I think the idea that Sara proposed, that of \u201cdehumanization\u201d is an apt observation throughout this week\u2019s readings. In Link\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
The idea of zombies, as I am a huge Romero fan myself, stuck out particularly to me as \u201cdehumanizing\u201d \u2013 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\u2019s 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\u2019t think Soap is really afraid of Zombies, or at least not for the reasons we might think he should be. He\u2019s not afraid of losing his identity \u2013 in fact it seems he\u2019s afraid of keeping any identity for very long. It seems like Soap would be more afraid of being \u201clocked into\u201d Zombie, forever, and not having the chance to be Sweetheart, Wolverine, Soap, Art, or any other future selfdom. <\/p>\n
De Lilo\u2019s characters do similar things, focusing so much on the clothing and accessories worn during their \u201crevolution\u201d\u2026also the seemingly arbitrary nicknames (identifying someone as something unrelated to their identity) and the desire for a [any] \u201cblack militant type\u201d just to \u201cround\u201d things out. <\/p>\n
Lethem\u2019s 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 \u201chero\u201d 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.
\nAnd 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 \u201csub-human\u201d super-hero was with his wife.
\nLastly, Super Goat Man is dehumanized, partly, in that he isn\u2019t given the inalienable human right to mess up, by Everett at least. Sorry that was inarticulate to say the least.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I think the idea that Sara proposed, that of \u201cdehumanization\u201d is an apt observation throughout this week\u2019s readings. In Link\u2019s 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 … Continue reading More dehumanization, or less humanization<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[19],"class_list":["post-48","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-week-2-short-stories","tag-lethem"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=48"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=48"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=48"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=48"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}