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Elizabeth Kate Switaj
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Elizabeth Kate Switaj
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Read my latest story, "The All-Nighter", at 52|250.
The more charged lines are what gives the show a creepy edge: these call for an intense degree of self-consciousness to prevent them from becoming mere reproductions and amplifications of social phenomena. There’s the kinda geeky hipster guy who runs the “treatments” wiping and implanting personalities and who is absolutely convinced that the people he “treats” are living the dream; note that we mostly see him doing this to beautiful women. The series name with its reference to Ibsen’s drama certainly help maintains a degree of apparent self-consciousness on this front. Another issue is corporate speak. In addition to the “treatments”, the memory-wiped and personality-implanted operatives are called simply “actives”. Then there’s the bit about preferring to call missions “engagements”. If not carefully managed, such language can become normalized within a series. Finally, there is the fact that the Dollhouse itself represents a sort of human trafficking (Echo wasn’t exactly a wholly willing recruit), but not a realistic one. How do you do that without falling into appropriation and without grossly misrepresenting the issue? This first episode, Ghost, has given me no evidence of how, if at all, this is to be achieved. These are just quick first impressions. I also have some half-formed thoughts about Echo’s “handler”. Did you watch the premiere of Dollhouse? What did you think? ![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=dcdab120-b462-4c3a-8b01-a2fa85e1870f) Possibly Related Classroom Projects From
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Posted on 23:07, February 13th, 2009 by 
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I didn’t think it worked well. There were too many internal contradictions on the “download” process– the tech-guy can control how her brain interprets signals from her eyes, but then suddenly the physical flaws are part of the deal because the downloaded personalities are actually composites of actual people?
And if you can make an amalgation of actual people, why take the flaws at all? Why not distill the knowledge, talent, and skills only? If his first claim is true, why not further improve on the package? (In further support of this last one, he claimed the initial procedure performed on Sierra was to make her “stronger”).
Another drawback is the show being a showcase for Eliza Dushku… I like her in certain roles, but the actress does not have the versatility to play several radically different personalities all in one episode.
And, finally, I have a major problem with the entire concept of the “dollhouse.” Mswyrr at Livejournal covers that better than I could at the moment: http://mswyrr.livejournal.com/202125.html.
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Good points about the tech: I think the flaws suggest that maybe the guy doesn’t really know as much about how it works as he claims, but then the show needs to do a better job of foregrounding this possibility. If that were done, it could go a long way towards problematizing him and exposing him as a control freak (etc), which might actually help (though by itself it wouldn’t be enough) to make the show anti-rape and human trafficking rather than just being a media representation of it.
I agree about Eliza Dushku, though I can’t entirely trust my own perception of her acting abilities because as soon as I see her on screen, I think “Faith”.
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Topher(tech guy) did explain that you cannot create a real individual without flaws because than the whole persona falls apart. My guess is they learned this the hard way and may have something to do with “Alpha” the character who is the focus of the next episode.
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mzbitca beat me to it, but yah, the whole point behind that was that what makes a person a person is the sum of their parts. It’s a whole package, the personality isn’t complete without the flaws, they make us who we are just as much as the good stuff.
That was actually one of my favorite aspects of the show, and something I think he was setting up to discuss further as it goes along.
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He also stated that the personalities are composites and not wholecloth. If you can take pieces of individual personalities, it makes no sense to have to take the flaws. Especially regarding his earlier comment about being able to control how Echo’s brain interprets the signals from her eyes. I know Topher offered an explanation, but I’m saying that the sum of his dialogue in that episode was inconsistent.
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Yes, he does say they’re composites. I don’t see taking the two concepts together as inconsistent so much as complicated. It seems to me that even in a composite, for the personality to be coherent, what must be taken to create the composite personality is both perfections and flaws from the donor personalities. It suggests to me that they balance each other out, and that even with a composite they are thus necessary to maintain a balanced and stable personality/memory.
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So maybe the idea is that you can take pieces but that some pieces can’t be divided from each other? Certain strengths require certain weaknesses?
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That’s the way I’m interpreting it, yes.
Take the first episode as an example, this composite personality they made for negotiating with kidnappers. Clearly the base and majority of the personality was derived from the woman whose name she uses (which escapes me at the moment… Ms… something). But without the horribly traumatic (and triggering and debilitating trauma that it was) events of that woman’s life, she would not have pursued her career in negotiations or been so good at them because part of her skill emanated from her pain. For Echo to be able to take on another character she needs the memories too, and if that history she believes is hers makes no sense or doesn’t lead up to the person she is supposed to be, it won’t be coherent, and my guess would be, her brain either rejects it and she freaks out, or simply comes back to base.
I’m thinking what the composite is all about though, is if you take this overall base personality and then throw in some extra helpful stuff like say, maybe experience of years on the police force, or, whatever, something easy to add into a life, that is completely possible. Thus making Echo’s personality just a bit more perfect. Fine tuning, as it were.
Now, I could be totally wrong, and I’m betting we’ll find out as we go, but that’s how I took this.
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If that is the concept, it could lead to some very interesting explorations (but, again, one that could end up being exploitative and appropriative if not handled carefully). As a writer and a survivor of sexual assault, I have a real stake in how that gets portrayed. I was a writer before I was raped, and as a poet, I was at least technically skilled before then, but I do write about what happened to me. My first book is coming out, and the poems in there came out of my recovery. The idea that my success as a writer (such as it is) might be seen as inseparable from what that man did to me is horrifying on a visceral level. On the other hand, I have to admit that how I dealt with it after at least impacted my writing.
Now, we do have to remember that the way the personality implantation works is based on a particular theory of how the human mind works. I suspect that said theory will be shown to be incorrect or incomplete.
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Hi Elizabeth! Was concurrently reading a dali lama book when I watched this and find it amusing the emptiness inherent in all things idea, including personality, and even self. Thinking how the idea of self is dependent on memories. And finding a parallel between reincarnation and not remembering previous lives and the wiping the slate clean thing!
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The idea that my success as a writer (such as it is) might be seen as inseparable from what that man did to me is horrifying on a visceral level. On the other hand, I have to admit that how I dealt with it after at least impacted my writing.
Which is exactly the sort of thing I *think* is going to be explored on the show. Because it has to be said, what happens to us, and more importantly what we DO with what happens to us and what we learn from choices we make and what we take from mistakes we make, etc etc etc. these are the things who make us who we are. For better or worse everything that we do and live is built together in our mind to culminate in who we are today. Our past is a part of us.
At least, that’s how it seems to me.
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[...] problem” Karen Healey’s place Dante and the Lobster Echidne of the Snakes angriest io9 Elizabeth Kate Switaj npr Racialicious Bitch [...]
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[...] Whedon enough not to insult my intelligence. I found a few interesting takes on the first episode here, here and particularly here and an interview with Whedon [...]
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