Posthumanity in Literature

Chesnaye Long
Humanism
March 31, 2006

         In her book, How We Became Posthuman, Katherine Hayles describes both the posthuman of her dreams and that of her nightmares and she explicitly states the criterion by which her idealizations and personal hell can be met. Frank Miller, in Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, creates a Bruce Wayne/Batman character who remains hyperaware of his own mortality, even as he embraces the technologies that allow him to continue living. In contrast to this, William Gibson, in Neuromancer, authors a character, Case, whose obsession is ridding himself of embodiment and living an existence within a cybernetic world. Both of these characters fit into the mold of Posthuman’s dream and nightmare; however, Case and Bruce Wayne each occupy a different viewpoint within Hayles’ vision for the future world of information technology. In this paper, I will argue that, though both men are posthuman, Bruce Wayne is Hayles’ ideal posthuman and Case is her nightmare personified. I will make these comparisons with a thorough analysis of both Case and Bruce Wayne’s beliefs and actions, as well as a clear definition of Katherine Hayles’ consummate and frightful visions of posthuman possibilities, which will corroborate my argument.

         A posthuman, according to Katherine Hayles, is essentially a human being whose existence is not limited to embodiment, but rather is encapsulated within the flow of information between the material being and the rest of the universe. Though the role of manifestation has continuously been called into question throughout the history of “cybernetics”, Hayles herself believes that embodiment is part of subjectivity, the knowledge of self and the inclusion of one’s personal being into informational transactions, and thus an essential part of being human. Hayles herself is wary of the idea that information could be more important than materiality, a theory developed during the Macy Conferences in the beginning years of cybernetics, and thus believes that the posthuman, a being in which consciousness and materiality are second to patterns and abstractions, is a frightening thing to comprehend. “Information, like humanity, cannot exist apart from the embodiment that brings it into being as a material entity in the world…Embodiment can be destroyed, but it cannot be replicated.” [Hayles 49]

         Hayles is obviously mistrustful of the idea of posthuman, though the idea of using technology is not what she is wary of; instead, she is frightened that humanity might eventually come to believe embodiment to be irrelevant and inconsequential. Improving communications and knowledge by the use of computers and virtual information does not, in fact, remove an individual from his physical being, but instead heightens the abilities of humanity to aid in the well being of their fellow man. However, having your brains mashed and put onto a floppy disk, the description of which opens the first chapter of Posthuman, removes what Hayles believes is essential to being human: materiality. A human who can use technology, but not become absorbed into it and not give himself over to it, is a posthuman whose physicality is in no way threatened by the machines he is using and, thus, a better posthuman in Hayles’ eyes; however, the posthuman whose embodiment is regarded as a burden is one whose very humanity is threatened by the technologies from which he cannot remove himself. “If my nightmare is a culture inhabited by posthumans who regard their bodies as fashion accessories rather than the ground of being, my dream is a version of the posthuman that embraces the possibilities of information technologies without being seduced by fantasies of unlimited power and disembodied immortality, [and] that recognizes and celebrates finitude as a condition of human being…” [Hayles 5]

         As a cohesive idea, Hayles’ nightmare could easily be imagined, especially through the world of literature, where reality can ostensibly be bent enough for technologies to bloom to an extent where physical disembodiment is a reality. In Neuromancer, William Gibson creates such a world and, within its microcosm, fathers a character whose instinctive behaviors and personal ideals are such that allow, if not force him, to relish shaking himself of the proverbial mortal coil and release his disembodied form into an informational Matrix. Case, a cyber cowboy, regards his body as little more than a shell, or even a prison, in which his being is held captive, and yearns to return to the highways and byways of virtual reality. He lives to “jack” into the Matrix and manipulate the securities systems put into place by the various companies of the world, all so he can retrieve information from these corporations and be compensated for his work. In essence, Case is a hacker, but instead of remaining outside the computer and encased in human flesh, he enters a virtual world and personally manipulates the material, or “ice”, from inside the mainframe. When his former employees injure his nervous system enough to prevent Case from entering the Matrix, the cowboy is reduced to wandering around the streets of Ninsei, selling and taking illegal drugs in such quantities as to very soon end his life. Without the ability to jack into the Matrix, Case is miserable and suicidal, believing himself to be a hostage within his own body. “For Case, who’d lived for the bodiless exultation of cyberspace, it was the Fall. In the bars he’d frequented as a cowboy hotshot, the elite stance involved a certain relaxed contempt for the flesh. The body was meat. Case fell into the prison of his own flesh.” [Gibson 6]

         Obsessed with returning to the virtual existence he so hungers for, Case has allowed his physical life to become dominated by thoughts of the Matrix, even when having sex, the most connective and physical activity a human can engage in. As he comes to orgasm with Molly, his street samurai guardian and partner, Case compares the feeling to “a vastness like the matrix” [Gibson 33] instead of relishing his human flesh and existence within a physical reality. For Case, there really is no life worth living outside the Matrix- his body is a prison, his flesh is “meat”, and his dream is to eventually return to the computerized existence that has become his fixation. When Case is given corrective surgery and allowed to return to the Matrix, he counts down the days until he is able to enter it, all thoughts circulating the same grand idea: the return of Case’s presence within the Matrix. “Seven days and he’d jack in. If he closed his eyes now, he’d see the matrix.” [Gibson 37] At the end of his recuperation period after the surgery, Case eagerly places the nodes on his body and allows himself to be reunited with his long lost lover, the matrix, and it is almost like a homecoming for him. After waiting for so long with his damaged nervous system and his desperate, suicidal drug usage, the thrill of cyberspace is finally returned to him. The matrix, “flowed, flowered for him, fluid neon origami trick, the unfolding of his distanceless home, his country, transparent 3D chessboard extending into infinity.” [Gibson 52] Given Case’s contempt for human flesh, referring to anything that embodied humans use for pleasure as “meat toys” and returning to the matrix as often as he is able to, and his addiction to the incorporeal freedom which the matrix enables him to have, Case is an exemplary description and fictionalized “embodiment” of what Hayles’ nightmare envisions for the future of posthuman.

