Ria Banerjee
State Aided College Teacher, Dept. of English, Prafulla Chandra College, Kolkata
Abstract
The ubiquitous presence of technoculture has revamped the science fictional imaginary from being a genre that valorises spectacle to an epistemological category of multiple possibilities. The intervention of posthumanism only aggravates, if not feeds into, science fiction’s engagement with the ethical implications that accompany such technical strides. Deploying a post-humanist framework, this paper analyses science-fiction’s negotiation with technological manipulation of memory in Michel Gondry’s Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) and how such interactions reconfigure human subjectivity. Drawing on posthumanist scholarship, this paper will argue how the movie’s critique of the technological advancement reaffirms the centrality of an inviolable “human” essence in a posthuman milieu.
Keywords: Technoculture, Posthumanism, Memory, Subjectivity.
How happy is the blameless vestal’s lot!
The world forgetting, by the world forgot.
Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind!
Each pray’r accepted, and each wish resign’d.
(Alexander Pope, “Eloisa to Abelard”)
The ubiquitous presence of technoculture has revamped the science fictional imaginary from being a genre that valorises spectacle to an epistemological category of multiple possibilities. The intervention of posthumanism only aggravates, if not feeds into, science fiction’s engagement with the ethical implications that accompany such technical strides. Deploying a post-humanist framework, this paper analyses science-fiction’s negotiation with technological manipulation of memory in Michel Gondry’s Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) and how such interactions reconfigure human subjectivity. Drawing on posthumanist scholarship, this paper will argue how the movie’s critique of the technological advancement reaffirms the centrality of an inviolable “human” essence in a posthuman milieu.
Recent theoretical interventions have expanded the science fictional topography to accommodate the centrally relevant epistemological concerns regarding various aspects of contemporary culture. Science fiction’s often erroneous conflation with the term speculative fiction has engendered the need for a generic definition to identify its conventional tropes. Categorising the science fictional oeuvre as a literature of “cognitive estrangement” (Suvin 4), Darko Suvin offers a rational justification for the genre’s long-standing involvement with futuristic extrapolations. For Suvin, science fiction is “distinguished by the narrative dominance or hegemony of a fictional “novum” (novelty, innovation) validated by cognitive logic.” (Suvin 63)
One of the central dilemmas that this genre’s fictional attempts tend to address is the attendant ethical repercussion of the dizzying technological progress on humanity. Literary and cinematic representations offer ways to navigate through the complexities of inhabiting a hyper-modern condition of existence, one that is induced by the monolithic domination of techno-culture. Science fiction films display an unabated fascination with the nexus between human emotions and “the use of technology in creating false or prosthetic memories” (Teo 349), triggered by what Rossington and Whitehead identify as “memory boom”. (Rossington and Whitehead 5)
Somewhere between the sociological and anthropological study of the ethical dilemmas of technological practice and the insistence by certain philosophers and theologians of the universal nature of ethical claims, lies a liminal zone, a space that allows us to imagine the fictive or possible scenarios for future technological practices. The imaginary scenarios can have important bearings on our moral consideration of scientific endeavour, as they may help to clarify both the potential and the risks associated with technological development. (Baron 1)
Deploying a posthumanist framework as the primary theoretical underpinning, this paper revisits Michel Gondry’s Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind’s (2004) scepticism towards the technologically enhanced ‘posthuman’ subject- a scepticism that is rooted in the movie’s simultaneous acknowledgement of the inevitability of technology as an omniscient force in everyday life. In the course of the paper, I will further argue how the movie’s representation of the ‘posthuman’ subject bears sinister overtones and ends up reaffirming human values as the key to self realisation while urging the spectators to reconceptualise the connection between human experience and technological extravaganza.
