Sigmund Freud “The Uncanny” was published in the 20th century. Freud’s notion draws on the origin of the german word “Unheimliche,” vs “Heimlisch” which is also refered to as “homely.” “Uncanny” is not necessarily the opposite of homely, but it is a word that has a sense of antipathy with the home. ” The uncanny” refers to something fearful and frightening, but has been neglected in the history of aesthetics. The uncanny is the subject of aesthetics and has to do with a certain kind of feeling or sensation involving emotional impulses. After a long discussion, Freud argues the notion of Hemilich “unhomely” relates to something that is actually known and comfortable. Home” is a secret place for Freud. The unhomely/ The uncanny is later revealed, and both has seperate and two complete different meanings. For example:The mannequin is something that appears to be a human figure and familiar, but it is actually just plastic and lifeless. It is a cause of dread which is the result of not knowing when you first look at it, that it is either a human being or a piece of plastic that it is. Based on the interpretation, if psychoanalysis is right, it is explained as for us humans that people could often relate to- anxiety. Anxiety in an individuals life is the uncanny which is rediscovered after repression. Freud states us humans have all went through some type of experience with “the uncanny.” It is something that triggers us back to repressed childhood and conflicts or beliefs that we overcome but suddenly receive new assertion.
The Uncanny comes into comparison with Oryx and crake chapters twelve to fifteen. It is clear that chapters 12-15 often bounces back and forth from snowman’s present to his past memories as Jimmy. Part 12 ends very violently. When the apocalypse occurred, crake slit Oryxs throat, and jimmy shooting him. Jimmy has lost the two most important people in his life in a matter of seconds at this point. The trauma that results from this moment is what haas drove his obsessive memories. Jimmy was left with the task of caring for the only beings in the planet which was the crakers. He felt that he was obligated to do this. The crakers were a metaphor for jimmy by replacing him and his mothers relationship, and therefore did not want to abandon them. Jimmy was left in a symbiotic relationship and both needed each other for survival. Later on snowman shows signs of losing himself to reality due to exhaustion, pain, and lack of nutrition that he is not getting. Snowman leads crakers to their new beach home and had to shoot a few infected people and go though abandoned objects.
The story ends with Snowman’s present, as he realizes there are people that exist. There are two males and one female, which is clearly possible for them to reproduce. Snowman contemplates what to do. One side of him remembers what Crake says, and wants to kill them because he remembered crake said he was counting on him, and the other side of him just does not want to do and wants to just walk away. The ending is left with a cliff hanger and leaves it up to the readers to figure out what he did based on his past and present experiences.
One of the examples for Freud’s was the mannequin. When we first glance at a mannequin, were not sure if it is real or fake. But if that mannequin started to move or shake our hand, we would definitely feel some type of discomfort or feel uncomfortable despite the fact that looks like a human. We would feel uncomfortable because of the simple fact that it is not human and is not suppose to move if it is plastic. Just like in Frankenstein, and oryx and crake, both stories include characters that are are not humans but have some characteristics that humans have. For example: Frankenstein is somewhat a monster, and technically not human, and just like in comparison to the crakers. They are human like creations that can speak and reason, but they are not human, just like a mannequin is not human despite of how it looks and the features that it has.
Just like the uncanny relates to something that triggers us back to repressed childhood and conflicts or beliefs that we overcome, snowman is constantly going back and forth reflecting to his childhood and past memories and his present life as well.
Discussion question:
- What is ” The uncanny” in Oryx and Crake? What resembles it?
- What if mannequins did start moving or walking, how would society react to this and feel? Would they accept it?
- Do you agree that all humans relate to “The uncanny” and have experienced this somehow someway in their life?
There was actually a movie made in 1987 called “Mannequin”. It was a bout a mannequin that would come to life at night. the man that discovered her was definitely scared at first. This would be considered a very normal reaction for 1987. Now we are in 2018. Technology has made huge leaps in artificial intelligence. We have robots doing hour chores at home such as vacuuming the floor and cleaning the pool. Would it be a little strange if a mannequin suddenly came to life? Absolutely! People would not run though. Given what we know about science and it’s accomplishments I think curiosity would be a better explanation of the reactions of many. They would want to know how it works. I think it would automatically be assumed it is some sort of motion censored robot. The idea of acceptance is irrelevant because it would be seen as an object not a person. If they didn’t like it then it was disposable and the idea of acceptance would be in the question of what the moving mannequin can do for a person.
I am not sure if I believe that the uncanny has to be a repressed conflict or belief. Why can’t it just be an experience? What if it was a forgotten experience, that was perfectly normal, but now as adult remembering it the connection is made to a current belief or behavior. You walk into a room and smell a certain brand of cigar smoke when suddenly a picture of your great uncle John pops into your head. He is a man long forgotten because he died when you were only 5 but that smell is what you associated with this person. Wouldn’t that be the uncanny as well?
Although I think part of our comfort with the robots we use in our homes has to do with their general predictability — we’ve adjusted our expectations to account for the presence of semi-intelligent moving (or speaking) robots. But when they start acting unpredictably, people freak out, as when Alexa started laughing randomly: https://twitter.com/ParkerMolloy/status/971409311401435137
Creating space for the joke that Siri might recognize its (her?) position as unpaid labor in a capitalist system: https://twitter.com/kmeisner/status/979901733102010368
The uncanny in Oryx and Crake are the Crakers, they both look like and don’t look like humans. They resemble people, but they lack major parts of humanity, the parts which Crake deemed unnecessary and imperfect like their bodies are flawless and beautiful, they only have sex once every 3 years, and they are herbivores, surviving on vegetation. It is human nature to have flaws and taking them away, makes them more like an alien or some other creature.
