The document discusses Iain Banks' novel The Wasp Factory and how it can be analyzed through the lenses of Ortega y Gasset's concept of "dehumanization" in art and Deleuze and Guattari's idea of the "literary machine." It explores how the bizarre contraption used by the narrator to kill wasps, called the Wasp Factory, functions as a "literary machine" that refuses reduction to any subject. It also examines how the novel evokes a sense of sacrifice and death without redemption. Ortega y Gasset's view of modern art as separating from life and
This document contains a collection of epigraphs and quotes from various authors on the topics of critical theory, creative research, the role of the intellectual, and the relationship between knowledge and society. The quotes address themes like the importance of marginal ideas, the connection between material and meaning in works of art, the role of aesthetics in innovation, and the relationship between solitary contemplation and social engagement.
Critical Theory and Creative Research: Epigraphspncapress
This document contains a collection of epigraphs and quotes from various authors on the topics of critical theory, creative research, the role of the intellectual, and the relationship between knowledge and society. The quotes address ideas like the importance of marginal domains of knowledge, the aesthetic dimensions of innovation, and how our senses are shaped by social and historical forces.
20th century authors responded to the "death of utopia" in various ways. Some, like Huxley in Brave New World and Orwell in 1984, directly critiqued failed utopian attempts and the dangers of oppressive regimes that crushed individuality. Others, like Palahniuk, saw value in embracing chaos and destruction. Katherine Dunn depicted a loving yet dysfunctional family in Geek Love, finding humor in utopian failure. The diversity of responses reflected evolving views on freedom, humanity's relationship with community, and whether perfection could ever be achieved.
The Depiction of the Metaphysical in German and African Fiction: a study of s...iosrjce
IOSR Journal of Humanities and Social Science is a double blind peer reviewed International Journal edited by International Organization of Scientific Research (IOSR).The Journal provides a common forum where all aspects of humanities and social sciences are presented. IOSR-JHSS publishes original papers, review papers, conceptual framework, analytical and simulation models, case studies, empirical research, technical notes etc.
The document provides an overview of various literary and artistic movements from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It discusses absurdism, existentialism, nihilism, modernism, stream of consciousness, avant-garde movements like expressionism, dadaism and surrealism, postmodernism, and theater of the absurd. Key figures and their works are mentioned for each movement. The document aims to ponder over these trends and movements through presentations by three department members.
This document summarizes Arthur Danto's perspective on the philosophy of art. It discusses how the field of aesthetics was once seen as irrelevant but became important again due to conceptual artworks like Andy Warhol's Brillo Boxes. These raised philosophical questions about what distinguishes art from non-art. Danto argues that art is representational and has meaning or content, unlike indiscernible real objects, making representation key to a theory of art. He also notes that the distinction between art and philosophy has become problematic as art becomes more self-conscious.
This document provides an overview of Arthur Schopenhauer and summaries of some of his key philosophical ideas. It discusses his criticism of Hegel and Kierkegaard's influence. It also summarizes Schopenhauer's view of the world as will, his pessimistic perspective on life involving endless striving and suffering, and his belief that the ultimate reality is an unconscious and irrational will. The document examines some of Schopenhauer's views on love, marriage, and having children.
This document provides an overview of Walter Pater and his influential 1873 work Studies in the History of the Renaissance. Some key points:
- Pater was an Oxford scholar who studied Greek philosophy and published Studies in the History of the Renaissance in 1873, seen as manifesto of aestheticism.
- The book explored how 15th/16th century Italian culture embodied qualities Victorians wanted to appropriate, like classical scholarship and valuing individualism.
- It promoted embracing sensory experiences and momentary pleasures over fixed moral or religious principles, generating controversy.
- Pater's work influenced Oscar Wilde and notions of "art for art's sake," though some critiqued it for espousing a theory
This document contains a collection of epigraphs and quotes from various authors on the topics of critical theory, creative research, the role of the intellectual, and the relationship between knowledge and society. The quotes address themes like the importance of marginal ideas, the connection between material and meaning in works of art, the role of aesthetics in innovation, and the relationship between solitary contemplation and social engagement.
Critical Theory and Creative Research: Epigraphspncapress
This document contains a collection of epigraphs and quotes from various authors on the topics of critical theory, creative research, the role of the intellectual, and the relationship between knowledge and society. The quotes address ideas like the importance of marginal domains of knowledge, the aesthetic dimensions of innovation, and how our senses are shaped by social and historical forces.
20th century authors responded to the "death of utopia" in various ways. Some, like Huxley in Brave New World and Orwell in 1984, directly critiqued failed utopian attempts and the dangers of oppressive regimes that crushed individuality. Others, like Palahniuk, saw value in embracing chaos and destruction. Katherine Dunn depicted a loving yet dysfunctional family in Geek Love, finding humor in utopian failure. The diversity of responses reflected evolving views on freedom, humanity's relationship with community, and whether perfection could ever be achieved.
The Depiction of the Metaphysical in German and African Fiction: a study of s...iosrjce
IOSR Journal of Humanities and Social Science is a double blind peer reviewed International Journal edited by International Organization of Scientific Research (IOSR).The Journal provides a common forum where all aspects of humanities and social sciences are presented. IOSR-JHSS publishes original papers, review papers, conceptual framework, analytical and simulation models, case studies, empirical research, technical notes etc.
The document provides an overview of various literary and artistic movements from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It discusses absurdism, existentialism, nihilism, modernism, stream of consciousness, avant-garde movements like expressionism, dadaism and surrealism, postmodernism, and theater of the absurd. Key figures and their works are mentioned for each movement. The document aims to ponder over these trends and movements through presentations by three department members.
