#deconstructionism

Throuple No More

Since I also rewatched episode 5 that morning, I approached the dissolution of the throuple through the lens of seeing Arada flirting with LeBeeBee on the shuttle ride back from DeltFall, before LeBeeBee started her whole penile ramble and Arada noped out. Saw the glances by Pin-Lee and Ratthi. The who and the what. 

Arada's little smile when Ratthis said he was falling in love with one of them. Pin-Lee's resigned stoicism. Arada goes first per usual, except neither she nor Pin-Lee had been reading the signals. At all. 

Humans (and constructs it would seem) can be like that.

I've seen a lot of conversations about the throuple needing to be there or not, which philosophically I say mileage may vary.

But the more I think the show, particularly given the episode's length, the more I feel that every aspect of the show is like a word in a John Steinbeck short story. It has to carry a lot of weight from a lot of different directions. 

They aren't there as comedic backdrop. Well, partly, because there's a lot of serious ideas goin on, but we learn about who Pin-Lee and Arada are in their interactions with Ratthi. We learn who Ratthi is as he tries very hard, too hard, to be a part of their dynamic, which he isn't. 

We learn things about what Preservation Alliance society is like both in the creation of the throuple and the dissolution of it. There is no shame in either. 

I do love this vision of a culture where none of these emotional entanglements are a death knell to relationship. People try things on. See what fits. What doesn't. Flow friendships into lovers and back again. The sweet and the bitter, and no harm done. Because they can apologize for discomfort and move on. They can talk about it. 

Because as Elizabeth Bennet once advised Mr. Darcy when speaking about what would make conversation smoother and piano playing better, they practice. 

Shrodinger's Ratthi 

I think about this alot as I read various, "tv Ratthi is not my Ratthi" meta. Because no. He isn't.  that Ratthi is singular, and the Murderbot Diaries are quite sparse on the ground in terms of characterization of non bot characters. 

I mean, book Ratthi definitely attempted to leave the hopper to retrieve some equipment right after there was a fairly violent attack on PresAux with some fairly serious injuries (and a SecUnit missing bits). Book Ratthi tried to talk to MB about its personhood so much that it let Mensah know on the feed. 

It's not that tv Ratthi is or is not book Ratthi. He is an interpretation of what the small details the books give us could be.

A person who interrupts a hostage negotiation to advocate for MB's personhood is a person who would have a breakup conversation in the middle of the whole GreyChris situation.

It wasn't the best time to have that conversation, and yet, if not then, when? 

Ratthi simultaneously tries too hard and is willing to lay his cards on the table. Not lie to emotion. Talk about this. Not even really pushing for any particular conclusion. Wanting to be open about his emotions and open conversations.

Supporting the idea of MB, it's coolness, the what if it, but hesitating when the moment came to push the button and trust MB's plan. 

The Stories We tell Ourselves

To expand on this, whether PresAux caught up in self righteousness or GreyChris in self absorbed greed, folks see what they expect to see. 

Unless -- pattern matching monkeys -- the MB quotes Sanctuary Moon one too many times. 

Then there's the objective reality of the viewers. 

Well, okay, no, I've been in fandom for a very long time, and have worked in the field of communication for almost as long. So I do know that we all see slightly different shows, read the same and yet different books. Our observations of a narrative are created with whatever we brought in our baggage from our journey so far. Whatever tools and dirty socks, and missing that umbrella (quote) we forgot along the way.  

Not to be Deconstructionist, which is somewhat like Bhardawaj acting like a medical doctor when her doctorate is in geochemistry, but it has been a philosophy that I learned about in college in thirty years ago and have made some bastardized version of it as I've gone through life as a professional documenter of ideas. 

We make associations with words and actions that are based on our life experience.

Hmmm…let me put it this way. Every time I see someone online refer to PrexAux as communists, I think to myself, "Communism is a political party, not a philosophy," before I catch myself. I am a child of the 70s and the word Communism or even communism means something different to me as a word than it might to the person writing the sentence, who possibly didn't grow up during the Cold War. It means something different to me as someone who has canvassed/phonebanked in very red areas during elections than to someone whose political experience is the last twenty years and mostly online. 

