• “The Indigestibility of the World; or, Birthing the Posthuman in Spielberg’s A.I.”

    Author(s):
    Todd Comer (see profile)
    Date:
    2013
    Subject(s):
    Motion pictures--Social aspects, Horror films, Postmodernism
    Item Type:
    Book chapter
    Tag(s):
    20th century film, posthumanism, Spielberg, Film and society
    Permanent URL:
    http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/M6RH51
    Abstract:
    This essay uses Steven Spielberg’s Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) to argue that something has changed: “Posthumanity” has appeared because our rational assimilation of the world has paused. To be Human is to lack, to always drive forward while repressing the past, the artifice of our birth, as we mold the world in our image. However, in a strange way, with cloning and other technologies, this digestion is interrupted; “we” humans have succeeded too well in our masterful creation of an absolute representation of humanity, and have lost our impetus. This mastery, secondly, leads us to experience birth in a new way. No longer can we easily digest birth (and its others) and move on. No, birth now surrounds us like an immense, sublime ocean, undermining us as desiring subjects.
    Metadata:
    xml
    Published as:
    Book chapter     Show details
    Publisher:
    McFarland
    Pub. Date:
    2013
    Book Title:
    Terror and the Cinematic Sublime: Essays on Violence and the Unpresentable in Post–9/11 Films
    Author/Editor:
    Todd Comer, Isaac Vayo
    Chapter:
    “The Indigestibility of the World; or, Birthing the Posthuman in Spielberg’s A.I.”
    Page Range:
    165 - 180
    ISBN:
    9780786472079
    Status:
    Published
    Last Updated:
    6 years ago
    License:
    All Rights Reserved

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