This document summarizes Arthur Danto's perspective on the philosophy of art. It discusses how the field of aesthetics was once seen as irrelevant but became important again due to conceptual artworks like Andy Warhol's Brillo Boxes. These raised philosophical questions about what distinguishes art from non-art. Danto argues that art is representational and has meaning or content, unlike indiscernible real objects, making representation key to a theory of art. He also notes that the distinction between art and philosophy has become problematic as art becomes more self-conscious.
This document provides an overview of Arthur Schopenhauer and summaries of some of his key philosophical ideas. It discusses his criticism of Hegel and Kierkegaard's influence. It also summarizes Schopenhauer's view of the world as will, his pessimistic perspective on life involving endless striving and suffering, and his belief that the ultimate reality is an unconscious and irrational will. The document examines some of Schopenhauer's views on love, marriage, and having children.
This document provides an overview of Walter Pater and his influential 1873 work Studies in the History of the Renaissance. Some key points:
- Pater was an Oxford scholar who studied Greek philosophy and published Studies in the History of the Renaissance in 1873, seen as manifesto of aestheticism.
- The book explored how 15th/16th century Italian culture embodied qualities Victorians wanted to appropriate, like classical scholarship and valuing individualism.
- It promoted embracing sensory experiences and momentary pleasures over fixed moral or religious principles, generating controversy.
- Pater's work influenced Oscar Wilde and notions of "art for art's sake," though some critiqued it for espousing a theory
This document provides an overview and analysis of the anti-realist documentary film "Not Reconciled" by Marcelo Expósito. The film combines experimental and testimonial elements in an attempt to bridge opposing aesthetic approaches from the 20th century left. It uses archival footage in a way that forces estrangement rather than naturalism. The film is structured in five acts that present non-linear testimonies and documentation of political experiences and movements in Argentina, such as the Siluetazo protest and escraches, through a montage approach. The analysis discusses how the film challenges conventions while seeking to represent new forms of politicization through affect and estrangement rather than a clear "us vs
This document discusses the concept of perception and representation through a dialogue between Roy and Coyote. Coyote tells a story about tricking a trader to illustrate that perception is tricky. He argues that we do not directly perceive the world, but that something comes between our perceptions and reality. Roy is skeptical but engaged in the discussion. Coyote maintains that perception involves tricks and illusions that reveal the beginnings of knowledge, not its end.
International Journal of Humanities and Social Science Invention (IJHSSI)inventionjournals
International Journal of Humanities and Social Science Invention (IJHSSI) is an international journal intended for professionals and researchers in all fields of Humanities and Social Science. IJHSSI publishes research articles and reviews within the whole field Humanities and Social Science, new teaching methods, assessment, validation and the impact of new technologies and it will continue to provide information on the latest trends and developments in this ever-expanding subject. The publications of papers are selected through double peer reviewed to ensure originality, relevance, and readability. The articles published in our journal can be accessed online
The document provides an art history commentary and visual companion to philosophical aesthetics texts discussed in class. It summarizes major developments in art like naturalism, abstraction, conceptual art, and challenges the idea of artistic genius. Over 50 artworks are discussed, from prehistoric cave paintings to modern abstract works, relating them to philosophers like Plato, Hegel, Kant, and Gadamer to illustrate key concepts in aesthetics through history. The presentation aims to give students a deeper understanding of how philosophical ideas are expressed through actual artworks.
The group exhibition "May contain criticism" features works by 11 artists from ITB's 2016 master's class. The exhibition aims to show the diverse interests and media used by the artists while also highlighting some similarities, particularly a shared critical approach. The works cover a range of topics and media, with many offering subtle criticism of issues like news media biases, traditions of marriage, urban planning practices that restrict nature, industrialization's impacts on traditional crafts, extremist interpretations of religion, and societal views of subcultures. By exploring these artists' varied critical perspectives, the curator seeks to articulate how criticism can be extracted from the works while maintaining some coherent curatorial idea.
Avant-Garde Is Kitsch. An Essay On Modernism And Modernity In Politics And Cu...Luz Martinez
The document discusses how four young art students each painted the same landscape in Tivoli but produced four very different paintings due to individual temperaments and perspectives. It notes that while they aimed for objective representation, factors like an artist's disposition inevitably influenced how they perceived and rendered form, color, light and shadow. The narrator recalls being surprised by this early lesson in the subjectivity of vision and art.
How To Write An Analytical Essay Outline, Steps, AndDenise Miller
The document outlines a 5-step process for hiring an essay writer from the website HelpWriting.net. The first step is to create an account with a password and email. The second step is to complete an order form providing instructions, sources, and deadline. The third step is to review bids from writers and choose one based on qualifications and reviews.
This document discusses postmodernism in literature and other art forms. It provides definitions and examples of postmodern architecture, history, literary theory, and historiographic metafiction. Key aspects of postmodernism highlighted include irony, contradiction, self-reflexivity, challenging institutions and blurring boundaries between genres. The document also examines how postmodern art interacts with and challenges theoretical discourses.
The article traces the genealogy of the concept of Nature and landscape from the romanticism to
the second industrial revolution. This archeology of ideas aims to dissect Nature as a subject of discourse in
order to propose it as an “empty container” filled with fantasy and which has been instrumentalized by
(sometimes) conservative power axes. The ongoing ecological crisis demands a set of new theoretical
approaches towards what is that thing “out there” that we call Nature since the romantic paradigm only gives
away a passive and contemplative image that serves to economic exploitation and aesthetical consumerism.
Through the lens of eco-criticism, the aim is to dismantle and deconstruct the fantasy of Nature by proposing
different entry points from interdisciplinarity and critical studies.
