“In grotesque realism, therefore, the bodily element is deeply positive. It is presented not as a privet egotistic form, severed from other spheres of life, but as something universal, pepresenting all the people. As such opposed to the severance of the material and bodily roots of the world.” (Bakhtin, 19) The making of s being for the universal, someone with a deeply positive element and the ‘exaggeration has a positive, assertive character.’ (19) made me remember a film my dad had shown me years ago- weird science. The teens in film make what they believe to be the perfect woman using a computer program. The only true grotesque aspect of this process from a female perspective would be the objectification of the female body. With this though the teens take on and become the embodiment of many young men of their age. Looking at Bakhtin through the contemporary lens, that lens being a camera, cinema gives life to “the collective ancestral body of all the popple.” (19) opposed to “the isolated biological individual, not to the private, egotistic “economic man.” (19) The two teens in this context may act, as Lura Mulvey would put it, a male audience’s screen surrogate. Lisa, the woman they create, is not as perfect as they hoped as the film goes on chaos ensues and as “the essential principal of the grotesque realism is degradation” (19) Lisa is brought down “to the sphere of earth and body in their indissoluble unity.” (20) Though not the perfect example to explore ‘grotesque realism’ Weird Science actively on screen brings the abstract to life for the universal. As Eco explains “Carnival, in order to be enjoyed, requires that rules and rituals be parodied, and that these rules and rituals already be recognized and respected.” (6) There isn’t the typical ‘Carnival’ to be found in the film but in a sense, and because I think this point almost works, high school is the ‘Carnival.’ The teens know the rules of dating and other social normative but decide to break them to humorous endings. They quite literally “not only parody in its narrow sense but all the other forms of grotesque realism degrade, bring down to earth, turn their subject into flesh.” (20)
In comparison and ironically last year’s Lisa Frankenstein came to mind. Very likely because Weird Science also takes inspiration from the classic. The film almost the antithesis to Weird Science. Lisa, closer to its inspiration, brings a boy to life from a corpse. This reflects the idea of life and death within ‘grotesque realism,’ “Grotesque realism knows no other lower level; it is the fruitful earth and the womb. It is always conceiving.” (21) Unlike the teens who used science to create their love interest, Lisa follows a more grotesque route by bringing the boy who’s grave she frequents to life. Not only this but she continues to edit him until he resembles less of a corps, she creates the rebirth. She also, as seen in the following clip, sews a new hand on to her corpse boyfriend, linking to the grotesque “multiplication of different members and organs of the human body.”
This simply reflects Bakhtin, “The grotesque image reflects a phenomenon in transformation, an as yet unfinished metamorphosis, of death and birth.” (24)
I really like this! The idea of linking grotesque realism and carnival to a gendered reading of film is so cool. It reminded me also of Bride of Re-Animator, which has a similar premise to Weird Science and is similarly very gendered in its view of the grotesque (and which you might want to watch if you’re interested!).
It really interesting to think of the setting of high school as a Carnival. Norms are exaggerated, rules are broken and reimagined and emotions are heightened. The high school setting is a great example of how the ‘carnival’ can be applied for modern audiences.