110 "#$%#&' )*)#$'&+' ,-./ +& 0 (/2) !"!$%&'()*+,*-. !"#$% &'()*+% ,"%-*(.% e Sexual and the Virtual in Spike Jonze’s Her 456: .-.89-0/.9002/0-...-<<</ ='>'? @*&#ABCDBEF GB>%H IJ'KCA 5> =C'$ 111 One of the most successful, both Nnancially and critically, Nlms of the ,-./ -("(%0123+!*4!56 $ cinema season was Her (dir. Spike Jonze, ,-./), a romantic comedy combining /!)$0++1$2+)*31*13$ !12$4+!-/*13$-&(')+)$ the by -numbers love -story plot with science -Nction elements: the non -humanity &1$5136&$758+'*-!1$[68$ of its female lead character and the temporal setting. Acclaimed for the origi- !12$!-!2+8*-$,'*4*13$ !4$4/+$:136*)/$;4(2*+)$ nal combination of genres (which brought it an Oscar in the Best Writing, 2+<!'48+14=$>1*?+')*4@$ Original Screenplay category), Her has encountered critical voices doubting &"$;&-*!6$;-*+1-+)$!12$ the purported originality of Jonze’s Nlm and tracing plot -related aVliations A(8!1*4*+)$)*1-+$BCCDE$ A+$*)$-(''+146@$<'+<!'*13$ with a number of at least equally worthy predecessors, such as Conceiving Ada !$F/G$2*))+'4!4*&1$ (dir. Lynn Hershman -Leeson, .<<Z), Teknolust (dir. Lynn Hershman -Leeson, &1$4/+$)4'!4+3*+)$&"$'+)*7 )4!1-+$!12$!))*8*6!4*&1$ ,--,), and Electric Dreams (dir. Steve Barron, .<20). Each of the Nlms employs *1$4/+$F&6*)/$OI(++'P$!12$ the strategy which Parikka (,-.-: .Z/) describes as translating “technology into !?!14$73!'2+$[68$!12$ intimacy, desire, and sexuality.” While the two Nlms by Hershman -Leeson ?*2+&$7!'4$<'!-4*-+)E$ put technology in the context of female sexuality, Electric Dreams seems akin to Her at least on the surface narrative level. Both Nlms o_er stories K$ E$>E$;*'*()$,'*4+)$ of protagonists involved in romantic relationships with operating systems; !0&(4$4/+$)/'+2)$ &"$4/+$1+?+'$8!4+'*!6*.+2$ both ultimately o_er denouements, in which the non -human is rejected and -&66!0&'!4*&1$0+4,++1$ the human is embraced as the paragon of the real. ;<*L+$M&1.+$!12$N@11$ A+')/8!1$7N++)&1$!4$/*)$ {ough separated by almost three decades and the stunning develop- O;4+!6$O/*)$;*13(6!'7 ment of digital technologies, both Her and Electric Dreams avoid including *4@P$06&3P$> NQ$/44<QRR in their narratives the potentially rich texture of political and social issues, )4+!64/*))*13(6!'*4@E-&8R 6&13$76@11$7/+')/8!17 such as modalities of state control in the technology dominated society, 76++)&1$7?*'4(!67 along with the anxiety such control produces. As for the latter, this omis- 7<+')&1!)RDSK$TUK$%!'$ sion does not particularly surprise: Barron’s movie was primarily targeted BCKVWE$ as a mainstream |ick, an intentionally shallow summer -holiday movie in the vein of the superNcial .<2-s comedy genre. Her , on the other hand, B !"#$%&'$ (&#)*+ is a mainstream yet festival -circuit contemporary -auteur Nlm, penned by 0+6&13)$4&$4/+$1&4$<!'7 4*-(6!'6@$/*3/6@$7+)4++8+2$ the director of Being John Malkovich (.<<<) and Adaptation (,--,). While )(0$73+1'+$&"$4/+$8*27 Her is posited far from the postmodern bricolage of the latter two, presenting 7KXYC)$0*3$7)4(2*&$O4+-/*+P$ -&8+2*+)$&'*+14+2$ instead a less meta -approach to storytelling, it does include elements that seem !4$@&(13$!(2*+1-+)=$ to playfully interact with both the Nlm -genre tradition and the characteriza- )(-/$!)$,#)" -#.'/+ $T2*'E$ tion of its romantic protagonists, distancing itself from the tropes found in %!'4/!$Z&&6*23+=$KXY[W$ &'$ 0#'&1 2$'#.$# T2*'E$ science -Nction movies. M&/1$A(3/+)=$KXY[WE$ Blooming in the .<2-s, the U.S. dystopic IG Nlm genre pictured the post- ! modern Western human body as marked by the increasing control. {e gal- U$ O/+$KXYC)$0'&(3/4$ loping technological development has not reversed the trend, in fact increasing !$)4'*13$&"$)+8*1!6$;\$ 2@)4&<*-$8&?*+)=$)(-/$ the tendency to picture individuals as forced to succumb to the growing state !)$3&)4'" T2*'E$O+''@$ surveillance. As Agamben (,--2: ,-,) observes in his scathing text on the U.S. ]*66*!8=$KXY[W=$ 3")1# ,/..#& T2*'E$ *26+@$;-&44=$ digital surveillance measures, the central aim of the state’s biopolitical control KXYBW=$&'$ 56# 5#&*'.)%7& is curbing the activity of a potentially dangerous class of citizens, i.e. assuming T2*'E$M!8+)$Z!8+'&1=$ they are “suspect[ s ] par excellence.” Travelling to the “allegedly democratic” KXYVW=$,*4/$4/+$3+1'+$ '+8!*1*13$<&<(6!'$*1$ U.S., one has to succumb to security measures such as having his Nngerprints 4/+$"&66&,*13$@+!')=$,*4/$ taken and Nled by the immigration oVces (Agamben ,--2: ,-.). {e philoso- [68)$)(-/$!)$58#"9# :7.;#<+ $T2*'E$O+''@$ pher sees the biopolitical -control attempts, along with the constantly exerted ]*66*!8=$KXX[W=$ 2%&).=# pressure to accept them as routine and obligatory, as mechanisms dangerously ()<+ $T2*'E$^!4/+'@1$ akin to the ones operating in the concentration camps, where tattooing was _*3+6&,=$KXX[W=$ -)%> %)$) T2*'E$512'+,$`*--&6=$ the common, eVcient, and undisputed practice of registering the deportees. KXXSW=$ ()&; ?'%< T2*'E$56+a$ Such an extended apparatus of control has reached the symbolic threshold F'&@!)