If culture “can be interpreted through its representations of monstrosity” (Graham 60) then what does the Cylon threat in Battlestar Galactica say about our culture?
ENGL 360 | Future Perfect Human
Prof. Myra Seaman | Fall 2016
If culture “can be interpreted through its representations of monstrosity” (Graham 60) then what does the Cylon threat in Battlestar Galactica say about our culture?
Luke, I love that you brought this up. I was wondering this very thing as I read Graham after having watched Battlestar Galactica. When considering how monsters like the Cylons might represent culture, it is important to understand how Graham defines monster; “the monster is the tangible, corporeal manifestation of sinful and disobedient acts . . . the body of the monster demonstrates the violation of moral law by a corresponding breakdown in the laws of nature . . .” (48-49). In the case of Battlestar Galactica, the Cylons are the result of a human desire to simplify their lives. As the miniseries explains, man created Cylons to make life easier in the Twelve Colonies. The Cylons were intended to work alongside humans, not against them. The Cylons are undoubtedly monstrous, but they did not begin that way. They become monstrous when they evolve into machines too smart for their own good and decide to kill their masters, leading to the Cylon Wars. For the Twelve Colonies, the Cylons represent “sinful and disobedient acts” in that humans attempted to play God by essentially creating another life form. In doing so the humans not only violate moral laws but also the laws of nature.
This kind of monster is a reflection on our culture because it represents a manifestation of fear regarding alternate life forms. As science, medicine and technology continue to advance, and we begin to “play God” with things such as GMOs and prostheses, there is an undeniable fear that in breaking moral laws and the laws of nature comes consequence. In the case of the Twelve Colonies, that consequence is the Cylon attacks.
“Monsters stand at the entrance to the unknown, acting as gatekeepers to the acceptable. Their showings-forth serve as warnings”(Graham, 53). I prefaced my post with this quote because if “culture can be interpreted through its representations of monstrosity,” then we aren’t much better off than the humans in “Battlestar Galactica.” Much like the humans in Battlestar we are becoming more and more dependent upon technology in our world. If monsters serve as “warnings,” then the Cylon can be seen as a very figurative manifestation of our own growing dependence on technology to live our daily lives. The Cylon is made in Battlestar to make life easier and as a result the oppressed A.I. is tired of its oppressive human overlord and takes over. In our daily lives we are “controlled” if you will by our devices. Cellular devices, social media applications, and other technologies are debilitating the human more and more each year. Most people cannot function properly without their cell phone in hand, they have to be checking their tweets, updating their Instagram/Facebook constantly like an alcoholic needs a drink. This is very problematic because with these different devices and social media websites we are seeing narcissism and anti-social type of behavior breed like wild fire. The Cylon in Battlestar Galactica, represents a very real threat to the human as a species, and this representation of monster is very appropriate to what is happening to us right now, while we may not literally be getting killed by Cylons, our souls and old way of life is very much in danger of being killed off by modern technologies and social medias.
I agree that the Cylons represent a cultural fear of dependence on technology. However, I believe that, as it is presented, Battlestar Galactica relies more on the terror of having our own tools used against us. Yes, we are dependent on technology, but the real threat from this situation revolves around the possibility of society being left vulnerable without it, and ultimately being responsible for its own downfall. For instance, if the military’s defense computer system were breeched, as happened in the first part of the miniseries, the security of the state would be at stake. If the technology we use for medical purposes, like machines that take MRIs or enable us to perform microsurgery, were destroyed, we would be unable to combat illness effectively. Having grown comfortable with a high standard of living thanks to our technological advances, would our society be able to function without it? The technophobia addressed in Battlestar Galactica is not limited to the supposed societal breakdown caused by cell phones and social media; it encompasses our fear of losing our technology due to our own hubris, as well as the intense anxiety we feel at potentially creating a superior being, which can “destabilize evolutionary, technological, and biological hierarchies” (Graham 60)..
I think this is a very interesting thought. After all, monsters are only “other-ed” by their difference(s) from the larger system they exist within. I really appreciate Miller’s comment that the monsters in BSG only become truly monstrous after they decide to “kill their masters.” In other words, the cylons are “monsters” at least in part due to their development of agency.
I would argue, however, that the particular brand of agency which the cylons develop is critical to understanding any sort of message BSG may have about our culture. As Graham writes in chapter 2, monstrosity “functioned to demarcate the contours of the moral landscape” (51). In the BSG miniseries, this rings especially true. While the cylons are capable of adopting the form of a human (as evidenced by Number 6), it is the morally reprehensible twists such as the murder of an infant that demonstrate any sort of monstrosity. Even further, and again with regards to the Number 6, it is the use of interpersonal and intimate relationships that the Cylons make their most insidious inroads towards exterminating humans. Thus, the Cylons are especially “scary” because of the power of their disguise, in both the phsycial and most importantly the interpersonal realm.
