Frankenstei*n

Bladerunner (Director's Cut)

MODULE A: Comparative Study of Texts and Context

This module requires students to compare texts in order to explore them in relation to their contexts. It develops students' understanding of the effects of context and questions of value. Each elective in this module requires the study of groups of texts which are to be selected from a prescribed text list. These texts may be in different forms or media. Students examine ways in which social, cultural and historical context influences aspects of texts, or the ways in which changes in context lead to changed values being reflected in texts. This includes study and use of the language of texts, consideration of purposes and audiences, and analysis of the content, values and attitudes conveyed through a range of readings. Students develop a range of imaginative, interpretive and analytical compositions that relate to the comparative study of texts and context. These compositions may be realised in a variety of forms and media.

Elective 2: Texts in Time In this elective students compare how the treatment of similar content in a pair of texts composed in different times and contexts may reflect changing values and perspectives. By considering the texts in their contexts and comparing values, ideas and language forms and features, students come to a heightened understanding of the meaning and significance of each text.

Parramatta Marist High School -Resources compiled by Mrs. S. D'Souza text is emphasised by the absence of any of Alice's responses. This one-sided Elective 2 - Texts in Time correspondence foregrounds Fay's outlook. Vanessa Manhire, a New Zealand Texts can mirror or challenge the prevailing values and perspectives of academic, supports this by saying that typically the, "epistolary form avoids their era of composition. This elective focus compares how texts composed the use of a single, explicitly didactic, authorial voice, but each letter can be in different times and context reflect changing values, ideas or styles. used to highlight a single opinion. In a letter, no opportunity is allowed for Examination of the paired texts includes a comparison of how similar simultaneous discussion." content is treated by the different composers in terms of how values, ideas The letters are pegged onto a family narrative hinting at estrangement and language forms and features are communicated. and false perceptions. The correspondence with Alice becomes a conduit for reconciliation as well as literary elucidation. This is seen in the last letter, "And I have been asked to tea at your house by your mother, and your father has consented to be there too, so long as I don't talk about novels, writing, Frankenstein - feminism, or allied subjects. I shall try to keep the conversation to pets and food, and be very happy." As Hilma Wolitzer commented, "The fictitious The Modern Prometheus Miss Weldon tries to lure Alice into this metropolis, "between the Road to Heaven and the Road to Hell," acknowledging the competition of the local McDonald's, of certain books with empty calories and even of Alice's own "nervous dread of literature." At times, Aunt Fay becomes colloquially blunt Mary Shelley (1797-1851) in the advice she gives, "Or, as your father would say, "for God's sake, Alice, stop mooning around And get on with your work." Alice's rebellious spirit Mary Shelley had to circumvent patriarchal prejudices against female writers is not stifled by what her aunt has to say about a range of subjects, including by having her book published anonymously through a firm specialising in feminist issues, "It has come to my notice, Alice, that in the real world the so-called "shilling shockers". Both her parents were radical intellectuals; her worse women behave, the better they get on." While we tacitly accept the mother, Mary Wollstonecraft a feminist scholar, her father, William Godwin aunt's observations, Alice still chooses not to read Jane Austen and defies a philosopher and political theoretician. Their relationship challenged expectations by writing a best-selling debut novel. the social expectations of the era and although her mother died as a result Wolitzer asserts that Weldon "approaches the city as both a builder and of childbirth complications, Mary grew up within a highly educated a visitor, with appropriate measures of awe and trepidation." The epistolary environment. Controversially, while still an adolescent, she herself formed 61 format she adopts here proves effective for the informality of the style helps a controversial and adulterous relationship with Percy Shelley. Regimented personalise the topics discussed, inviting the reader into a companionable social codes led to ostracism and financial hardship. relationship with the writer. We also learn that it was once a popular V literary style, "not so bad a way of telling a story... Jane Austen, even at the age of fourteen, could do these things wonderfully well. The pattern of her Historical and Literary Context storytelling is the same as TV dramatists use today; each letter a new scene, to 0 move the action on, each taking a different viewpoint." In this way, Weldon The early nineteenth century was a period of great technological and is able to highlight a literary device that Austen shows an amazing talent scientific change. Discoveries were being made in all fields of research in using, while using it herself to reach a modern audience. In a very real including the evolutionary theories of Erasmus Darwin and various branches sense, she is targeting the vernacular exposed contemporary reader, as if of medicine, including the potential for electricity or'galvanism' to restore a they were the green haired, rebellious Alice. We must be yoked in some way life to dead bodies. Many critics see Mary Shelley as being a visionary in the s to stop our meandering amongst the backstreets of the "City of Invention" way she uses scientific endeavour to drive her narrative, her own scientist, a a and begin seeking out the better edifices of Literature. The result is newfound Victor Frankenstein learning about such controversial scientific theories -o appreciation for Jane Austen on both a contextual and literary level. in his university studies. She mirrored the scientific advances of her day by replacing the "heavenly fire" of the Promethean myth to electrically spark the i animation of Frankenstein's monster. u Frankenstein exhibited popular, Romanticist and Gothic elements. It ' a W met with mixed reviews, some condemning it as, "a tissue of horrible and disgusting absurdity" while others described it as being, "very bold fiction" with the author demonstrating, "the power of both conception and language". d Described by Walton as "the strangest tale that ever imagination formed", the novel has become an iconic horror text, considered by many critics as the a precursor to the genre of Science Fiction. Her novel presents science as a powerful force that can be used for good v and evil. This shows her recognition of its potential to fundamentally a challenge mankind's attitudes to God and to existence itself. The dictionary Shelley's preface states that one of her purposes was to, "exercise untried aptly defines Frankenstein as, "One who creates a monster or destructive resources of mind". Frankenstein clearly fits the definition of the Gothic novel agency that he cannot control or that brings about his own ruin." This that is given in Webster's Dictionary, as being a type of fiction, "characterized reflects the way in which the name of the scientist has been transferred to by picturesque settings; an atmosphere of mystery, gloom, and terror; that of his nameless creation. The novel's didactic strength lays with the sub- supernatural or fantastic occurrences; and violent and macabre events." Her title's inherent warning about the evils that can be set loose if man plays God novel's "wild and mysterious regions" are the icy wastes of the North; a bleak shown in Victor's obsessive quest to bestow life. In one sense, he becomes and forbidding Artic landscape that reinforces the emotional and intellectual representative of the archetypal `mad scientist'. isolation of the two protagonists. Bitter enmity casts these gothic outsiders The Romantic period ended with the coronation of Queen Victoria in from the, "communal warmth of the hearth of society". Windswept glacial 3.837, and the beginning of the Victorian Period. It challenged the ideas of fields as well as mountainous peaks provide a suitably desolate backdrop that logic and fact espoused by the previous 'Age of Reason' by promoting the is beyond the bounds of normal existence. Both are alienated, representative virtues of emotion, free thought, nature, the mind and the imagination. Its of the warring sides of human nature, love/hate, justice/injustice, good/evil literary themes also explored ideas of isolation, social disillusionment and and man/monster. Walton's ice-locked ship provides a claustrophobic setting the tragedy of loss as well as the otherworldly, imperfect and inexplicable. for the grippingly interwoven narratives. As the Webster's Encyclopedic Dictionary of the English Language, states, Romanticist reactions to science and rationality are evident in Shelley's Romanticism focused more on the subject matter rather than conventional depiction of Frankenstein's hideous nightmares and the inference of forms and as a result encouraged, "freedom of treatment," "introspection," his almost magical powers in harnessing life and death, the normal and and celebrated "nature, the common man, and freedom of the spirit." the abnormal. This couched in a tempestuous atmosphere of heightened A second wave of Romanticists saw the negative connotations surrounding emotions. Another genre trope is the novel's focus on decomposition and the sweeping social and economic changes being brought about by Industrial degradation and death. Frankenstein's sees death as, "that most irreparable Revolution. They, Mary Shelley amongst them, believed that mass production evil; the void that presents itself to the soul ... the spoiler." His act of animation was a primary cause of mounting social ills such as poverty, urban over demands his relationship with graveyards and charnel houses to procure the crowding and unhealthy and dangerous working conditions. Many writers of necessary raw materials needed in his "workshop of filthy creation." Death the age were appalled by the dehumanising consequences of such economic is his only constant companion, "Often ... my human nature turned with progress. They saw industrialisation as a serious threat to individualist loathing from my occupation." His vile and abhorrent self-made world, alone ideals, their condemnation at odds with prevailing attitudes and values in his "cell" is typically Gothic as is the creation of his "profane fingers". which saw the profits of England's industrial transformation. The influence The Creature is a ghastly amalgam of life and death, a repulsive composite of such ideas is evident in Shelley's imaginative emphasis on the forces of of dead body parts, so that Victor flees in terror from; "the horror of that unchecked progress, hoping her book, "would speak to the mysterious fears of countenance... a thing". our nature, and awaken thrilling horror". Her novel therefore can be seen as a Duality of self with characters as mirror images, shadow-side or as termed rejection of the excesses of the Industrial Revolution. in German folktales, doppelganger, is another Gothic trope that is found in Frankenstein. Both Creator and Creature represent two sides of the same person, reflections of each other. As Victor says, "I consider the being I cast Gothicism among mankind ... nearly in the light of my own vampire, my own spirit let loose from the grave, and forced to destroy all that was dear to me." From the Chronologically and thematically, Gothicism was closely related to creature's birth, their fates are physically, spiritually and morally entwined; Romanticism. Gothic and Romantic elements found in Shelley's novel the scientist driven to expiate the guilt and irresponsibility of his "act of include her use of heightened emotions, sinister characters and macabre creation". The Creature is likewise driven, but by fury rather than guilt for he settings such as graveyards and charnel houses. Thematically, elemental straddles the world of human and non-human, his enforced despair making forces of good and evil wage a battle for souls as vengeance leads to murder him monstrous. The monster's pain is clear, "I am malicious, because I am and suffering. Both styles were popular with readers because they appealed to miserable." They become speculums of each other; externally differentiated, the imagination and explored the darker, secretive side of human psychology, but inwardly fused as morally flawed reflections of the other. Mary Shelley passion and sensibility. The supernatural is also often involved with a aptly described Frankenstein as "my hideous progeny", understanding its resurgence o£ interest in ghosts and vampires, terror became something to potential to terrify. be probed. English Gothic novels gained popularity in the mid 18th century, their mysterious, introverted and haunted aspects of existence proving popular topics as were the feelings they evoked of alienation and despair. Gothic protagonists are often villainous, larger than life figures, passionately struggling with mania, obsession or melancholy of some kind or another. They also tend to exist in social isolation in remote and gloomy setting. memorable" and "deep, dark, deathlike solitude" for symbolic resonance and Narrative Structure a enhanced Gothic atmosphere in line with the horror elements that are used to propel the narrative. The epistolatory narrative framework of the book has three levels, Unbridled ambition becomes the metaphorical bond linking the three encapsulating the recounts of Victor, the Creature and Walton. This Chinese narrators. Victor's slavish obsession with science, "I seemed to have lost all box narrative structure generates reader sympathy and empathy which alters soul or sensation but for this one pursuit" is noted by Walton, "he appeared with each version and the discrepancies revealed within them. Each speaker's to despise himself for being the slave of passion". He becomes fixated on distinctive personality is clearly delineated, beginning with the opening eliminating the very creature that his scientific expertise and labours had series of letters written by Robert Walton, a young, idealistic Arctic explorer. created. The creator is likewise driven by the thought that only the death of His letters to his sister establish the mood of "evil forebodings" that predicate his enemy could end his, "miserable slavery." Abstract ideas are personified the narrative journey that subsequently unfolds. As an outsider, Walton and given a tangible presence in the novel, "I pursued nature to her hiding functions as a moral intermediary communicating his own experiences as places" or "Despair had indeed almost secured her prey." well as that of scientist and creature. A narrative interdependency develops Irony as well as the use of contrast, repetition, inversion and oxymoron between the three narrators and we share his fascination for what is revealed. add intensity to the language; "cruel kindness", "sorrowful delight", The epistolary narrative form adds drama and intrigue, for as critic Peter "mournful greeting", "sorrowful affection" and "miserable marriage". Brooks has observed, this "nested structure calls attention to the presence Shelley's use of declaratory language and ironic reversal helps develop of a listener for each speaker-of a narratee for each narrator-and to the themes and character, the Creature vitriolic in his condemnation of his interlocutionary relations thus established ... The structure calls attention to maker, "Slave, I before reasoned with you, but you have proved yourself the motives of telling." While Shelley provides the reader with no omniscient, unworthy of my condescension. Remember that I have power; you believe all-knowing narrator, Walton's thoughtful comments and observations lend yourself miserable, but I can make you so wretched that the light of day credibility to what is recounted. will be hateful to you. You are my creator, but I am your master; - obey!" Victor tells Walton, "Mine has been a tale of horrors; I have reached their Symbolism builds layers of bondage between master and servant, oppressor acme ...I was left desolate ... My strength is exhausted; and I must tell ... what and oppressed, victim and victimiser. Victor is forced into submission, "I was remains of my hideous narration." His physical state is weak but his tone the slave of my creature" but so too is the Creature, "I was the slave, not the remains assertive, authoritative and dominating, even as his life threatens master, of an impulse which I detested yet could not disobey." to slip away. He has a need for his experience to be recorded, "Since you have preserved my narration ...I would not that a mutilated one should go down to posterity." Ironically however, his version is countered by that given by the monster, Shelley allowing us to judge for ourselves. Characterisation