         In a stark juxtaposition to Case’s fixation on incorporeal existence, Bruce Wayne is obsessed with his humanity and his mortality. He is unceasingly and fervently concerned with his manner of life and death because he cannot allow himself to die in a way that isn’t fit or right for the man who was the “Caped Crusader” [Miller 187]. As Hayles’ dream consists of a posthuman “that recognizes and celebrates finitude as a condition of human being,” [Hayles 5], Wayne’s incessant, ponderous passion for a worthy death is a perfect example of what Hayles would consider the right kind of posthuman for the information age. At the beginning of The Dark Knight Returns, Wayne is driving in a virtual racecar and wonders if a death within a burning wreck would be right. “This would be a good death,” he thinks, “but not good enough.” [Miller 10] When he transforms into Batman, Bruce Wayne is merely accentuating his own awareness of self-mortality. He knows that he must remain alive or everything that he has fought for as the Batman will end; without his physical being, the Bat will die and Gotham will be given, once more, to the criminals and the corruption that had overrun its streets. The idea of Batman might live on, but unless he is alive to ensure that his mission can continue, Bruce Wayne knows that his death would be the death of everything that he had worked for. “I’m dying… but I can’t die…I’m not finished yet.” [Miller 87] Furthermore, at the end of book four, when Batman has 'died' in the fight against Superman and has ostensibly died the death he was meant to die, Bruce Wayne has come to realize that it is his embodied self- his being alive- that will allow his mission to carry on. Though he is still concerned with his mortality, these thoughts have turned more to the continuation of his embodied existence as opposed to his final demise. He, unlike the Dixie Flatline in Neuromancer, does not consider an existence as a construct within the virtual world; instead, he desists in his zealous search for death and instead turns to living as the progenitor of a group that will continue his fight for him. “This will be a good life…Good enough.” [Miller 199]

         Hayles’ other condition described in her dream is “a version of the posthuman that embraces the possibilities of information technologies without being seduced by fantasies of unlimited power,” [Hayles 5] and the tools that Bruce Wayne uses as Batman exemplify this aspect of Hayles’ ideal posthuman. In the few frames featuring the Bat Cave on pages 188 and 189, the cave is full of computer equipment and technology, which allows for continuous interaction between Alfred and Batman, as well as providing a place for Batman to return to when he is not fighting crime. Also, the Batmobile, featured intermittently throughout the comic, is a tank of such strength that, “something bounces off the hull that must have come from a bazooka” [Miller 75]. These technologies aid Batman in fighting against the criminals of Gotham, but they are not the entirety of his fighting force; in the end, to defeat the Mutant leader, Batman fights without the aid of technology, using only his body as his weapon. It is the man, not some semblance of one cowering behind machinery, that finally defeats the gang member. Later in the story, when Batman is fighting the Joker and is shot, it is medicinal technology that keeps him from dying, but nothing is added, no prosthesis necessary to rebuild the flesh. Only in the end, when he faces Superman, does Batman allow himself to fight with bodily enhancing technologies actually on his person; he wears a tank-like suit that protects him from Superman’s added strength. However, even here, Batman does not allow these technologies to overshadow his material, human form. Though his flesh is enhanced, it is merely covered in steel, not graphed with it, and Batman’s biggest weapon is, in the end, his own mortality; he takes a drug that stops his heart long enough for him to be buried and convince everyone that he is dead. Along with this, the Bat Cave is destroyed, leaving no trace of Batman’s technologies and tools. At the end of the novel, when Bruce Wayne is going over plans to train his “army” [Miller 199], it is merely his physical corpus and no added machinery to enhance him or his teachings. Though he has the equipment to become almost superhuman, like his rival Superman, Bruce Wayne never uses it, instead relishing in his mortality and never becoming “seduced by fantasies of unlimited power” [Hayles 5] through the use of “information technologies.” [Hayles 5]

         Where Case is a character with a fanatical need to escape his flesh and enter a virtual world, Bruce Wayne is never concerned with such things. His thoughts center on his own mortality and he never becomes addicted to technology in the way Case is. Both men use technology in their jobs- Case is a cyber cowboy and Batman is a crime fighter whose knowledge of technological advances allows him to hunt down the criminals of Gotham City- but only Case has allowed himself to become part of the machinery he uses for his daily routine. Bruce Wayne allows technology to enhance his own human capabilities, but still, in the end, it is only his embodied form and his individual abilities that allow him to defeat his enemies. If Hayles’ nightmare is “a culture inhabited by posthumans who regard their bodies as fashion accessories rather than the ground of being,” [Hayles 5], than Case would certainly have her tossing and turning in her sleep. If her dream is a “posthuman that embraces the possibilities of information technologies without being seduced by fantasies of unlimited power and disembodied immortality, [and] that recognizes and celebrates finitude as a condition of human being,” [Hayles 5] she would be smiling when she woke in the morning, knowing that a version of the posthuman she envisions could possibly exist in the fictional character Bruce Wayne.