=$KXXYW=$ !@/'"'A> of what Foucault called “the progressive animalization of man” (Kozak ,--<: &'/* T2*'E$^('4$b*88+'=$ BCCBW=$!12$8&)4$'+-+146@$ .-2). In the contemporary Western states, the increasing employment of con- 2.78B'#&$#& T2*'E$M&&17 trol measures over its citizens is propelled by the technological development, 7/&$_&13=$BCKUWE$ which enables techniques such as Nngerprint and retina electronic scanning or subcutaneous tattooing. 112 "#$%#&' )*)#$'&+' ,-./ +& 0 (/2) {e e_ects of the biopolitical control, characteristic of the modern Western regimes, are visible in the attitudes towards the body, its sexual functions, and disease. {e latter is understood not as an intermission in one’s healthy life with the potential of one of the two outcomes: betterment or death; it is a complex political phenomenon, in which one’s decreased eVciency directly a_ects the society, thereby increasing economic costs it has to endure (Kozak ,--<: .-<). Equalling “individual” with “population,” biopolitical control mechanisms coin the trope of the non -individual body, which is involved in the two sequences of body -related discourses: one submitting the body to the institutional disciplinary strategies, and the other, in which the body is perceived as involved in the series of biological state -regulated population- -oriented processes. {e biopolitical control correlates with consumption. According to Bauman (.<<8: <2), the postmodern body is primarily the organ of consumption; its proper functioning is measured by its ability to consume and assimilate everything that the society produces. Baudrillard (,--8: 9 – Z) sees the postmodern societies as “masses,” drifting somewhere in between passivity and untamed spontaneity. {e social sphere is in fact the sphere of waste, dead institutionalized rela- tions, and dead discourses. {e society, or rather “the masses,” is devoured by what it produces; it is an empty category, a universal alibi to any discourse; absorbed by economy, society emulates its own death through simulation and overproduction. It is due to the masses, as Baudrillard (,--8: 9, – 9/) claims, that the grand medical consumption is on the rise, the consumption whose dimension levels remain in stark contrast to the ethically primary goals of medicine. It is the masses that consume painkillers and vitamin diet supplements, being inundated with the |ood of commercials encouraging to do so. It is the masses that stimulate the thriving activity of pharmaceuti- cal companies, producing medicine not primarily to cure but also to satisfy the mass demand. It is the masses that employ medicinal inventions while searching for new forms of attaining sexual pleasure. One of the instances of the distortions of the primarily medicinal use is the fad involving Truvada, an anti -retroviral drug originally conceived as a cure for 6 -infected patients. {e drug is reported to be popularly used in condomless sex intercourses by healthy individuals in order to avoid the risk of contracting the virus (Janiszewski ,-.0). Efavirenz, another 6 antiretroviral drug, is, in turn, said to be misused as a recreational drug that allows its users to attain a rare form of “hallucinogenic high” (Fortune ,-.0). Among other non -medical yet sex -related technological innovations, there is “Electric Eel”, a special type of condom with the in -built chip allowing to deliver electric impulses for increased stimulation of the penis (Plafke ,-.0). {e fantasy of “outsourcing” sex onto avatars portrayed in IG movies is also becoming possible since, as Gander (,-.0) reports, scientists have conducted a successful experiment in which a monkey with an implanted brain chip could control the movements of another monkey’s body. While the original aim of the experiment was to help paralyzed people with the spinal cord damage regain control over their body movements, the possibility of having neuro -control over another living organism’s body may be used in sexual encounters. {is would be then the fulNllment of the scenarios shown in Strange Days (dir. Kathryn Bigelow, .<<8), set in the dystopian war -torn Los Angeles of the then -near future of the break of the ,- th and ,. st centuries, where people use I64’s (“Superconducting Quantum Interference Device”), memory recording devices that let them relive the experiences of their original ='>'? @*&#ABCDBEF GB>%H IJ'KCA 5> =C'$ 113 wearers, experiences often involving kinky and violent sex; or in eXistenZ (dir. David Cronenberg, ,---), set in the society of gamers who operate their game consoles through bio -ports installed in the players’ spines; or in Holy Motors (dir. Leos Carax, ,-.,), where the protagonist participates in a performed sex scene, choreographed so as to lend movements to virtual characters on screen, which are then possibly fed into erotic video games; or Nnally in Her, which chooses as its climactic scene a failed threesome between a male human, a female non -human, and a female body stand -in for the latter.