Forum - View topicTexhnolyze, H.G. Wells, Cyborg Evolution, and Anti-Utopia.
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Roziel
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WARNING - This dissertation contain spoilers to the series TEXHNOLYZE. Its viewing is recommended for those who have watched the entire series. For those who haven't watched the series, and choose to villify otherwise, I leave them be.
In the End There Was Mecha-Dys-Eden: Texhnolyze, H.G. Wells, Cyborg Evolution, and Anti-Utopia Science-fiction novelist H.G. Wells once believed that the best future society for mankind was a “modern utopia” that must be run by machinery. But sci-fi authors T.M Forster, Aldous Huxley, and George Orwell countered that his machine vision led to totalitarian governments and other inhumane futures. Recently there is Yasuyuki Ueda and Yoshitoshi ABe’s Texhnolyze (2003), an anime dealing with this controversy. It shows how the Wellsian’ machine-utopia - dependent on a technology of cyborging humans - can never realistically exist; it is only destroyed by that same technology used to construct its utopia. First it is significant to understand the definitions surrounding Wells’ utopia from Robert Hillegas’ The Future as Nightmare. Hillegas declares his utopia was “not static perfection but an ever evolving dynamism” (Hillegas, 69). His utopia also demanded for “the class of the samurai, an order of ‘voluntary nobility’ which represents a reappearance, though greatly modified, of Plato’s Guardians” (Hillegas, 67). Most importantly, Wells championed that “science and technology are inherently good for man and can help to build a mighty future” (Hillegas, 60). According to Wells, a new perfected society would arise from this. However, Wells seemed too optimistic on machines and technology to perform the work, and opposing views came about. Such views were from the dystopians, the “would-be reformers who are openly anxious, indeed pessimistic about the future” (Munkner, Utopia). Despite their pessimism, the “dystopian partially understands its predicted, inevitable catastrophic 'end' as a modest 'new'” (Munkner, Utopia). However, the dystopian belief was similar to Wells’ favorite prediction of the utopian birth: “established after the collapse of civilization brought on by the cataclysmic wars that are the consequence of the continuation of old national rivalries in a world of new science and technology” (Hillegas, 60). In this sense, Wells’ utopia was essentially a dystopia – seeking apocalyptic destruction that would bring renewal. Some argued, however, there was neither utopia nor dystopia in Wells’ vision but the anti-utopia. Anti-utopia was “a sad last farewell to man’s age-old dream of a planned, ideal, and perfected society” (Hillegas, 3-4). There was absolutely no renewal or progress for humankind, in the anti-utopia. George Orwell stressed that “‘the logical end of mechanical progress… is to reduce the human brain to something resembling a brain in a bottle’” (Hillegas, 127). The anti-utopians declared that the possibility of a Wellsian machine-produced utopia is not only egregious to human society, but also extinguishes it; and this was what Texhnolyze demonstrates. In the anime, Lux is a model of the Wellsian utopia - an underground city depending on machinery to generate sunlight, food, and survival. Lux has also developed texhnolyze, a technology that replaces human limbs with bio-mechanical ones. The technology was founded by Doc, a doctor who performs these cyborg operations. One day, she takes pity on a mutilated boxer named Ichise, and texhnolyzes him – later she realizes he is an important discovery to texhnolyze. Doc uses texhnolyze to help other mutilated victims like Ichise, caught in the violence of Lux’s gangster-society. There is Organ the gangster established government, a “flesh fanatic” faction called the Alliance, and a band of young punks called Lakan. Despite constant turf wars, Onishi (Organ’s leader) wants peace with each gang. There is also the Class, a group of people acting like Wells’ “samurai” order of elite guardians. Although they isolate themselves on a hill, it was the Class who created Lux and allowed people to manage it. But if the Class senses the city becoming anarchic, it can retake Lux. Doc, who once was part of the Class, reveals the Class has tremendous technological power even beyond texhnolyze. One more society is “Upper World,” the world above Lux. But because of the societal distance between these two worlds over past generations, the Luxians regard Upper World as a strange