{"id":3184,"date":"2016-02-14T12:34:52","date_gmt":"2016-02-14T17:34:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/glyphpress.com\/talk\/?p=3184"},"modified":"2016-12-09T11:21:57","modified_gmt":"2016-12-09T16:21:57","slug":"pris-is-more-cyborg-than-woman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glyphpress.com\/talk\/2016\/pris-is-more-cyborg-than-woman","title":{"rendered":"Pris is More Cyborg than Woman"},"content":{"rendered":"

At the beginning of Blade Runner, Captain Bryant tells us that (editing errors aside) four replicants have escaped their restraints and have flown to Earth. The oldest of them is Roy Batty (incept date: January 8, 2016), followed closely by Pris (February 14, 2016). Of the replicants, they\u2019re emotionally closest to each other; where Zhora and Leon seem to be living together as a matter of convenience, Roy and Pris seem to be traveling and living together because they like each other, they miss each other when they\u2019re gone, and they share an\u00a0objective. But Pris is different from Roy.<\/span><\/p>\n

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You might also want to read my article about Roy Batty<\/span><\/a>, the protagonist of Blade Runner.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

However close Pris stands to him, by design she stands in a different place than he does. Where he\u2019s \u201cPhys: LEV. A \u00a0Ment: LEV. A\u201d, she\u2019s \u201cPhys: LEV A \u00a0Ment: LEV. B\u201d. That is, she\u2019s not as smart as he is, but she\u2019s his physical equal. And we have every reason to believe she\u2019s plenty smart.<\/p>\n

It seems like, just as one engineered to be a battlefield commander has to understand morale and fear, one engineered for sex has to understand desire and love. I think that\u2019s part of Tyrell\u2019s triumph, really, that he <\/span>has<\/span><\/i> engineered human emotions. The Voigt-Kampff is, for him, an evolutionary pressure that <\/span>he wants to overcome<\/span><\/i>.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Where Roy is conditioned to lead soldiers and think strategically, Pris\u2019 function is to provide sex for human soldiers; an engineered comfort woman<\/a>. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"Happy<\/a>
Happy Valentine’s Day.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I think the last word there is the most interesting one: <\/span>woman<\/span><\/i>. Los Angeles 2019 (the post ecological catastrophe one of the movie; only <\/span>maybe<\/span><\/i> the mid-ecological catastrophe one of real life) is nearly defined by its desperate, transactional attitude toward women.<\/span><\/p>\n

There are punk women in the background in the shukh, about whom we know nothing, sadly.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The only two non-sexual women with lines are the bartender and the animal engineer in the market; they\u2019re just regular people plying their trades; knowledgeable, weary, and busy. But all the other women \u00a0we see outside of crowds are sex workers of some sort, from gogo dancers, to strippers like Zhora and her colleagues, to Pris\u2019 conscripted sex slave.<\/p>\n

\"Some
Some background punks from Chinatown. Yes, that’s Carrie Fisher.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

To be sure, part of this is Hollywood\u2019s ambient contempt for women, but it also seems to be the movie\u2019s side eye at that contempt that our movies reflect. We see women objectified and used throughout the movie for the enjoyment and profit of men, but when we get really close to any of those characters, we\u2019re given every reason to feel empathy for them. Zhora, Rachael, and Pris all want their own things, and each of the characters are dangerously close to being possessions of a man; Zhora\u2019s found a sexual transaction preferable to assassination. Rachael is chained by her memory to Tyrell. Pris, though: Pris is free.<\/span><\/p>\n

Pris is only a woman by way of her design specification, and she\u2019s acting out of spec. Her feelings aren\u2019t a woman\u2019s feelings\u2019 they\u2019re <\/span>her<\/span><\/i> feelings, generated by her unique experience. Womanhood is the equipment she\u2019s been built into, but it\u2019s not who she is. She\u2019s single-minded: a cyborg on a mission of selfhood. She knows she\u2019s going to expire soon and doesn\u2019t have much to lose. <\/span><\/p>\n

…we\u2019re stupid. And we\u2019ll die.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Perhaps more than Roy, even; he has an abstract secondary objective and maybe even a tertiary objective. But Pris just wants to have a life of her own, where she\u2019s not anyone\u2019s possession, where she can love who and how she wants, explore her newfound emotions, and use her physical might to crush anyone who would control her.<\/span><\/p>\n