Science fiction’s reliability as a narrative discourse to document posthuman anxieties has been corroborated by scholars like Sherryl Vint who point out that science fiction is “particularly suited to exploring the question of the posthuman because it is a discourse that allows us to concretely imagine bodies and selves otherwise, a discourse defined by its ability to estrange our commonplace perceptions of reality.” (Vint 19)
With the proliferation of academic scholarship in the realm of posthumanism, there has been a renewed interest to fathom the implications of what it means to be human in an age marked by technological saturation. In sharing science fiction’s concern for the fate of the technologically enhanced humans, posthumanist scholarship de-hegemonises Man’s centrality and the autonomous rationality of the human mind. Standing at the cusp of an epistemic overhaul, theorisations on the end of the ‘human’ heralds the question of the human(e) dimension of the human subject. While addressing the philosophical and ontological issue of what it means to be human, Wolfe underlines the inherent contradiction within the rubric of posthumanism. For Wolfe, Posthumanism ”generates different and irreconcilable definitions.”(Caryle xi) Wolfe emphasizes on the deceptive quality of the affix ‘post’ by insinuating it as a philosophical paradigm that precedes humanism by exposing “the embodiment and embeddedness of the human being, not just in its biological, but also its technological world, the prosthetic co-evolution of the human animal with the technicality of tools and external archival mechanisms (such as language and culture) of which Bernard Stiegler probably remains our most compelling and ambitious theorist- and all of which comes before that historically specific thing called ‘the human ’that Foucault’s archaeology excavates”( Wolfe xv). While some theorists interrogate the basic tenets of humanism, scholars like Cary Wolfe in What is Posthumanism refuse to be dismissive of the humanist tradition in its entirety.
…the point is not to reject humanism tout court-indeed, there are many values and aspirations to admire in humanism- but rather to show how those aspirations are undercut by the philosophical and ethical frameworks used to conceptualize them. (Wolfe xvi)
The figuration of the posthuman subject as a social and cultural reality points towards, as Hayles argues, “the anti-human and the apocalyptic” (Hayles 291). The anxiety around the notion of the “anti-human” (Hayles 291) emanates from a phobia related to the total annihilation of human autonomy and freedom in the wake of the genetically modified humans. For Wolfe, therefore, the essential function of critical posthumanism is to “describe the human and its characteristic modes of communication, interaction, meaning, social significations, and affective investments with greater specificity.” (Wolfe xxv)
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) crystallises, through the romantic upheavals of its characters, the latent anxiety that accompanies the technological alteration of memory. Utilising the science fictional fantasy of memory erasure, the movie is redolent of its cinematic antecedents like Blade Runner (1982), Minority Report (2002) that “represent fantasies about the possibilities and impossibilities of digital technology to register and delete individual memories.”(Smelik 52) As a science fictional treatise, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind exploits the genre’s usual preoccupation with imagined possibilities, driven by scientific and technological enterprises. Unlike other films of the genre, this movie makes a sharp departure from its predecessors by pursuing the metaphysical challenges that accompany intentional brain damage through targeted memory erasure. In Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, the elusive and mystifying dimension of memory is often transformed, through technology, into concrete and accessible forms of images that undermines the ambiguous quotient of memory itself.