An Artwork as a Critique Adorno against Luk cs.pdfAngelina Johnson
This document summarizes and compares the views of Adorno and Lukács on the function of artworks in capitalist society. Adorno rejects Lukács' concept of totality and realism in art, instead advocating for the autonomy of artworks and analyzing them using the concept of constellations. Adorno sees art as preserving remnants of sensuous mimesis that have been destroyed by the Enlightenment. For Adorno, art provides a critique of an irrational rational world by exposing subjects to their other through paradoxical autonomy and mimesis. The document also discusses how Adorno and Lukács differ in their views of reification, subjectivity, and the problems of the modern administrative society
This document provides an overview of an art history course. It begins with definitions of art and discussions of the Venus of Willendorf statue from 23,000 BCE. It explores theories about the meaning and purpose of early artworks when the culture that created them is unknown. It also summarizes Werner Herzog's documentary about the Chauvet Cave paintings from 30,000 BCE. The document discusses the relationship between artist and audience and provides examples of artworks. It explores theories of aesthetics and beauty from philosophers like Kant. It also examines representations, abstractions, and styles of artmaking. Overall, the document serves as an introduction to considering the forms, meanings, and contexts of artworks over time.
The document provides instructions for submitting a paper writing request to the website HelpWriting.net in 5 steps:
1. Create an account with a password and email.
2. Complete a 10-minute order form providing instructions, sources, deadline, and attach a sample work.
3. Writers will bid on the request and the customer will choose a writer based on qualifications.
4. The customer will receive the paper and authorize payment if satisfied or request revisions.
5. HelpWriting.net guarantees original, high-quality content and full refunds for plagiarism.
13 Original Colonies Essay. Online assignment writing service.Darian Pruitt
The document provides instructions for using a writing assistance website to have papers written. It outlines a 5-step process: 1) Create an account with a password and email. 2) Complete a form with assignment details and attach samples. 3) Review bids from writers and select one. 4) Review the completed paper and authorize payment. 5) Request revisions until satisfied with the work. The purpose is to outline the process for having assignments written by third parties on the site.
The document provides instructions for requesting writing help from the website HelpWriting.net. It outlines a 5-step process: 1) Create an account with a password and email. 2) Complete a 10-minute order form providing instructions, sources, and deadline. 3) Review bids from writers and select one. 4) Review the completed paper and authorize payment. 5) Request revisions to ensure satisfaction, with the option of a full refund for plagiarized work.
4 Year Old Observation Essays. Online assignment writing service.Darian Pruitt
John Stuart Mill was a British philosopher born in 1806 in London. He was educated from a very young age by his father James Mill, a noted philosopher and economist who introduced him to the school of thought known as Utilitarianism. John Stuart studied languages, mathematics, science, and history extensively as a child, often tutoring his younger siblings as well. He was heavily influenced by his father's philosophies of scientific foundation for philosophy and humanist approach to politics and economics.
10 Lines Essay On Mahatma Gandhi In EnglishDarian Pruitt
This document provides instructions for requesting an assignment writing service from HelpWriting.net. It outlines a 5-step process: 1) Create an account with a password and email. 2) Complete a 10-minute order form providing instructions, sources, and deadline. 3) Review bids from writers and choose one based on qualifications. 4) Review the completed paper and authorize payment if pleased. 5) Request revisions until fully satisfied, with a refund option for plagiarized content.
The document provides instructions for how to request and receive writing assistance from the HelpWriting.net website. It outlines a 5-step process: 1) Create an account with a password and email. 2) Complete a 10-minute order form providing instructions, sources, and deadline. 3) Review bids from writers and choose one based on qualifications. 4) Receive the paper and authorize payment if satisfied. 5) Request revisions to ensure satisfaction, with the option of a full refund for plagiarized work.
This document outlines the steps to request writing assistance from HelpWriting.net. It explains that users must first create an account with a password and email. They can then submit a 'Write My Paper For Me' request by filling out a form with instructions, sources, and deadline. Writers will bid on the request, and the user can choose a writer based on qualifications. The writer will complete the paper and the user can request revisions until satisfied. HelpWriting.net promises original, high-quality work and refunds for plagiarized content.
500-700 Word Essay Example. Online assignment writing service.Darian Pruitt
The document discusses using the heat shock method to perform genetic transformation, which involves implanting a segment of DNA from one organism (a jellyfish) into another organism (E. coli bacteria) to make the recipient organism express the donor's genes. Specifically, it describes an experiment where heat shock was used to genetically transform a piece of DNA from a jellyfish into a sample of E. coli bacteria in order to observe the effects on the bacteria. The goal was to integrate the foreign jellyfish DNA into the E. coli genome and have the bacteria display characteristics specified by the new genetic material.
1. Social learning theory posits that violence is learned through observation and reinforcement. By witnessing violence, people learn aggressive behaviors which may be repeated, especially if rewarded.
2. Impulsivity and poor self-control have been linked to violence according to traits theories. Those with difficulties regulating emotions and impulses may act violently when angry or frustrated.
3. Attachment theory suggests that children who experience neglect, abuse or inconsistent caregiving are more likely to develop mental representations of relationships as distrustful and aggressive. This can influence the use of violence in future relationships.
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This document discusses postmodernism in literature and other art forms. It provides definitions and examples of postmodern architecture, history, literary theory, and historiographic metafiction. Key aspects of postmodernism highlighted include irony, contradiction, self-reflexivity, challenging institutions and blurring boundaries between genres. The document also examines how postmodern art interacts with and challenges theoretical discourses.
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3. Writers will bid on the request and the customer will choose a writer based on qualifications.
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The US House of Representatives is deeply concerned by ongoing and pervasive acts of antisemitic
harassment and intimidation at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Failing to act decisively to ensure a safe learning environment for all students would be a grave dereliction of your responsibilities as President of MIT and Chair of the MIT Corporation.
This Congress will not stand idly by and allow an environment hostile to Jewish students to persist. The House believes that your institution is in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, and the inability or
unwillingness to rectify this violation through action requires accountability.