Words or structures don't have solid meaning with one interpretation. 

Perceived reality can be as shifting as Arada having always been the one who is attractive, attracts, goes first, coming to a reality check. She hasn't perceived that Ratthi is more interested in Pin-Lee because she didn't expect it. Any more than Pin-Lee expected to be the desired one. 

The tales the PresAux team told themselves about how successfully they defended MB and fought the GreyChris SecUnit juxtaposed with MBs rather incredulous replay of events.

MB's perception that it's small talk skills have improved, which, no sweetie, honey, no. It hasn't. Well, okay, it had its first conversation a day or so ago, so it has. So it has improved in that it has gone from the silence of the enslaved. 

And yet, and yet, it's not even really MB's small talk. 

It's parroting a medley of lines from Sanctuary Moon, which welp, GreyChris gets that famous serial, too. 

It's now just begun to grasp the reality that it can be the hero of its own narrative, without getting that means falling face first in gravel. 

Also, its quoting, not really writing its own narrative. Not yet. Not really. 

Beyond the Pale

To be beyond the pale is to be beyond the boundaries of acceptable behavior. This slightly antiquated phrase refers to the boundary fence of English controlled territory in Ireland during the period after the Black Death when Norman English control of Ireland contracted to just around Dublin. 

The pale is the perimeter, which MB keeps going to. Walking away towards to gain space. To genuinely see if there's a problem. To contemplate simply stopping, shutting down, and being consumed by the green of which it cannot truly be a part. 

But the historical signifier of the pale, the fence, the perimeter, is that it is also the fence of the colonizer seeking to take. To define what behavior is acceptable (see all those CorpRim folks in the restaurant looking at the rowdy Sweet-Bitter PresAux) and what is not. The pale defines control. 

The pale is the shadow of GreyChris and the Company of generic and nullified name, and the leash upon which MB -- no pet -- is yet on. 

MB has not yet sought to get beyond the boundary. To truly write its own story. 

All the damned logos

Even having read the books and being told the logos are everywhere, I was not prepared for the sheer amount of logos. Stamped on the chairs, the armor, the fabric. 

Go on survey, and the Company "personalizes" the material. But it's fast fashion. Because the Corporate Rim doesn't value the creation of items. All brought to you by the Company logo.

PresAux personalizes by embroidering and painting their clothing to create uniqueness. No personalization to be replicated even if done by the same person. Fabric crafts being unique like that. 

But that's not the only modification out there. 

GreyChris leader with her lip jewelry and her scar that is so damned evocative of the GreyChris logo.

Not an exact replica. Evocative.

As was the subject of much discussion and freeze framing after we watched episode 9, it's not a duplicate. And yet, and yet, humans are pattern matching monkeys. SecUnits too, if, presumably, their module isn't too crappy to do so. 

Watsonianly, was that scar a choice? A declaration of loyalty and badassery? Though, presumably someone in the GreyChris team were actually scientists who could do something with the alien remnants 

Dolylistically, did the show designers want me to look at this woman from a Corporate Rim where printing flesh and healing wounds is as simple as letting the MedUnit do its thing, and think about what that scar says about Corporate Rim society and her.

Por que no los dos?

So many elements of the show are so load bearing that it seems as if Tumblr's blue curtains mean something. 

Well they do. 

The story has left the hands of the creators and entered into fannish space where I (we) are/am free to deconstruct and construct meaning in what we're seeing.

So it is the logo if I say it is. It is not the logo is you say it is not. 

Why not both.

It's like saying Amour and Mort in French (the t is silent) and acknowledging they sound the same, but are not. 

Deconstructing the House While Standing In It

This isn't to Nihilistically say stories don't a meaning that the story teller is trying to tell. 

Or as MB, might say, "Whatever."

But whether or not Sanctuary Moon is premium quality or crappy is a matter of perception. The importance of Sanctuary Moon is what it means to MB. 

The importance of all those logos is how the Corporate Rim attempts to assume control on everything. Like cats or dogs spraying marks, but with pre-fab molding.

MB cannot lose all the logos, because (as I know having read the books) they are on its skeletal structure. 

But some step in the process of writing its own narrative will be to be to step beyond the pale. To stop using scripts.

