The Filth

The Filth reminds me of The Ticket That Exploded in the way that it's cut up and takes the reader on a turn without warning, as well as the way it's provocative and violent. Yet, this time around I'm more distracted by the drawings and how they illustrate the story. Sometimes it takes me longer to read a page in this book than other books because I spend a lot of time looking at the pictures and what's going on inside of them. The concepts are really interesting too, especially the idea that the Dr. Soon created a "terrarium" of sorts to host tiny cooperative organisms to persuade viruses (or other diseases such as cancer) to help the body instead of kill. Another interesting part was the superhero part and how the person in the comic is actually reading the comic he was previously a part of. I think it's interesting that the characters Adam and Eve have the names they have and how Adam is very adamant about breaking the barrier between their world and the world of the person who is writing their lives. I like the concept that the people in the comic book are real people yet forced to live a life written or "prescribed" for them. The bouncing back and forth between the different scenes and different situations going on is also very interesting and different to think about. Officer Slade and his battles with amnesia (if he's even suffering from it and The Hand is really just manipulating him), I like the professional assassin who's a dope smoking chimp (I think this character is interesting and I look forward to seeing more of him throughout the story)...The superhero part of the comic is very cliché because most comic books are superhero comic books, yet this time they're not necessary battling a super villain but their whole existence that takes place on paper and with words and illustrations - it's also ironic and somewhat predictable that S.O. is obsessed with going into the oversphere even though he's not entirely sure it exists. There's so many contradictions that I find it a bit hard to wrap my mind around it, and the bouncing between situations and characters without warning is also a bit confusing - yet as I read on the characters cross paths and the scenes make more sense (in that I can comprehend them easier) as the story continues. I'm curious to find out what happened to put S.O. on the other side -- he is now disabled and unable to go back to his life as he once knew it, he's forced to read the comics involving his life. I like how he explains that there's other volumes or other stories involving him and Eve but in a provocative and "sick sex situations I've never even thought of," yet he admits to watching them because, "it's the closest I can get...to how it once felt to love you." Although he never had these sick sexual experiences with her, the only way for him to feel the love he used to is by being turned on by her loss of control and decency? This is weird and hard to understand, but interesting because it is so hard to understand. I can't wait to read more.

RiboFunk

So, this is one of the more interesting books we've read in this class so far...I think anyway. I find it interesting because of the way it's broken up into different stories. I'm a bit confused by how they're all related, although I know all the characters are apart of the same world which I'm also pretty sure is our world perhaps just in the future. I'm drawn to the idea of multiple species that interact, like splices and humans. I'm also drawn to the idea of changing oneself (bodymods) for multiple different reasons. One character, for example (the PI who is in more than one story) is required to have bodymods if he wants to continue working for the Protein Police. The descriptions of all the different types of people and creatures is, at some times, unimaginable because of the boundaries the author pushes. It's hard for me to picture a human with jaguar and fish qualities, or "tattoons" that move. I like how the many different characters choose different things to do to their bodies, and how it's almost unthought of to not have body mods done. In Brain Wars the person writing the letters mentions to his "host mother" that his love interest has less than 20% bodymods and that this is something impressive. For a person to be happy being the way they are without artificial changes to their body is hard to come by in this time; let alone in a time where people can make themselves run faster, learn faster, climb up buildings, have leopard patterned skin, or change themselves into roaches (although this seems to be looked down upon as a race that is disgusting and I agree, who would want to be a bug?) - but even in our days people do things to enhance their bodies (although it's mostly for physical appearances and often done not for oneself but for the image portrayed through our society that becomes harder and harder to reach.

The revolution of the splices is something I saw comming. It's only natural for a independent thinker kept in captivity and slavery to dream and fantasize about being free. After reading "Little Worker" I was surprised at how complacent she was with her life style, although that was all she knew, she didn't have any thoughts or feelings about being free. As the book continued though I began to see, especially in "The Bad Splice" that not all splices where treated as well as little worker was and had they been treated better this need for revolution may not have arised. But, even given respect and treated well, a being cannot be satisfied with their life as a servant. The former PI (I cannot seem to find his name since he talks in the first person and is hardly every addressed by his name) even grasps this concept when Graham-Ballard becomes upset and says, "Creatures with up to forty-nine percent human genes are property?" (157) He is doing his job, but the morality of slavery becomes something that he starts to question; afterall, what right do humans have to rule over a creature simply because they're not considered human?

I feel as though Burroughs wants to desensitize his audience by using a constant stream of vulgar descriptions and very surprising sexual encounters; almost as though he wants us to not be distracted by the sexual aspects of the so-called story. The characters are being taught to "maintain a state of total alertness during sexual excitement" (75); and maybe he's trying to the same to us. He wants the sex and the weirdness of the provocativeness to not surprise us, he wants us to accept it.

Maybe...he wants us to be turned on by it...it seems sick, but the ideas in this book are pretty sick.

So, it's been hard to wrap my mind around this book, yet I'm not sure if I'm supposed to be able to. I surprised constantly by the behavior and lifestyles of the characters. Especially when the man uses frogs' eggs as lubricant and then Ali cums into a jar where the eggs turned into little frogs. I can't help but be disgusted by the idea of this actually happening. I fall into the pattern where I don't want to read anymore because it's so choppy and hard to understand, but I get lost in these chaotic missions or sections where the absurdity of the situations is unbelievable. I constantly compare it to our society and our lifestyles, and how what seems perfectly open and normal to these characters would be spat upon by our society. Our society constantly bears down the pressure that sex is sacred and supposed to be between a married couple. Yet, MOST people don't abide by those "rules" or don't admit to breaking them. Being promiscuous is considered a bad thing for a woman, but for a man it's not seen as a big issue. There are no women in the story, which is interesting to me and I wonder why that is. Perhaps if the characters were women our reaction as the audience would be different towards the character. Would we have an emotional connection with the woman and feel sorry for her because she was being taken advantage of? And we don't feel this way because the characters are male and we assume that they wouldn't let it happen if they didn't want to let it happen? The sex is so casual and there's no emotional connection between the people involved and its such a masculine way of looking at sex, if there were women in the story the dynamic would change drastically.