Victor Narrative Style Victor is a complex, ambivalent and deeply flawed character, his name belying the presence of any admirable, heroic qualities in his nature. He first The stylistic qualities of this, "strange and terrible story" bring to life the appears in an emaciated state, described by Walton as a man on the "brink of horror of Shelley's, "waking dream". The disjointed structure results in destruction", his eyes full of, "an expression of wildness, and even madness." there being no single authoritative voice. There are both similarities and Exhausted from seeking "the demon" he fervently tells his story about being differences that connect the storytellers, maintaining reader interest. The driven by, "one thought, one conception, one purpose". We learn about his three narrators are differentiated by attitudes, values and voice are revealed early life, then his studies and then his act of creation and the horrors that via dialogue which tends to be emotionally heightened and rhetorically followed his obsessive, "thirst for knowledge" and his unmitigated desire, dense with rare use of what could be described as colloquial conversation. "to penetrate the secrets of nature". We are given subjective glimpses of a The multi-narrative style also enables Shelley to use a range of Gothic and younger, imaginative and ambitious Victor, intoxicated with his experiments Romanticist motifs and themes along with evocative language, imagery, but blind to their ethical ramifications. He tells how he became totally self- symbolism and irony to create a cautionary tale of scientific excess. Horror absorbed, "Company was irksome to me ...I abhorred society." elements are given authenticity because they are embedded within real His isolation triggers moral disaffection and moral and psychological science, reflective of the discoveries being made at the time. degradation. The actual moment when life is bestowed is communicated with Shelley's language is elaborate and at times highly descriptive, especially graphic, emotional detail, "It was on a dreary night of November ... spark of in relation to depictions of nature which is sublime and awe inspiring. Varied being to the lifeless thing that lay at my feet." Critic, Theodore Ziolkowski, figurative techniques are used which enable readers to visualise and identify argues that "Victor's personality degenerates during the ardours of the with the emotional intensity and contextual details of the scenes being experimental process and breaks irreparably at the moment of technological described. At times, simple similes such as, "like a hurricane" add sensory success." As he recounts his experiences to Walton, there is some detail, while at other times in the text, our impressions are assisted by acknowledgement of personal failings but they are limited, "my temper was means of rhetorical devices such as alliteration, "saintly sufferer", "murder sometimes violent and passions vehement". It becomes clear that the physical, The Creature or Daemon emotional and intellectual strain of his quest to create life was enormous, "I Frankenstein's nameless monster is a product of societal rejection, depicted had worked hard for nearly two years, for the sole purpose of infusing life into as a lonely but articulate outcast whose identity exists as a grotesque an inanimate body. For this I had deprived myself of rest and health. I had reflection of his maker. Rejected by society, "they spurn and hate me", his desired it with an ardour that far exceeded moderation; but now that I had agony arouses our sympathy. He shares the same determination of his finished, the beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust creator, seeing literacy as, "a godlike science" to which he applied his, "whole filled my heart." He flees, leaving his 'off spring' abandoned and helpless. mind to the endeavour." His first person narrative is recounted over seven He admits complicity, "I had been the author of unalterable evils", telling chapters, detailing his plight from abandonment to the final encounter with Walton, "I had committed deeds of mischief beyond description horrible". Victor on the glacier. We recognise that he is not innately evil but that his There seems however to be fixation on his own suffering which limits monstrosity has been caused; his goodness eroded through mistreatment. audience empathy. His obsession to create life ostracised him from human He questions fundamental issues of life, identity and humanity itself. society, "Solitude was my only consolation, deep, dark, deathlike solitude." Loneliness causes him to seek a mate as ugly as himself, so that he can Pride, irresponsibility and "rash ignorance", led to the rejected daemon replace the hatred he feels with love and companionship. Though horrified being set, 'loose upon the world." He touts responsibility for the "innocent by the, "filthy mass that moved and talked" even Victor's pity is aroused, victims" who die at the Creature's hands, seeing it as a "great crime ... which "His words had a strange effect upon me. I compassionated him." Apart from haunted me" but little genuine compassion is shown for the suffering of his his horrific appearance, the Creature is clearly superior to man; physically, own offspring. Only derogatory terms such as, "demon", "scoffing devil", intellectually and morally. The artificiality of Victor's act of self-deification, "my enemy", "my fiendish adversary", "hideous monster", "my destroyer", enhances the horror with which the monster is perceived; a warning against "my torturer", "miserable fiend" and "persecutor" are used. The guilt he mankind's tampering with the act of creation. Learning is a mixed blessing feels is egocentric, "I ...had created a fiend whose unparalleled barbarity had for, "I sickened as I read." He agonises over his fate; "I was alone ... He had desolated my heart, and filled it for ever with the bitterest remorse." abandoned me; and, in the bitterness of my heart, I cursed him." He realises The creature's ability to articulate his suffering is powerful enough to even that his, "ghastly and distorted shape" makes him outwardly monstrous, and coerce his callous maker into promising to create a female companion. He that he is therefore doomed to being a perpetual outcast, "Accursed creator... had pleaded for understanding and empathy and for a time, it seemed as if Why did you form a monster so hideous that even you turned from me in Victor had responded, "Believe me, Frankenstein: I was benevolent; my soul disgust?" glowed with love and humanity; but am I not alone, miserably alone? You, my Brutalised by his experiences, he begins to see himself through human creator, abhor me; what hope can I gather from your fellow-creatures, who owe eyes as, "a malignant devil". He curses his, "Unfeeling, heartless creator" for me nothing?" Another mark of the scientist's moral bankruptcy however, is giving him life; "I was alone ... He had abandoned me; and, in the bitterness shown in the very midst of creation, Victor frenziedly dismembers her body of my heart, I cursed him." Repelled in turn by his adopted "family", he is in what some critics have described as an act of metaphorical rape. Enraged, driven to swear, "I will revenge my injuries" His target is his maker, "against the on-looking Creature curses, "I shall be with you on your wedding-night", him who had formed me, and sent me forth to this insupportable misery." the haunting, "words of the fiend rang in my ears like a death-knell." He evolves from a condition of instinctive goodness to learned evil and After Elizabeth's murder, he calls on the, "ministers of vengeance" and "allowing myself to be borne away by the stream, I bent my mind towards "guiding spirits" to support his quest to destroy the monster. It becomes a injury and death." His targets are only those related in some way to Victor, sort of holy crusade, "assigned to me by Heaven." Like typical avengers, he "I will work at your destruction." Becoming as heartless as man, the victim feels fully, "justified in desiring the death of my adversary" and so his "hatred becomes the victimiser, "I was benevolent once ... why should I pity man more and revenge burst all bounds of moderation." The scientist is now driven by a than man pities me." new passion, "Revenge kept me alive" driven to pursue his quarry all the way He later confesses that his killings gave no satisfaction, admitting he to the land of "ice and snow" even though it leaves him a "shattered wreck... was "the slave, not the master, of an impulse which I detested, yet could not the shadow of a human being". His experiences have taught him little, for his disobey." When he sees that Victor Frankenstein is already dead, he shows arrogance and conceit still prevents any real acceptance of himself as being, remorse which sparks Walton's sympathy. The monster's final soliloquy is "blamable". moving voicing his intention to, "consume to ashes this miserable frame" is He first advises Walton to "avoid ambition" but quickly counters this, indicative of how utterly lonely and without purpose he has become. His only telling the captain to avoid the "stigma of disgrace" by not abandoning desire now is that future generations would not create, such another as I the expedition, despite the dangers to the ship and crew. He is obsessive have been". He farewells his Creator, Farewell Frankenstein...living miseries and irresponsible in his final warning, "Trust not the creature ... He is will be extinguished ... agony of the torturing flames" leaves the ship and eloquent and persuasive, and once his words had even power over my heart; disappears into the darkness. but trust him not ... Hear him not". He is the perpetrator of evil, his moral responsibility linked to the social abandonment of a creature who is so alienated that he has no recourse but to strike out at the forces that have rejected him so savagely. Walton Themes Walton is an avid listener and while he is ambitious, his eagerness to discover a new polar route is tempered by sensitivity and awareness of his responsibilities to his crew. His rationality and common sense, his The Modern Prometheus "steady purpose" makes him an important link between the reader and the The reference to Prometheus in the sub-title refers to the classical Titan narrators. His impressions and attitudes and beliefs become a benchmark 'over-reacher' of Greek mythology, severely punished for pushing beyond for comparison. Resolute and determined, he becomes a character foil for the permitted limits or boundaries. Fire was stolen from Mount Olympus, the obsessive scientist but he is represented in more compassionate terms. He is place of the Gods in order to give it to man. Shelley's Promethian scientist also humanised by being shown as emotionally fragile and prey to fears and has idealistic motives, "I ardently desired the acquisition of knowledge" but moments of despondency, "My courage and my resolution is firm; but my his God-like transgression against nature unleashes a cycle of tragedy and hopes fluctuate, and my spirits are often depressed." Heavenly retribution. Many critics see the novel as a morality tale about His expedition is physically arduous but it is more acutely difficult science, a warning against the dangers associated with man assuming because he feels so terribly isolated and cut off from human company. He Godlike power and toying with nature. Shelley's novel emphasises the risks describes his separation from someone he can deem a friend and companion, involved in unchecked technology and scientific endeavour being able to "a most severe evil ...I have no friend ... no one near me." His suffering manipulate natural laws without assuming responsibility for what follows. allows the reader to better comprehend the deep despair that is voiced The subtitle can also be read as an oxymoron, with the emphasis placed on by the monster. By contrast, Victor seeks to deliberately shut himself off the word 'modern giving added dystopic menace especially when it is seen from human contact. His humanity offers the choice of inclusivity but the comparatively with contemporary texts such as Bladerunner. Creature's ugliness casts him socially adrift. The captain shares Victor's Mary Shelley's story shows how cruel mankind can be when conscience "ardent curiosity" but it never becomes as blindly obsessive as the quest that is abandoned. She uses allegories of creation to raise reader awareness of drives the man he comes to mistakenly admire. Walton remains a social our moral accountability when we tamper with nature. On several levels, being, evident in his ability to praise the virtues of others and suppress his the monsters very existence is a condemnation of science. The classical own ambitions and turn south. His selflessness means that he can survive his Prometheus served humankind but Victor detaches himself from any time of exile in the frozen wasteland and return home, enlightened and more moral obligation or responsibility for his experiments. His usurpation self-aware. demonstrates lack of judgement, forethought and moral irresponsibility, "I had worked hard for nearly two years ... but now that I had finished, the beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart." His rejection of his Creature becomes representative of man's rejection of anything that is 'other', foreign or ugly. Victor's scientific skill and dogged determination enable him to become the creator of life but weakness of character and lack of forethought result in his being unable to deal with or control it. The scientist's actions beget monstrosity, ironically triggering personal punishment and reader condemnation. Misery becomes the normal state of this man who had once shown such promise. He becomes "desolate", all hopes dashed by the evil brought upon himself by his own irresponsible actions. He is left, "torn by remorse, horror, and despair." Mocking the bond between father and son, God and man, Victor the creator and his creation become deadly enemies. The scientist's immediate response is destructive, "When I thought of him, I gnashed my teeth, my eyes became inflamed, and I ardently wished to extinguish that life which I had so thoughtlessly made." A paradoxical bond develops between them, shown in the glacial meeting scene. Even Victor is moved by the monster's sorrowful tale, "for the first time ...I felt what the duties of a creator towards his creature were." Monstrosity Revenge and Retribution The three narrators to different degrees are both victims and perpetrators The common Gothic literary theme of vengeance is found in Frankenstein. of monstrosity offering different perspectives of the nature of humanity Both are brutalised by their mutual desire for retribution, spurred by and monstrosity explored throughout the novel. Ironically, the creature different reasons but equally savage and determined. The Creature condemns is seen as being morally superior to his creator but pathos results from his Victor's irresponsibility, "You were my father ... to whom could I apply with undeniable alienation. From the very moment when its "dull yellow eye" more fitness than to him who had given me life? ...Unfeeling, heartless opens, this physical monstrosity becomes a resonant motif in the novel. The creator!" Frankenstein wants revenge to expiate his culpability for the loss of Creature becomes the object of "disgust" and "abhorrence" to all who perceive his loved ones. The Creature's rage and sense of exclusion, "I am solitary and it. The monster feels a similar disgust for himself. "I, the miserable and the abhorred" makes him a fearful enemy; "the feelings of revenge and hatred abandoned, am an abortion, to be spurned at, and kicked, and trampled on." filled my bosom...I bent my mind towards injury and death." We cannot help but sympathise with suffering felt by this heterogeneous Reconciliation between them is impossible and so death becomes the mass of living dead flesh whose identity and humanity is uncertain, "Was I only option left, "you, my creator, detest and spurn me, thy creature, to then a monster, a blot upon the earth, from which all men fled, and whom all whom thou art bound by ties only dissoluble by the annihilation of one of men disowned?" us." They begin a retributive quest to destroy the other. "Revenge kept me Victor's initial, callous act of rejection begins a cycle of revenge that like alive" but this desire for retribution ushers in destructive forces that destroy a "fierce wind" destroys everything in its path. The Creature's appearance them both, emotionally, spiritually and physically. Frankenstein pursues marks him as an outsider, "When I viewed myself in a transparent pool ...I the creature to the land of "ice and snow" because when, "I reflected on his became fully convinced that I was in reality the monster that I am." We can crimes and malice, my hatred and revenge burst all bounds of moderation." identify with his confusion, misery and social isolation, "What was I?...I Vendetta now becomes the only thing that gives their lives meaning. possessed no money, no friends, no kind of property." As Peter Brook stresses, "CURSED,CURSED CREATOR! ... Why did I live? Why in that instant, did I not the "Monster is a product of nature-his ingredients are one hundred per cent extinguish the spark of existence which you so wantonly bestowed?" natural, yet by the process and the very fact of his creation, he is unnatural, Hate is the only thing that unites them and notions of life and death the product of philosophical overreaching." Hate comes to fuel his existence, become merged from the time when Victor abandons his 'child', wishing blotting out hopes and desires, "All men hate the wretched; how then must I it dead even at the moment he gives it life, "I gnashed my teeth, my eyes be hated, who am miserable beyond all living things!" His agony highlights became inflamed, and I ardently wished to extinguish that life which I had the larger thematic concerns of obsession and societal monstrosity, "How so thoughtlessly bestowed." In return, reading the journal of his creator, the dare you sport thus with life? Remember, that I am thy creature ... Every where Monster recounts how he blamed Victor: "I sickened as I read. "Hateful day I see bliss from which I alone am irrevocably excluded. I was benevolent and when I received life!" Retributive justice becomes their shared obsession good; misery made me a fiend." for the world of normal law and order cannot apply to the horrors they have Victor's alienation is self-imposed, "I seemed to have lost all soul or experienced. They become subsumed by their roles as avengers, but it triggers sensation but for this one pursuit". The monster's appearance forces moral degradation, stripping away any shred of compassion until they each social ostracism upon him through no fault of his own. Victor outwardly feel justified in, "desiring the death of my adversary." Differences between appears decent and honourable but Shelley represents him as someone them become blurred by the vengeance they share and in the process, both whose ill-considered, "murderous machinations" have led to the deaths are condemned to being social outcasts, kept alive only by their propensity to of innocent friends and family. The Creature becomes the scapegoat for hate. societal monstrosity, "for no misdeed" of his own. He can never be deemed Religious symbolism is used to show in both characters, the extent of human because his ugliness denies assimilation. He will forever remain a, their animosity. Sworn enemies, the Creature declares, "I, like the arch- "demonical corpse ... too horrible for human eyes to behold", a monstrosity fiend, bore a hell within me ... from that moment I declared everlasting war whose "fiendish" appearance even makes his creator's feelings turn, "to those against the species... against him who had formed me, and sent me forth to of horror and hatred". As Elizabeth observes, "men appear to me as monsters this insupportable misery." Legitimate justice is non-existent and so both thirsting for each others blood.' The causes and consequences of Monstrosity, pledge themselves as executioners. The monster swears; "I will revenge superficial and entrenched or human and societal, are developed as core my injuries" bending his, "mind towards injury and death" while Victor concerns in the novel. The monster's remorse is clear in his comments to screams, "Cursed, cursed be the fiend" referring to his being haunted by Walton, "Once I falsely hoped to meet with beings, who, pardoning my guilt. While he speaks of the "unalterable evils" he had unleased and evokes outward form, would love me for the excellent qualities which I was capable Walton's pity by asserting, "for the guilty there is no peace", the authenticity of bringing forth. I was nourished with high thoughts of honour and of his penitence is questioned by other statements, "I have been occupied in devotion. But now vice has degraded me beneath the meanest animal ... the examining my past conduct; nor do I find it blameable." Their compulsive fallen angel becomes a malignant devil ...I am quite alone." desire to cause suffering in their enemy is self-destructive, "the cup of life was poisoned for ever." Bladerunner (1982) Genre Context

