Way back on November 4, Steen Christiansen posted this very interesting and compelling essay on American cinematic utopian /distopian narratives. The discussion focuses primarily on Hal Hartley’s The Girl from Monday but also touches upon other utopian/distopian films, notably Andrew Niccol’s Gattaca, concluding that Gattaca is far more in keeping with traditional Hollywood hegemonic discourses than I had previously assumed. However, his analysis of The Girl from Monday, supported with a reading of Jean Baudrillard’s America, is the most compelling:
When Baudrillard argues that ”the disenfranchised, who have no voice and are condemned to oblivion, thrown out to go off and die their second-class deaths” it is precisely the way The Girl From Monday depicts the American society – the alien/immigrants and the rebels have no hope and no place in this society. Consumerism has taken over society and there is no room for those who resist this commodification. USA is presented as not a utopia, but a consumerist utopia, where everything is handled on consumer terms: there is no alternate space, no way of being on the outside – to be outside is to be as the aliens from Monday; either you are swallowed by the sea or you are turned into a consumer.
As an aside, when looking for a post image I did a Google image search for “human barcodes.” The image to the right, by Francesco Sanfilippo, was found on a site with dedicated pages on barcode tattoos and graffiti.
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Awesome site, thanks for sharing it, Stuart (and the kind words).
I figured you especially would appreciate it, sort of a “body modification of transgression.” Or something.
I make Temporary Barcode Tattoos for fun.
FREE BARCODE TATTOO! offer on my website:
http://www.barcodeart.com/barcode_tattoos.html
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