Oh, how that word reminds me of reading "I'm Ok, You're Ok" in high school. Words can have many resonances. 

Infected with Love and Empathy

The NavUnit kills her lover. She kills everyone. Well, I for one choose to think this is a time loop episode, and Flight Captain Hossein will once more declare that boldness is all, but that's best saved for yuletide or a Sanctuary Moon Big Bang. 

Infected by love and love causes it to kill.

MB chooses to write the story of what's going on as it's been infected by empathy. Much as Gurathin learned what it was when people of good conscience could be to each other.

MB is a whole confused being and therefore shies away words like love. That word has an unpleasant resonance to it. 

Empathy. It feels empathy. It can care. While declaring loudly that it does not.  

Privacy matters

I'm inclined to think until moments before Gurathin says MB's private name, MB had no real sense of private.

Why would it? It's expected to watch (spy on) its clients. Listen to them in their most intimate moments -- as interesting to it as copulating worms -- and report. Have no privacy in its own mind, but that the Company can strip thought away.

To reiterate on something I've said before, privacy and security are different things. Security protects against risks. Mitigates vulnerability. Privacy is about what rights an entity does (or does not) have regarding their personally identifiable information. Privacy risks are around the harm that may come to an individual if the confidentiality of that private personal information is lost.

I'm very glad that the writers chose to parse the revelation of name and the murders from the scene where it occurs in the book where all the bombs fall at once. Hacked governor module. Dead miners. Murderbot. Hacked module - time to flee. 

This allowed this moment to have its own gravity. Have its own impact on MB. That truth it doesn't want to face. Admit. Believe. 

When memory can be implanted, rewritten, erased, how then to handle a memory that is the opposite of Boldness is All and that is the basis of itself.

And yet underlying it all, is the fear. That it is one step away from being a murderbot. It's seen all the shows. NavUnit went rogue and had its memory erased. So did MB. 

Or, well, perception is a funny thing. Season two, please. I want the emotional evisceration of it. 

Empathy

A rebellious bot, a free bot, is a murderous bot. A compliant bot obeys orders and stays in line. Or at least, so the colonizer, the enslaver, the Corporation Rim media would have it say. 

MB keeps walking away from PresAux. Further and further. Closer to that perimter, wherever it is.

It's not that I think Ratthi thinks MB is his pet, or even that Mensah thinks MB is her pet, but that Mensah is achingly aware that MB is owned. That it knows (don't you think it knows that) it is owned. That the little bit of freedom it has achieved is only in its own head.

Wanting to go after MB, and yet also, all she has the room for -- knowing that they won't survive without MB -- is grant it this grace of the perimeter, while turning to the next task. Who is GreyChris.

Mensah is trying so hard, three steps ahead of the others, to see with MB's eyes. She trusts. She lets go. She welcomes back. She goes to save and shakes her head at the quotations.

However, as good as she is, Mensah can't know what it is to be MB.

We all see through our eyes (even if patched into their very bodies), walk in our own shoes, itch in our own skin. 

The Who or the What

I'm going to link to a video with Derrida, the founder of the philosophy of Deconstructionism, talking about love because I think it relevant here. 

In it, he talks about how there is a tension in talking about love whether we mean loving the totality of a person (who) or characteristics of a person (what).

When it's characteristics (Ratthi finding various things MB says/does cool), then it's possible to find other characteristics less pleasant. To loudly trust MB, but also hesitate at pushing the button. 

It's part of the very interesting difference between book MB never wanting to murder anyone in front of Arada, and tv MB very much has. This means that when Bhardawaj and Arada join hands over Ratthi's to push the button, to let GreyChris in, let MB's plan unfold, they are trusting the who, not the what. 

That when Gurathin sees MB lying there in the gravel, he starts to break out of his what mindscape and into the who. Which is good, because the way he talked about Mensah in Sweet-Bitter scene seemed very much based on an ideal based out of the Art of Courtly Love and not based on who Mensah is in totality. Panic attacks and snapping her own fears about herself to Ratthi and going to save MB and all. 

Can't wait until episode 10 to see what she (and litigious Pin-Lee) so next. 

I mean I know. I've read the books.