Science Fiction Hybridised genre elements are found in Blade Runner, mixing Science Fiction Ridley Scott and Film Noir in a Postmodernist landscape. The director's innovative melding of varied film styles is hailed by Phillip K. Dick, who wrote the short story the film was based on. When he was shown preliminary footage of the film, he exclaimed, "This is not like anything we have ever seen.... Historical Context It isn't like anything that has ever been done." His assessment remains valid for the Director's Cut version has developed a cult following, received Social disillusionment characterised the 198os era. The combined forces more favourably now than when originally released. Its fragmentation of globalisation, advertising and materialism seriously impacted on and representational uncertainty and postmodernist methods such as long-established, social and economic values and practices. Aggressive appropriation, pastiche and simulation, proved too alienating for audiences advertising, encouraged by the drive for profits by the rising corporate in 1982. As one reviewer of the time complained, "Scott both overdoses on power of multi-nationals generated a new consumerism and so-called atmosphere and deliberately underdevelops the emotional tension. His 'Asianisation' of Western markets. Economic change was accompanied method alienates rather than_ entrances, completely undercutting by political pressures as 'Cold War' fears and collective paranoia about his drama. The audience has no stake in their life or death." By contrast, perceived military threats from Russia. In America, President Reagan current audiences relish its dark vision of monolithic urban decay and ushered in a raft of tough economic policies that cut areas of education, appreciate Ridley Scott's characteristic method of layering, described as, welfare and housing to cover the burgeoning costs of increased defence "a kaleidoscopic accumulation of detail ... in every corner of the frame." spending. Science Fiction queries what it is to be human, exploring what Issac Awareness of a number of social concerns was mounting, including Asimov has described as, "the possible consequences, the solutions and the ethical issues relating to scientific and technological progress. Pollution impact of scientific advance upon human beings." Blade Runner examines resulting from commercial exploitation, industrialisation, urbanisation such themes and given the often didactic nature of the genre, it seeks to and the excessive use of fossil fuels was linked to threats of irreversible raise social awareness by reflecting many of the ecological and ethical ecological degradation and contamination. It was a time of flux, economic concerns of its era. As film critic, Annete Kuhn, comments, "the dystopias destabilisation and social disaffection. Some social groups condemned of contemporary science fiction, mirror the profound social decay we are the escalation of political legislation and regulation as invasive and as experiencing." Advertising and mass-media dominate the landscape as do an erosion of individual rights, privacy and social autonomy. The Reagan well-known brand-names including Atari, Budweiser, Coca-Cola or TDK. period was a time of increasing social alienation; a by-product of the These provide points of familiarity that are characterized by what Sf critic, validation of commercialism and militarism over traditional values of Darko Suvin, describes as "novum" or "new" elements that exist beyond family and community. the real everyday world but which still clearly connect the two. Scott's film incorporates many futuristic gadgets such as flying vehicles, artificial animals, video-phones and image enhancement machines that in 1992, foresaw many technological innovations still to come. Viewers however remain grounded in a real place what is disturbingly similar to our own. Huge blimps cruise overhead and television screens are everywhere, guiding futuristic 'spinners' and helping to control the populace. A birds-eye view shows giant television screens, underscoring that we are watching a world that is watching everyone in it. The genre's ability to predict the future can be disturbing, especially if popular science fiction writer Vernor Vinge's 1993 predicition proves correct, "Within thirty years, we will have the technological means to create superhuman intelligence. Shortly after, the human era will be ended." Film noir/Tech noir Los Angeles in 2019 Classic post-war Film noir elements pervade the film, anchoring it in a sodden, decaying world with an enveloping atmosphere of menace, Ridley Scott once described Blade Runner as a "philosophical film" and moral pessimism and anxiety. Film noir is both a screen style, and a perspective on issues certainly predominate in his confronting futuristic representation human existence-and society. It depicts a nihilistic world view, depicting of social ills. As Harrison Ford has stated in interview, "The film shows a its protagonists as powerless hostages of fate in the face of social corruption very overcrowded future. Three quarters of the extras on the streets are and decadence. The complex narrative structure is inferential rather than Chinese. The audience may simply think a certain part of this film takes expositional, plot and characterisation, driven through visual imagery place in the Chinatown district and never question it. In fact, Ridley's rather than dialogue. Narrative gaps reinforce the sense of lost time and argument at the time was that the Oriental population, with as much of a ambiguity; the ever present hint of danger triggered by the iconography numerical advantage as they already have, would have even more weight of of poorly lit streets, expressionistic lighting and a disorienting cinematic numbers forty years in the future." Tyrell's city is represented as a dark, post- style. Ridley Scott takes the cinematic style further, neon displays pierce apocalyptic hell where corporate presence predominates in a technological the saturated darkness, bathing spaces with a technological glow that world of artifice and overt materialism. never ceases but which never fully discloses what lurks in the shadows. Unchecked industrialisation has exploited and debased the world's natural Chiaroscuro lighting techniques and the unbalanced mis en scene resources, resulting in an urban wasteland. The landscape is devoid of any compositions depict a dehumanising environment marked by human signs of children or natural beauty which has been replaced by decaying anonymity and vulnerability. man-made structures. A claustrophobic, menacing atmosphere results As film critics, Susan Doll and Greg Faller have observed, "in film noir, the from the visual predominance of human congestion set against a backdrop site of morality is the protagonist, the lone detective' but in "science fiction, of abandoned tenement houses, squalid streets and alleyways. These are society as a whole questions its assumptions of morality' which come to be, overlooked by Tyrell's huge, monolithic structure that dwarfs the regions "centred on the consequences of using advanced technology". Some critics below, ruled by the Tyrell Corp slogan, "Commerce is our goal". Size bestows have described Blade Runner's style as Tech Noir described by McKenzie Wark status and we cannot fail but see that this ziggurat structure is representative in the early 199os as "black technology" relating to societal technophobia. Kat of power, influence and domination in this futuristic landscape. Richardson describes it better as a presentation, "of moral ambiguity and a Resources have been exploited by commercial greed so that everything, world-view which cannot reconcile absolutes of "good" and "evil", wherein the including humanity itself, has been commodified. Animals have become "good guys" are simply the ones who survive the pressures and temptations extinct and have been artificially cloned or mechanised such as Tyrell's owl of the morally gray world in which they operate." She feels it as a subgenre and Zhora's snake. Verisimilitude has replaced nature, and the wonders of where it, "is not the technology which is "black" but our own uncertainty of a genetic engineering have created a'replicant' slave underclass, specifically future where humanity may be "enslaved or devalued". She sees Tech Noir as a design to help colonize 'off-world' alternatives to Earth. Notions of progress style positing the idea that we should, "fear, not technology, but ourselves." are ambivalent for while flying vehicles betoken technological advances, the result that Los Angeles is no longer a fit place to live, only a repository for citizens who have failed to meet the emigration requirements needed to access, "off-world" colonies. These are advertised via the overhead blimp as, "a chance to begin again in a golden land of opportunity and adventure." For those deemed inferior, disabled or unfit however, the city has become a world of environmental squalor and degradation, without natural sunlight and with the flames of industry belching pollution into the night sky. Viewers are unnerved by the inescapable signs of consumerism and are further disorientated by the jarring musical accompaniment. The ecological concerns of the i98os are given visual representation in Scott's futuristic city and yet as film critic Roger Ebert asserts, "the world of Blade Runner has undeniably become one of the visual touchstones of modern movies. The movie's Los Angeles, with its permanent dark cloud of smog, its billboards hundreds of feet high, its street poverty living side by side with incredible wealth, may or may not come true - but there aren't many io-year-old movies that look more prophetic now than they did at the time." Characterisation Tyrell In contrast to Deckard's powerlessness, Dr. Eldon Tyrell is depicted as a The Director's Cut version of Blade Runner is thematically more consistent corporate 'God'. He is both president and scientific genius of the Tyrell than earlier versions but some have criticised it for lacking sound character Corporation and he and the company he represents have been enriched by development. Robert Ebert feels, "It looks fabulous, it uses special effects its production of non-human slaves designed to help man colonise space. to create a new world of its own, but it is thin in its human story." The These cyborg creations, especially the advanced Nexus 6 model, are not spuriousness of this charge however, is evident when the film is analysed in the mechanical robots of `hard' science but highly specialised clone-like depth. Multiple viewings reveal the visual complexity not only of the visual creations that blur the boundaries between human and non-human. Early in landscape but also that of the alienated characters who are representatives of the film, his indifference to the feelings of others is shown by his treatment of their dehumanised social milieu. Rachael, an innovative Nexus-6, "Rachael is an experiment - nothing more." This is a telling moment for Rachael is his creation, his surrogate niece, Deckard not a slave forced to exist "off-world". She has lived as if she is a relative, led Rick Deckard is initially seen as the stereotypical, film-noir hardened tough- to believe in the filial bond that has been embedded in her consciousness. guy. He has the genre's familiar cynical, world-weary demeanour and the Instead of distancing us from her as being inferior or'other', Scott ensures we flawed anti-hero personality. There is an emotionless, disenchanted ennui identify with her despair, confusion and loss of identity while Tyrell is seen that distances him from those around him. Picked up by the police, we learn as the unfeeling, inhuman monster. that he has been recalled for a special assignment to track down four "skin He has been instrumental in their creation, and he has exploited the jobs" walking the streets. He