Postsecondary education is a unique opportunity for students to learn and have their ideas and beliefs challenged. However, universities receiving hundreds of millions of federal funds annually have denied
students that opportunity and have been hijacked to become venues for the promotion of terrorism, antisemitic harassment and intimidation, unlawful encampments, and in some cases, assaults and riots.
The House of Representatives will not countenance the use of federal funds to indoctrinate students into hateful, antisemitic, anti-American supporters of terrorism. Investigations into campus antisemitism by the Committee on Education and the Workforce and the Committee on Ways and Means have been expanded into a Congress-wide probe across all relevant jurisdictions to address this national crisis. The undersigned Committees will conduct oversight into the use of federal funds at MIT and its learning environment under authorities granted to each Committee.
• The Committee on Education and the Workforce has been investigating your institution since December 7, 2023. The Committee has broad jurisdiction over postsecondary education, including its compliance with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, campus safety concerns over disruptions to the learning environment, and the awarding of federal student aid under the Higher Education Act.
• The Committee on Oversight and Accountability is investigating the sources of funding and other support flowing to groups espousing pro-Hamas propaganda and engaged in antisemitic harassment and intimidation of students. The Committee on Oversight and Accountability is the principal oversight committee of the US House of Representatives and has broad authority to investigate “any matter” at “any time” under House Rule X.
• The Committee on Ways and Means has been investigating several universities since November 15, 2023, when the Committee held a hearing entitled From Ivory Towers to Dark Corners: Investigating the Nexus Between Antisemitism, Tax-Exempt Universities, and Terror Financing. The Committee followed the hearing with letters to those institutions on January 10, 202
A Strategic Approach: GenAI in EducationPeter Windle
Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies such as Generative AI, Image Generators and Large Language Models have had a dramatic impact on teaching, learning and assessment over the past 18 months. The most immediate threat AI posed was to Academic Integrity with Higher Education Institutes (HEIs) focusing their efforts on combating the use of GenAI in assessment. Guidelines were developed for staff and students, policies put in place too. Innovative educators have forged paths in the use of Generative AI for teaching, learning and assessments leading to pockets of transformation springing up across HEIs, often with little or no top-down guidance, support or direction.
This Gasta posits a strategic approach to integrating AI into HEIs to prepare staff, students and the curriculum for an evolving world and workplace. We will highlight the advantages of working with these technologies beyond the realm of teaching, learning and assessment by considering prompt engineering skills, industry impact, curriculum changes, and the need for staff upskilling. In contrast, not engaging strategically with Generative AI poses risks, including falling behind peers, missed opportunities and failing to ensure our graduates remain employable. The rapid evolution of AI technologies necessitates a proactive and strategic approach if we are to remain relevant.
How to Build a Module in Odoo 17 Using the Scaffold MethodCeline George
Odoo provides an option for creating a module by using a single line command. By using this command the user can make a whole structure of a module. It is very easy for a beginner to make a module. There is no need to make each file manually. This slide will show how to create a module using the scaffold method.
A review of the growth of the Israel Genealogy Research Association Database Collection for the last 12 months. Our collection is now passed the 3 million mark and still growing. See which archives have contributed the most. See the different types of records we have, and which years have had records added. You can also see what we have for the future.
Strategies for Effective Upskilling is a presentation by Chinwendu Peace in a Your Skill Boost Masterclass organisation by the Excellence Foundation for South Sudan on 08th and 09th June 2024 from 1 PM to 3 PM on each day.
Exploiting Artificial Intelligence for Empowering Researchers and Faculty, In...Dr. Vinod Kumar Kanvaria
Exploiting Artificial Intelligence for Empowering Researchers and Faculty,
International FDP on Fundamentals of Research in Social Sciences
at Integral University, Lucknow, 06.06.2024
By Dr. Vinod Kumar Kanvaria
Artifice And Dehumanization Iain Banks The Wasp Factory And Hatred For Life
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Artifice and Dehumanization: Iain Banks’ The Wasp Factory and Hatred for Life
Adam Lovasz
Doctoral researcher in Philosophy (PhD),
Eötvös Lóránd University,
Budapest
Abstract
In this article I seek to explore the dark, twisted world of Iain Banks’ masterpiece of
speculative weird fiction, The Wasp Factory. Specifically, I attempt to grasp the aesthetic
function of the Wasp Factory, a bizarre contraption utilized by the narrator to ritually
murder wasps. What meaning, if any, does this construct convey? More generally, what is the
purpose of this bizarre, gloomy novel? And what implications does it have for literary theory
in general? So as to diversify scholarly reception of Banks’ extraordinary work, I seek to
utilize two concepts of aesthetic theory that may be of help in this regard. The first is Ortega
y Gasset’s notion of „dehumanization”, expounded in a little-cited 1925 essay, entitled „The
Dehumanization of Art” (La deshumanización del arte). The second key concept I seek to
utilize is Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari’s concept of the „literary machine.” Through the
posthumanist merging of these two very different, albeit analogous philosophical ideas, I
hope to shed new light on Banks’ literary method and the radical anti-vitalist potential of his
novel.
Key Words: aesthetics, death, dehumanization, expenditure, literary theory
We see blurred photographs of long-dead relations, stains of dust upon our shaking hands.
The secret has no face, it would seem, in the sacred world evoked in the 1984 novel, The
Wasp Factory. This is a world wherein thought has become separable from life itself.