universe. Only until Yoshii - a visitor from the Upper World – arrives in Lux, everything changes. He starts a war between each gang, wanting to see Lux “speed up” towards anarchy that will provoke the Class to descend. Eventually, Yoshii’s nihilism awakens a texhnolyzed Class member named Kanno. Kanno invades Lux with texhnolyze cyborgs called Shapes. Shapes, though, are nothing like Doc’s texhnolyzed humans with prosthetic implants; they are machine bodies operated by a severed human head. Kanno plans for a worldwide “perfection,” preaching Shapes as the new body for humankind. But the remaining Luxians, Onishi, Doc, and Ichise, form the counter-resistance. What is present throughout the series is not solely a triumph of the anti-utopia over the Wellsian utopia, but how it descends into it. The anti-utopia begins with texhnolyze’s assimilation into Lux’s society. The texhnolyzed Onishi tells Ichise, “these aren’t replacements for my legs, these are my legs.” Another character, Toyama, who hated his father “was glad to be texhnolyzed. Just to show I was different from him.” These testimonies signify Amanda Fernbach’s technofetishism; a “technolust with his various fetishes or technoprosthetics, which are desirable because they help to reestablish his masculinity in a continually fragmenting, decentered, and chaotic world” (Fernbach, 1). As texhnolyze “reestablishes” itself into these other technofetishes (for youthful rebellion and individual identity), it creates an acceptance with the machine. This bond between human and machine praises the Wellsian machine-utopia, but that is just a mask for the twisted evolutions that would whisk man into the so-called utopia. Doc’s evolutionary vision of “perfect humans” is what would have created the Wellsian utopia. One day, she discovers Ichise has become “the most advanced person in the city.” He has total control over his texhnolyzed parts, performing any human action flawlessly; now “perfect humans can be created.” Nonetheless, Doc’s perfect vision is dictated by texhnolyzation, by sacrificing flesh for machine. Thus Ichise may be defined “perfect human,” but in the corporeal sense he is imperfect because he is not totally human. Oliver Dyens asserts a similar analogy when he watched James Cameron’s Terminator 2 (1991), which “showed us the whole ontology of the body had exploded and could not legitimately be reworked, renegotiated and rebuilt from the same foundations... The body was becoming a science fiction” (Dyens, 2). This would mean, then, even Doc’s vision of Ichise must be reformulated and evolved again, into something else. Doc returns to the Class hoping they would accept her discovery, but is rejected and narrowly killed. Evidently her “perfect human” was not evolutionary enough for them – but Kanno has another plan for human perfection. Like Doc, Kanno has an evolutionary vision except it follows the dystopian view, of destruction then renewal. His plan for human perfection is attaching a texhnolyzed body to a decapitated head, with the intent to kill. Kanno’s texhnolyzed Shapes differs from Ichise’s advanced texhnolyze, as “the cyborg of which we speak here is not a robot "built" of human flesh, it is the model of a being with a fundamentally different kind of life. The cyborg is the signifier of a definitive mutation”(Dyens, 8). Thus, Kanno’s Shapes are literally bringing Dyens’ model “cyborg” to life replacing flesh with metal, that “different kind of life.” But it is when the Luxians decry Shapes as “monsters,” that this utopia is also turning into a “monster.” The Shapes massacre the city, finding more bodies for Shapes. Yet behind his violent thinking, Kanno wanted to evolve human life - to push texhnolyzation beyond prosthetics - to see the extremes of his human perfection. And so, one efficient way to accomplish this was through violence. There is renewal through Kanno’s destruction, except it is a renewal into the “monstrous” cyborg. According to Barbara Creed, though, some humans might have a desire for transforming into that monstrous cyborg. Creed calls this desire ‘becoming woman,’ a concept which might be attributed to the dystopian destruction in Texhnolyze. She asserts “the possibility that man, at an unconscious level, may well desire to ‘become woman’” (Creed, 217). An example is analyzed from David Cronenberg’s film The Fly, about a man who mutates into a fly, where ‘becoming woman’ is represented as a true metamorphosis” (Creed, 217). In Texhnolyze, the ‘becoming woman’ metamorphosis begins with sudden disappearances from Organ, the Alliance, and Lakan. One