Zhukov said:
Ah, some thoughtful comments instead of the inane ones which started this thread. Refreshing.Gustof26 said:
Going back to The Thing, its element of subterfuge at not trusting anyone, etc. is social abjection. You're turned away from, disgusted with, and severely threatened by that which was previously closest to you, your friends, etc. Your own body even turns against you, as in the well known blood test scene. But abjection is a very complicated, visceral matter. Take a classic example of shit on a desk. Shit in a toilet, fine. It's where it's supposed to be. But shit on a desk is more than simply disgusting. It paralyzes. Its efficacy drives on the ambiguity of its origin. It came from someone, perhaps even you. It's human, but pushed away from the human and must be kept at a very clear distance. It's these sorts of lines which define selfhood. The borders of the human are very literally built upon shit. And it's when these lines are crossed, transgressed that our world comes tearing down around us. (BTW, this is all borrowed from Kristeva's Powers of Horror, should any be interested)
But you aren't simply paralyzed by shit on a table. The horror is twofold: paralysis which moves you to violence. Bugs and vermin are an excellent example. There's not logical reason to be so ruthless with such creatures, but still, most people are driven to disgust and merciless extermination when a rat or a bug crosses their path, or moreover, touches them. (eg. beginning of Inglorious Bastards) The shit needs to be quickly thrown away. Were germs and stench all your concern, your stomach wouldn't turn so violently.
That's a quick look at abjection.
I'm afraid the big misconception here is equating all violence with systematized shooter violence. Shooter violence is very neat, mechanical, impersonal. It's little more than complex target practice. Despite Dead Space's borrowing of some shooter mechanics, its violence is rather just the sort of reaction to the abject that I'm talking about here. Issac's limb by limb attacks--weapons which don't kill, but physically obliterate the necromorphs--and his stompings especially are as close as bringing the player to the visceral violence that's this sort of reaction to the abject that a game has ever managed to do. (other eg. early Silent Hill, Half-life's crowbar, etc.)
Now, as you play the game, you inevitably try to systematize the experience with your automatized shooter skills. Bam down bam down keep going etc. But Dead Space does its best to pull you out of that comfort by putting your enemies behind you, out of sight; popping out from walls; running for your life like you must on the train or at the end of game two; ammo attrition (could have been better); disabling your ability to shoot by forcing a grapple with any necromorph that gets close, making you suddenly have to slam a button as hard as you can, very much as though you were beating the monster to death yourself...In contrast to the tight corridors, there are also swarm moments where you really struggle to keep the surges back. You can focus on the mechanics alone like you two do, but doing so does blind you to what else goes on with the game. You can say it just doesn't do it for you, but that makes it a matter of your not being open to abject horror.
The violence which is provoked by abjection, that's what Dead Space is all about.
And killing a necromorph does nothing to end the abjection. They're is always there; they're always pervasive. It's like squashing shit with your fist. It sticks. Their violence isn't simply "I wanna kill you", but "I am going to tear you apart limb by limb, rip off your head and stick my tendrils down your neck and start walking around in your body, unless you are more vicious and can obliterate me first". As with anything, it's easy to not let something suck you in. But Dead Space definitely does deliver.
Also, with abjection, the visceral defines the psychological. It's a far cry from Splatterhouse gore for gore's sake.
