誘人的反感：怪物及厭噁美學 - 政大學術集成

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(1)國立政治大學英文系博士班博士論文. 指導教授：陳超明教授 Advisor: Dr. Chao-ming Chen. 立. 政治大. n. al. er. io. sit. y. Nat. Alluring Aversion: The Monstrous and Aesthetics of Disgust. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. 誘人的反感：怪物及厭噁美學. Ch. engchi. i n U. 研究生：林嘉鴻撰 Advisee: Chia-hung Lin 中華民國 104 年 6 月 June 2015. v.

(2) Alluring Aversion: The Monstrous and Aesthetics of Disgust. A Dissertation Submitted to Department of English, National Chengchi University. 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy. by Chia-hung Lin June, 2015.

(3) The members of the Committee approve the dissertation of Chia-Hung Lin defended on June 25, 2015.. Chao-ming Chen Professor Directing Dissertation. 立. 政治大. Frank W. Stevenson. ‧ 國. 學. Committee Member. ‧. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. i n U. v.

(4) Acknowledgements I wish to express an immense gratitude to Dr. Chao-ming Chen, my advisor of dissertation, for his literary enlightenment and patience. For their reading of the dissertation and for insightful suggestions, I would like to thank Dr. Frank W. Stevenson, Dr. Tsu-Chung Su, Dr. Brian David Phillips, and Dr. Shun-liang Chao. Moreover, I am very grateful to Dr. Tsui-fen Jiang, chair of department of English of. 政治大. National Chengchi University, for her wise advice and kindness. Also, my sincere. 立. thanks go to Dr. Yin-I Chen for her encouraging me to keep writing my draft and to. ‧ 國. 學. send it to her every day. Finally, I would like to thank my parents for their patience, confidence, and support.. ‧. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. iii. i n U. v.

(5) Table of Contents. Acknowledgements.…….…………………….……………………………..………iii Chinese Abstract………………………………………………….………………v English Abstract……..……………….………………………….................................vi. 政治大 Chapter One: Monsters and Appealing Disgust…..…………..…….…………..…….39 立 Introduction………………………………………………………...……………….1. Chapter Two: Interview with the Vampire..….……………………….……………….53. ‧ 國. 學. Chapter Three: The Silence of the Lambs….…………………….…………….……...89. ‧. Chapter Four: American Psycho…….……..………………………………….…….125. sit. y. Nat. Conclusion…………………………………………………………………….…….145. io. n. al. er. Works Cited…………………………………………………………………………161. Ch. engchi. iv. i n U. v.

(6) 摘要哥德研究創建了自我的世界。批評與理論努力地透過客製化的方法與術語去捕捉與檢視哥德文學中不同的黑暗與恐怪模式。哥德不只是虛構的故事；它形塑與發聲了某些人類的經驗，並且探索了社會與文化的場境。關於哥德美學. 政治大. 研究，大多是關於艾德蒙．伯克與伊曼紐．康德的壯美概念，闡釋人類主觀經. 立. 驗的黑暗性，其中多著重於壯美與恐怖的力量，特別是其「壓倒性」效果的特. ‧ 國. 學. 色。這些方面，雖經研究開發，但仍未盡察其暗黑藝術。在哥德研究方面，厭. ‧. 噁曾被提及其影響的價值，但卻缺乏有系統地檢視與理論化。除了關於恐怖在. Nat. io. sit. y. 哥德小說方面廣泛的研究，另一個原始的情動，厭噁，被指出其影響的價值，. er. 扮演重要的角色在於捕捉愉悅的厭噁與厭噁的愉悅於哥德黑暗美學的模稜性，. al. n. v i n Ch 如此重要但仍缺乏闡釋與理論化。此論文目標在於，透過重新解讀在《夜訪吸 engchi U 血鬼》、《沉默的羔羊》與《美國殺人魔》中有名/惡名的哥德怪物，多面檢視研究厭噁美學特性。. v.