emphasises, "I don't work here anymore", but advantages they offer. Roy is told, "he design your mind, your brain" but Bryant, his former boss, makes clear that his old skills are needed for no-one Tyrell's total indifference to their fate, stresses the lack of commercial is, "good enough-not as good as you-I need the old magic". Though preferring ethics. It also emphasises the corporation's abuse of scientific knowledge to remain uninvolved, he is given no option, "No choice Pal". As an ex- and technological capability to artificially create life. He lives in splendid bladerunner, Deckard is coerced because; "This is a bad one, the worst yet." isolation high above the squalid cityscape he has shaped. His God-like status The tentacles of corporate power have enabled them to manipulate the law, is obvious by his being dressed in white when Roy visits his 'maker'. Physical shown by Bryant's outburst, "If you're not a cop you're little people". inferiority however is emphasised by his thick glasses, satirised by the The renegade replicants by contrast are commodities, "like any other script's reference to Roy having finally gained access to the man described as, machine, either a benefit or a hazard". They have become an integral part .not an easy man to see". He treats Roy dismissively; their exchange redolent of life, reinforced by Rachael's challenging Deckard for not thinking, with creation symbolism. The question is asked, Can the maker repair what "our work is not a benefit to the public." As Ridley Scott pointed out in he makes" clearly showing emotional distance between manufacturer and interview, "Essentially it was one man in search of four characters in this product, further reinforced by the practicality underpinning the follow up massive megalopolis. It's a spooky idea, worse than a needle in a haystack query, "Would you like to be modified". when you're looking for four people in a city of millions of people. In fact, Tyrell fails to comprehend what is really at stake, "What seems to be it's nearly impossible." Initially, he finds it difficult to comprehend that the problem?" His lack of compassion for Roy's desire to forestall "Death" Rachael is ignorant of her replicant identity, "How can it not know what it strengthens our impression that he is the non-human automaton, not his is?" His reference to her being an 'it, a thing shows arrogance and callous Nexus-6 nemesis. His manner remains smug, seemingly unaware of danger insensitivity. as J.F.Sebastian is hovering in the background. He sees "the facts of life" in a Deckard seems a lost soul, constantly shown drinking either from a totally different way to the way Roy and through him, the audience see it. He glass or bottle; dealing with his loneliness in an alcoholic daze. Revulsion refers to Roy as his "son" and yet echoing his callous rejection of Rachael, he at shooting Zhora begins his transformation and shifting allegiance reminds blind to the ethical ramifications of his act of creation. He lacks any from human to replicant. Veiled inferences regarding his own replicant parental concern, exhibiting only selfish, profit-driven motivations in his act identity are visually represented when we see him alone at his piano in his of creation. His lack of sensitivity to Roy's pain triggers his own death and apartment surrounded by personal photographs which serve as important while we do not condone the replicant's actions, we can at least comprehend visual motifs throughout the film. The flashback unicorn dream image is what prompts his act of moral retribution. a marker of humanity but Scott makes it ambiguous when Gaff leaves the origami unicorn outside his apartment after congratulating him on Roy's The Replicants death. As a personal memory, it should only have significance for him and Ridley Scott explained how the term'replicant'was chosen for the film, yet the strange oriental detective knows of it. When Deckard squashes it, he " When we set out to do this film, we decided to make 'android' a taboo word. redemptively rejects the human world to be with Rachael, the alienated loner' I said anybody who uses the word 'android' gets their head broken with becoming an'Everyman' arbiter of good and evil, the nexus between human a baseball bat. The word sets up all sorts of preconceptions of the kind of and non-human. film this could be. An android might be human, actually flesh and blood, genetically structured, but we simply decided not to use the word because it's over-used and misused. So we developed our own word, which is the word `replicant "' The opening crawl text establishes the expositional context for the therthan explicitly shown. When Roy discovers that Pris is dead, grief film, informing us that, "Special police squads - BLADE RUNNER UNITS" are curns to vengeance, becoming a mocking hunter, enjoying the pursuit of his hunting down, "any trespassing Replicants." Their deaths are euphemistically piey. Game imagery is used as Roy taunts and humiliates Deckard, "not very termed "retirement" rather than "execution" but it is essential for these s porting to fire on an unarmed opponent... I thought you were meant to be armed, dangerous and ruthless renegade slaves must be destroyed. bood." Deckard, physically inferior, is given a head start but there is clearly Equipped with superior strength and intellect, they pose a real threat for little hope of escape, "Six ... seven... go to hell or go to heaven". It becomes a life initially designed for inhospitable 'off world' environments or dangerous or death contest between adversaries, each committed to the death of the other, military situations, they are "more human than human". As Scott highlights, Roy goading the Blade-runner to better efforts, "Good, that's the spirit!" "A replicant is essentially a human being, an all-flesh culture that is very Deckard lurches on. His injured hand is nearly useless and his remaining advanced and highly perfected. That's the odd dichotomy of the whole story. stamina is ebbing away but Roy remains close behind, "Unless you're alive, The detective's job is to be a kind of policeman but also an exterminator, if you can't play". Religious imagery is also used to blur the lines of good and necessary. His job is to hunt replicants who happen to find their way into the evil, human and replicant. A crucifixion motif is used when Roy attempts city. They have no right to be there because the replicants were originally to forestall death, "Not yet" by plunging a large nail through the palm of developed for off-world situations, military, industrial, mining. They are his hand. Deckard seeks refuge by climbing upwards, Roy's mockery having kind of a second-class generation developed for inhospitable environments metaphorical overtones, "Where are you going?" Both are facing death but, and dangerous or boring work." Roy having lost all chance of life laughs and savours for an instant, the They must somehow escape their Tyrellic destiny of only having a four sensory pleasure of feeling the rain fall on his face. It is a gripping scene, year life-span, imposed as Bryant tells Deckard as a "failsafe device". This fast-moving and disorientingin terms of lighting and framing. Deckard's means that they are denied a childhood, but designed to come equipped with attempt to jump across to another building falls short and he is left hanging the necessary knowledge and skills they need to fulfil their designated roles. precariously. There is a contemplative moment before Roy; dove in hand, Their time is running out which lends urgency to their efforts, necessitating easily jumps the gap, then looking down over the edge at Deckard. their working together for the common good. They show compassion towards We expect the killing blow but instead there is a strange connection, each other which makes them appear superior to their human masters. "Quite an experience to live in fear-that's what it is to be a slave". Deckard's This ambiguity is explored in the scene where they tell J.F.Sebastian, "We're fall is prevented by a last second, super-human grasp by Roy's impaled hand, not computers-we're physical." He is impressed by the scientific mastery hoisting him to the safety of the ledge. Exhausted, he slumps down, revealing, they represent, "You're so different - you're so perfect", but given that their "I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the lives are at stake, the exigency of their situation necessitates their working shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams, glitter in the dark near Tannhauser together. Roy's humanity is shown through his affection for Pris, "if we don't Gate. All those... moments will be lost... in time... like tears... in rain. Time... find help soon, Pris doesn't have long to live - I can't allow that." to die." His reference to "you people" separates himself from Deckard but his poignant acknowledgement of the wonders of existence itself and to the Roy Batty moments that are lost when it is "Time ... to die" lends undeniable humanity. While humans in the film are typically referred to by their surnames, the By empathising with his victim and bestowing life rather than death, he gains Replicants are given Christian names while Roy Batty has both. He is described heroic status. His death is tragic and given religious overtones by the release by Captain Bryant as a, "combat model, with optimum self-sufficiency" which of the white dove. This is seen by many critics as symbolic of the release of his explains his deadly efficiency. He demonstrates the resourcefulness and soul. It is also cathartic, fundamentally changing Deckard's outlook. methodical ruthlessness required by Nexus-6 models and so effectively hijacks an Earth-bound shuttle, killing the crew and passengers. Scott also imbues Rachel him with other qualities which make him a charismatic killer and philosophic Rachel is another paradoxical character, denounced by some feminist and rebel. He exudes life; energy and a heightened self-awareness which makes the postmodern critics who see her as objectified and demeaned by Deckard. audience empathise with his struggle to-survive. When he and Leon confront Others see her as the film's femme fatale, exhibiting typical noir style and the eye maker, his words have a double meaning, "If only you could see with haughty demeanour. Her striking beauty and magnetic sexuality has strong your eyes", implying lack of insight and empathy with their plight. visual impact. Low key lighting paint her as a temptress and possible threat His meeting with Tyrell is rich in symbolic overtone, "It's not an easy thing to Deckard, especially given her replicant identity which is implied early in to meet your Maker". He values his existence and demands, "I want more life, the film and while, "she is beginning to suspect' the truth, "she doesn't know" fucker!" Tyrell uses obfuscation to offset Roy's anger, "You were made as well as for sure. Tyrell however dismisses her as a merely a creative experiment, we could make you" but in the end his snide and dismissive tone seals his fate. "Nothing more", her memories implanted so effectively that it, "took more Roy shows a sense of wrongdoing, "I've done ... questionable things" but Tyrell than a hundred questions" to reveal her real identity. She seeks out Deckard remains deaf to his need. The scientist's insensitivity transforms Roy into an when she escapes because she has no-one else to turn to because her erstwhile executioner, who kisses his `father' before killing, "the god of biomechanics". uncle "wouldn't see me". In Deckard's apartment after Zhora and Leon have By objectifying Roy as "the prize", his abrogation of paternal responsibility is been killed. He admits, "I owe you one" and declares his intention not to hunt clear. Tyrell's head is crushed through his eye sockets, the violence inferred her down if she fled but adds the warning, "but somebody would."

