nomadthethird

more issues than Time mag
I don't think there's ever been a proper thread about this but I thought that a lot of what we've been talking about recently might fit into this broad category.

I was trying to come up with the best examples of biopolitical analysis or critique in American culture and the best I could think of off the top of my head was Nip/Tuck. (I've only seen the first three seasons but they're great.)

Are there other shows or films that I'm missing out on like this?
 

padraig (u.s.)

a monkey that will go ape
dunno about other shows but Nip/Tuck has really jumped the shark the last couple of seasons. I don't want it to spoil if for you if you haven't seen it. Suffice to say that even for a show that was all about introducing totally absurd plot twists nearly every week it's gotten well out of hand. the basic premise is still solid but it feels like they've pretty much run out of ideas.

on a related note (I think) I've been reading interesting biotechnology-type bits here and there recently. this, for one;

http://www.newsmax.com/science/gene_splicing_garage/2008/12/25/165347.html
 

nomadthethird

more issues than Time mag
I was sure Nip/Tuck would eventually jump one, since it was pretty far over the top to begin with, but I was hoping season 4 was going to be ok. (The whole moving to LA thing idea is very "we've run out of ideas"...part of the greatness of the show was the Miami-base of the practice).

The article you link to is excellent. When I worked at a research university the scientists there were always holding conferences and lectures about the very real threat that is biowarfare/bioweapons of mass destruction. There's quite a marked assymetry when it comes to funding for nuclear weapons research versus bioweapon research, even though nuclear weapons are largely outmoded technologies since the rise of "assymetrical" warfare in the form of terrorism (nukes are too big, bulky, expensive, impractical, plutonium/uranium deployment is an issue. You could kill just as many people and do as much destruction if you carried the right virus in a petrie dish and let it loose in a hospital or school, or on mass transit.

The real threat now is bioterrorism and there's little to no funding for researchers who want to come up with counter measures for political reasons.
 

Clinamenic

Binary & Tweed
I associate it with usage of the terms "body politics" and "politics of bodies" i.e. an emphasis on corporal suffering
 

version

Well-known member
There are a few definitions, but whenever I see it mentioned at the moment it's in reference to Foucault's definition which is to do with the state's power over the human body, e.g. vaccine mandates.
 

version

Well-known member
Agamben's heavily influenced by Foucault's biopower and biopolitics and a bunch of people turned on him during the pandemic as he was attacking the response to it through that lens like he'd attacked the War on Terror in the past,

On Security And Terror (2001)
 

snav

Well-known member
Agamben's heavily influenced by Foucault's biopower and biopolitics and a bunch of people turned on him during the pandemic as he was attacking the response to it through that lens like he'd attacked the War on Terror in the past,

On Security And Terror (2001)
ye the problem with Agamben's takes on COVID are that they refer all about restrictions on movement, i.e. positive forms of control over life, and not on the aspect that concerns most of the critics, which is the state's control over who gets to live and die. Ironically both are still "biopolitics"...
 

version

Well-known member
Yeah, I've seen him criticised for having little to say on poorer countries having restricted access to vaccines.
 
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