Nothing individual can remain in the proximity of the Factory. It has an operativity all of its
own, a power of separation that exerts a malignant allure upon its surroundings. Banks’ novel
evokes a sense of sacrifice, a lived spirituality without any hope of salvation: „I thought again
of the Sacrifice Poles; more deliberately this time, picturing each one in turn, remembering
their positions and their components, seeing in my mind what those sightless eyes looked out
to, and flicking through each view like a security guard changing cameras on a monitor
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screen.” (Banks 12-3) The narrator never alludes to which deity these „Sacrifice Poles” are
dedicated to, what kind of religious rite demands the sacrifice of wasps. The teenage
protagonist, Frank, spends his days collecting, entrapping and murdering these hapless insects
in various shamanistic acts of senseless violence. Yet this is most manifestly a shamanism
without object, driven by a sightless vision. Remembrance oozes through the eyes of dead
insects, jamming itself into a tight place that has become all but inseparable from the Factory.
In The Wasp Factory, there seems to be no opportunity for redemption or salvation. Rather,
we as readers are encouraged to feel „the simple but ultimate surrender of death.” (13)
Indeed, Frank later confides in us that he has never confined his murderous interests to
merely one particular lifeform: by the time he was ten years of age, Frank had already
murdered three fellow children. This aggression is hence not limited to an annoying, irritating
lifeform: Frank is animated by a burning hatred for life itself.
But is hatred not the mirror-image of love and attraction, a longing for that which only
sightless eyes may see? Death and the love of dying permeates The Wasp Factory. At first
blush, it seems absurd, even preposterous to suggest that one may harbor in oneself an
aesthetic appreciation of death. The mere suggestion of such a desire to visualize death would
indicate a perversion of aesthetic sense. Whatever we may think of such an urge, whether we
view it as madness or moral evil, this desire to see and feel death is what drives Frank: „I
decided to watch the television in my room, or listen to the radio, and get to sleep early so I
could be up just after dawn to catch a wasp for the Factory.” (12) In a quite literal sense, the
narrator seeks to rid the cold Scottish island, his place of residence, of any and all lifeforms
that may pose a danger to his own bodily comfort. Would this then constitute a process of
methodical extermination? As we shall see, the situation is not so simple. It is our contention
that the Wasp Factory functions as a ”literary machine”, a dehumanizing becoming that
refuses to reduce itself to the self-enunciation of any subject, living or dead. Before we may
explore Banks’ contraption, we must construct a theoretical assemblage of our own, through
the creative mating of three very different thinkers.
The first human ingredient of our planned synthesis is Ortega y Gasset. A Spaniard of notably
humanist persuasion, Ortega seems, not altogether unreasonably, a most definitely unsuitable
candidate for any posthuman aesthetics. However, in Ortega’s 1925 essay, „The
Dehumanization of Art”, we may discover a key concept that can be of some help in
unpacking Banks’ anti-vitalism. This is the idea of „dehumanization.” For Ortega, the most
revealing characteristic of modern art is its manifest unpopularity. His claim is that „the
unpopularity of modern art... is of a very distinct kind.” (Ortega 65) It is not merely a case of
innovative artistic ideas too far ahead of their time. In the contemporary unpopularity of
modern, conceptually laden art forms, Ortega sees an essential scission, one unparalleled in
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previous art. The vast majority of people simply do not understand modern art, it divides the
masses into „those who understand it and those who do not.” (66) Modernist art, especially
abstract painting, is irritating for most people, because it falls so far outside of reality. Art has
become separated from life and experience. For Ortega, as distinct from many contemporary
critics, this is not a cause for concern. Quite the opposite! The anti-representational slant of
modernist art is an opportunity to leave the human element behind, to sever the ties that limit
art to a slavish re-presentation of everyday life and banal topics. For the majority of art
consumers, those works are enjoyable that keep them within their sphere of everyday
concern, without threatening the boundaries of their existence. Only limited, subjective
enunciations are considered beautiful by the uninformed. Modern art, on the other hand,
severs us from human narratives and desires. There is an irredeemable contradiction between
authentic appreciation and humanity: „such concern with the human element of the work is
strictly incompatible with aesthetic gratification.” (68) Aesthetics, in Ortega’s view, must
transcend human reality, for life excludes art and art excludes life. Artistic vision must
become trapped among the corridors, labyrinths, chambers and traps of unreality. True art
only begins once the human element is marginalized. (67) Ortega pulls no punches. In a
thrillingly audacious and powerful move, he drives a wedge between art and reality: „the
artistic object is artistic only to the extent that it is not real.” (68) Art cannot be real, because
art is self-referential. This impassioned astronomy is the instrument of a desire that breaks
away from alterity, otherness. It is an assemblage that triggers exit from social reality, nature
and time. Art is what gives back, impassionately exploring realms divorced from any passion.
