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From฀Mimesis฀to฀Mimicry:฀ Memory,฀Subjectivity,฀and฀Space฀ As demonstrated above, mimesis is crucial to the conception of official urban planning and the assorted construction projects that cater to the demands of globalization in Tokyo. It serves as a looking glass held up by abstract space for it s occupant s t o se e themselve s a s a n indispensabl e par t o f a n ever prosperous global city. Nevertheless, this looking glass is treacherous: abstract space appears subservient to the subjects but in fact its users are manipulated to serv e th e flows o f globa l capital . Appearin g analogou s t o th e Lacania n mirror stage , which promise s th e formatio n o f the subjectivity, thi s mirro r that reflect s th e imag e o f th e sel f i s a s deceptiv e a s tha t o f Sno w White' s stepmother an d a s trick y a s Alice's looking glass . As Lefebvre insightfull y points out, "For space offers itself like a mirror to the thinking 'subject', but, after th e manner of Lewis Carroll, the 'subject' passes through th e lookingglass and become s a lived abstraction " (313-4) . Th e magi c mirro r o n th e wall that alway s attempts t o assure the already indoctrinated subjec t a s an eligible use r o f th e spac e constantl y seduce s th e looke r t o wal k int o th e looking-glass to become a strange hybrid of elevated subjectivity and evacuated body, trained to see fragments a s whole. If mimesis explains the "norm-bound" nature of the urban space of Tokyo in the 1980s, I would contest this normalizing formation by critically reading This chapter is developed from th e authors article "Tetsuo: Salaryman or Iron Man?" posted on lin e i n th e specia l editio n o f Asia n cinem a revie w i n Scope (2003 ) (http:/ / wv^w.nottingham.ac.uk/film/journal/filmrev/films-asian-cinema.htm). 78฀Betwee n฀Global฀Flows฀and฀Carnal฀Flows฀ into th e abstract spac e of Tokyo the possibilities of its malfunction Again , abstract space is both norm-bound and pathogenic Th e tension between the expanding global space of flows and the lived space, the space embedded in fixed materia l conditions , result s m a bodily unconsciou s Th e represse d concrete space of everyday life, the space of the sensory and the sensual of city-users, becomes the unconscious that often returns in the form of powerful kinetic physical energies, a struggle of the body long subjugated to the violence of the rationally conceived abstract space Th e following discussion examines a situation when mimesis slips into a state of duality in which the subject s both follo w th e norm s o f th e dominan t spatia l matri x t o sustai n thei r subjectivity and paradoxically are drawn to the space to the point of erasing their subjectivity to become one with their surroundings I n such a case the subjects ar e so overwhelmed b y the sublime built environmen t o f abstrac t space as embodied by the buildings and urban infrastructure tha t they tend to integrat e wit h th e spac e o f contemporar y capitalis m Thi s pathogeni c phenomenon can be best described as mimicry, one of the possible aberrational consequences of the violence of abstract space and indeed a most revealing one Reflectin g no t onl y th e demands o f mimesis but als o its failure a s an instrument of producing a useful and docile body, mimicry marks a point of departure from which we can examine critically the violence of abstract space As a term from biological studies, mimicry designates a survival strategy of "superficia l resemblanc e o f tw o o r mor e organism s tha t ar e not closel y related taxonomically " "Thi s resemblance confers a n advantage — such as protection fro m predatio n — upo n on e o r bot h organism s throug h som e form of 'information flow' that passes between the organism and the animate agent o f selection" (Encyclopedia Bntannica 144 ) Th e best exampl e is th e phasmids, o r...

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