We are asked to consider examples of 'gaze' . I thought that I would use the book "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep" [Philip K Dick 1968. First published in Great Britain in 1999 by Millennium. Edition used eBook Gollancz 2010 eISBN:9780575097933 - note ebooks do not use page numbers using 'locations' instead]. The film Blade Runner is based on this book.
In my background research for this blog I came across a paper written by Henry Krips Professor of Cultural Studies "The Politics of the Gaze: Foucault, Lacan and Zizek" that can be found at http://www.cultureunbound.ep.liu.se/v2/a06/cu10v2a6.pdf. Commenting on the work of Joan Copjec he quotes from her work Read my Desire: Lacan Against the Historicists, Harvard MIT Press 1994 in which she recounts an autobiographical story told by Lacan:
One day, I was on a small boat with a few people......an individual known as Petit-Jean..pointed out to me something floating on the surface of the waves. It was a small can, a sardine can...It glittered in the sun. And Petit-Jeansaid to me - Do you see that can? Do you see it? Well it doesn't see you? [Copjec 1994 30-31]
The important part of this story is the response of Lacan who supposedly felt a great deal of anxiety that was seated in his feelings about his privileged position in relation to his hosts which Lacan internalizes as him being externally scrutinised by some unknown thing that was the cause of his anxiety. (My skepticism about the validity of this story arises from Lacan's future behaviour where he frequently changes his previously stated beliefs and assigns different meanings to terms). Lacan describes the gaze in The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis Jacques-Alain Miller (ed) Alan Sheridan (trans) New York Norton 1981
[It] is not a seen gaze [that is it is not an eye that I see looking at me] but a gaze imagined by me in the field of the Other..the sound of rustling leaves....a footstep heard in a corridor.....the other surprises him, the subject, as entirely hidden gaze (p82-84).
It is this description that I have used as what the 'gaze' means in finding examples in the book "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep". For the purpose of this analysis the two main characters are Decker -the Bounty Hunter and Isidore - a 'special' (a 'special' is someone who has failed to meet the target IQ score that all who wish to be transferred from Earth must achieve). Reference will be made to the androids who are the other main element in the story but by definition they are all the same but are assigned slightly different characteristics for the purpose of the story.
As in the present day world, television is a major source of communication. For many it is the blind eye in the corner of the room but which can, both on and off, generate a whole gamut of feelings in us. Isidore 'owns' a set that can only receive one channel and that channel is owned by the government. It broadcasts for 17 hours a day a programme fronted by a presenter known as Buster Friendly who prostelyses the views of the government throughout the programme. It is in many ways the ultimate example of the gaze - it is an object that is unaware of our presence, has no knowledge of the feelings it generates and yet switched off , by its very silence, causes us anxiety.
After the world war that reduced the planet to rubble and decay most of the population were transferred to colonies on other planets - primarily Mars. Although those deemed unworthy of transfer had to remain on Earth there remained others who had refused to transfer despite being eligible. These people were bombarded with poster and TV ads and junk mail with the exhortation "Emigrate or degenerate". One is reminded of the blimp in the film. Further encouragement to leave Earth is the promise of the gift of an android created to the person's design with the promise that it would help 'duplicate the halcyon days of the pre-Civil War Southern states.
As stated above the gaze is "not a seen gaze but a gaze imagined by me in the field of the other" Reference is made to the rustling of the leaves. Having switched off the television Isidore is struck by the all pervading silence. Not only was he conscious of the silence, hearing nothing, but he also experienced it as having a life, that it was Alive. Silence was part of or was the Other in Isidore's world. It does not even have to have uncertain sounds such as a footstep heard elsewhere in the building to generate a sense of anxiety and of separation from others. In a later part of the book we are told of Isidore sudden awareness of the necessity of being with others in order to live. Although prior to the arrival of the androids he was able to live alone in the huge apartment block now he needed there presence to exist as a person.
Decker, the Bounty Hunter, in negotiating for the ownership of an owl (virtually all wild life had died out) becomes aware that under the conditions of the agreement he would become the hunted. He was aware that thinking that you are being stalked, whether true or not, has a marked effect upon the person. Here we have the gaze that is created by the fears or anxieties of the person who may never see his stalker. It is the belief that there is one that is the crucial factor.
An everyday object such as a pair of nail scissors can go 'unnoticed' for years. It is only when they are connected with the possibility of mutilation (in the book a spider found by Isidore is targeted by an android who is threatening to remove four of its legs) that anxieties are roused. There is a similarity with the sardine can in Lacan's story.
Although very few people have the experience of being shown a police officer's warrant card most have seen an officer in uniform. In the first case very few of us would challenge the validity of the card and would respond to any questions asked or directions given. In the latter case we would respond even when the Officer is some distance away even if we are innocent of any misdemeanour. Both the card and the uniform are 'objects' that cause some anxiety or tension in us. In the book Decker frequently shows his id card and in turn is shown someone elses. Both humans and androids behave in predictable albeit slightly different ways.
The book also raised a number of other interesting questions and I hope to 'think' about them in a future blog.
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