^ ; .,Stn~ red other humanity, she feels objectified, nothing more than a Simulacrum i:,'uct I'ninot-in the business. I am the business." His attraction has 12eglicants are human facsimiles, engineered to be almost indistinguishable, '-,Aycompromised his role of pursuer but her replicant status now ,king it difficult to determine what is real from what is artificial. Memory ornpromises hers. Some critics such as Katherine Haber suggest that what d identity can be manipulated so that nothing can be relied on as being follows is a love' scene and that she is in love with Deckard. More commonly _. Genetic engineering has resulted in simulation models such as the however, viewers see his behaviour in more sexually aggressive terms. Simon Nexus -G, surpassing the original human model they were copied from. Scott describes the scene as, "perhaps one of the most outwardly misogynist They are "so perfect"; physically superior to and at least equally intelligent

moments in the movie" emphasising Rachel's subservience, "when compared Go mankind. Deemed `Other' however, because they are not authentic, to the other, more self-aware Replicants." He sees her as being forced to they have been enslaved and exploited, given only primitive emotions acquiesce while feminist critic, Anne Balsamo declares that, "as the object of and denied longevity. As we learn in the opening scroll text, they can be Deckard's visual and sexual desire, Rachael symbolically reasserts the social ,retired', executed on sight if found trespassing on earth. Treated as mere and political position of woman as object of man's consumption." Hannah commodities, they have been made outcasts, ostracised and marginalised. Kuhlmann emphasises the `rape' interpretation, seeing her, "trapped as a Roy. Pris and Zhora challenge our perspectives of the simulacrum between manufactured replicant, a business product that has been bought." human and animal, making us ponder where moral superiority really lies. This duality of man and duplicate is a recurring doppelganger motif throughout the film. Roy Batty and Rick Deckard are shadow selves, Themes reflections of each other, good versus evil, hero versus villain, victim versus victimiser. Reviewers have suggested that the film argues that man has been Science as God dehumanised while replicant has achieved humanity, sharing a common The film's religious imagery foregrounds the Promethean dangers of man android or cyborg status. As D. Haraway argues in, "A Cyborg Manifesto; playing God. The synthetic replacement of what is natural has morally Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century", compromised and tainted humanity. Scientific progress has violated human increasing technological advancement blurs the line between original and existence, resulting in mass dehumanisation and desensitisation. Freedom imitation, so that, "the cyborg appears in myth precisely where the boundary has been replaced by subservience; mankind reduced to a commercial 80 between human and animal is transgressed." Batty's actions transform commodity whose main purpose is to produce and consume advertised Deckard's perceptions, making him appreciate that both human and goods. Society is barren, family life and personal relationships replaced replicant should appreciate life as something to be valued. As he watches Roy by stultifying uniformity and oppression. Los Angeles has become a post- shut down because he has "no more time", the roles are reversed as Deckard s apocalyptic world where nature has been defiled and largely destroyed, is humanised. This dichotomy is proof of the dangers unleashed when man visually highlighting the ecological and sociological concerns which were imitates God. 0 becoming prevalent in the Reagan era. Scott's representation poses the question of whether scientific and 0 Redemption a technological progress is actually beneficial for humanity. Genetic discovery In choosing to save Deckard, his foe and the killer of Pris, Roy assumes a and engineering has enabled replicants, "more human than human" to be i almost God-like or saintly status. Religious iconography such as the mass produced but Tyrell and by inference, the monopolistic power that he spike pierced hand and the chiming of church bells as they pursue each represents, have failed to acknowledge or nurture these creations. To ensure other across the rooftop, reinforces the Christ-like symbolism as does his d W the creation cannot harm the creator, a four year lifespan has been part of the releasing the white dove, the universal symbol of peace. Others have read design. This fear echoes the inherent threat found in the monster's words to m `Satanic' images into this climactic scene but Roy undeniably becomes his creator in Frankenstein, "Remember; thou hast made me more powerful saviour in pulling Deckard to safety. If both Deckard and Roy are seen a than thyself". a. as representational figureheads, Roy as replicant can be seen as saving g Genetic engineers such as Chew and J. F. Sebastian are mere tools in mankind, the differences between the two, more a state of mind and outlook a the production line. Whereas Tyrell is the father-figure, the genius who is than any genetic demarcation. responsible for their brains and intelligence, they are merely part of the The gulf between Deckard and his fellow detectives is most evident after a consumer driven culture. Tyrell is the God-like power over this metropolis this scene for Gatt's cynicism had double meaning when he rhetorically which has been transformed into a capitalistic patriarchy. He controls queries, "I guess you're through huh - finished?" This emphasises how man everything, the economy, the law and the populace. Judith B. Kerman asserts can be dehumanised by unchecked scientific progress, especially when linked that the director's vision presents a, "scathing review of our society" created to the artificial creation of life. By squashing Gatt's origami unicorn, Deckard by extrapolating, "from the current trends of large corporations controlling switches allegiance from man to replicant, a transition that is endorsed by much of the capitalist market, and also controlling the governmental the viewer. Philosophically, Blade Runner explores definitions of humanity. regulation of these huge companies." Norman Spinrad observes, "What raises the android Roy Batty to human status is that, on the brink of his own death, he is able to empathize with

Deckard. What makes true beings is that ultimately, on one level or another, whatever reality mazes they may be caught in, they realize that the true base reality is not absolute or perceptual, but moral and empathetic."

What is being said? Cinematic Style 1. Identify some of the universal concerns that are developed within the film. Blade Runner combines science fiction themes and film noir visual style What are the main differences between humans and replicants presented without homogenising either genre. They combine to create a menacing at the beginning of the film? How do our impressions of these differences atmosphere of fear about where technology is heading. Film critics S. Doll alter by the closing credits? and G. Faller say that the genre mix, "also short-circuits our expectations, 3• What role does religious symbolism play in the film, especially with leading to a film which doesn't pronounce moral certainties." The discordant regard to the depiction of Roy? How does this relate to the major thematic Vangelis soundtrack, augments this blending of narrative styles. David Cook concerns? has noted other stylistic elements such as the incorporation of religious, "mythological, and philosophical leitmotifs to pass a serious comment on the modern state of the relations between technology and people, freedom How is it being said? and slavery, the meaning of life and death, the metropolis and people, and 1. Our first impression of Los Angeles 2019 is disturbingly bleak. Detail man and woman, drawing immensely on an a variety of retrospective and Scott's use of film noir lighting, settings and iconography used in the prospective apocalyptic literature." opening sequences of the film and explain how these help establish the What differentiates Blade Runner from many other dystopic Science film's mood. Fiction films however, is its focus on the societal ramifications of science z. Film noir characteristics play a dominant role in the film. Choose two and corporate greed. As film critic, Peter Wellan argues the, "film inverts, in scenes where these are most evident and discuss how they effectively science-fiction style, the exalted aspirations of humankind for scientific and develop theme, character or atmosphere. technological progress, and attacks the morality of futuristic capitalism." The 3- Visual motifs such as eyes, photographs, origami figures, rain and sparse script in the Director's Cut centralises the visual iconography using advertisements are used throughout the film. Evaluate the messages being discordant images of crowded city streets juxtaposed against monolithic depicted about this futuristic technology driven world. bastions of corporate power. The visual narrative generates a dark mood 4- Deconstruct the Batty rescue scene up to the point of his death. Analyse and atmosphere, typical of postmodernist films, which often incorporate elements such as script, mis-en-scene and religious symbolism in techniques such as appropriation, pastiche, simulation, and deconstruction. positioning the viewer to empathise with Batty. The resultant visual landscape or `visuality' of the film, is, according to Thomas Byers, critical of, "the dehumanization necessary for survival in a world dominated by mega-corporations." Eyes are a prevalent visual Response task motif, evident in Chu's false eyes, Tyrell's glasses and close up shots of eyes Insert a Roy Batty monologue that could fill a narrative gap in the film prior in the Voight-Kampfftest, act as powerful visual motifs in the film. These to his death in which he defines the `replicant' position in general and his help emphasise what R. Morrison describes as the disunity or "dual vision situation in particular. Give particular attention to the philosophical and and perceptual ambiguity" of the film. Other recurring motifs include moral issues as well as the fundamental question that have been explored photographs and origami figures. The other recurring visual trope is the in the film and what it means to be human. You could incorporate some dystopian city streets which are continuously swept by neon or floodlights, previous dialogue. enhancing the sinister interplay of light and shadow. Total marks (20) Length: 300 words Photographs are treasured as proof of a past for as Sandra Sontag states, "photographs furnish evidence." They are however, easily fabricated as is the case with Leon's "precious photographs". Deckard cynically wonders, "I don't know why a replicant would collect photos" which is ironic given how many are found on the top of his piano. Rachael also uses them in an attempt to verify her humanity, "Look - its me with my mother!" This is a meta- narrative device often found in postmodernist films, whereby Rachael uses a implanted story about her memories, relationships and perceptions as a way of validating her experience. Comparative features - Texts in Time

Genre - Science Fiction Prometheus Shelley's Frankenstein gave birth to the science fiction genre and Blade Runner Shelley's scientist reanimates disassembled body parts from various corpses. shows a post-modernist pastiche of different genres besides Science Fiction. Scott's Tyrellian scientists genetically manipulate biological life, creating They remain linked however by overarching themes and motifs that make human-like cyborgs from manufactured body parts that are so brilliantly them cautionary, prescient tales. Each postulates warnings of possible engineered that are they are almost indiscernible from the real thing. The negative futures. Forecasts of doom are offered if mankind attains God-like juxtaposition between real and artifice is tested in both texts because the power; the ability to replicate life artificially. The linking premise is that replicant copy, whether Shelley's nameless outcast for Scott's Nexus-6 rebels, dehumanisation results once humanity becomes subservient to technology in many ways surpasses the original. Both scientists strive for perfection, and scientific advancement. The question of what constitutes humanity unconcerned with the possible repercussions. Tyrrell's creation of Replicants underpins both texts which function as social critiques, despite their is driven by personal greed. While Victor claims that he set out with good different contexts. intentions for society's gain, but he also admits that he wanted to create a . Susan Doll and Greg Faller, in "Blade Runner and Genre: Film Noir new species" to "bless" him as their creator. Scientific exploitation in both and Science Fiction" argue that the tenet that is explored in many science texts shows a lack of moral judgement and questionable motives. fiction texts, including the archetypal Frankenstein, is that "a technologically This Prometheus linking motif is fundamental to understanding the advanced society fears this dependence on machines and subsequent loss of creative premise for both composers. Shelley's `Modern Prometheus' control because it represents dehumanisation". Victor Frankenstein warns is a recontextualisation of the Titan from Classical myth, while Scott's of the negative consequences of his scientific experimentation but the real ' Postmodern Prometheus' as Andrew Swant describes the film, is a warning is to readers, "Learn from me, if not by my precept, at least by my contemporary look at technology over-reaching itself. In Victor's historical example, how dangerous is the acquirement of knowledge." The desire to context, the creation of his Monster, a matter of "bestowing life" is create life in both texts necessitates the testing of technological barriers. undeniably a scientific achievement, evidence of a brilliant mind. Control While Shelley's Romanticist influences are evident in her depiction of of the Promethean experiment is lost however, as soon as the creation is sublime Nature, Victor's obsession drives him to close himself off, replacing callously abandoned. Despite the passage of nearly two centuries the same the positive impact of the Natural world with the rank contagion of charnel callous indifference and social irresponsibility is evident in both texts. houses and graveyards. Scott's dystopic world, shown so graphically in Also present, is the same crystallisation of prevailing social fears regarding the opening shot, has been stripped of Nature which has been replaced by unchecked scientific and technological change; the same timeless forces of synthetic artificiality instead. good and evil. Both texts foreground moral questions about the excesses of While Victor Frankenstein has the practical capability to create life, he science that continue to resonate with contemporary audiences. demonstrates moral weakness. Dr. Tyrell is similarly blind to the testing of ethical barriers that is invested in such a creative process. Both creators show Monstrosity a cruel failure to nurture their offspring and in both cases, the created being The Gothic theme of monstrosity is found in both texts, again showing the appears "more human than human". The mistreatment of their creations is incredible flexibility and hybridisation of genres. Monstrosity is a resonant a social failing, an injustice imposed on those who are marginalised such theme, epitomising the depths of despair suffered by those considered as the "daemon" and Justine as well as Roy and his fellow replicants. Science outsiders from humanity. Despite different contexts and mediums, Shelley Fiction blurs the boundaries of monsters necessarily being non-humans, and Scott represent their visions of monstrosity in ways that leave their focusing instead on how society shuns and alienates outcasts. As Desmond audiences feeling greater sympathy for the monster than for their creator. Morris warns, "Human beings are animals. We are sometimes monsters, Both monsters are seen as non-human inferiors. They are mistreated by their sometimes magnificent, but always ahimals. We may prefer to think of makers and by society as a whole and yet both express a powerful yearning ourselves as fallen angels but in reality we are risen apes." for life itself. Roy wants life for himself and his fellow escapees, echoing Shelley's Creature who pledged so many years before, "Life, although it may only be an accumulation of anguish, is dear to me, and I will defend it." This genre alignment of monsters with humanity is significant for as Donna Haraway asserts in her "Cyborg Manifesto", "we are all chimeras." The comparative texts both give monster-like qualities to their human characters, clearly evident in Frankenstein where the "fiend" is more monstrous than his creation. In Ridley Scott's Blade Runner, the replicants are superior to the physically abnormal or deformed humans they are enslaved to or hunted by. Physical ugliness is also typically ascribed to the monster such as found in

