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Fhere is a long tradition of Human monsters, then, both ontology, like ours, is acutely representing the human fulfil the necessary function of entwined with technology and species in monstrous states the binary opposite that prosthetics. His steel scis- of being. These imaginary confirms the normalcy and sorhands mark him as configurations continue to centrality of the accultured simultaneously human and proliferate in actual scientific self, and at the same time not human, normal and endeavour and in popular threaten to disrupt that binary pathological, exposing the cuiture, especially science by being ail too human. ^ 'fragility of the very taken-for fiction/techno-horror films. grantedness of such catego- 1931 2008 Monsters are boundary Edward Scissorhands ries'.^ Since Edward's creatures that inhabit the (Johnny Depp), the protago- prosthetic hands are a FILM nterstice between the dead nist in Tim Burton's 1990 film dominant external feature of and undead, human and not of the same name, is one his body and signify a I ^TEXT human; they encapsulate such manifestation. As 'made' distinction between his 1 ontological distinctions within rather than 'born', Edward ap- otherwise human appearance one body. As such, they pose pears super-human. However, and a machine, he reflects JULIE a threat to human integrity. his machine-like body betrays characters from science 93 CLARKE Margrit Shildrick explains: him as 'all too human'; his fiction/horror films who also 2008 FILM STEXT
have prosthetic hands, such couture and aliude to the It is through this dual image neighbourhood and on as Darth Vader in Star Wars figure of the vampire. Like of Edward as a liminal television, buf returns at the (George Lucas. 1977), the most vampires, Edward iives vampire/cyborg figure that end of the film to his isolated evii razor-fingered Freddy in a seciuded mansion, is Burton constructs disability existence in the mansion. As Krueger from A Nightmare oti powerful in some respect as fantasy. By placing him in fantasy space, the elaborate, Elm Street (Wes Craven, and is potentially immortal. a Gothic mansion replete ornate manor appears to 1984) and Wolverine in However, although Edward with winding staircase and provide a marked contrast to X-Men (Bryan Singer, 2000). accidentally draws blood decorative interiors. Burton the homogenous contempo- Although such characters are from himself and others reminds us that historically rary architecture of the perceived as monstrous because he cannot fuliy those with anomalous bodily suburban town and the because they are part control his razor-sharp forms were isolated from the reality of everyday life. Indeed, at the beginning of the film, when Kim (Winona Ryder) tells her granddaugh- NLIKIi IHIi IliVirOHiVMlY on HI! ter the story of Edward, the view outside the bedroom window is of a Gothic mansion graced by a veil of softly falling snow. Framed l'll.iVM:l)WA»l) SIAiVDS Oill AS as fantasy space, this vista evokes landscapes that may lliVllSIIAL, i:XliilM.AKY AiVI) lliVIOllli. have been used in a Victori- an snow globe - a small transparent glass sphere that machine, the presence of hands, he differs from rest of the community in contained an enclosed, prosthesis underscores an vampires in that he does not institutions (often disused enchanted view of the world inherent human vulnerability, need to feed off blood to mansions) or else paraded made more so by the one we associate in real life survive. Edward is depicted as public curiosities. These presence of gently falling with disability. as child-like, distant and contrary views of public and snow in a liquid emulsion. asexual. In this respect he is private space are presented This scene connects to one Although Edward is a also vampirjc, for although in the narrative. at the end of the film when machine, his androgynous vampires have been depict- Kim dances underneath cascading snowflakes that features, ashen complexion ed as sexually attractive, Initially Edward is depicted fall from an ice sculpture that and black leather clothing their allure is covert. as alone. He is later dis- Edward has made of her. The 94 reflect subcultural goth played as a spectacle in the film also makes reference to body. A scene towards the underscores that disabled The garden in Edward the fantasy space of child- end of the film that shows people are commended Scissorhands. which allows hood, evoked by the miniature Edward slashing the walls in when, in spite of their us to see Edward's expertise world of the snow globe, frustration attests to the fact disability, they show exem- and obvious creativity in through an aerial view of the that he understands that his plary skill in some area. forming animals and other suburb which makes (t look hands are not only tools, but However, the reality is that, shapes