I Am Going to Get Medieval on Your Person.

I opted to go with something aside from a science fiction film because I haven't watched any in a while, but I did see Pulp Fiction for the bajillionth on IFC the other day. I hadn't read chapter three of Digitizing Race at that point, but as I was thinking about my blog post after class I thought the episode of the movie featuring washed-up boxer Butch (Bruce Willis) and crime lord Marsellus Wallace (Ving Rhames) could apply to the issue of race and technology that Nakamura discussed when talking about The Matrix series and Minority Report. Yes, there is much more to discuss in Pulp Fiction re: race and power, but I'm going to try to limit this to two topics so it is more manageable for all involved.

In order to see where I'm going, it's necessary to go over my understanding and interpretation of facets of Nakamura's argument. The points I found most compelling and applicable to Pulp Fiction are found on pages 116, and 118 of Digitizing Race. On page 116 Nakamura writes about technology present in the Matrix and Minority Report to demonstrate how black characters either have antiquated (or less potent) versions of technology used by whites or use the same technology as whites, but only in superficial or support roles. Regardless of the level or interaction or integration, the black characters can never meet or exceed the power or technology wielded by the white characters. On page 118, she writes, "Seeing is always seeing in relation to the state; attempts to break this deadlock result in the loss of all personhood, a condition under which one enters the dead space or alpha channel of sociality." I think everyone gets this point, but I'll elaborate. In other words, "the man" owns you whether or not you buy-in to that arrangement. In relation to contemporary times, if you don't go along w/ norms and go off the grid or operate within a structure outside that of general society, you don't get the same access and affordances of that society (existing in the alpha channel). However, once attempt you re-enter that society and function as if you don't subscribe to those societal rules and norms, you lose all rights to your person(hood) and are open to control by those in power.

On to Pulp Fiction, considering that the parallels are not exact, I am going to have to make some generalizations or slight modifications to Nakamura's exact quotes and try to fit them into a contemporary, realistic, and Pulp Fiction-y framework. (Side note: The title Pulp Fiction and term realistic seem at odds.) So, rather than treating technology as interfaces or computers as Nakamura does in her argument, I'll look at technology in terms of weaponry. Similarly, Nakamura uses seeing and its constant tether to the government in Minority Report to elaborate on ownership of the body and information. However, I'm going to replace state with white men (typically those wield most political power throughout the world) and rather than sight, I'll look at what is "yours," what you independently/personally control, and power.

Without explaining all the "episodes" of the film, I'll just say that Marsellus is positioned as a strong, powerful African American male figure throughout the narrative. However, the scene I noted at the beginning of this post reflects Marsellus's tenuous, if not completely fiction control of his own body, technology, and power within a largely and almost exclusively white context. I suppose I should quickly recap this act of the film to make sure everyone is on the same page. Although the statute of limitations on spoilers is up on this movie, skip the next paragraph if you've never seen the movie and want to watch it some time. Actually, if you want to watch Pulp Fiction without it being spoiled, you might want to skip this post all together.

[If you want to watch the crash and the end of the pawn shop scenes, you can watch you tube clips here and here.]

Butch (Willis) is strongly advised to throw a boxing match, by Marsellus, in exchange for money and Butch agrees. Butch does not go through with the deal, wins the fight, and inadvertently kills his black opponent in the ring. Butch flees. Marsellus and his henchmen attempt to track down Butch without success until Butch pulls up to a stop light/sign and Marsellus walks across the street in front of Butch's car. This begins a confrontation where Butch hits Marsellus with his car and then crashes said car into oncoming traffic. Marsellus and Butch both survive and are being watched/tended to by crowds of exclusively female bystanders. Upon coming to, Marsellus shoots at and begins chasing Butch. They wind up in a pawn shop where Butch beats up Marsellus and prepares to shoot him. However, the pawn shop owner (?) uses a shotgun to convince Butch to stop and the pawn shop owner proceeds to knock both of them out, tie them to chairs, and gag them. Marsellus and Butch are both bound and gagged and find themselves at the mercy of two "hillbilly boy[s]" (the pawn shop owner and a police officer/guard named Zed) who "randomly" selects Marsellus (using the eny meeny miney moe rhyme) to be raped. Marsellus is taken to an adjacent room while Butch manages to escape his restraints and flee the area, only to be compelled to save Marsellus. Butch browses through an assortment of pawn shop goods and eventually finds a Japanese-style sword that he uses to kill the pawn shop owner and keep Zed at bay. Marsellus gets the pawn shop owner's shotgun and shoots Zed. Butch and Marsellus part ways - The end, basically.

 So, how does that mess of a situation from Pulp Fiction intersect with The Matrix and Minority Report? Indirectly, but through Nakamura's assertions outlined above. Looking at the first issue of technology, we do see Marsellus in a role where he wields "technology" in the form of a hand gun and attempt to use that technology to assert some level of control against Butch. However, due to Butch's luck or divine gift, Marsellus is largely ineffective when he attempts to use this piece of technology. You might say, but he did shoot someone in that scene. Yes he did, but it was a woman bystander who was looking after Butch. And that's a whole separate topic. Anyway, Marsellus attempts to gain or assert power by using a weapon that is traditionally associated with western (white) warfare and can't do it. However, Butch (white), whose father was a soldier in Vietnam, appears to be completely fluent and adept at using a gun. Even a completely unrelated white character (the pawn shop owner) uses a gun with apparent ease. I'm not saying that only whites can use guns in the real world, but I am saying that in the context of this scene from Pulp Fiction, it appears that only white people are sufficiently capable with technology. You say, Marsellus does use a shotgun. Agreed, he obviously shoots Zed, but he's using it to support Butch in his rescue/revenge mission. You could argue that Marsellus was using technology on his own for his own goals, but Marsellus wasn't able to use the technology of the shotgun without the presence or intervention of Butch. Without Butch he was completely at the mercy of the two white hillbilly rapists, which brings me to point the second.

The whole idea of control over one's self (conceptually), body, and ability to manage or assert power is a pervasive one regardless of race when faced with advances in technology, but if we look at the situation in Pulp Fiction and historically, it is largely shaped by race and the control exerted by whites over non-whites (the state over the populace). This is a harder topic to tackle because it requires a significant level of reshaping to get Nakamura's argument to fit in such different confines. However, if we look at the portion of this act starting at the point Butch and Marsellus were bound to their chairs, we can see how Zed and the pawn shop owner act as the state or controlling power structure while Butch and specifically Marsellus wait to see what will happen after they left their own criminal underworld and entered the white's world of the pawn shop. This might seem ridiculous, a bit of a stretch, and contradictory since I just aligned Butch with whites a moment ago. Fair point, but I argue that this situation is slightly different in that the two power holders in this situation don't seem to consider Butch part of their world, he is put on the same level as Marsellus (at least superficially because I can't speak for the motivation of fictional charcters). After the completely arbitrary and degrading use of the eeny, meeny, miney, moe rhyme to select Marsellus, we can see how the rapists and potential murders have completely taken away any power, control, or ownership away from Marsellus. Not only by binding him and rendering him helpless, but also by violating his body through rape. While he held a substantial level of power outside the rules of society, as soon as he re-entered and attempted to behave in the same manner, those with power took control of Marsellus and attempted to remove his personhood and remove him from this societal model.