Shelley's 'daemon' but in Scott's futuristic world, the maimed and ill-formed are human, not manufactured. Differentiation is further blurred in this Module B: dystopic Los Angeles when we learn that Deckard is himself a replicant like those he has hunted down. His realisation that he is in fact non-human leads Critical Study of Texts to empathy, ironically, the very thing that replicants have been programmed to be unable to do. Verisimilitude prevails until both fiction and film This module requires students to explore and evaluate a single text and its audiences are challenged to ponder where monstrosity lies, either in the reception in a range of contexts. It requires: creator or the creation. • Deep, analytical and critical knowledge and understanding of a text's As Lawrence Lipking has argued in his description of what he calls distinctive features, including construction, content and language `victimary interpreters', societal values and attitudes have altered over • Discussion and evaluation of the impact of context and varied time so that, "when they look at Frankenstein's creation, they no longer see interpretive perspectives a Monster, as earlier generations did; they now see a Creature. And other aspects of that creation, (for instance, Victor Frankenstein's genius) they do • Students refining their interpretation by testing their perspective not see at all". Sympathy is generated for the monstrous victim, whose sense against the perspectives of others. The resultant view must be of abandonment and social injustice is tangible. Victor's "hideous wretch" supported with detailed textual reference to the prescribed text. is rejected by those who "spurn and detest him". Our perceptions are largely To appraise `other perspectives' of text, students do not need to engage shaped in both texts, by the compelling way in which the `monster' figure with particular critical theories such as feminism or New Historicism eloquently argues the case for the outcast. as this is not a syllabus requirement Both confront their makers, in Shelley's novel, it is Mt Blanc, "I suddenly An understanding of what constitutes `textual integrity' or the beheld the figure of a man, at some distance, advancing towards me with distinctive qualities of a text that give overall unity, integrated superhuman speed." In Scott's film, a man-made mountainous structure structure and unifying concept. This incorporates evaluation of a becomes the scene for Roy's meeting. Both monsters commit horrible text's construction, content and language deeds, the daemon asking, 'do you think that I was then dead to agony and Articulating an informed personal response and understanding, remorse?" while Roy crushes Tyrell's skull after revealing that he too has shown through a clear, textually grounded thesis done undesirable things. In both cases, their misdeeds have been predicated by their human creators. Frankenstein's Creature demanded of his maker, "Do your duty towards me, and I will do mine towards you and the rest of mankind. If you will comply with my conditions, I will leave them and you at peace; but if you refuse, I will glut the maw of death." Slavery is another feature of monstrosity, forced by the acts of others to do things they detested. Both texts also examine the abrogation of moral and ethical responsibility as a denial of duty and justice. A lack of foresight and questionable motives lead to tragedy in both texts for as Bernard Williams has aptly noted that, "Humanity is, of course, a name not merely for a species but for a quality." Bladerunner Characters

Character Role Rick Deckard Rick Deckard is a "Blade Runner", a special agent in the Los Angeles police department employed to hunt down and "retire" replicants. Roy Batty Roy Batty is the leader of the renegade Nexus-6 replicants. He is very intelligent, fast, and skilled at combat, and yet still learning how to deal with developing emotions. Bryant Bryant is the captain of the Rep-Detect department of the Los Angeles police department. His job in the film is to deal with a group of escaped Nexus-6 replicants that have landed on earth. Hannibal Chew Hannibal Chew works for the Tyrell Corporation. His job is to create the eyes for the replicants. Gaff Gaff, a mysterious character in the film, presents his compulsory invitation to Deckard in a street lingo called Cityspeak, a mixture of Hungarian, French, Chinese, German and Japanese. Holden Holden is the Blade Runner testing new employees at the Tyreli Corporation on the premise that the escaped Replicants might try to infiltrate the company. He underestimates the Nexus 6 Replicants. It seems that the new replicants are difficult to detect even with the Voight-Kampff machine. Leon Kowalski Leon Kowalski is a friend of Roy Batty. His emotions are at a much lower level of development than Roy's, but he evidently believes in Roy's quest for more life. Taffey Lewis Taffey Lewis is the owner of Taffey's Snake Pit Bar. Pris Pris is a "pleasure model" created for entertainment and thus even more of a slave-object than the others. Rachael Rachael is the latest experiment of Eldon Tyrell. There is a problem with his more recent, advanced Nexus 6 Replicants - they start to develop their own emotions. The other replicants we see provide plenty of evidence that this is true. They then start to rebel against being slaves. Tyreli believes that this is because they have no framework within which to deal with their new emotions. Thus, if he can gift them with memories, they will cope with situations better and therefore be a better product. Rachael has the implanted memories of Tyrell's niece, and she is led to believe that she is human. We do not know how long she has been living, but Tyrell admits that he thinks she was beginning to suspect the truth of her existence. J.F. Sebastian J. F. Sebastian is a genetic designer working for Tyrell. He is not allowed to emigrate off-world because he has Methuselah Syndrome Dr. Eldon Tyrell Dr. Eldon Tyrell is the genius who has built up the large Tyreli Corporation. Zhora Zhora, a replicant, has an A Physical Level (Super-human endurance) & a B Mental Level (Intelligence equal to that of Pris). She managed to get a job as an exotic dancer at Taffey's Bar (using the actress' own pet snake). Surrealism

What4 Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early-1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members.

When and' where -3 Surrealism developed out of the Dada activities of World War I and the most important center of the movement was Paris.

From the 1920s on, the movement spread around the globe, eventually affecting the visual arts, literature, film, and music, of many countries and languages, as well as political thought and practice, and philosophy and social theory.

Surrealist works feature the element of surprise, unexpected juxtapositions and non sequitur; however many Surrealist artists and writers regard their work as an expression of the philosophical movement first and foremost, with the works being an artifact. Leader Andre Breton was explicit in his assertion that Surrealism was above all a revolutionary movement.

Film Noir

What 4 Film noir is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize moral ambiguity and sexual motivation.

When & where4 Hollywood's classic film noir period is generally regarded as stretching from the early 1940s to the late 1950s. Film noir of this era is associated with a low-key black-and-white visual style that has roots in German Expressionist cinematography, while many of the prototypical stories and much of the attitude of classic noir derive from the hardboiled school of crime fiction that emerged in the United States during the Depression.

The term film noir (French for "black film"), first applied to Hollywood movies by French critic Nino Frank in 1946, was unknown to most American film industry professionals of the era

Cin&na historians and critics defined the canon of film noir in retrospect; many of those involved in the making of the classic noirs later professed to be unaware of having created a distinctive type of film.

Blade Runner: Context

Environmental degradation

Environmental degradation is the deterioration of the _environment through depletion of resources such as air, water and soil_; the destruction of eco,,--vstems and the extinction of wildlife.

Environmental degradation is one of the ten threats officially cautioned by the _High Level Threat Panel of the tI r ited Nations. The World Resources Institute (WRI), 1N_Ef (the United Nations Environment Programme), tjTNDP (the United Nations Development Programme) and the World Bank have made public an important report on health and the environment worldwide on May 1, 1998.

Environmental degradation is of many types. When natural habitats are destroyed or natural resources are depleted, environment is degraded.

Environmental Change and Human Health, a special section of World Resources 1998-99 in this report describes how preventable illnesses and premature deaths are still occurring in very large numbers. If vast improvements are made in human health, millions of people will be living longer, healthier lives than ever before. In these- poorest regions of the world an estimated one in five children will not live to see their fifth birthday, primarily because of environment-related diseases. Eleven million children die worldwide annually, equal to the combined populations of Norway and Switzerland, and mostly due to malaria, acute respiratory infections or diarrhoea - illnesses that are largely preventable.

Ecological Collapse refers to a situation where an _ec osystem suffers a drastic, if not permanent, reduction in carrying capacity for all organisms, often resulting in mass extinction. Usually, an ecological collapse can be precipitated by a disastrous event occurring on a small time scale, such as the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction event which was an ecological collapse widely believed to be caused by an asteroid impact event.

Exploitation of natural resources is an essential condition of the human existence.This refers primarily to food production; but minerals; ' timber, and a whole raft of other entities from the natural. environment also have been extracted. Often the exploitation of nature has been done in a non-sustainable way, which is causing increasing concern, as a non-sustainable exploitation of natural resources ultimately threatens human existence.

Capitalism

Capitalism is the economic system in which the means of production are owned by private persons, and operated for r and where investments, distribution, income, production and iicing of goods and services are predominantly determined through the operation of a free marh_etl'', rather than by central economic planning. Capitalism is usually considered to involve the right of individuals and colporations to trade, incorporate, employ workers, and use money provided by _central banks, in goods, services (including finance), labor and land. In theory, production and distribution in a capitalist system are governed by the free market rather than state regulation,iL with state action confined to defining and enforcing the basic rules of the marketer though the state may provide a few basic public goods and infrastructure . 151 Classic unrestrained capitalism is confined mostly to theory today, as "all of the capitalistic societies of the West have mixed Asian Tigers

The term Four Asian Tigers or East Asian Tigers refers to the economies of South.Korea, Hone fort„, Singapore, and Taiwan. They are also known as Asia's Four Little Dragons in Chinese, as these countries or territories have at various times throughout history experienced significant cultural contributions from China to varying degrees. These regions were noted for maintaining high growth rates and rapid industrialization between the early 1960s and 1990s. In the early 21st century, with the original four Tigers at fully de~.J 12ped status, attention has increasingly shifted to other Asian economies which are experiencing rapid economic transformation at the present time.

Abandoning import sabstitution, the model advocated in the developing world following the two world wars, the Four Asian Tigers pursued an export-driven model of economic development with the exportation of goods to highly-industrialized nations. Domestic consumption was discouraged through government policies such as high tariffs. The Four Asian Tigers singled out education as a means of improving 12roductivijy; these territories focused on improving the education system at all levels; heavy emphasis was placed on ensuring that all children attended elementary education and compulsory high school education. Money was also spent on improving the college and university system.

Since the Four Asian Tigers were relatively poor during the 1960s, these nations had an abundance of cheap labor. Coupled with educational reform, they were able to leverage this combination into a cheap, yet productive workforce. The Four Asian Tigers committed to egalitarianism in the form of land reform, to promote property rights and to ensure that agricultural workers would not become disgruntled. Also, policies of agricultural subsidies and tariffs on agricultural products were implemented as well.

The common characteristics of the Four Asian Tigers are:

Developed economies with high GD.P per capita and high HDi Focused on exports to richer industrialized nations Trade surplus with aforementioned countries Sustained rate of double-digit growth for decades High level of U.S. treasury bond holdings Motivated and skilled workforces High savings rate The ranks of GDP (by nominal) List of countries by GDP (nominal) of South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore are 12th, 21st, 36th, and 44th, respectively.

Consumerism

Consumerism is the equation of personal happiness with the purchase of material possessions and consumption. The term is often associated with criticisms of consumption starting with Thorstein Veblen.

Veblen's subject of examination, the newly emergent middle class arising at the turn of the twentieth century, comes to full fruition by the end of the twentieth century through the process of globalization. importance of international trade, relations, treaties etc. International means between or among nations. "Globalization" means erasure of national boundaries for economic purposes; international trade (governed by comparative advantage) becomes inter-regional trade (governed by absolute advantage).'`'

Genetic Engineering

Genetic engineering, recombinant DNA technology, genetic modification/manipulation (GM) and gene splicing are terms that apply to the direct manipulation of an organisin's genes.'-'jGenetic Engineering is different from traditional breeding, where the organism's genes are manipulated indirectly; genetic engineering uses the techniques of molecular cloning and transformation to alter the structure and characteristics of genes directly. Genetic engineering techniques have found some successes in numerous applications. Some examples are in improving crop technology, the manufacture of synthetic human insulin. through the use of modified bacteria, the manufacture of crvthropoietin in hamster ovaiw cells, and the production of new types of experimental mice such as the oncomouse (cancer mouse) for research.

Since a ter . sequence is specified by a segment of DNA called a gene, novel versions of that protein can be produced by changing the DNA sequence of the gene.

Cloning

Cloning in biology is the process of producing populations of genetically-identical individuals that occurs in nature when organisms such as bacteria, insects or 11 aiats reproduce asexually. Cloning in blotechnoloW` refers to processes used to create copies of DNAfragments (molecular clonin cells (cell cloning), or organisms. More generally, the term refers to the production of multiple copies of a product such as digital media or software.

Human Cloning

Human cloning is the creation of a genetically identical copy of a human being, human _cell, or human tissue. The term is generally used to refer to artificial human cloning, although human clones in the form of identical twins are commonplace, with their cloning part of the natural process of reproduction.

Although genes influence behavior and cosmition, "genetically identical" does not mean altogether identical; identical twins, despite being natural human clones with nearly identical DNA, are separate people, with separate experiences and personalities. The relationship between an "original" and a clone is rather like that between identical twins raised apart; they share nearly all of the same T.~N~A, but little of the same environment. A lively scientific debate on this topic occurred in the journal Nature in 1997.x'3 Ultimately, the question of how similar an original and a clone would be boils down to how much of personality is determined by genetics, an area still under active scientific investigation. (See nature versus nurture and cloning.)

FILM - SOME TECHNICAL INIURMATION ' i

THE- LANGUAGE OF FILM emulsion (gelatin Raw filmZ strip of celluloid (cellulose acetate) coated with ;with silver bromide or chloride) to make it sensitive to light and capable of retaining images received through the camera lens.

Scri t (Scenario) not just the written story but a composition-.of dialogue sequences, scenes-, shots (positions, angles and q+ovements of cameras and actors, editing cuts, all set out clearly with full instructions for the director, cameramen, continuity, girl, and editor. '

Shots-,. A shot is a sucdession of frames foaming one uninterrupted moving picture of the same action or view taken from the same camera position. Shots can be short or lengthy.(in feet orseconds) and close,..medium or long, depending on the distance of the camera from the action.