within the shrubbery. like a tiny toy town, complete can be used as a weapon unlike Edward, many Is also there to make a with pastel-coloured houses against himself and others. disabled individuals still distinct point about the and cars. This suggests that find it extremely difficult division between the natural even the space of reality is Burton highlights Edward's to find meaningful work world and the unnaturalness imbued with a sense of prosthetic hands as tools by and often face employment of Edward's body. fantasy, which is reinforced revealing the direct relation- discrimination. by the ready acceptance of ship between the hands as Paradoxically the garden and Edward despite his being tool and the tool (scissors) as Burton attempts to humanize nature itself are revealed as markedly different from his hands. By doing so he the monster (or, in this case, similar to Edward, for they neighbours. reveals that humans have normalize the disability) by are highly constructed and always been tool users and, contrasting Edward's pruning formed through technologi- When the neighbourhood as such, we might perceive with the routine tasks of his cal intervention. Edward, as Avon lady. Peg (DIanne ourselves to be prosthetically neighbours, who also prune machine construct and Wiest). rescues Edward from enhanced. Since Edward is their trees and mow their shaper of things around him, his life of isolation and brings unable to feel human fiesh lawns each weekend. Since becomes a metaphor for the him into her home, she through his steel hands, it is these activities require impact of technologies on consults 'the big Avon the work that he does with repetitive movements, the organic world, particular- handbook' for an appropriate these tools that is alternately Edward's own mechanistic ly those deployed in its cosmetic foundation to cover valued and demonized in behavior may be perceived redesign or modification. the thick, deep scars on the narrative. Edward's as typically human.^ We When Edward looks towards Edward's face. The scars neighbours overcome their might also view Edward's a gigantic human hand that indicate that he has cut xenophobia and value him work in the garden as he has fashioned from shrub- himself many times while when he becomes a produc- nostalgia for a time when bery, we are alerted to the perfecting the use of his tive worker within their there was a direct physical visual and material differenc- scissorhands. This self-cutting community. He is applauded relationship between the es between his hands and a (accidental or otherwise) may for his propensity to cut hair, human body and work, one human hand. Undulating be the way that Burton fur, ice and shrubbery into that has been lost with fluidity is contrasted with depicts a self-effacing act, creative styles and shapes. It post-industrialization and cold, hard rigidity. This scene one that rejects the disabled is in this respect that Burton informatics. also shows that the concept 2008 FILM of the human emerges reference to the clone-like, wound of technology, since a dimensions of the jaw and through nature but is homogenous individuals who prosthesis represents the cheek bone, excessive determined by culture. live in identical suburban loss of a bodily part; however, length of arms [and] imbal- houses where most of the his body also characterizes ance of the hemispheres of The relationship between the film's narrative Is set. our own forays into human/ the brain' were indications hand and technology is Moreover, Edward, like the machine hybridization in an of a predisposition to further exemplified in the cookie-cutter apparatus, attempt to advance humanity criminality.^ Burton follows scene in which Edward appears destined by his and make it stronger. this nineteenth-century watches Peg using a can mechanical hands to be Overcoming is about all notion of what is considered opener. We are privy to a involved in a repetitive cutting things turning back on monstrous and criminal by moment when Edward's action that enables him to themselves in order to go presenting Edward with an inventor (Vincent Price) create shapes in the sur- forward. In Nietzsche's unusual persona and stands beside a machine rounding shrubbery. However, words, 'Pain is also joy, a excessively long and large complete with robotic unlike the uniformity of the curse is also a blessing, the hands, which become assemblage that breaks biscuits and the suburban night is aisc a sun.'