Graham contends that He, She and It maintains a “nostalgia for the integrity of the ‘natural’ body” (105). What significance does embodiment have in the novel? Does Yod’s sacrifice at the end support or contradict Graham’s claim?
ENGL 360 | Future Perfect Human
Prof. Myra Seaman | Fall 2016
Embodiment, I think, serves as one of the main sources of tension throughout Piercy’s novel. As previously discussed, “embodiment” generally informs the way society is orchestrated within the multis and the lack of such orchestration outside of the multis within the Glop. Readers are told that the TRUE danger of cyborgs/robots lies not in their potentiality for super/advanced human capabilities, but rather in their potential to adopt a human identity, thereby escaping the strict system of “techno-heirarchy” at work in the novel. Not only is it illegal to create a robot with “human intelligence,” it also illegal to make robot “shaped like a person” (46). Again and again, Piercy directs the reader’s attention to the primacy of the physical form and the weight of alterations to that form. Equally revealing as to the significance of embodiment are the noted alterations to natural human embodiment found throughout the novel. Readers are told that Shira must wear a protective casing around her wrist when traveling through the Glop and that she and others of her “level” can tap into an internet through what amounts to a port in their skulls. While on the whole Shira and the other humans in the novel retain their “natural” bodies, it is the deviations from this natural embodiment which turn the attention of the reader towards the engineered nature of the novel’s world.
Continuing, Yod’s sacrifice at the end of the novel serves as an interesting example of the complexity of his own embodiment. While he is, on the surface, a product or creation by Avram’s hand, his physical features and gradually learned human behaviors threaten the boundary between human and robot. Importantly, I think, Shira makes note of Yod’s “presence” (84) which connotes both “knowledge and attention” (84). These noted internal qualities are what make his final sacrifice especially significant within a larger discussion of the novel’s treatment of embodiment. Graham’s contention that Piercy expresses a “nostalgia” for the integrity of the physical body is indeed supported by this sacrifice and, crucially, the visceral nature of it. You does not simply die. Rather, his physical body is blown apart and his embodied self is therefore dis-integrated.
I agree with what Matthew has said for the most part about embodiment- though I would like to raise the idea of embodiment past the physical body. While ‘nostalgia for the integrity of the ‘natural’ body’ is all well and good, what defines natural anymore? Do people with replaced organs, or even artificial ones, no longer qualify as human? As science evolves and allows us to improve ourselves, fix things that are failing or perhaps that never worked right at all with technology, does that strip us of our embodied humanity? Nili fills this role and tries to answer this question, especially when juxtaposed with Yod. Why do we the reader accept Nili more easily, is it that Yod paved the way or is it that she started out human?
I can see a future where people spend a lot of time in cyberspace, the body just that, a host shell. Our brains are one of the most interesting things in the known world, and freeing them from the confinement of the body could allow us to do great things. Does that freedom to move in cyberspace, a mind untethered from the body make us less human, does this disembody us? It is a complicated question, but I don’t think it makes us any less human. Like Yod after his sacrifice, we would perhaps cease to be on a physical plane, but that doesn’t make us any less real or let us have any less impact on those we come in contact with.