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5. From Mimesis to Mimicry: Memory, Subjectivity, and Space
- Hong Kong University Press, HKU
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FromMimesistoMimicry: Memory,Subjectivity,andSpace 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). 78Betwee nGlobalFlowsandCarnalFlows 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...