(7) Abstract Gothic studies have developed a world of its own. Criticisms and theories struggle to capture and examine various patterns of darkness and eeriness in Gothic literature through employing customized methods and jargons. The Gothic is not just. 政治大. about fictional stories; it shapes and articulates certain human experiences, and. 立. explores the societal and cultural circumstances. The studies of the Gothic aesthetics. ‧ 國. 學. are mostly related to Edmund Burke’s and Immanuel Kant’s concepts of the sublime,. ‧. elaborating the darkness of human subjective experience, in which the force of the. Nat. io. sit. y. sublime and terror is emphasized, especially the feature of “overwhelming” effect.. er. Gothic aesthetics, in facets of sublime, terror, and horror, has been elaborated but not. al. n. v i n C hfrom extensively studied exhausted its art of darkness. Apart e n g c h i U terror in Gothic novels, another primitive affect, disgust, which cannot be denied its affecting value but still lacks elaboration and theorization, plays a significant roles in the grasp of the ambivalence of pleasurable aversion and aversive pleasure of Gothic aesthetics of. darkness. This dissertation aims at interrogating the multifaceted aesthetics of disgust via re-examinations of in/famous Gothic monsters in Interview with the Vampire, The Silence of the Lambs, and American Psycho. vi.

(8) Introduction Gothic Studies: An Overview Gothic studies have developed a world of their own. Criticisms and theories struggle to capture and examine various patterns of darkness and eeriness in Gothic literature through the application of customized methods and jargons. According to Algee-Hewitt, such patterns, “subordinated within the aesthetics of the picturesque,. 政治大. enable the construction of a narrative space, figured as a single aesthetic unit, through. 立. which the reader’s experience of the text is legislated ” (318). The Gothic is not just. ‧ 國. 學. about fictional stories; it shapes and articulates certain fundamental human experiences, and explores the societal and cultural circumstances. Studies of Gothic. ‧. aesthetics1 are mostly related to Edmund Burke’s concept of the sublime, with which. y. Nat. io. sit. terror is profoundly associated, his ideas of extreme aesthetics influentially. n. al. er. elaborating the excessiveness of a human subjective experience. In Gothic aesthetics,. i n U. v. the force of the sublime and terror is emphasized, especially the feature of an. Ch. engchi. “overwhelming” effect (Beville, 2009, 26); exaggeration, one of the signatures of Gothic, utilizes “strong flavours” of terror to attack sensory organs of aesthetic judgment (Battles 65). Gothic aesthetics feature in several modes of controversy. Dongshin Yi examines “the gothic aesthetics of the beautiful,” which stresses the non-abstract, non-. The term “Gothic aesthetics” adopted in this dissertation is a hybridity of a “way to cope with . . . gothic experience” (Yi 19) and a “discursive point of departure, a field of power/knowledge setting off the worried movement, the text that creates texture” related to the “anxious sense of itself” (Miles 30).. 1. 1.

(9) formulaic, and spontaneous method of evoking judgment of taste. He analyzes such aesthetics as ways of inclusion rather than blockage in order to encompass the “irresistible force of circumstances” and to produce harmony within heterogeneity (64). Sandner associates Richard Hurd’s theorization of a “Gothic aesthetics” with Burkean ideas of “perception and pain” in the sublime, indicating the function of temporal sensational effect and affect. He points out Ann Radcliffe’s employment of, for instance, “explained supernatural” elements to generate supernatural affect but circumspectly “explain away” it, thus minimalizing its threat to the stability of. 治政 it is almost impossible to fully restrain Gothic penetrability.大 In addition, Alder, in his 立. imagination (2). However, even if the force of menace is restricted to a certain extent,. study of Gothic literature, elaborates the terror of bodily grotesque via an “extensive”. ‧ 國. 學. and “expansive sublime,” which wanders in-between the halfway of hybrid space and. ‧. crosses boundaries (23).. sit. y. Nat. Bomarito observes that familiar borders between oppositions are challenged or. io. er. threatened with dissolution in Gothic literature. Seemingly irrelevant and even. al. opposite elements are mingled in an atmosphere of death, evil, or terror (1). Blurring. n. v i n C h and mixing various categories requires the means of integrating e n g c h i U relational. and even. contradictory elements. Gothic aesthetics of sublime constructs an atmosphere via transformatively hybridizing “barbaric,” “inhumane” modes, devices of monsters, and gloomily dark spaces of “underworld” or “dystopia” (Alder 42). The choice of aesthetic discourses enables the Gothic to cross boundaries of various aspects (Auger 71). Gothic aesthetics can cause a “collapse of boundaries” via shedding light on the darkness and triggering the force of transgression in ruins, destabilizing the margins between the mental status and the world, the “imagined” and the “real,” the “normality” and the “abnormal” (Edensor 15; Picart 24). Beville relates Gothic 2.