clue is given by Haru, who leaves Lakan and brags about his promise of a “new body.” Following the Shapes invasion, one of Shapes approaches the Lakan gang removing the helmet – it is Haru. Other gangsters, who previously disappeared, also return as Shapes. The promise of “new bodies” is their metamorphosis, and each gangster chose freely to follow Kanno for it. Likewise, the numerous Shape invaders verify just how many Luxians desired this “new body.” Shapes were once humans, though, who consequently sacrificed their minds as killing machines. So long as the human subconscious desire to ‘become woman’ existed, a dystopian path in Texhnolyze was unavoidable – and it would only pave way for the anti-utopia. It is important to note, there are two visions of anti-utopia in Texhnolyze. The first is when Ichise and Doc visit the “Upper World” to warn about the invasion. At first, the Upper World seems like the perfect Wellsian utopia with country lands and pockets of technological power plants. Then there are people, the “Theonormals,” who are just digital images implanted with A.I. so “life” could continue. Aldous Huxley expressed similar fears of machines simplifying life so much, until “everybody in the future enjoys abundance and leisure, life won’t be worth living for anybody” (Hillegas, 117). A Theonormal tells Ichise, “the Theonormals way of life is in its dying days, so we got rid of rogue elements we thought threatened it, but our extinction is still inevitable. We now lack that spark we need to propel us into the next so-called stage of our evolution.” The Theonormals idealized that same Wellsian utopia, which depended on the machine, but it resulted in its death - the Upper World was too dependent on technology. Now, the only place left for Ichise is Lux. In the final sceneries of Lux, Ichise finds machines falling apart and hundreds of Shapes frozen still. It was like E.M. Forster’s The Machine Stops, “when the Machine has broken down and the people underground are dying, hopelessly unfit to save themselves, we are told that some men have survived outside and with them lies the future of humanity” (Hillegas, 86). Because of Kanno’s invasion, the machines are failing and the city is about to shut down completely. One of the Shapes talks to Ichise, explaining that they exist as “minds” now, accomplishing eternal life by being static forever. However, “static” contradicts the Wellsian belief of “evolving dynamism.” There is certainly no “renewal,” as the city’s daylight begins to die; only death is here, just as the anti-utopians preached. In the final moments, Lux is cast into darkness – Ichise lies in it all alone, dying as his own texhnolyze fails too. It is a most pessimistic ending, one that unusually lays no sign of hope or life. However, that brings our attention to one last scope - analyzing Texhnolyze’s anti-utopia under apocalyptic anime studies. In other nihilistic anime (Berserk, Bubblegum Crisis Tokyo 2040), the Japanese have expressed what Susan J. Napier terms an “apocalyptic identity,” where “the media in which images of apocalypse hold most sway are anime and manga… specifically science fiction” (Napier, 195). Hence, it would be appropriate to perceive Texhnolyze as an apocalyptic anime. The following, then, should be understood of apocalyptic anime, that it “is not… ‘waiting for the end of the world’ but… the revelation of how and why the world should end’” (Napier, 196). As an apocalyptic anime, Texhnolyze centralizes how and why there is this apocalyptic end. Evidently, the destruction in Texhnolyze is caused by technology, but it acts like a love/hate relationship. The anime suggests unity with technology (Doc and Kanno’s vision, Onishi), while dreading it (Shapes, the Upper World). This relationship resembles Freda Freiberg’s analysis on Akira, where “the national experience of nuclear disaster animates and propels the film in an exhilarating mixture of dread and desire” (Napier, 197). Both Akira and Texhnolyze address these dread/desires as real disasters caused by technology, or a techno-apocalypse. And it is a techno-apocalypse that destroys this Wellsian utopia in Texhnolyze. However, the techno-apocalypse is not about worldwide extinctions: “by confronting the apocalypse in science fiction, the Japanese symbolize both the end of the world and its transcendence—as they symbolize the edges of the world with their space stations and the edges of humanity with their robots and their alien ancestors” (La Bare, The Future). Ichise may be the last human in Lux, but do not forget the graveyard of Shapes