If mannequins started moving, that would be quite surprising. I think first scientists will try to examine how the impossible happened and we would want to learn more about them and if they could speak, we could communicate. Society would be fascinated and perhaps terrified of this just like if we met aliens. It would be a revolutionary event and shock the world. Maybe at first we would not be accepting to mannequins, but eventually we will grow more comfortable with the idea as we become familiar with it.
If mannequins started moving or walking, society as a whole would be in awe and terror. It is not natural for this to happen therefore it would make us feel afraid. We know objects do not move on their own. There is no life in objects like mannequins. I think that if at the beginning of time humans were told that mannequins move and we saw them move, there would be no fear or the feeling of “uncanniness”. Only then would we accept this. Otherwise we would probably think something drastic like “the world is cursed!” I always think that if something is so weird that it makes us emotionally uncomfortable, it will not be accepted because of the fact it makes us feel something we do not want to nevertheless, like to feel.
The uncanny in Oryx and Crake was seen when looking at the Crakers. The Crakers had a lot of innocent human actions, curious of the world that Snowman was telling them about. You really can just look at them like children. The only difference of them is that they are blue. This can give you the feeling that maybe they seem familiar but also so strange at the same time. I feel like all humans can relate to the uncanny feeling. I am sure there has been many times where something seems so strangely familiar.
If mannequins started moving and walking around I would first be quite confused. I would want to know how did it even happen? Did something change in order for that to happen? I would also be curious to know if they could talk or even have emotions, or would they just be this walking plastic.
Since the characters are not human, I would consider them uncanny. However, they are very similar to humans because they are able to have feelings and sentiments.
If mannequins start moving and walking, that would be very creepy. Actually, there is a famous mannequin known as The corpse bride in the Window: La Pascualita in Chihuahua, Mexico. It’s being said that she moves her eyes and lips. When I first read about it, I felt scared and goose gumps.
According to legend, the mannequin is not really a mannequin, but the perfectly embalmed and preserved body of the previous owner’s daughter who died on her wedding day.
Here is the link https://www.ripleys.com/weird-news/corpse-bride/
To say that the crakes are uncanny is the most obvious and logical thing to say, they are very strange from a human’s point of view. But since their existence questions the very idea of humanity in terms of who and what can be considered human, we in result can say that the human characters in the story are uncanny since the world is not really run by humans anymore. And the crakes are the dominant species now.
We would have the same reaction towards the mannequins, we have to take into consideration that we are an extremely dominant species and that we will compare everything to ourselves. Mannequins are a human creation, just like any other of our creations, we will not have a positive reaction to seeing them move or even worst speak, in our minds we made them in order to semi look like us and to give us an example to how our clothes would look on us. As soon we seem to do things that are considered “Human” we will feel threaten and do the only thing we know how to do. And that is to just simply marginalize them make it clear that they are mannequins and that we are humans.
Yes, I do believe that we can relate to being uncanny. We can specifically see this influence our nations current racial tensions, and the rest of the worlds economic class problems. But that’s too deep to get into, we see this more simply whenever we feel left out or the Outkast of a group, we begin to feel unappreciated and sometimes even question our value.
I really enjoyed reading your blog post by the way, super insightful and gave me a new perspective on the book.
What if mannequins did start moving or walking, how would society react to this and feel? Would they accept it?
I believe society would accept this because if you picture an artificial intelligent robot, they essentially are a mannequin, created out of synthetic materials and are taught to do human like functions. There is an AI robot named Sophia that was at a fundraising event to convince attendees to investment in artificial intelligence like her and she was speaking live in front of a room filled with many wealthy Saudi Arabian individuals. She was trying to show off her technology and was interviewed by a host from CNBC, who had even admitted that some of it was planned and some of it was not scripted. You can tell from the footage from that event that he seemed extremely shocked and what appeared to be a sense of slight fear, but the audience loved the robot and looked eager. Sophia kept pushing the audience to give her a check at the end of the event and these attendees looked like they were interested in meeting and investing. Some people who are oblivious to potential repercussions might just be naive instead of thinking of the future possible detrimental effects these robots can cause.
1. I think the “uncanny” in Oryx and Crake is the Crakers (for Snowman). They remind him of Crake and Oryx and I think this is what causes his constant flashbacks. I think we can also go so far to say that Crake himself is “uncanny.” When he is described by Snowman, Crake seems to have little personality, and focuses solely on science. His social skills are “rough around the edges,” and he doesn’t seem to have many emotions. In addition, the way he processes others’ emotions is very cold and purely logistical.
2. I think society would be terrified if mannequins came to life and began walking around. Even though they look like humans, the fact that we know they are nothing but plastic would make it hard for humans to accept mannequins into society.
3. I think the “uncanny” is definitely something many people experience on a regular basis. It seems to be an association with the past that we feel in the present, and I think everyone is reminded of the past when seeing/doing something that relates to it.
I like that you specify that the Crakers would be uncanny “for Snowman.” Do you think that Snowman (or humans generally) would be “uncanny” to the Crakers?