(10) aesthetics to terror and the play of subjectivity, which utilizes “grotesques” and “abjections” to blur the borders between good and evil, and beauty and ugliness (2009, 199). Moreover, the Gothic is recognized as “the primary mode in which to explore terror and other extreme feelings” (Punter 207). One such mode of excessiveness, the sublime, has often been stressed in this genre, not only due to its transgressiveness but also to its extreme sensation-arousing qualities (approximate to the overloading experience of disgust). The sublime and disgust both occur when spectators’ limits of. 治政大 of the sublime via Burkean gratifying. Spooner analyzes this excessive ambivalence 立 sensual reception are tested, which can be oxymoronically aversive, terrifying, and. ideas:. ‧ 國. 學. Perhaps owing to this turn to religion, mid-century Britain found the. ‧. aesthetics of terror congenial, whether arising from meditations in a country. sit. y. Nat. graveyard, or the sublime in nature. In his influential On the Sublime and. io. er. the Beautiful (1757) Burke theorised that in all cases a sense of terror. al. underlay our experience of the sublime, provided the viewer was safely. n. v i n accommodated. AC sight vastness from the top of a mountain h eofnnature’s gchi U would be sublime; the same view from the perspective of someone falling down it would be simple terror. For this reason Burke’s sublime is always oxymoronic: a dreadful pleasure. (14) Burkean aesthetics divulge the peculiar doubleness of the sublime, which can not only inspire terror and disgust, but also “draws eyes and imaginations, in fascination, to peep behind the curtain of limitation in the hope of glimpsing illicit excitements made all the more alluring for bearing the stamp of mystery or prohibition” (Botting 2).. 3.

(11) In the Gothic aesthetics of sublime, disgust and attraction coexist, and the former can enhance the latter. This paradoxically appealing transgressiveness composes refutation and aversion with fascination and craving, which “not only provoke[s] repugnance, disgust and recoil, but also engage[s] readers’ interest, fascinating and attracting them” (Botting 6). Beville further elaborates this oxymoronic feature, revealing the Burkean sublime as “one of the most fundamental philosophies underpinning Gothic aesthetics” (Beville, 2009, 26): [The sublime] had a remarkable impact on the “original” Gothic, and its. 治政大preoccupation with the Significantly, the Gothic, as it evolved, retained this 立 orientation toward the dark side of human subjective experience.. sublime and the power of terror as an overwhelming experience for the. ‧ 國. 學. subject, and an intensification of this focus is evident as the genre moves. ‧. toward postmodernism. In On the Supernatural in Poetry, which is. sit. y. Nat. undisputedly inspired by Burke’s philosophical enquiries, Radcliffe notes. io. er. that terror, unlike horror, is regarded as bearing only a suggestion of the. al. grotesque. In its obscurity, it stimulates the imagination, causing. n. v i n C h It is, accordingU to Radcliffe, fear and fascination. engchi. simultaneous. a route to. sublime experience for this reason and should be taken as the prime focus of Gothic narrative (Radcliffe 1826, etext). Radcliffe of course, led by subtle example in works such as The Mysteries of Udolpho and A Sicilian Romance and her approach to the role of literature in the evocation of feelings of “pity and terror” is clearly derived from Burke’s Of Words. (2009, 28). 4.