around him who will exist as minds forever. In the end the Shapes do not die, but no one would call them “human” anymore. When people transfigure into non-human territories, identity is lost; suddenly this feeling is apocalyptic itself. With this knowledge, perhaps it would be more fitting that Texhnolyze fears a techno-transcendence – of passing into the afterlife whether it is the cyber, spiritual, or bio-mechanical world. Perhaps, this is how the series meant to illustrate the Wellsian utopia as it transformed into its anti-utopia; it was not being destroyed but transcending into an eerie societal state. And techno-transcendence raises another issue in Texhnolyze, whether mankind is honestly ready for future cyborgification. Transcendence into this future can be frightening, as no one understands what that world would be like. But our dependency on machines has already led to our damnation; for a total failure would destroy progress of daily life. It is not a question, there is no choice, and human fate has already been determined. Mankind will become cyborgs and other strange mutations, as they transcend into the MechaDysEden. The issue with Wells’ utopia was that its definition of “perfect” was twisted in too many ways, that it gave way to dystopias and anti-utopias. But the MechaDysEden holds all ideals of “perfection” together. It combines the Wellsian utopia, the dystopia, and the anti-utopia into one society, a fluxing mutation of birth, bodies, and destruction. In the MechaDysEden, evolution changes life so constantly it would be almost daily (being cyborg today, then a six legged alien tomorrow). Then again, perhaps Yasuyuki Ueda and Yoshitoshi ABe may not have been thinking about H.G. Wells, anti-utopias, technofetishes, the post-biological self, or concepts of ‘becoming woman,’ when they created this anime; but their visions have certainly made the future a funnier place to live – one that is dreaded with fear, even though we viciously speed towards it with ecstasy, like a sadomasochistic thrill for facing the nothingness. Then again, that is one anime sci-fi future “wrapped… in that mysterious Japanese way.” ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY Creed, Barbara. "Gynesis, Postmodernism and the Science Fiction Horror Film." Alien Zone. Annette Kuhn, ed. London, 1990. pp 217. -Used to explore the cultural link between of “becoming woman” and becoming cyborg, issues of metamorphosis. In regards to the anime, metamorphing into cyborgs is a cause for the anti-utopia that is later seen. Dyens, Olivier. "Cyberpunk, Technoculture, and the Post-Biological Self." CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture: A WWWeb Journal Mar, 2:1. 2000. pp2-8. -Used to expose the concept of constantly changing bodies in sci-fi narratives, the “mutating” cyborg. A section on Terminator 2, where Dyens uses it for an analogy for the constantly changing body, a “post-bio self.” These bodies could be seen as an evolutionary vision, for the Wellsian utopia, but also provokes the dystopia as well. Fernbach, Amanda. "The Fetishization of Masculinity in Science Fiction: The Cyborg and the Console Cowboy." Science Fiction Studies, July, 27:2. 2000. pp 1. -Talks about the technofetish, analyzing it as a technological object that serves multiple purposes. In her study, it was more of a male to female fetish, where in the anime the fetish is more cultural. The technofetish (through texhnolyze) signifies identity, rebellion, and later on is linked to cyborg monstrosity. Hillegas, Mark R. (Mark Robert). The future as nightmare: H. G. Wells and the anti-utopians. Carbondale, Southern Illinois University Press, 1967. pp3-127. -Talked about the controversy between Wellsian utopia and the anti-utopians points of view. Defined what each utopia was about, what the Wellsian utopia consisted of. Gave reasons why the anti-utopia was seen as a realistic threat, and the logical destructions that could result from Wellsian utopia. Besides Wells, it included other authors’ insights to how the anti-utopia would come about, from Orwell, to Forster, Huxley, and Bradburry. La Bare, Joshua. "The Future: 'Wrapped ... in that Mysterious Japanese Way'". Science Fiction Studies 27.1 2000. (no pagination). -Used to further explore the concepts of apocalypse in Japanese science-fiction narratives. The quote talks about how Japanese defined their apocalypses not as widespread scorched Earth events, but as destructions which left a few survivors left to describe the “transcendence” after apocalypse. Munkner, Jorn. “Utopia, Dystopia, and