Banks’ protagonist sees the nothingness that dead wasp-eyes open to. Similarly, the artist
envisions a something that the uninitiated pass over, an „artistic nothingness” born in
solitude. Although notions of purity have become, in the decades since Ortega first published
his essay, somewhat problematic, we may nevertheless emphasize this idea. He himself
recognizes that pure art is an abstraction. But does that mean that one cannot adhere to such
an ideal? Self-reference, far from being a limitation of artistic expression, a deficiency that
must be addressed, is viewed by Ortega as constituting the very essence of art:
Although a pure art may not be possible, there is no doubt that there is
room for a movement towards it. This would lead to a progressive
elimination of the human or too human elements characteristic of
romantic and naturalistic works of art, and a point will be reached in
which the human content of the work diminishes until it can scarcely
be seen. (69)
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Modern art is a process of disfiguration and dismemberment, a process of progressive
elimination that separates itself from living themes. It is a burning of the human image, a
scission driven into the very heart of reality, a hole that expands until nothing is left that
resembles anything real. The only authenticity, within the realm of art, is an artificial reality
of its own making. This demands the construction of a milieu, be it literary, musical or poetic,
that is all but unbearable for any living thing. As distinct from naturalistic directions, abstract
artists follow deviations „leading directly away from the human object.” (71) Hatred and
avoidance of natural themes are directly predicated upon a lovingly, yielding acceptance of
artifice. Ortega explicitly connects anti-vitalism with artistic self-referentiality: modernism
„tends towards the dehumanization of art; to an avoidance of living forms; to ensuring that a
work of art should be nothing but a work of art; to considering art simply as play and nothing
else.” (70) Dehumanization is the mere correlate of a much deeper hatred for existence, born
of decadent exhaustion. It would be a mistake to read Ortega’s words as the laments of some
conservative aesthete, hell-bent on restoring traditional art at the expense of artistic free
expression. At the conclusion of his essay, Ortega points out „the impossibility of going
back.” (83) We cannot return to an age wherein art is full of meaning. Rather, we must make
the most of the present situation. Extending this point, we would also highlight the
impossibility of restricting the realm of meaning to human desires, aesthetic forms that are
amenable to recognition by human entities. Dehumanization and hatred for life, once
awakened, simply cannot be reterritorialized any longer. Failure of representation equates
acceptance of artifice, the liberation of the artificial and inorganic at the expense of any and
all living beings. Banks’ novel underlines Ortega’s emphasis on the artificiality of
dehumanization. The Wasp Factory is full of minute details, carefully enacted scenes,
meticulously curated stages. Life must give way to the congelation that is artificial nonbeing:
I'd found the candle-making kit in the cupboard under the stairs five or
six years ago, and experimented with the colours and consistencies for
months before hitting on the idea of using the wax as a wasp-prison. I
looked up then and saw the head of a wasp poking up from the top of
a candle on the altar. The newly lit candle, blood red and as thick as
my wrist, contained the still flame and the tiny head within its caldera
of wax like pieces of an alien game. As I watched, the flame, a
centimetre behind the wasp's wax-gummed head, freed the antennae
from the grease and they came upright for a while before they
frazzled. The head started to smoke as the wax dribbled off it, then the
fumes caught light, and the wasp body, a second flame within the
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crater, flickered and crackled as the fire incinerated the insect from its
head down. (Banks 33-4)
Experimentation anchors formerly living, animated living objects to a state of absolute death,
a purified, eternalized immobility. Frank is careful, and spends months, indulging himself in
the seemingly pointless alchemical task of melting candles, until he uncovers the correct
consistency, perfectly suited to entombing wasp-bodies previously killed in the Wasp
Factory. The purpose of this posthumous „alien game” is an almost meditative alternation of
coagulation and dissolution. In one moment, the wasp cadavers lie trapped, hopelessly sealed
up by wax coffins – in the other, they are liberated from their confines, only to meet their
final dissolution in the crackling of a candle-caldera. Those killed are kept by Frank, so as to
be incinerated at a later stage. Banks’ protagonist betrays a perverse fascination with the
microscopic aspects of life, inhuman perspectives that lie outside of ordinary human
presence. We cannot even begin to fathom what it is like to be a „wax-gummed head.” Ortega
identifies this fascination with the inorganic and the microscopic with the inherently anti-
vitalistic impulses of modern poetry. „The lyrical weapon”, Ortega writes with characteristic
rhetorical flair, „is turned against natural things and damages, even assassinates them.”
(Ortega 77)
How else could one characterize Banks’ prose, if not as a radical assassination of everything
animated, everything that lives, breathes and flies? Not only living entities must perish, but
even their very forms must be eradicated, if Banks’ Factory is to triumph. As Ortega
emphasizes, „the processes of dehumanization are many.” (76) There is no single sure-fire
method of eliminating life, in a literal or literary sense. The Wasp Factory knows multiple
ways of murdering the wasps entrapped among its walls. No single way of dying enjoys an
exclusive monopoly in this unspeakable setting. Abstract art and abstracted, anti-vitalist
writing alike divorce themselves, decadently and violently, from life, letting loose
„unimaginable characteristics” into the world. (71) Dehumanization may be aptly compared
to Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari’s notion of „deterritorialization.” Deterritorialization, for
Deleuze and Guattari, is inseparable from „minor literature”, a term they use to denote all
methods of writing that break free of representation. (Deleuze and Guattari 18)
Deterritorialized literature is a writing that ungrounds literary expression, ideally to the point
wherein „nothing remains but intensities.” (19) Minor literature is not minor in a quantitative
sense. Rather, it is a literature that opens up lines of flight for the qualitatively enhanced
artistic subject. This resonates well with Ortega’s assertion that modern art constitutes a
method of escape from reality. For us, what is interesting at this point is Deleuze and
Guattari’s concept of „literary machine.” „The modern work of art”, claims Deleuze in his
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book on Proust, is a machine, and functions as such.” (Deleuze 145) What does this mean,
and how does it relate to the inner workings of Banks’ Wasp Factory? Furthermore, what are
the primary characteristics of this construct? Uncannily echoing Ortega, Deleuze writes that
„the modern work of art has no problem of meaning, it has only a problem of use.” (146)
Art, through its modernist dis-anthropomorphization, has become a machinery whose sole
function is the perpetuation of its own usage. For Ortega and Deleuze alike, this is a
productive opportunity, a chance to unleash unfathomable power. Throughout The Wasp
Factory, we are confronted with the energetics of sacrifice, the sacred power of ritual and the
dark forces of death. Frank expresses, at one significant point, his doubts as to whether the
Factory is a worthwhile enterprise, but the spectacle of the dying wasps, gifted to him by his
machine, is enough to dispel these anxieties: „parts of me thought all this was nonsense, but
they were in a tiny minority. The rest of me knew this sort of thing _worked_. It gave me
power, it made me part of what I own and where I am. It makes me feel good.” (Banks 46)
The nonsense of the Factory as a dehumanizing, murderous literary machine are enough to
fill Frank with a sense of purpose. He believes in his own acts, and this belief in itself is
sufficiently empowering for him to continue operating the literary machine. Moments of
disjointed, incoherent nonsense become, for the narrator, meaningful engagements with an
unreality of his own making. Nothing can take away the solitary, secret joy of putting to
death, at least not from Francis („Frank”) Cauldhame. Such moments, such inner experiences
„become the effect of a literary machine.” (Deleuze 153) The literary machine expresses the
dark energy of life exhausting itself through bizarre, unhealthy spectacles of expenditure and
depravity. Surrounded by the Factory, the subjectivity of the narrator is also dehumanized,
dismembered, in other words, rendered collective in the most exalted sense of the word. It is
because he produces moments of death that these moments become Banks’ very own literary
realities. What the narrator does is to extricate the „diabolical power” of the Wasp Factory as
literary machine. (Deleuze and Guattari 29) Deleuze and Kafka, through a speculative
rendition of Franz Kafka’s writing, envision the literary machine as a recombinative power, a
potency that acts through destroying and refabricating linguistic, cultural and material
realities, all in the context of a becoming-unreal. The literary machine has no need of
symbolic representation or realism, for it itself is generative of new, unfathomable,
unimaginable realities. Desire, once the productivity of the literary machine is rendered open,
tends to „take flight on the whole line, carried away by a freed expression, carrying away
deformed contents.” (59) Deformation, for Deleuze and Guattari, is a liberating force that
allows one to take flight, including those authors we choose as the objects of our study:
commentary as a method of escape, this is the goal that lies at the heart of their methodology.
