Friday, February 28, 2020

Reflecting New Materialism



Tracing the Mirror
In every dystopian fiction, the characters will interact with a mirror. This mirror means something as both a symbol and an object. Before diving into the agency of the mirror, let us explore its history and establish its role in the constructing the dystopian environment. Pre-dystopia, in the world familiar to us, the mirror serves as a means of perfecting self appearance and to help pull more light into a room and make it seem larger. Even before this, what effects do mirrors have? Well mirrors are created with glass, silver and copper in a process that consumes gallons of water and tons of energy. This means that mirrors have a profound impact on the environment as commonly understood, requiring the mining of copper and silver and silica. This means that the use of fuel and energy and manpower is required to extract and transport the raw material before conversion. Then it is manufactured into the necessary materials and pieced together into the product of which we are familiar using lots of water to clean the glass as seen in video one.

So, what does this process mean? Well it means that before consumers have laid witness to this object, I has had the profound impact on humans that work as miners and manufacturers to provide them with jobs and a living wage. These humans can provide for their families as a result of this products existence. In the same process, this object contributes to harming the environment through excessive water usage and general energy consumption. In turn the damaged natural environment will begin to harm humans through lack of access to drinkable water and shifts in weather conditions that harm crops. The point of tracking this process is paralleled to Jane Bennett tracking the different stages of effect through the process of the electrical power grid to demonstrate the complexities of these relationships.

Picking it back up modern day, this product allows humans to see themselves and to adjust their appearance into the image they are most satisfied with. It sits still but all moves within its reflections as it allows narcissism to escalate. Humans fall in love with themselves or learn to hate themselves simply by what they see in the mirror. Such a simple product can entirely alter the ego or mood of the viewer from a young age as they track the changes of their physical appearance over the years. In dystopian fiction, mirrors do not exist in abundance. People either wish not to see themselves or are not provided the means to do so. Without access to the mirrors, characters lack individuality and their identity is hindered. If they cannot see themselves, they struggle more to love themselves as it takes a deeper moral and spiritual process to love who they are within. Although in different dystopian fictions, the mirrors presence would serve many purposes.

The Mirror in Texts
In Ready Player One and The Hunger Games, the mirror serves as a tool for reflection and self-growth. Its agency first serves a negative effect on the characters in an assemblage of more bleak objects reflecting either loneliness or poverty. For Katniss, it serves as a tool to remind her of District 12 when she glimpses at he grandness of the Capitol in her fancy dresses and with the well decorated rooms. For Wade Watts, he is reminded of his lack luster appearance and his loneliness in the darkness of his room and the overweight boy that stared back at him. However, the mirror permits reflection to create the identity of the characters that allow them to combat the hegemonic power. For Katniss, she is able to bear witness to her reflection in the Mockingjay outfit that allows her to feel empowered amidst a crowd of rebels that remind her of her drive against the capitol and her growth since the start of her journey. She notes the weakness in her physique as a result of hunger in the games and the ways that the Capitol modifies her appearance. For Wade, he learns to love himself and fix his lifestyle after the mirror connects the symbols of loneliness in his life from the sex robot to the AI friend of his to his food boxes scattered around his room.

The presence of the mirror creates an assemblage to reflect the lives and internal struggles of characters, which without their presence the characters would lack some sort of clarity or direction. Had Wade blacked out his mirror, maybe he would have never created a self-esteem and prepared to combat IOI in force. Without vision of herself throughout the games, Katniss might not have been reminded of her strength and persona to combat President Snow. Removing the mirror removes the individual in a dystopia to create a more benevolent citizen under the control of the authoritative power. One more reflection of this is in the Divergent series where the Abnegation faction is not allowed to view themselves more than once a year to promote selflessness. It prevents the creation of narcissism and acting in self-interest, which perfectly works in favor of a hegemonic power to create a subordinate and selfless culture. Meanwhile too many mirrors creates the feeling of surveillance!
Works Cited
Bennett, Jane, 1957-. Vibrant Matter : a Political Ecology of Things. Durham :Duke University Press, 2010.
Cline, Ernest. Ready Player One. New York: Crown Publishers, 2011. Print.
Collins, Suzanne. Hunger Games. New York: Scholastic, 2008.
Roth, Veronica. Divergent. New York City: Harper Collins, 2011.

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