Noreen's E-learning and Digital Cultures Blog

Of all the articles I’ve read so far on the cyborg and post human, this article is the one I have found it difficult to get a ‘handle’ on. The comparison of the role of the cyborg to the flaneur of 19th century Paris was too referential to be useful. I had to read up on that term before I could engage in Shields’ discussion. Baudelaire characterises the flaneur as a detached observer, commenting on and capable of criticising his environment. This very much reminded me of the stance of Marxist and mass culture theorists who characterise themselves as dispassionate, objective observers of society, able to comment on and be critical of the actions of the masses whilst somehow remaining outside of it all. The impossibility of remaining on the ‘outside’ of everyday life, whilst able to watch and comment on it struck me all over again. If we are comparing the cyborg to the flaneur maybe the cyborgian flaneur can finally achieve this objective distance? Being removed into cyberspace and created from information, with no messy emotions or need to actually engage in everyday life, the cyborg is god!

That’s as far as I’ve got with making sense of Shields but will try a bit harder later.