^ directly linked with a feloni- eggs, beats and rolls dough characters in the film, Edward ous act. Edward is labelled a and, finally, with cookie-cutter stands out as unusual, While some readings thief after he picks a padlock stamps, presses various exemplary and unique. suggest that Edv\/ard and steals high-tech stereo shapes into the biscuit Scissorhands parallels Mary equipment from Jim's mixture. When the inventor According to Friedrich Shelley's Frankenstein or. (Anthony Michael Hall) holds a heart-shaped ccokie Nietzsche in Human, Alt Too The Modern Prometheus father's shop. His intellectual up to a life-sized humanoid Human: (1818), Edward's inventor acumen is also questioned robot, signifying his desire to neither rejects him nor instils after he is arrested, when create a more human Wherever progress is to in him a sense of worthless- Jim tells Kim, 'My old man construct (which eventuates ensue, debating natures are ness that leads to crime. thinks he's retarded, other- in his realization of Edward), of greatest importance. Every However, Burton does adopt wise he'd still be in jail.' we recall at once the Tin Man progress of the whole must some of the sensibilities of in The Wizard of Oz (Victor be preceded by a partial Frankenstein (James Whale, Negative statements are Fleming, 1939). weakening. The strongest 1931) in which the deviant balanced in the film by natures retain the type, body of the monster is positive affirmations, such The cookie-cutter device the weaker ones help correlated with a deviant as one from Joyce (Kathy demonstrates the ability of a to advance it.* psychology. In The Criminal Baker) when she tells machine to reproduce Man (1876) Cesare Lombro- Edward he is 'not handi- multiple copies of a single Edward's scissorhands so maintained that 'deviation capped, but exceptional'. 96 unit over and over again - a signify the dehumanizing in head size, excessive Even so, the women at Peg's barbeque feed Edward Edward is a machine, Burton have such intimate proximity machines - like hysterical because he is unable to. is alerting us to the primary to his body.^ His lack of women, the mentally ill or affirming that no matter how differences between humans control over his prosthetic criminally insane - might also capable, he is still treated as and machines, one of which hands is more akin to the become out of our control. someone less than compe- is an inability on the part of difficulties experienced by Dr tent. Likewise, Kevin (Robert the machine to convincingly Strangelove (Peter Sellers) in Regardless, Edward cannot Oliveri) takes Edward to convey emotion. Dr. Strangelove or: How I touch another human being school for 'Show and Tell', Learned to Stop Worrying without cutting them. Might reminding us that in the past Although he is adept at and Love the Bomb (Stanley this also be a trope for the individuals considered cutting hair, fur, shrubbery, Kubrick, 1964), whose way that human beings different were often paraded around in travelling shows. According to Cory Sampson, iiKioiv SHOWS II1AI wmmloiicii is ivoi Edward's inability to socialize or to touch another human 10 lii: livriiKPKiniii) i.niiRAi.t.YrHiH)ii(iH being and his exceptional abilities in one particular area echo the symptoms of iMi: ACT 01- \mmm mmwm \m\\\ ONir Asperger's Syndrome. 'Often, individuals with HAiVDSinillliAIOOiillNICAIl Asperger's Syndrome desire social interaction, but are unable to perform socially due to this deficit in inter- preting subtle and unwritten vegetables and ice, Edward prosthetic arm rose up in a wound each other in a social rules.'' Sampson's is by many standards 45-degree Hitler salute myriad of ways? This fear of focus reveals the power of physically disabled. He is whenever his unconscious hurting another is dramati- psychiatry and medicine to unable to open a door, dress fascist tendencies arose. In cally depicted towards the name and label difference himself or use eating utensils both cases, the action ofthe end of the film when Kim and to propose cures that without cutting himself. He prosthesis appears to mirror asks Edward to hold her. will bring those considered suffers cuts to his face and an internal psychology, one Although he says that he less than human into the body because he can't fully related to an out-of-control can't touch her, she folds his realm of the 'normal*. It is control the actions of his state. Since the Industrial arms around her body in a more likely that, since long knife-like hands, which Revolution it was feared that loving embrace. Ironically, in 9 1931 2008 FILM the next scene we are taken has been published extensively with almost-identical Allegory', The Tim Burton back to the moment in which in Australia, Canada, the houses, complete with Collective, 2004, This Film As Text guide was produced by ATOM [email protected] > For more information on SCREEN EDUCATION magazine, or to download other free study guides: http://www.ntetroniagazin&com.au > For hundreds of articles on Film as Text, Screen Literacy, Multiliteracy and Media Studies: http://www.theeducatlonshop.coin.au > If you would like to be invited to free screenings for teachers, please email [email protected] writing 'Subscribe'. Please indicate in which 98 state or territory you are located. ^_^