical Building” vs. slums

The World of Minority Report– Home and Transportation • Cars driven by magnetic power • Computerized home, controlled by voice

The mall, ads, high-tech luxuries • Animated ads everywhere interpellating the individuals (with eye-scan device) • Ads of Bulgari, Guinness, of Amex • Auto factory of Lexus (clip)

Avoiding Physical Violence: Precrime

Invisible Violation of Human Bodies and Private Spaces

Image of the Eye • vision or illusion? –a bit cliché. • Agatha’s vs. Anderton’s the use of Clarity; • “Can you see it?” vs. “One-eye man is king.” • Eyes as a way of control of everyone and Anderton’s access to Precrime. • Eyes –look at the mirror Images society offers and thus their position get fixed; • The Big Eye—of the camera

Father(s)’s Control and the Loss of Mothers • Fathers: Burgess, Anderton • (Lost) Mothers: Ann Lively and Dr. Kineman (exiled and an alternative world of control) • Lara – self-exiled (with her voice—the photowork--barely heard) becomes a mother again

Precrime: problems (1)Treatments of the precogs (2) fallibility of prediction; intention = crime? (3) Penalty • Howard Marks • encased in what looks like a human-sized test-tube

Freedom to choose • Anderton Leo Crow (repeats the stereotypical lines policemen has when arresting someone—when Crow is not really guilty.) • Lamarr Burgess  Anderton, • Burgess: • his desire to keep the system working, • his instinct for his own survival • his ambivalent feelings towards Anderton  “ Sorry my boy” • Are they really free to choose?

Precog’s Abilities—Romanticized diffused and reduced • In the novel, precogs’ messages need analysis and they are limited to prediction of manslaughter • Agatha: knows everything to the most minute detail (umbrella, balloon man, etc); can tell a future wished for but not existing.

Endings • Family reunion • Seclusion • Closing of precrime how about the other means of social surveillance?

John Anderton & Lisa; Ed Witwar; Leopold Kaplan 29, 64, Fleming 42, 72; Page Plot Witwer the young man, A. gets the card with his own name on; Lisa’s responses – the victim: Leopold Kaplan A. taken to Kaplan (conspiracy theory) A. rescued by Fleming, lives in the slum area as an electrician. As Earnest Temple, listens to the news about A. Meets Page to get Jerry’s vision; Lisa’s rescue Lisa – no conspiracy; Fleming tries to kill Lisa Meets Witwer—gets Donna’s vision; Army’s rally outside; A. decision Kills Kaplan starts for the colony. offers another interpretation of the ‘minority reports’. Minority Report: Novel

Problems with the Precrime • 99.8% Success p. 11; 1 murder in 5 years; • “they are innocent” p. 7 • Precogs—idiots and deformed 8-9

Anderton –belief and doubts • Belief in the system 12 • Doubts over Lisa pp. 18-20, 34 • Fatigued and old pp. 3, 5, 36-38;

Various Interpretations of “Will he do it?” • A’s: W’s conspiracy to gain power p. 32; 37-38 proves the system wrong • Fleming: your wife is behind it 41 • Chap 5: discovery of the minority report p.49 • Jerry’s vision p. 58  a new time path • Everybody is guilty of plotting. P. 78 • Donna’s  Jerry’s  Mikes pp. 81-82 • All three are minority reports pp. 100-

Differences between the film and the original novel • The novel • critiques precrime, but not the treatment of crecog—nor offers solutions. • Precogs’ predictions are not unanimous and can be corrected; (the film does not really present any “minority report”— the “Ann Lively” one is actually the result of fabrication.) • Presents Anderton as old, bald and exhausted (no handsome Anderton as hero) • focuses on Anderton’s suspicion of his wife and Witwer’s conspiracy (no father-son plot—Hollywood formula?)

Reference • “Philip K. Dick” Contemporary Authors Online, Thomson Gale, 2005. • Sinister plots: for Philip K. Dick, author of "The Minority Report," the line between fact and fiction was nightmarishly narrow. (Other Worlds). Barsanti, Chris.

Human Boundaries & Multiple Time Paths