Scene' ..an episode•.or continuous piece of action, consisting o€ several shots, which is acted and photographed (shot) in the same place or location. A scene has a unity of. place and it ends with a change of location - after which the next scene begins. - Sequence: .. a continuous succession of. scenes in which there is no' break in time. A sequence has unity of Aime and it ends with a change of time- after which the next sequence begins. '

Cinematography: .... the core of the art of moving pictures. It is the only element of- film and television which belongs to no other art. Its two main elements are *(a) photography and (b) camerawork. ~._.. ,

Frame: each separate still photograph which, on the film, shows.a slightly . - different action from:the previous frame. On most sizes-okr-sound film ' (70, 35, and l.6 mm) 24 frames -are photographed and projected every second*.' Zhanging the speed of the projection-changes the pace of the movement - e.g. Early silent films (made before 1928) were shot, and should be projected, at a speed of 16 frames per second (f.p.s.) and hence, when they are run at sound speed 124 f.p.s.) the people:-in them seem td move rapidly and jerkify. To avoid this, old footage can be • ' "stretched" to be projected_ at 24 f.p.s. by reprinting every second frame.-

Freeze frame; The impression that action has s nly-stopped or frozen into a still picture, created by printing the same frame many times so that the film temporarily ceases to be a moving picture.

Still: - a single photograph or shot' from a film used for publicity' of stars or some asp'eet . of - production. ' . . .

Time-lapse photography: a development of stop-action and theultimate in accelerateduution, in which a slow process is speeded up with several hours or epgh days between -each frame, such as a flower blooming or plant gro

Sat-Ups or positions of shots in relation to a human,figure.

Long shot (L.S.) figure filling half the screen, in relation to background.

Very 'long shot (V.L.S.) extreme long, distant or comprehensive shot: usually a wide-angle, descriptive, establishing shot - in which figure *can be just seen - sliowing.the total background or scene of action and several feet in length(on screen for a long time).

Medium Long shot: (M.L.S.) figure almost filling screen, prominent'but still' part of background. . Medium Shot or mid shot (M.S.) figure from knees upward, shown in'some detail.

Medium fee shot (M.C.S.) figure with face, head and neck filling_whole screen, to'make 3ritpact more dominant and emphatic particularly with dialogue. ' P.T.O.

THE LANGUAGE OF FILM (coat.) .

Close shot (C.S.) figure with face, head and neck filling whole screen, to make impact more dominant and emphatic particularly with dialogue.

Close up (C.U) figure with face only* filling screen, to make impact more dramatic and revealinS, particularly'through the.-eyes and lips.

Extreme, or big close-up (B.C.U.) small section of figure such as. eyes, lips, fingers, to make impact more tragic or frightening - particularly when ' accompanied by appropriate sound effects and music.

ANGLESI -The dramatic effects of shots can be varied not-only by changes of distance (as above) but also by. changes of angle between the camera and the subject. The following are some *of the main cameia.'or shooting angles ..( or angle shots): Parallel for front) angle : an eye-level . view when the camera is aimed directly at the subject to achieve a feeling of normality or straight reporting. Low-angle ; - a view from below eye-levei-.with the camera aimed upward to make a building. or a. person look larger than lif e, -strong.,: important, impressive, domineering, or frightening.

High-angle: an overhead view from above the subject with the camera looking down to make'a person. or object seem small,.weak, insignificant, or fearful.

Side-angle: a view of either side of a subject - low, parallel or high - and sometimes known as a profule shot.

Reverse-angle ' rear view of the subject -.low, parallel or high

Wide-angle: a wider than normal view of the subject obtained by a special short-focus lens.

-,%lt=Shot: ~' one in which :the camera .. is. deliberately tilted diagonally . from its ..normal:,tiorizontal position - low, parallel or high -- - to-create a feeling of insecurity ("Tilt" isalsoroften used -to describe:a.vertical panning shot).

MOVEMENTS: P4nning: rotating horizontally, diagonally or, vertically .but not moving away from a stationary fixed point'(or:ak $)' '` Vertical pans (up or down) are sometimes referred-to-as tilts but` this word describes more accurately a diagonal camera angle (see above). Pans can be fast or slow; a .ver t fast turn is called a zip, whizz or f],ash pan. f or a whip-over. A forward-' or Va.ckNiard movement or tracking ,affect can-be .. achieved from a fixed camera by a zoom lens.

Tracking: moving sideways, forward, backward, diagonally, upward or downward on a dolly, (trolley or truck), crane, car, train, helicopter, aeroplane, or any moving vehicle. Tracking shots of chases ' as in Westerns, sports races and so on, are usually taken from moving trucks Con rails) or vans. Such ahots-are called dolly or trucking shots. Crane shots are effective tracking shits popular with camermeri mad-directors. ----

Zooming: the effect of tracking in and out (forward or backward) or an apparent sudden change of camera position is created with a fixed camera-zoom lens which has vari.-Me..focal lengths." This gives the impression that the '' camera has swing or zoomed towards the subject and changed the frame during most the shot. Like pans, zooms can be fast or slow and are probably" effective when combined with a change of f cus between subjects in the foreground and background of the shot, and an apparent sudden change from long shot to close-up. Hand-held:-t.,the term to describe a ' camera-which is not mounted on a tripod or dolly but held more conveniently- in the. camera-man's hand to obtain quick shots and achieve a restless,:effect of . jerky images for increased realism.

GENERAL TERMS:

Editing : the aesthetic decisions on which shots to select, and the process of arranging and shaping themrin sequences and scenes.

Cutting: , the actual physical cutting of each shot as required-by the editor. Cut: (noun): the sudden transition (achieved by trimming) from one shot to another P.T.O. THE LANGUAGE OF FILM cont.

usually corresponding with a change in camera position, such as from middle shot to close-up, so that the picture on the screen changes abruptly but unobtrusively and naturally. In live television such a transition is achieved by cutting from,ene camera to another. Cut (verb) : either to trim and join the shots as explained or to end a take, as ordered by the director to the camerman, during shooting. Jump cut: a deliberately sudden contrasting change of shot to create a dramatic affect within a scene, or a cut made within the same shot to increase the pace or tempo. Crosscut: a continuous back and forth fast cutting from shot to shot between two separate- scenes to show -parallel action.

Fast cutting or fast editing: an editing style designed to create excitement, in which each shot runs only for one or two seconds before cutting to the next. An extreme example is single-frame editing, either by the camera (stop-action) or actual cutting. Slow cutting or editiin : a style designed to create tension or relaxation depending on the action) in which each shot runs for several seconds or even minutes. Tempo: the impression which the viewer obtains of the pace of the film as created by the movement of actors and camera, speed. of action and editing and the rhythm of the music. Continuity: unobtrusive transition from shot to shot, scene to scene and sequence to sequence, which carries the viewer's attention along smoothly on the narrative. .

Dissolve or mix: the gradual mixing of the end of the one shot with the beginningkof the next, so that as one fades out the other fades in over it, and the- two mixed or superimposed shots appear on the screen together. This creates a longer pause between shots than z direct cut and is a leisurely, old-fashioned editing device now seldom used. In live television dissolves are achieved by mixing the pictures from two cameras which are shooting simultaneously._ A dissolve is (or was) often used. to indicate a passing of time between sequences or a transition to past or future time, before a flashback or flashforward.

Fade-out, $ade-in: the gradual fading of one shot to darkness ,~~followed by the gradual fading in of the next shot, usually to show along passage of time between sequences.

SOUND: Sound-track: either the narrow electronic band on one side of the frame of a film on which the sound is recorded - in a photographic trace with varying light transmission which reproduces the sound - or the separate tape of the sound-track. Speech: the various froms of speech on the sound-track, such ar dialogue and commentary (voice-over narration).

Natural Sound: either real sound recorded at its source or an imitation (sound effect).

Sound camera: a camera which photographs film and sound at the same time, thus creating instant sound-on film. This is useful in outside television interviews.

Dubbing: (i) Recording of the dialogue in ithe studio with the words of the actor matching his lip movements (post-sync) on the final edit of the silent film which he views on the screen. Most dialogue and effects and all music is now recorded in the studio long after the shooting. Sometimes different actors (with better voices) are used for dubbing. Though in foreign films language cannot match the lip movements of the original, it must occupy the same amount of time for each line of dialogue.

Synchronisation: The exact matching or co-ordination of all sound elements and pictures so that there is a natural relatiot between the sound and its source as shown in each picture (II) in particular, lip synchronisation (known as lip- sync) whereby the lip movements of the speaker seen on the screen match exactly the sound of his words. Wild Sound: sound effects and music which are created and recorded as background an no necessarily synchron' d w'th the film. **k jJJy,j~1,jy,j 1,wjth.*

Symbols you should and do kno

Most students know and understand SYMBOLS when they watch television or see a film. Here are a few that are common and you can look for when reading poetry (or a play or novel).

Times of year

Winter - death or lack of life. The ending of something like a relationship

Spring - new life or the beginning of something like a relationship

Fall - life fading, the winding down of something

Summer - life in its fullest, when things are ripe and alive.

Colours

' White - purity, innocence (not that innocence is not always a positive attribute - it may make the person vulnerable.

Black - evil, death or the unknown

Red - passion, fire or emotion

Green - envy or jealousy

Yellow - cowardice

Copyright Five Senses Education:Year 11 & 12 Poetry Workbook

This seminal .science fiction film, directed by Ridley new world and yet, even without dislocating move to , Scott, is one of the texts in the "Into the Wild" elective a elsewhere, the element of textual estrangement in module A of English Advanced (Comparative Study remains in effect since the focus is frequently on a of text and context). The film concerns itself with characterwho questions the dystopian society. Herein issues of humanity, identity and gender and it is a. lies the main irony of the film. It is not the film's testimony to how we envisage a future world ravaged protagonist (Deckard) who can teach us about the by ecological disaster and by a capitalist_ system gone benefits of humanity, but the replicants Rachel and berserk. Even though the film was financed by Roy who are both artificial constructs. Hollywood, the embodiment' of the capitalist system, the film is quite subversive in its ideology-given the In.order to appreciate the film's status as text one fact that it provides an upbeat happy ending. must address its standing in the continuum of dystopic science-fiction texts (particularly film texts). Like all The film is essentially a dystopia - a place worse than texts, much of the content of Blade Runner is echoed the one we live in. In this way, it shares a great deal in other texts particularly Fahrenheit 451, A Clockwork with Margaret Atwood's A Handmaid's Tale, which is Orange and, especially, Fritz's Metropolis. Ridley a prescribed text for the Speculative Fiction elective Scott has in fact revisualised that film as a type of in English Extension 1. postmodem homage. Race is at the core of the film. The film represents a futuristic Los Angeles which in The dystopian imagination has served as a prophetic itself echoes other urban spaces such as Tokyo. This vehicle for warning us of terrible sociopolitical vision of LA is populated by Asians, Latinos, African tendencies that could, if continued, turn our Americans, Middle Eastern, Buddhists, punks, contemporary world into iron cages portrayed in the dwarves and other examples of the exotic. What is realm of utopia's underside. made strong by its absence, of course is the WASP In the 1980s, utopian tendencies in fiction came to (White Anglo-Saxon Protestant) population. The an abrupt end. In the face of economic restructuring, cityscape is chaotic, confusing, loud, unsettling and right-wing politics, and a cultural milieu informed by to a degree prurient. The only representatives of the intensifying fundamentalism and commodifrcation, WASP population is the toy-maker, Sebastian who science fiction writers revived and reformulated the suffers from a degenerative disease and the geeky dystopian genre. Moving back in the dystopian Tyrell who reigns over the city as a modem-day Deity. tradition in the mid 1980s, the new creative movement However, this being a science-fiction text, we have another type of race, the.. replicants who were of cyberpunk (initially seen in this film and novels such as William Gibson's Necromancer) generated a designed as a slave race to further the interest of the usefully negative -if nihilistic imaginary as the impact :. humans. A band of rebel replicants come. to LA to of the conservative tum of the decade began to be seek out an extension of their life-span. The film does recognized in both,the social structure and everyday not explain why the presence of this race of artificial life. humans is forbidden on earth. One imagines that if they can make it to Earth they can also make it to the By 1984, the time,of. the prophetic Orwell text had a Off--World colonies and pollute that 'utopian world'. new general interest in the creative possibilities of Another reason could be simply fear, xenophobia or aystopian narrative. in i yts5 margaret AtWOod'S The the contempt that humans might have for artificial Handmaid's Tale` directly drew on the classical humans who apparently have no emotions. Ironically dystopian narrative even as it interrogated its limits enough, at the film's conclusion the leader of this band and suggested-new directions, This hovel critically of rebel replicants, Roy Batty, is'shown to be more voices the fears and anxieties of a range of new and humane than the real humans. fragmented social and sexual constituencies and identifies in post-industrial 'societies. The film presents a lucid visual hierarchical representation of race and economical prosperity. At Dystopias are characterized by social dreaming, a the bottom rung of this society one can find the designation that includes that dreams and nightmares replicants Like Zhora and Leon, the people of colour that concern the ways in which groups of people and other undesirables like the punks. Hovering arrange their lives and which eventually envision a above them are the police officers and various other radically different society from the one in which the representatives. of the law. Deckard and Sebastian dreamers live. live in high rise apartments above the teeming chaotic streets, protected by the'riff.raff through technological The dytopian text usually begins directly in the terrible security devices. The respectable denizens of this mETAphor Issue 12004 pap-65 ssociety presumably live on an higher level away from of identity. the pollution and the riff raff of the street level. Eldon Tyrell; the rule of the metropolis lives :in an actual What is lacking from LA in 2019 is a sense of humanity . pyramid that dominates the city's landscape. This and the film suggests it is due to a lack of emotion, hierarchy shows the viewer just how unnatural this love, empathy and sympathy. The replicants have world is. been designed to have no emotions and yet despite this design imprimatur they have developed . a The presentation of the urban area in the film is complex emotional circuitry. Leon clearly cares for fascinating. Skyscrapers. and high-rise living have not Zhora, Batty cares for Pris. When she is killed by resulted in a better life for people. In fact they are Deckard he howls like, a wounded animal and Rachel seen as disruptions for people's lives. This is a society whilst trying to come to terms with her identity that has so commodified human labour and animal . develops real feelings for Deckard (the. man whose life that it engineers it genetically; perfecting it to the job it was to kill her and the man who has destroyed point that only the most sophisticated devices can her self-perception). Finally; Batty.learns to forgive distinguish real from simulacrum- perhaps the film's Deckard as he is beginning. to accept his impending use of postmodern signposts would suggest that there death and his empathy for him, finally endows him is no point in trying to distinguish between what is with emotion and humanity. Ironically enough, the so- authentic and what is artifical. Ironically, the part of called lack of emotions in the replicants was*an echo the Voigt-Kampoff text that can betray a replicant rely of the emotional isolation of their creator, EldonTyrell, on natural images such as a "tortoise in the desert". whose only human contact was- to. play chess with Deckard is unsure of the borderlines between human Sebastian via satellite. Tyrell in fact feels the need to and humanoid but paranoia over its own create friends and companions (such as the. owl and accomplishments requires that this society keep the Rachel). Deckard at the end of the film manages to distinction viable. As with elitist paternalism and retrieve something of his humanity in.a city of dark divided labour technocracies, classes must be complexity thanks to the actions of non-humans. maintained. The film suggests that much of the 'wild' has been The confluence of race and class is clearly illustrated destroyed due to ecological catastrophes (all animals in the film. The replicants adopt the mannerism, in the film are artificial) and that the earth is almost lifestyle, language and look of the working class, the uninhabitable. The only humans who are permitted denizens who have no way of escaping the lower to migrate to a better place are those Who are stratas of the metropolis. This is illustrated by Leon considered to be perfect specimens - an eerie who works as a factory worker, Zhora who works as reminder of the eugenics of the Nazi party. In fact, an exotic dancer and Pris, a pleasure model, who Roy Batty is played by a German actor who does comfortably blends with the detritus of the city streets. purposely resemble the so-called 'Aryan prototype'.