(12) Thus, the sublime can paradoxically arouse aversive dread and attraction. The Gothic accentuates its undefinable addictive deprivation and repulsively overwhelming stimulation of sensation and imagination. Also, Mishra notes that Lyotard’s sublime is extraordinarily “Gothic,” which emphasizes the sublimate “privation,” “uncertainty,” “unsayable,” and “noncorrespondence” characteristics, offering “no consolation” of the beautiful and of the elevation, but the “superabundance of the sublime” (Mishra 42). Mishra stresses that his elucidation of the sublime demonstrates: Gothic effects in our readings of Gothic texts. Referring to Burke’s terror,. 治政大 “Terrors are linked to his “entirely spiritual passion,” Lyotard continues: 立. privation.... What is terrifying is that the It happens that does not happen,. ‧ 國. 學. that it stops happening.” (42). ‧. Akin to the sublime, the disgust, according to Julia Kristeva, can be simultaneously. sit. y. Nat. “horrendous” and “delightful” (137). In the process of aesthetic disgust, the effect. io. er. would be both ambivalently displeasing and pleasing, in which, however, the pleasure seems to slightly outstand. Winfried Menninghaus points out that “a careful reading. al. n. v i n C hreveals unexpectedly of the ‘classic’ aesthetic theories e n g c h i U complicated. relations between. ‘disgust’ and aesthetic ‘pleasure’” (7). Noël Carroll argues that “the disgust engendered by the fiction appears to be essentially, rather than contingently, connected to the relevant audience’s pleasure” (193). Ross Wilson remarks that “disgust is central to Derrida’s reading because, like the sublime on de Man’s account, it cannot be reduced to the rigours of the Analytic” (197). Korsmeyer stresses the significance of aesthetic disgust: “Once nearly overlooked in theories of emotion and aesthetic apprehension, disgust is now given center stage in many. 5.

(13) analyses” (8). Because of such significance, this aversive affect, disgust, will be further examined. Disgust, this peculiar unsettling disposition of encountering beyond and overwhelming manifestations, is wrought by one of the fundamental attributes of disgust, shared by the sublime as well, that is, excess. This extremity plays a crucial role because, for instance, even if feasting on luscious cuisine and beverage, the superfluous consumption of them can ultimately trigger nausea and disgust. The excess of fierceness can accumulate to a certain summit capable of disrupting the. 治政大 but its art of darkness facets of sublime, terror, and horror, has been elaborated upon, 立 numbness and calmness of spectators. The study of Gothic aesthetics, through its. has not been exhausted, for it represents “explorations of mysterious supernatural. ‧ 國. 學. energies, immense natural forces, and deep, dark human fears and desires that gothic. ‧. texts apparently found their appeal” (Botting 2-3). Besides the terror and horror,. sit. y. Nat. another highly related affect—disgust—is involved, but it lacks inspection and. io. al. er. theorization in the field of gothic studies. Apart from the extensively studied terror in. n. Gothic novels, disgust plays a significant role in the grasp of the ambivalence of the pleasurable aversion and aversive. v i n C h of a Gothic aesthetics pleasure e n g c h i U of darkness. This. dissertation aims at interrogating the multifaceted aesthetics of disgust via reexaminations of in/famous Gothic monsters in Interview with the Vampire, The Silence of the Lambs, and American Psycho, disclosing the textures and characteristics of this relatively less studied area. Chapter Organization Since the components of disgust in the Gothic is considerably entwined with monstrous figures, the first chapter reconnoiters diverse perceptions and conceptions of monsters, revealing the oxymoronic forces of destructive creativity. Literary 6.

