The Politics of Insects This page intentionally left blank The Politics of Insects David Cronenberg’s Cinema of Confrontation Scott Wilson The Continuum International Publishing Group 80 Maiden Lane, New York, NY 10038 The Tower Building, 11 York Road, London SE1 7NX www.continuumbooks.com Copyright © 2011 by Scott Wilson All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written permission of the publishers. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Wilson, Scott. The politics of insects : David Cronenberg’s cinema of confrontation / by Scott Wilson. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-13: 978-1-4411-9155-7 (hardcover : alk. paper) ISBN-10: 1-4411-9155-0 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Cronenberg, David, 1943–Criticism and interpretation. I. Title. PN1998.3.C75W55 2011 791.4302(cid:2)33092–dc22 2011003531 ISBN: HB: 978-1-4411-9155-7 Typeset by Newgen Imaging Systems Pvt Ltd, Chennai, India Printed and bound in the United States of America To Teresa Callaghan This page intentionally left blank Contents Acknowledgements viii Chapter 1: The Filmmaker as Heretic 1 Chapter 2: The Body Explodes 36 Chapter 3: The Mind Erupts 69 Chapter 4: Functions of Failure 106 Chapter 5: The Subject Under Examination 149 Chapter 6: ‘All Agents Defect . . .’ 182 Notes 225 Bibliography 236 Index 243 Acknowledgements This book emerges as a result of my own long fascination with the cinema of David Cronenberg, and also, in no small part, to the tireless support of my friends and family, often against their better judgement, given the kinds of conversations Cronenberg’s fi lms inevitably lead to. First and foremost, thanks are owed to Teresa Callaghan. Her hard work and continued self-sacrifi ce in the face of my academic selfi shness goes far beyond the bounds of expectation. Hopefully this document stands as par- tial repayment for her years of dedication and surplus-labor: at the very least it might indicate that we can start watching something else of an evening. No promises, though. I am grateful to Misha Kavka for her support and encouragement while this book was gestating as a doctoral dissertation. Indeed, I thank her for salvaging this project from the dustbin of history, and for providing both encouragement and discipline, in equal measures, exactly as required. My editor at Continuum, the entirely fabulous Katie Gallof, has been won- derfully supportive in moving this project through to completion and I am in her debt both for editorial advice and also for suggestions on what to lis- ten to while bringing this all to a close. I am fortunate to be surrounded by family, friends and colleagues who have all, in their way, helped keep this book alive when, in the face of yet more Body Horror, I might have lessened my resolve. A special thank you to Diana Callaghan, to Carolyn Alexander, Rudd Hughes, Lily Richards and Mark Taylor of Unity Books (New Zealand’s foremost independent bookshop!), Carla Seth, Stephen Turner, Sue Lawrie, Lynley Williams, Steve Marshall and Athina Tsoulis. Thanks and much love also to my family and especially to my sister Robyn. Chapter 1 The Filmmaker as Heretic Introduction: The Politics of Insects Midway through David Cronenberg’s 1986 remake of The Fly, as Seth Brundle (Jeff Goldblum) begins to fully comprehend the accident that will eventually lead to his death, he makes the following statement: Have you ever heard of insect politics? Neither have I. Insects . . . don’t have politics. They’re very brutal. No . . . compassion. No . . . compromise. We can’t trust the insect. I’d like to become the fi rst insect politician. (Cronenberg, 1986) Brundle has, as a result of the telepod mishap that is the fi lm’s central event, become the ‘Brundlefl y’, a human-insect amalgam. The Fly illus- trates Brundle’s becoming, his increasing alterity, even as it functions as a discussion of this state and the implications of transformation in gen- eral. The full import of Brundle’s statement will be dealt with in the next chapter; its use here lies in the way Brundle’s wish to become the fi rst insect politician demonstrates the political and philosophical concerns that exist at the centre of what Chris Rodley refers to as ‘the Cronenberg Project’ (Rodley, 1997, xv). This ‘project’, so called, is summed up by Rodley (and others) as a continued exploration of transformation as a means of renegotiating the human, both bodily and psychically. Of course, while I agree that Cronenberg’s project does do these things, suf- fi ce it to say that there is more at work in the cinema of David Cronen- berg, not least of which is the way such transformation functions to reveal a host of structures that surround, govern, control and, if need be, pun- ish transformation and the transforming individual. The distinction that may be made between Brundle’s desire and Cronenberg’s intentions, as evidenced by his entire fi lmic output, lies in how the character and the director each view and negotiate the fact of