Secret enunciation „hides itself or deforms”; the production of pure immanence, „a pure,
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moving material of expression”, can only be performed in a minor position, a place of
secrecy unopen to direct contact. (65)
If anything, its status as minor literature would explain the esoteric and elusive atmosphere
evoked by The Wasp Factory. Insofar as it allows Frank to produce instances of enunciation,
the Factory performs an explicitly emancipative function. Frank does not feel his life of
mutilation, destruction and meticulous murderousness to be lacking in meaning, quite the
reverse: his inner emptiness is a productive interiority, connected to a childish world that
gravitates around a killing-machine:
All our lives are symbols. Everything we do is part of a pattern we
have at least some say in. The strong make their own patterns and
influence other people's, the weak have their courses mapped out for
them. The weak and the unlucky, and the stupid. The Wasp Factory is
part of the pattern because it is part of life and - even more so- part of
death. Like life it is complicated, so all the components are there. The
reason it can answer questions is because every question is a start
looking for an end, and the Factory is about the End - death, no less.
Keep your entrails and sticks and dice and books and birds and voices
and pendants and all the rest of that crap; I have the Factory, and it's
about now and the future; not the past. (Banks 88)
The masses can keep their „pendants” and „all the rest of that crap”, for Frank believes he has
uncovered the alchemical secret. The Wasp Factory is his literary machine, a construct of his
own making that nevertheless reveals realities far beyond the confines of the human. It is a
line of flight, precisely because it is the End of every beginning. The Factory itself is but a
mere component, a refrain in the vast rhythm of life. Vitality must end, surrendering to the
sovereignty of death. This does not mean, however, that we must equate the end of life with
the absolute lack of a future. According to Frank’s perverse worldview, annihilation of
natural forms opens a pathway to a futurity characterized by absolute lack and overwhelming
emptiness. Patternmaking already entails a Darwinian struggle among the strong and the
weak. In the final instance, every organic being will prove weaker than the realm of the
inorganic. At its heart, the minor writer knows full well that his machine does not really
work, its gears do not function in any real sense. (Deleuze and Guattari 45) In any ordinary
human being, this knowledge of futility would be enough to render oneself impotent,
unproductive. The minor writer, however, uses this opportunity, this ennui, to take flight from
reality, the reality of oppressive life. For Deleuze and Banks alike, art is superior to life.
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(Deleuze 41) Art, in Deleuze’s philosophy, functions as a telescope that unearths newer and
newer layers of signification. The meaning of the sign resides in itself, in the self-
referentiality of collective assemblages of miniature enunciations. As Deleuze notes, „the
sign is an ever-equivocal, implicit, and implicated meaning.” (92) Signification is a
movement, a becoming that fabricates the preconditions of its own literary narration. Rather
than mechanical laws of causation, it is Deleuze’s contention that signs, making themselves
manifest through explicit styles, are what constitute the ever-present texture of the world.
Essence, in all art forms –literature in particular – is constituted by self-identity. „Identity of a
sign as style and of a meaning as essence: such is the character of the work of art.” (50) The
Factory is a sign of the End, for it is the limitless ocean into which all functionality flows, the
wasteland into which life collapses. Solitude opens Frank up to the absence of a cause. No
longer is he master of his own artifice. The narrator himself is dehumanized, rendered into a
channel for malignant enunciations, communications and forces. As both experimenter and
experimental subject, he himself is exposed to bodily harm, through inhalation of toxic
chemicals. In another ritual, Frank positions the cadaver of a long-dead wasp into a tin filled
with a poisonous mixture. Instead of fresh air, this production of absence pollutes the
atmosphere with unbearable smoke: „the mixture of sugar and weedkiller sizzled and glared;
the intense light seared through me and clouds of smoke rolled up and around my head as I
held my breath and my eyes watered.” (Banks 35) Even the experimenter’s own interiority
cannot escape pollutive exposure, for the setting wherein signs manifest themselves is a place
of impurity. Essences are not to be found in places of sunlit clarity. Rather, we must search
for essence in territories that fall outside of purified, sterile, placid and domesticated space.
Frank must search for meaning in the darkness of inner exile, enclosed within a solitude that
no external agents may disturb.