The cognitive and discursive extensions of memory contribute significantly to help refashion human subjectivity. The elasticity of memory confers upon the human subject an agency to porter between the worlds of total recall and selective remembrance. In an era marked by the digitalisation of memory, the production and (re)production of identity remains in a state of perennial dialogue with one’s memory. Speaking about this memory–identity continuum, Maurice Halbwachs contends,
We preserve memories of each epoch in our lives, and these are continually reproduced; through them, as by a continual relationship, a sense of our identity is perpetrated. (Halbwachs 47)
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is a philosophical inquiry into the limits of permissibility of technological invasion and the limitations of engineering the ‘posthuman’ as it were. Through a cerebral meditation on the complexities of memory and its “concomitant crisis of identity”(Smelik 54), the movie remains sceptical of erecting imaginary utopias vis-a-vis technology. Instead of deploying the traditional trappings of a didactic science fiction film, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind dramatises the “blurring of the distinctions between remembering and forgetting.”( Teo 349) The cinematic trajectory follows the emotionally tempestuous relationship between Joel Barish (essayed by Jim Carrey) and Clementine Kruczynski (essayed by Kate Winslet) who seek memory deletion to obtain deliverance from the romantic entrapment of their broken relationship. Joel encounters Dr Howard Mierzwiak in a non-descript office of Lacuna, an organisation that has revolutionized the art of memory modification. As the fountainhead of an organisation that promises “to let people begin again” (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, 2004), Howard remains committed to the cause of alleviating the attendant trauma of painful memory traces. The prospect of a new beginning comes under scanners when Joel, during the procedure, begins to resist the act and desperately tries to salvage his rapidly disappearing memories. Joel is sedated and rendered unconscious before the procedure. Fizzling out of consciousness (and sometimes venturing into the unconscious), the narrative unfolds to reveal the dynamic nature of memory itself. As Joel embarks on a process of recollection during lucid dreaming, disjointed chunks of memory emerge, disappear and (re)emerge- collapsing all forms of coherent distinctions. The fragmentary nature of memory is reinforced through the non-linear cinematic narrative. Clementine’s memories are activated- sometimes manipulated by Joel’s imagination- in the form of emotional responses to the procedure before it is permanently wiped off.
The actualisation of the procedure is captured cinematically to reveal its distasteful implications. The movie is shot in a manner that offers the spectators an illusion of penetrating into the inscrutable recesses of Joel’s mind. The movie unfolds inside Joel’s mind in reverse, laying bare his moments of intimacy and vulnerability. The subplot, involving Howard’s assistant Mary also toys with the intricacies of memory as it unravels Mary’s potentially disturbing liaison with Howard and how she was coerced to undergo the procedure herself. Upon discovering the tragic irony of being a victim of the procedure herself, Mary decides to expose it to others as a cautionary measure. The quest for a utopian existence, facilitated through technological upgradation, is echoed in Mary’s literary allusion to Alexander Pope’s poem “Eloise to Abelard”. The phrase “spotless mind” encapsulates this desire for absolute freedom from enslavement to memory. The movie turns this quest on its head by rehearsing how this utopia gradually disintegrates into a dystopian reality for the characters that remain trapped within an emotional tailspin. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind remains apprehensive of the posthuman subject whose desire to transcend the corporeal limitations exacts a pernicious price from them.
The movie reinscribes the transcendental quality of a veritable ‘human’ essence against the onslaught of militant technological expansion. This is reinforced through a snippet of a conversation between Joel and Clementine- “meet me in Montauk”- that Joel retains miraculously after the completion of the memory erasure. The movie posits the human consciousness as a repository of the inscrutable and the impenetrable- something ‘human’ that operates through its own baffling ways and defies technological intrusion. The delirious, disjointed and disorienting condition of the ‘posthuman’ subject is strategically juxtaposed against the essential ‘human’ values and virtues that the characters attempt to wilfully erode.
Hayles conceptualises individual autonomy as the pivotal vector that ensures the sanctity of human self. Hayles envisions the human as an agentic being who is endowed with “conscious agency” (Hayles 288), which for Hayles constitutes the “essence of human identity.”(Hayles 288). Preservation of this human identity finds cinematic manifestation in Joel’s frantic measures to safeguard Clementine’s memories from being forcefully wiped off by the technicians of Lacuna. This is framed in the form of a characteristic chase sequence with Joel evading the technicians who are in pursuit of his memories. The chase sequence consolidates the menacing implications of technology by rendering the actual moment of procedure in the form of a violent infringement of privacy. The movie situates technological excellence as a (posthuman) ‘Other’- something inimical to the natural human self. It is accomplished by the clinical and dispassionate mechanics of computerized memory erasure to uproot the core of memory. The disruptive outcome of the procedure is in stark contrast to the “spotless mind” which the procedure is expected to deliver. The movie explores the shortcomings of the ‘posthuman’ technology of eradicating “undesirable autobiographical memories.”(Dijck 28) The movie posits such an act of memory modification as a form of epistemic violence against the human self, robbing the self of its history and compromising one’s individual identity. The movie equates such quantum leaps of technological excellence as something decisively loathsome, leading to rampant dehumanisation. Pitted against the intense dehumanisation of posthuman technology that Lacuna offers, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind embraces the human attributes of precariousness, frailty and fallibility through their cinematic narrativisation of memory effacement. Contrary to the therapeutic potential of memory alteration that the organisation boasts of, the movie raises suspicion over the neuroethical dimension of such high-tech provisions. By refusing to acknowledge neurological enhancement as a progress in the true sense of the term, the movie retains an ambiguous stance towards futuristic (posthuman) enterprises that are predicated on a complete negation of rudimentary human virtues. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind foregrounds harrowing visions of posthuman precarity through the distraught condition of the characters who decide to have their unwarranted memories removed. The movie, through the narrative trajectory, illustrates a deep-seated anxiety towards technophilia by asserting the centrality of human solidarity that is often denied its due recognition.
