Comments on: The Self http://localhost:8888/engl479w/the-self/ Thu, 01 Oct 2009 08:00:30 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.1 By: fsian326 http://localhost:8888/engl479w/the-self/#comment-77 fsian326 Thu, 30 Oct 2008 19:18:56 +0000 http://www.mith2.umd.edu/teaching/courses/f08/engl479w/?p=60#comment-77 The quote from Shelley Jackson reflects some ideas from the texts we have read in class such as Frankenstein, Branagh's Frankenstein, and parts of Simulacra and Simulation. In Branagh's Frankenstein, we see a different version of the creature as he questions the memory of certain parts of his body. His hands remember to play the flute and he can read. This identifies with Jackson's idea of the self that changes directions easily, shedding parts and assimilating new ones. This goes along with the idea of the body not being experienced as a whole and how parts of our body reports to us different stories. It is the idea of self that attempts to make all those experiences into what the "whole" experienced. She explains that the real body is denied representation and our concept of self is only "wishful thinking about the self." Our true selves are not represented in our name or what we may call ourselves or our own concept of self, because language limits how far we can define the "real body." There are so many aspects of the body that can be experienced on its own without the whole self being involved, yet we relate it to just one whole. The creature in Branagh's version of Frankenstein understood this. He knew that he experienced things that his concept of self did not understand, but only that particular part of him could understand and experience. This touches on Jackson's idea of the Hypertext not knowing where it is going. She relates it to a person being in a foreign country, being overwhelmed by everything since they do not know what should be important to them they have to pay attention to everything. She explains that hypertext tends to lose its emergency because the person will not know where he or she is going and so he or she has to go back and is not sure where or if it has ended. That is how it is like for the creature because he does not know his origin and does not know how he will end. This concept is represented in Simulacra and Simulation when it is discussed that everything is a reference to something else and that the true definition of the "subject" is really just a symbol for it, therefore there is no true meaning to it, just a symbol for one side/aspect of the "subject." Jackson explains that she would like to create a new kind of self which does not emphasize so much on grounding into one form of self, but does not fear change. Simulacra and Simulation touches on this; that there is no true definition of the whole, but there are pieces of it. The "subject" is simulacra: symbolic change and death." We should recognize the image or the "subject" as it is, that it does not hide anything at all but that the whole is a constant changing image, allowing room to shed parts and assimilate new ones. The quote from Shelley Jackson reflects some ideas from the texts we have read in class such as Frankenstein, Branagh’s Frankenstein, and parts of Simulacra and Simulation. In Branagh’s Frankenstein, we see a different version of the creature as he questions the memory of certain parts of his body. His hands remember to play the flute and he can read. This identifies with Jackson’s idea of the self that changes directions easily, shedding parts and assimilating new ones. This goes along with the idea of the body not being experienced as a whole and how parts of our body reports to us different stories. It is the idea of self that attempts to make all those experiences into what the “whole” experienced. She explains that the real body is denied representation and our concept of self is only “wishful thinking about the self.” Our true selves are not represented in our name or what we may call ourselves or our own concept of self, because language limits how far we can define the “real body.” There are so many aspects of the body that can be experienced on its own without the whole self being involved, yet we relate it to just one whole. The creature in Branagh’s version of Frankenstein understood this. He knew that he experienced things that his concept of self did not understand, but only that particular part of him could understand and experience.

This touches on Jackson’s idea of the Hypertext not knowing where it is going. She relates it to a person being in a foreign country, being overwhelmed by everything since they do not know what should be important to them they have to pay attention to everything. She explains that hypertext tends to lose its emergency because the person will not know where he or she is going and so he or she has to go back and is not sure where or if it has ended. That is how it is like for the creature because he does not know his origin and does not know how he will end. This concept is represented in Simulacra and Simulation when it is discussed that everything is a reference to something else and that the true definition of the “subject” is really just a symbol for it, therefore there is no true meaning to it, just a symbol for one side/aspect of the “subject.”

Jackson explains that she would like to create a new kind of self which does not emphasize so much on grounding into one form of self, but does not fear change. Simulacra and Simulation touches on this; that there is no true definition of the whole, but there are pieces of it. The “subject” is simulacra: symbolic change and death.” We should recognize the image or the “subject” as it is, that it does not hide anything at all but that the whole is a constant changing image, allowing room to shed parts and assimilate new ones.

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