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Papers by Christopher Scholz

This paper will set out to create a theoretical background for an analysis of contemporary Scienc... more This paper will set out to create a theoretical background for an analysis of contemporary Science Fiction cinema out of the
variety of sources that already exist on the topic of the posthuman,’ influenced by writers such as Jean Baudrillard, Fredric Jameson and Katherine N. Hayles, as well as the work of Humberto Maturana and Francesco Varela, two cybernetic scientists Hayles draws on. With this theoretical basis three movies that represent contemporary English speaking Science Fiction cinema, "Her," "Moon" and "Ex Machina", will be analysed in respect to how they portray
humans, how they portray machines, and in which way they understand the interaction between these two alleged entities. The assumption for this paper is, that human life is located in a simulated world, with simulated feelings and emotions, that are free floating, shared “intensities.” (Jameson, 1984: 64) In this world where individuality and unity can no longer be claimed in a classical, psychoanalytical sense, the once so dominant dialectic of presence and absence, and with it the idea of castration as the ultimate catastrophe, are not in power anymore. It merely exist as an illusion, sometimes deliberately preserved by those who hold power to control and direct the desires of others, to keep them in an obsolete perception of the world and render them submissive. Instead, a new dialectic has formed, that of pattern and randomness. Possession is no longer the means of holding power over others, it is substituted with access, the power to go where one pleases, to be unlimited both spatially and temporally, to gain a kind
of ‘immortality.’ With this new pattern mutation is the new castration, the new catastrophe in what Maturana and Varela term “autopoiesis,” (Maturana/Varela: 121) a constant struggle of forcing others into the own organization, the own pattern in order to subject them to the own existence, to incorporate them into the larger unity one tries to constitute. This is where the real struggle between man and machine, and also the new struggle between humans themselves, is
fought.

Sylvia Plath’s poetry has been a widely discussed subject ever since her death and the posthumous... more Sylvia Plath’s poetry has been a widely discussed subject ever since her death and the posthumous release of her final collection of poems, Ariel. As Linda Wagner-Martin notes: Ted Hughes' releasing of his version of the collection, started the “cult of Plath.” (Wagner-Martin, 1999: X) This is a most fitting statement, as her poetry is often read through a biographical approach, trying to find the person Sylvia Plath in her work. It is a culturally constructed search for a unique author, trying to force an imaginary person upon the text. One of the most susceptible poems is “Lady Lazarus”, part of Ariel and the famous “October Poems.” However, a fully biographical reading of the poetry will not do justice to the multiple layers of meaning to be found in these texts.

The following paper will make an attempt in reading Sylvia Plath’s “Lady Lazarus” under the aspect of “the author.” The assumption is that while the poem invites a biographical reading due to its theme of suicide and depression, it ultimately tries to accomplish the very opposite task, actively defying the construction of a genuine author. By utilizing Roland Barthes' ideas in his influential essay “Death of the Author” as the theoretical basis, the narrative structure of the poem will be analyzed to understand how exactly the author as a real existence is negated and instead deconstructed. Emphasis will be put on the Holocaust imagery Plath makes repeated use of. Furthermore, an analysis of the spaces represented in “Lady Lazarus” through Michel Foucault’s “On Other Spaces” will extend the motif of the imaginary author onto a spatial level. The last chapter will negotiate in how far Sylvia Plath’s poem can be read as “Camp” when being analyzed under the theoretical idea of the “death of the author.”
Beforehand, the initial chapter will make a short attempt in reading the poem biographically, trying to find Sylvia Plath in the figure of Lady Lazarus. It will give insight into why such a reading might be easy to accomplish, eventually though fails to capture the various levels of meaning and inconsistency. As Susan Gubar notes: “Plath's poetry broods upon […] the contamination of the very idea of the genuine.” (Gubar, 2007: 181)

Drafts by Christopher Scholz

Ever since the emergence of the first Metal Gear Solid (1998) game on the PlayStation, the Metal ... more Ever since the emergence of the first Metal Gear Solid (1998) game on the PlayStation, the Metal Gear Solid franchise (1998-2015) has been the videogame equivalent of blockbuster releases, combining gameplay focused on methodical sneaking missions and a story orchestrated through extensive dialogue and cinematic sequences. Yet, the basic narrative premise of each title appears roughly similar. As Denis Brusseaux et al. aptly summarise: “Each game describes the adventures of a spy on a mission to neutralize a nuclear threat, which comes in the form of a Metal Gear, a bipedal tank equipped with nuclear weapons that can reach any location in the world.” (Brusseaux et al.: 6) The spy in every game, with one exception, carries the codename of “Snake.” Yet, despite this seemingly spare innovation of tropes and themes, the Metal Gear Solid franchise utilises the recursiveness of its own narrative to convey philosophical concepts and implications far beyond comparable Triple-A videogame releases.
Alas, within academia the titles of the series have enjoyed very little attention, as gaming studies as an area of research is still coming of age, trying to define the boundaries of its own discourse. This paper is an attempt at focusing on a specific trope within the franchise, namely the recursiveness of its own narration, to offer a ‘zero point’ for a focused and detailed close reading within the field of cultural studies. However, due to the sheer extent of the Metal Gear Solid franchise the analysis can only cover a minimum of the multitude of potential academic stimuli offered, and accordingly the series must be limited to a specific selection for purposes of this thesis.
The analysis will thus define the Metal Gear Solid series within this paper as containing of the four titles Metal Gear Solid (1998), Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty (2001), Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater (2004) and Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (2008). This is not an artificial selection, quite on the contrary. These four titles served as the main entries in the series, being released on the home video game consoles PlayStation – MGS1 – PlayStation 2 – MGS2 and MGS3 – and PlayStation 3 – MGS4 – respectively, and while almost all titles in the entire franchise contribute to a common storyline, these four games are most tightly associated in creating a narrative arch that specifically begins with MGS1 and ends with MGS4. In fact, following the thesis of this paper, the change to Roman numerals in the last two entries of the series, Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes (2014) and Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain (2015), as well as their titles become quite telling. While the other games certainly offer further options for investigation, the choice was thus made to allow for a concise argument and a coherent organisation.
The main assumption of this paper can thus be summarised as follows: The Metal Gear Solid series, e.g. the four titles as defined prior, can be regarded as an “information narrative” in accordance with Katherine Hayles’ stipulation of the term, meaning a narrative in which “pattern is the essential reality, presence an optical illusion.” (Hayles, Posthuman: 35f) The games portray a struggle for control between different systems that attempt to subjugate the perceived randomness of their opponents to the own pattern and can therefore be designated as autopoietic. The games incrementally blur the lines between the storyworld and the gameworld, eventually even meta-narratively incorporating an implied player into the equation.