(14) notions of monsters are briefly introduced, paving the way for the examinations of the plausible theoretic connections between the aesthetic disgust and monstrosity, which includes the investigations of repellent monsters’ philosophical deliberations, etymology, connotations, and hypothetic actions. The associations between the disturbing aggressiveness, puzzling or purposeless actions, monstrous impact, intriguing ugliness, and enticing repulsion are elaborated, which involves relevant inspections of the Gothic sublime and murderous rituals to divulge the dissimilar but related traits in the crossbreed affects of anxious repulsion and monstrous pleasure.. 治政 vampires in Interview with the Vampire, one of the 大 pioneering fictions that 立. The second chapter probes the aesthetic disgust of the Gothic classical monsters,. aestheticizes these blood-drinking creatures. The two vampiric devourers of humans,. ‧ 國. 學. Louis and Lestat, are mainly investigated to disclose two types of aesthetic disgust of. ‧. the Gothic monsters, empathetic and apathetic. Louis is a struggling vampire with. sit. y. Nat. blood thirst and self-disgust, which induces empathetic or sympathetic repulsion and. io. al. er. multifaceted fascination. Lestat, in Interview, is a one-dimensional2 remorseless vampiric murderer that recreates Louis as a vampire without the capability to provide. n. v i n other thanC survival Unlike Lestat, Louis’s attractiveness h e nskills. gchi U. Louis knowledge. is. related to his conflicting self-disgust, which transform him into a peculiar unpredictable hybridity of savagery and spirituality. His struggle and Lestat’s stasis are examined with the concepts of “free play” and disinterestedness in modified Kantian aesthetics to accentuate their empathetic and apathetic traits of aesthetics disgust. The third chapter analyzes Hannibal Lecter, the alluring and erudite Gothic monster in The Silence of the Lambs, and the aesthetic disgust is not only detected in. 2. In other works of Anne Rice, Lestat is developed varyingly. 7.

(15) his puzzling works of murder and manipulation but also his artistic characteristic and penetrative education of dissecting murderous artworks. This section re-examines Hannibal Lecter’s various monstrous representations to reveal how his art of repulsive kill utilizes fear and disgust as enhancive emotional anchors of (as his name suggests) cannibalistic lectures which include dissolving the borders between oneself and the monsters, artistically digesting their seemingly chaotic murders, and possibly eventually becoming one of them. Fear and loathing may not only be external threats, but they may also be the empathic imagination of becoming the threats, as well as of. 治政 The fourth chapter examines the homicidal fantasy of 大 Patrick Bateman in 立. being the intuitive enjoyment of being one.. American Psycho, a disgusted/disgusting murderer whose yuppy attractive appearance. ‧ 國. 學. and “human shell” is sustained by his socio-economic status, stereotypical talk of. ‧. success, and bodily maintenance. His biased narrative of the disgust toward. sit. y. Nat. “inferiors” is analyzed with the cognitive impasse of the judgment of taste. Bateman’s. io. er. portrayals of anxious self-alienation and unreliable/imaginary depiction of his. al. repulsive methods of murders are dissected with the imaginative and repetitive facet. n. v i n Cexplorations of the aesthetic disgust, including the U h e n g cofhhisi offensive. soliloquies, sexual. abuses, tortures, cannibalism, and various brutal slaughters, which eventually leads to, beyond conceptual and cognitive judgment, aesthetic elucidations of his impulsive imagination of repulsive murderous play with the beholden. Kant’s Aesthetic Judgement As a first approximation, we will say that by “aesthetic judgement” Kant means those judgements in which feeling of pleasure is predicated of (First introduction VIII) or connected to (Section 36) our “merely judging” something (Section 45). It is any judgement that can be expressed in the following way: “When I look at or listen 8.

(16) to that object or event, lam pleased by the mere experience of it, and say that it is beautiful or sublime.” Our word “aesthetics”—meaning something like the experience or study of fine art and perhaps also the beautiful or sublime in nature—was coined by the German philosopher Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten in the generation immediately prior to Kant. Kant uses it to refer generally to the sensible aspect of our cognition of nature (thus the section in the Critique of Pure Reason that deals with the pure forms of intuition is entitled the “Transcendental Aesthetic”). But he also follows Baumgarten’s. 治政大 of art was essentially valued as art or as being beautiful. Baumgarten’s account 立. narrow usage, which is now the standard usage, to refer to those sensible objects. cognitive: although art objects were of course sensible, their value lay in the manner. ‧ 國. 學. in which their sensible form was actually a type of knowing. Art is therefore judged. ‧. by reference to its perfection and clarity as such sensible knowledge. Kant’s account. sit. y. Nat. of aesthetic judgement is to a great extent a reaction against Baumgarten. In. io. er. particular, since the judgement in question is reflective, and does not proceed by way. al. of concepts, aesthetics has nothing to contribute to knowledge. Kant is concerned to. n. v i n “loosen up” concepts such asCbeauty, taste—so that they are not confused with h e nart,gand chi U cognition of objects in nature—but without losing the sense that judgements about art and beauty have some validity beyond simply the sensible interest I happen to take in them. (Kant also calls the aesthetic judgement a judgement of Taste.) In effect, Kant is just assuming that there are such things as aesthetic judgements. Clearly, we make judgements about things (paintings, literary works, films) that we can call “art”. Clearly, also, we say that natural objects (flowers, a coral reef, the shape of the DNA molecule) are beautiful or sublime. It is possible, however, that what we think are “aesthetic” judgements are not; they are perhaps just ordinary 9.

