Embodiment and Identity Essay
Discuss the relationship between embodiment and identity in two of the following texts. You may want to consider some of the following questions: what do futuristic representations of gender, sexuality, or “different” bodies have to say about contemporary values and social expectations? how does technology affect the treatment of embodiment and identity? Remember to make an argument. Suggested tests: Butler, “Speech Sounds”; Chiang, “Exhalation”; Dick, “We Can Remember It for You Wholesale”; Gibson, “Burning Chrome”; Gibson, Neuromancer; Gunn, “Computer Friendly”; Heinlein, “All You Zombies”; Kelly, “Think Like a Dinosaur”; Le Guin, The Left Hand of Darkness; Le Guin, “Nine Lives”; Silverberg, “Passengers”; Simak, “Desertion”; Wells, The Time Machine.
Embodiment and Identity in Speech Sound and We Can Remember It for You
Embodiment refers to the expression or representation of something in a visible or tangible form. It may take the form of personalization, manifestation or incarnation. Identity, on the other hand, refers to what renders a person distinctive or unique in the midst of others. It signifies the collective feature of the set of qualities which helps in recognizing an object. Â Writers usually construct characters to perform untrue identities. The identity of a person can be molded by their conception or social presentation that can be used together in certain settings to present particular aspects. In the literature, Speech Sounds by Octavia Butler and We Can Remember It for You Wholesale by Philip K. Dick the aspects of embodiment and identity has been explored extensively.
Embodiment and Identity in Butler’s “Speech Sound”
Octavia Butler is among the excellent black feminist authors. A lot of her literature is based on the utopian society. However, Butler writing like Speech Sound can be viewed as representing anti-utopian or dystopian society whose features are violence, misery, and chaos that is evident throughout the story. Butler appears to question her society in the Speech Sound. She describes Rye as a woman who can speak or express herself in the midst of people who cannot to communicate with each other due to an illness that Butler refers to as a pandemic “The illness was stroke –swift in the manner in which it cut people down and stroke-like in some of its effects.” (Butker 13).