Myopia.” www.georgetown.edu/bassr/exhibition/utopia/utopia.html -Used to define Dystopia. This was useful for distinguishing dystopia from anti-utopia, because some scholars say a dystopia is an anti-utopia. There is an actual difference, where the dystopia sees a pessimistic future through destruction but at least there is hope of “renewal.” The anti-utopian, sees no such “renewal.” Napier, Susan J. Anime from Akira to Howl's moving castle: experiencing contemporary Japanese animation. New York, NY : Palgrave Macmillan, 2005. pp195-197. -Used as an analytical study on the genre of apocalyptic anime. It tells how apocalyptic anime usually tells “how” and the reasons “why” apocalyptic events happen, which helps understand the relation between Texhnolyze’s anti-utopian ending and apocalypse. Napier talks of a nuclear-dread, which bodes similarly of the Mecha-dread that is in Texhnolyze. [-Note: Yoshitoshi ABe is the actual name, as opposed to Abe. ] |
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HellKorn
Posts: 1669 Location: Columbus, OH |
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This is an unexpected and interesting read. Has this already been submitted?
There are a couple plot points that you address that I differ on in interpretation, or find a big ambiguous in your wording -- specifically pertaining to how the Class created Lux (the creation of the whole, or the management of the city? I would definitely agree with you on the latter) and just what the Theonormals are (as they are most certainly humans, but have images -- or, more appropriately, avatars -- to represent them in a variety of forms). Also not familiar with Barbara Creed, so the "becoming woman" phrase is personally jarring. Your analysis of how Texhnolyze takes on and even deconstructs the variants of utopias is very interesting. One aspect that I'm somewhat disappointed you did not examine is the contrast between the plans of Doc and Kano. The root of their dilemma is where I disagree with you. Technology dependency is a significant contributor to the issues brought up here, but technology itself is not the prevailing fault -- it is, instead, simple human nature. Part of this comes with the knowledge of another work of one of the key creative staff. Chiaki J. Konaka, who also assisted on Serial Experiments Lain with Yasuyuki Ueda and Yoshitoshi ABe, toyed with the idea of transcendence of the body in the aforementioned series. For Texhnolyze, he returns as the screenwriter and takes up the theme again, though reexamines it in a different manner than the Jungian lens adopted in lain. There are multiple schisms in Texhnolyze between the various groups that you define; likewise, each one has a unique shortcoming that causes their inevitable downfall. Kano, specifically, wishes to circumvent the nature of humanity by removing the body due to the experiences he has a child, as well as his own disposition (useless legs). He is also driven partially by a desire for artificial evolution, like Doc is, in order to become achieve a transcendent state of mind -- and only the mind itself. These ideals are touted as perfection by him, an attempt to put an end to the process (thus an end to the dynamics that you reference). Yet even this fails because it's driven by ideology -- this is posited by Texhnolyze as being self-defeating when one becomes too dependent -- which every single character has, except for Ichise (and perhaps Ran). It may also be of interest if you could briefly examine the ideas of class in different utopian ideals. Texhnolyzation and its maintenance is very much an problem of class in the story. What makes it even more interesting is that the work the lower class gives in order to appease the upper class (the Class and the Theonormals) is utterly futile. Both groups reject texhnolyzation (with the exception of Kano), and so those in Lux are suffering day after day after day for nothing but a mere formality. Finally, while this is no fault of your own, this is definitely a Western take on the story. The interpretation is quite fine, but there is an underlying current of Buddhism that sheds light on symbolism and allegory that may not otherwise be apparent, and creates an arguably uplifting contrast to the apocalyptic proceedings. I hope that you respond and continue to share your thoughts. |
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Roziel
Posts: 6 |
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Anyone else ready to respond? (I've been away on travel - per business - hence the lag / SORRY!)
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