Blade Runner also borrows The Director's cut from Metropolis the idea of the (which . is the robot- as a doppelganger (an prescribed HSC evil double). This is illustrated film) concludes with through Deckard and Batty Deckard and who act as the shadow self of Rachel facing an each other. The gesturality of ambiguous future. the two actors in the film's He is nonetheless climax illustrates this as they the bridge between are seen slumped in the same the genetic engineer position, having performed. and the genetically identical tasks. In fact it is . engineered. Batty's empathy.for Deckard Rachel's inception that saves him at the end of the date is unknown. film (as shown in the image) Deckard's real and imbues him with humanity ontological nature and. compassion. The absence remains elusive. of emotion is shown by both However, these two hero -and villain. Deckard hybrids are left shows no tenderness and alone to negotiate emotion in his seduction of the landscape of Rachel and' Batty shows no this futuristic city as emotion as he eliminates those who are in his way. they head into the wild. Both the replicants and Deckard rely on a plethora-of photographs to connect them to a past and a sense The focus questions that follow are designed to generate discussion on the film and how it fits into mETAphor Issue 12004 page66

the elective, 'In the Wild'. It is essential for students accompanying these credits and the tone that is to make their notes out of class and group established through this. discussions. 4. One of the first things we notice in the film is the 1. The setting of the film, LA in 2019, is important in dismembered eye. Do you think this is simply echoing appreciating the intention of the film. Consider the the position of the spectator or is it used in some following: other way as well?

the darkness enveloping the city? 5. How does Leon fails his eye test and what is the significance of this? the ethnicity of the city's inhabitants and the 6. Comment on the significance of Rachel's name. absence of a certain distinct. group of Americans. 7. How does design and costuming present Rachel as a femme fatale and in what ways does she subvert the function of English as 'the lingua franca'.. this stereotype? You may have to investigate this concept before responding. the juxtaposition of the deserted parts of the metropolis and other chaotic sections 8. Comment on the use of music as an emotional teeming with people. bridge for the audience when Rachel plays the piano. 2. The narrative structure of the film follows the typical 9. What is the significance of Zhora's comment, 'Do cause and effect pattern that was suggested ~by the you think I'd be working in a place like'this if I could theorist Tzvetan Todorov. According to him, film follow afford a real snake', in terms of the focus of this five clearly identifiable stages: module? the status quo which is where we are at the 10. Zhora's 'retirement (below) is ambiguous and commencement of the story complex as is the film itself. Comment on the following: a disruption to this status quo the presentation of Deckard as the hunter a recognition that the status quo of society and Zhora as the hunted has been altered due to this disruption the voyeuristic and graphic death of Zhora, an attempt to overcome the disruption and particularly her nakedness and her the consequences that have arisen as a representation as a 'predatory temptress' result of this the proxemics and topography involving a reinforcement of the..status quo of society. Zhora's final moments Identify how these five stages bccur.in the film and 11. One of the most challenging aspects of the film is howthey might differfron : a convenbonal .film. the ambivalence of the two leading male leads. In fact it is difficult to claim who is the hero and who is 3. Why do you think the credits are superimposed on the antagonist of the film. This ambiguity challenges a black screen? Ensure you.comment on the music the idea "binary oppositions" (identlified by the theorist)

. .. rpt~METAphorIssue 1. page67

critic Levi-Strauss). In the most simplistic one cannot his film reputation as 'hero' always on the side of appreciate 'kindness' if you are not aware of cruelty. good). Similarly 'goodness' cannot be understood if one has not experienced 'evil'. Nick Lacey, a teacher of media 18. Explore the ontology (physical state) of Deckard studies, has identified the following binary oppositions as presented throughout the film. Make sure you refer in the film: to the. following: human/inhuman organic/inorganic the unicorn dream sequence nature/artifice reality/illusion Gaffs origami figure original/simulacrum life/death Rachel's question if Deckard has taken the Voigt-Kampff test himself hunter/hunted Deckard's numerous photographs in his Provide support from the film to elaborate on these apartment and how these may connect him oppositions and suggest why this proliferation of to Leon's obsession of photographs as oppositions exists. To what extent are these binary testaments of real memories challenged or blurred? His cruel violation' of Rachel 12. Rachel is not the only character who is appropriately named: Comment on the oxymoronic The reflection in his eye which echo that of nature of Roy Batty's name (the character played with the owl machiavellian panache by.RutgerHauer). You may Bryant's statement that there are "six skin consult your French teacher as part of this. jobs" on the loose and yet we only meet five 13. What are Batty's qualities that make him a leader? throughout the course of the action (Leon, Batt)4 Zhora, Pris and Rachel) 14. Provide some instances that show Batty's callousness; cruelty and determination. Deckard and Batty repair their damaged hands in a similar fashion during the film's 15. The turning point of Batty's representation arrives climax after his wrathful killing of Tyrell as he leaves the company's headquarters. Comment on the 'point of The lack of a conventional happy ending view.' shot and the accompanying music and the (which was dropped in the director's cut) subsequent low-angle shot and what this signifies. 19. A lot of commentators have objected to the gender 16. Batty's journey in the film has been described as an Oedipal journey; one where the younger male goes in search of his father. In the Greek gruesome legend King Oedipus, who was abandoned as a child accidentally kills his father and then marries his mother. When the King discovers this he blinds himself. The psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud used this story as a metaphor about one's quest for identity, i.e. you can only become a functional adult when you overthrow the shackles and power of the 'father'. In the film; Batty seeks !out his creator and he wants himself to extend his 'shelf life' When he realises that his creator is both unable or unwilling to do this he blinds him and then kills him. This act of 'regicide/ patricide" can be seen as the rebuttal of capitalism which is embodied by Tyrell. The film critic Jack Boozer even suggests that the attack on Tyrell's eyes is an unsettling and. intentional attack on,, the "spectator's privileged voyeurism and figuratively representation of the -film. Do you think the film can threatens the.viewer's ideological complacency. be seen as misogynistic or does it. represent a dystopian patriarchal society which is misogynistic? Comment on Batty's death and how his empathy with In your response consider the following: Deckard is vital in our appreciation that humanity that is at the crux of this film. • the physical violation of Rachel

17. Deckard is played by a Hollywood superstar,_ the appropriation of the femme fatale and the Harrison Ford. What is the impact of this?Consider subsequent subversion of this. archetype of mETAphor Issue 12004 page68 this in favour of the 'damsel in distress' use of film genre. Research postmodernism and explore the appropriateness of this way of thinking in the status of Pris as a pleasure model and the construction of ideology. You may like to consider her disembowelment and subsequent the following elements in your exploration: agonizing death the full score by Vangelis, particularly in the the graphic killing of a scantily-clad Zhora use of 'oriental' singing at different junctures the absence of female characters in retrofitting in terms of the construction of the professional roles set and its look 20. Explore the function of the enigmatic Tyrell who eclecticism in architecture appears to control this futuristic hellish world. In doing this consider the following: bricolage his genius in designing the replicants which You might like to read through this extract by Janet are most humane than humans Staiger before submitting your response: "Postmodernism in a future noirtext like Blade Runner the process of intertextuality and Tyrell's is note necessary transition in history. Instead a more parallels with the eponymous Mary Shelley's political bite lies within the function of this style for novel, Frankenstein. this film. The criticism and commodification of modes Tyrell's presence on earth and why he has of living, of divisions between styles and culture, of not left for the "off world colonies" elitism and of surfaces emptied of meaning despite utopian hopes. The major economic and political his delusional grandeur and representation institutions may reside in modern architectural via religious iconography monuments, but their offspring are postmodern urban strips nostalgically imitating design styles that only his stylised glasses and his ability to see convey the context of 'product. things clearly 24. Natural lighting usually privileges important his innate sadomasochism characters within film. When you see characters like Elizabeth and Darcy in the BBC adaptation of the Jane his sexuality Austen classic, Pride and Prejudice they are always lit 21. According to the film commentator, William M. from a natural source and are almost exclusively in full, sun. This is away for the film-makers to tell us that they Korb, "Gaff is a man of the future, a multilingual are 'worthy' characters and we should admire them. In bureaucrat with Oriental skin, Japanese eyes and contrast, Blade Runner is lit almost exclusively in an blue irises." This makes Gaff very intriguing indeed. expressionistic manner and there are no instances Some people have suggested: where we can witness any natural light. The panoramic opening shot of the metropolis is shot in sombre colours he acts as a narrative skeleton in the film (sepia tones) and the most brightly lit objects are the he acts in the same manner as a Greek neon billboards. Other elements which is brightly lit in chorus the film is the'advertisement for the'Off World Colonies' and the police vehicles. he is a representation of a Satanic figure due to his cruelty and beard Explore the lighting used in the film and whether or not Scott is trying to represent a realist representation of a he is a composer like Chew, Sebastian and city. In this you must address: Tyrell who are all flawed characters the dark shadows that dominate Deckard's he is a guide for Deckard apartment What do you think is the function of this character the ambience inside Tyrell's corporation and what is the significance of the semantic pun the instance where Pris is pretending to be a inherent in his choice of name? You may also like to toy when Deckard comes to retire her consider the three paper figures he constructs in the film and the narrative function (a.chicken, a stick man the mise-en-scene in three pivotal scenes. with an erect penis and :a unicorn). the lighting and symbolism of Batty's death 22. How can you connect Sebastian's 'Methuselah (including the dove) Syndrome' with the film's status as a dystopian text? the blackness of the last frame of the film 23. The composition of the film owes a great deal to when Deckard and Rachel are in a lift which postmodernism, particularly in its design, music and may or may not convey them to safety.

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