The alchemical Magnum Opus demands the disposal of presence and separation from light,
for „the essences dwell in dark regions, not in the temperate zones of the clear and the
distinct.” (Deleuze 100) The literary machine, as an instrument dedicated to liberating flows
of desire, cannot be allowed to come into contact with anything associated with the surface.
Frank, from the commencement of his deranged experiments, finds himself surrounded by the
Factory („the Factory surrounded me”); his life is also an instrument of the Wasp Factory’s
own, sovereign desire. Literature is a husk of a life that has become integrated into desiring
machines. Minor writing is a trap that cannot but enclose writer and written alike in an
infernal relation. Were they separable, we would never find figures such as Banks or Kafka
enwrapped within their own unspeakable narratives. Banks’ alter ego, Frank, is affected, his
health endangered by fumes of his own creation. In this sense, his situation is analogous to
that of Deleuze and Guattari’s Kafka, trapped by a tyrannical form of literature that consumes
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its own creator, „his whole body broken by the trap that almost caught him.” (Deleuze and
Guattari 33) Of course, the body of the inventor, even though polluted by the emissions of the
Factory, is nevertheless relatively intact, in comparison with the degraded remnants of the
unfortunate wasp: „In a second the blaze was over, the mixture and the wasp a single black
lump of scarred and blistered debris cooling from a bright yellow heat. I closed my eyes to
inspect the patterns, but only the burning after-image remained, fading like the glow on the
metal plate. It danced about briefly on my retinas, then disappeared.” (Banks 35) Signs
escape cognition. In a moment, they are gone, rendering themselves scarce, fleeing from the
gaze that would seek to capture them. Entrapment is always a game of hide-and-seek.
Reduced to a black, abject debris, the cadaver is transfigured into a dancing dream, an „after-
image” staining the experimenter’s exhausted retinas. This husk reveals the secret of all
signs. Secrecy, including minor writing, is dependent upon an oppression that builds up
intensities, resulting in an unavoidable overflowing, an oversaturation of meaning.
Repression results in overaccumulation, „the concealed things unceasingly accumulate and
grow larger like a black snowball.” (Deleuze 78) Is the „single black lump” described in
Banks’ novel the literary equivalent of Deleuze’s philosophical „black snowball”?
Furthermore, what possible theoretical applications could we envision for an experimental
colliding of the Banksian lump with the Deleuzian snowball? Without a doubt, such an
occurrence would necessitate some degree of waste disposal. As Deleuze and Guattari remind
us, „each segment is a machine or a piece of the machine.” (Deleuze and Guattari 56) Neither
segment may be removed from the literary machine without rendering it dysfunctional. The
goal of Banks’ literary machine is to free the death drive working itself through the
protagonist and his irrational actions. Every element, including every description of
materiality is important in creating an atmosphere conducive to methodical destruction. In
Bruhn’s view, the following sentence in The Wasp Factory implies that Banks’ novel must be
read as a heteromedial work: „Zap! Pow! Dams burst! Bombs go off! Wasps fry: _ttssss_!”
(Banks 138) Jørgen Bruhn suggests that we read the sentence, with its iconic description of a
wasp frying, as a dual communication of the „symbolic sign” and the „iconic sign” because
„the text wishes to operate in two different dimensions at the same time.” (Bruhn 228)
Heteromediality would entail a comparison of medial relations with texts, as distinct from
relations among different media. The transformations enacted by Banks’ protagonist are
heteronomous, not only from a medial perspective, but also because of their extra-moral
nature. In order to create his own solitary world, Frank must become an ethical innovator
beyond good and evil. Heteromediality designates any media that transgresses boundaries.
(230) Banks’ dark world is filled with such transgressions. Signs necessitate openness to their
own force, „one must be endowed for the signs, ready to encounter them, one must open
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oneself to their violence.” (Deleuze 101) Banks’ intensity resides in his ability to render the
violence of signs manifest, tangible and audible. We not only read the signs, but also feel
their violence upon our skins. Indeed, Bruhn fails to fully capture the intensity of this
heteromediality. Not only does Banks force us to simultaneously „read” and „see”, as Bruhn
claims, but also compels us to „feel.” Pure intelligence requires that we feel the signs and
their attempts to ascend to truth.
Here in this dark brightness, we cannot hold ourselves and our inner tendencies. back. Why
restrain back those who seek an exit, those daring adventurers who attempt, however
clumsily, to flee from life? Banks’ protagonist takes leave of life by exterminating all he can.
Life, once emplaced within the Wasp Factory, must die, because its purpose is its own death:
It didn't even need a few tries to catch; it went first time, and the thin
flames, still quite bright in the early gloom of the morning-lit loft,
curled and licked about the open mesh of the strainer. The flames did
not go through, but the heat did, and the wasp flew up, buzzing
angrily above the silent flames, bumping against the glass, falling
back, hitting the side of the strainer, going over the edge, starting to
fall into the flames, then flying back up again, knocking off the steel
tube of the funnel a few times, then falling back into the steel-mesh
trap. It leaped up a final time, flew hopelessly for a few seconds, but
its wings must have been singed, because it was crazily erratic in its
flight and soon fell into the gauze bowl and died there, struggling,
then curling, then staying still, smoking slightly. (Banks 92)
Works Cited:
Banks, Iain. The Wasp Factory, Abacus, London, 1987.
Bruhn, Jørgen. “Heteromediality.” Media borders, multimodality and intermediality,
Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke, 2010., pp. 225-237.
Deleuze, Gilles. Proust and Signs, trans. Richard Howard, The Athlone Press, London, 2000.
Deleuze, Gilles and Felix Guattari. Kafka. Toward a Minor Literature, trans. Dana Polan,
University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis and London, 1986.
Ortega y Gasset. „The Dehumanization of Art.” Velazquez, Goya, The
Dehumanization of Art and other essays, trans. A. Beecher, W.W. Norton, New York,
1972, pp. 65-83.