I think the idea that Sara proposed, that of “dehumanization” is an apt observation throughout this week’s readings. In Link’s story, Soap is dehumanized, or dehumanizes himself, preferring to go by inanimate names (soap, art) or by false identities/characters (Will, Wolverine). Likewise, Carly pretends to not be the host of the party and tells Soap about her parents and their relationship through a depersonalized third person narrative.
The idea of zombies, as I am a huge Romero fan myself, stuck out particularly to me as “dehumanizing” – not simply for the obvious reason that they are no longer human beings as we know them, but also for the reasons that Soap is attracted to them, the things that make them un-human. The fact that they move in groups but have no social structure, that they literally consume or desire to consume the very organ associated with and responsible for our identity and personality (which then turns the victim into a consumer of brains/identity, some kind of dehumanizing machine), that a zombie in a gas station attendant’s uniform is no more a gas station attendant than he is the president of the United States, once that brain is gone. Ironically, I don’t think Soap is really afraid of Zombies, or at least not for the reasons we might think he should be. He’s not afraid of losing his identity – in fact it seems he’s afraid of keeping any identity for very long. It seems like Soap would be more afraid of being “locked into” Zombie, forever, and not having the chance to be Sweetheart, Wolverine, Soap, Art, or any other future selfdom.
De Lilo’s characters do similar things, focusing so much on the clothing and accessories worn during their “revolution”…also the seemingly arbitrary nicknames (identifying someone as something unrelated to their identity) and the desire for a [any] “black militant type” just to “round” things out.
Lethem’s story, Super Goat Man, does something interesting with the concept of dehumanization. He both dehumanizes, and ultra-humanizes the titular character. When it behooves Everett, he makes the “hero” less than human, making him super-banal, almost pathetic, yet the narrator is also pretty hard on SGM, as Everett holds him, at times, to higher standards than the non-hero men of the story. For example, there seems to be less disdain for the other men living in the commune.
And obviously the last line of the story shows how he holds the largely dehumanized hero to an unrealistic standard, an ultra- or super-human standard (what did the other men do to save the boy? How close did they come to saving the day?) despite the fact that he seems repulsed by the idea that a “sub-human” super-hero was with his wife.
Lastly, Super Goat Man is dehumanized, partly, in that he isn’t given the inalienable human right to mess up, by Everett at least. Sorry that was inarticulate to say the least.