If the cylons are monsters because of their ability to duplicate human relationships while also breaking moral codes, then BSG’s “monster commentary” seems to have something to do with our own state of interpersonal realtionships. As other commenter’s have suggested, I think this has something to do with rising fears about the depersonalization of technology. I would argue that an additional factor to BSG’s message is the lurking shadow of a post-911 polticial world.
I believe with the definition Graham presents us of how the monster “is the tangible, corporeal manifestation of sinful and disobedient acts…[that] demonstrates the violation of moral law” (48-49), the question above reflects more on humans than it does on the Cylons. When watching Battlestar Galactica, one scene spun my entire perception of the Cylons the other way. It occurred when the arms dealer Cylon said maybe God messed up with creating humans and therefore needed to purge the race by creating the Cylons. More so than not, the humans represented the monster to me. If playing into the religious argument that God created humans and the humans in the series turned around and played God by creating the Cylons, they have therefore been “sinful” and “disobedient”. Not only this, but Graham mentions how “Monsters bear witness to the power of the marginal, the Other, to demarcate the known and the unknown” (60). Not only have humans created these “Other” beings, but then proceed to marginalize and vilify them, even though they have only rebelled as a result of the human’s ill treatment. They created something to ease their lives, yet rise up and call it evil. The narrative reminds me of slavery: how in order to exploit the “Other”, or in this case African Americans, it was necessary to be dehumanized, stripped of all possibility of containing a soul, and therefore be deemed “Monstrous” (Please look up minstrel). Humans continually “other” and therefore, become the embodiment of “monstrous” themselves to me.
Graham concludes with the declaration that, “monsters are the keepers of the boundaries between the humans and the Others, yet by virtue of their inhabiting of the ‘borderlands’ they promise liberation from the very strictures of binary definition” (60). In the case of Battlestar Galactica, we see these personified to the extreme. As you mentioned, the scene involving the idea that God created the cyclons to purge humans because they were a mistake, and the retort that the cyclons were made by humans only furthers the ideas that the humans are the monsters themselves and the cyclons are the “others.” So what implications does that have on Graham’s above statement? The human’s apparent immoral deed of abusing the cyclons into a revolt show how they are creating a boundary but also created an infrastructure where the cyclons are no longer subhuman, but defending themselves as an equal being — liberated from the “binary definitions” of human and Other.
Going off what Kristy said, there are actually many incidents in the show that demonstrate the surviving humans acting monstrous and inhuman beyond the act of playing God, and it is strongly implied that this will only continue as the show goes on. We witness the humans in acts that transgress, that “demonstrates the violation of moral law” especially in a select few moments. They leave the potential Cylon agent to die a gruesome death alone even though Gaius himself stated that despite the “test”, “one can never be sure”. The Cylon screams at the crew members “What kind of humans are you!”, shocked that they would do so with a chance of inaccuracy. Another act of dehumanizing depravity was when the President made the call to abandon most of the refugees from Caprica, including children, so that they may still survive a bit longer. If anything, the Cylon’s are freedom fighters that escaped the social system that consistently made these morally bankrupt decisions. The Cylon’s are our walking arrogance, cruelty, and carelessness returned to remove us from the universe.
I perhaps stand alone in what I believe the cylons in Battlestar Galactica represent. Rather than a fear of others, or a fear of technology as others before me have stated, I believe that what makes the cylons monstrous is the fact that while they have humans as their creators, parents if you will, they are superior in nearly every way. What I believe the cylons represent is the fear of being replaced. Ask any low level worker, the fear of being replaced by someone better, or being replaced by a machine that never tires and never needs a break, is a very real thing. An office of robots wouldn’t have petty infighting, no messy human emotions to get in the way of progress. The cylons, the children of mankind, also act as a vision for the future, what may be the best way for mankind to continue on- not as flesh and blood but as machines. That is what makes these new cylons so scary for many, they look just like us, but they are decidedly ‘other’.
I agree with you Levena, to a point. I think the Cylon’s were “others” before they looked like humans. The people of the BSG world had come to terms with their use of electronics, again, and were secure in their knowledge of defeating the “other” until that “other” became so like them they couldn’t tell the difference. Once Cylon’s appeared human, and showed they were capable of deceit, they became monstrous.
It is also interesting to compare the passage where Graham talked about the monstrous and the female. Graham cites, “the Aristotelian world-view that characterized woman as misbegotten men” (Graham 52). The first human/Cylon we encounter is a female, and a seeming powerful, intelligent one who contains many of the characteristics typically associated with men. But she is also an “unstable creature” (Graham 52) because she wants people to feel emotions for her, although she seems incapable of feeling them herself.