The fictitious locus of SF narratives become a representative site- a battleground- for the human subject to articulate and materialise their technoscientific ambitions. As a speculative genre, science fiction has teased the readers intellectually into thinking about the future of the human as a discursive construct. The apocalyptic visions of the future that the cultural texts of SF disseminate are further fuelled by myriad configurations of the posthuman and the posthuman anxiety over technological retrogression. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind interrogates certain assumptions as it relates to the posthuman practices of memory enhancement. The compellingly crafted narrative becomes a plea for a greater ethical need to resurrect the latent human, and perhaps the humane, in us. As a literary genre, science fiction remains a viable conduit which evokes and explores the horrors of posthuman fantasy. The futuristic fantasy of mediating private memories through digital prostheses had been a staple of science fiction films. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind interrogates such a fantasy to reveal the disconcerting posthuman condition as one of eternal conundrum and disruption. Through a retrospective reconstruction of memory, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind exploits the inherent potential of science fiction as a genre to reassess the cultural signification of the human subject in a posthuman world.
Works Cited
Baron, Christian. “Introduction: Science Fiction at a Crossroad Between Ethics and Imagination.” Science Fiction, Ethics and the Human Condition, edited by Christian Baron, Peter Nicolai Halvorsen and Christine Cornea, Springer, 2007, pp. 1-4.
Carrey, Jim, performer. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Focus Features, 2004.
Dijck, Jose. Mediated Memories In The Digital Age. Stanford University Press, 2007.
Halbwachs, Maurice. On Collected Memory. Ed. and translated by Lewis A. Coser, University of Chicago Press, 1992.
Hayles, Katherine. How We Became Posthuman: Virtual Bodies In Cybernetics, Literature and Informatics. The University of Chicago Press, 1999.
Rossington, Michael and Anne Whitehead (eds). Theories of Memory: A Reader. Edinburgh University Press, 2007.
Smelik, Anneke. “The Virtuality of Time: Memory in Science Fiction Films.” Technology of the Memory in Arts, edited by L. Plate and A. Smelik, Palgrave/ Macmillan, 2009, pp. 52-68.
Suvin, Darko. Metamorphoses of Science Fiction: On the Poetics and History of a Literary Genre. Yale University Press, 1977.
Teo, Yugin. “Love, Longing and Danger: Memory and Forgetting in Early Twenty-First Century Science Fiction Films.” Science Fiction Film and Television, vol. 6, no.3, 2013, pp. 349-368.
Vint, Sherryl. Bodies of Tomorrow: Technology, Subjectivity, Science Fiction. University of Toronto Press, 2007.
Wolfe, Cary. What is Posthumanism. University of Minnesota Press, 2009.
Ria Banerjee is an M.A. (First Class First) from Shri Shikshayatan College, affiliated with the University of Calcutta. She is currently engaged as a State Aided College Teacher in the Department of English at Prafulla Chandra College, Kolkata. Her areas of interest include Gender Studies, Partition narratives and the interface between literature and cinema.
[Volume 5, Number 1, 2023]