(17) judgements of sensible interest masquerading as something distinctive. Kant tries to show that judgements, and especially reflective judgements, really are distinctive types of mental acts. That is, Kant argues for transcendental necessity of assuming the existence of reflective judgements at least, and the principle of purposiveness as the legislative principle for judgement in general. But Kant never explicitly sets out to demonstrate the existence of aesthetic judgements against an aesthetic sceptic. Rather, he does so indirectly: pointing to the empirical fact of what appear to be aesthetic responses, which are phenomena that require explanation.. 治政 could be a natural landscape or seascape, a bird’s song, or a大 flower. Or it could be a 立 In the aforementioned definition of aesthetic judgement, the object or event. human artistic production, such as a painting, poem, musical composition sculpture.. ‧ 國. 學. We might think that Kant is slightly unusual in believing that judgements about. ‧. natural objects and judgements about artificial objects are not very different.. sit. y. Nat. However, this was not out of place in eighteenth-century thought, and in some ways. io. er. continues today. The simple definition given above, then, has already expanded to. al. give us three concepts that need sorting out: taste, pleasure, and beauty. After that, we. n. v i n have the problem of explaining the C meaning we used: “mere h e nofgthecphrase hi U experience”.. “Taste” is at, old-fashioned word, and it s liable to get in our way when we are trying to understand Kant. As we will see in more detail, by “taste” we do not mean a sensation in the mouth. We mean something more akin to when we say someone has “good taste” or “bad taste”—that is, someone who is good or bad at judging the aesthetic merit of things. However, “good taste” could just mean “good fashion sense”. Kant thus distinguishes between taste for the agreeable (a judgement of sensible interest) and taste for the aesthetic (an aesthetic judgement), although 10.

(18) subsequently, he usually uses “taste” only in the second, much narrower sense. Thus, by “taste” Kant meant something very simple: our ability to judge natural objects or works of art to be beautiful (Section 1, Introduction VII). For Kant, then, the aesthetic judgement is a judgement of taste—a judgement which says the mere experience of something “is liked” (or “delights”, or “satisfies”) me (Section 2) and is thus judged beautiful. Pleasure or liking (or the opposite: displeasure or pain) is a traditional way of describing one’s response to nature or art. For the moment, let us focus on the “surface” relationship between beauty and pleasure. For Kant, pleasure is a sign of. 治政大pleasure from other things, too. our being in the presence of beauty. But I can receive 立 Formally speaking, then, aesthetic judgement consists of connecting this sign to its. ‧ 國. 學. proper “origin”: the beautiful object.. ‧. One problem appears immediately: whether we in fact feel pleasure with respect. sit. y. Nat. to art. Naturally beautiful objects are less troubling: to feel pleasure in a landscape or. io. er. a Flower is precisely to feel pleasure in looking at, smelling, walking in, and so on. A. al. common enough experience, we might agree. Today, however, it seems we do not. n. v i n C pleasure always expect to respond with h e n gto cfineh art, i Uespecially to contemporary art. Much modern and recent art is deliberately grotesque, upsetting or repulsive, or else simply emotionally cold, and we accept that. On the face of it, this discounts Kant’s aesthetic theory from the outset, as it discounts virtually every aesthetic theory prior to this century. Let us extend the point further to popular culture. We do not go to the cinema or theatre just to be “grossed out” by a shlock horror film, but precisely to enjoy ourselves while, and indeed because of, being grossed out. How? There is pleasure involved because of the displeasure, and the displeasure is redeemed by the film’s being entertaining, interesting, oddly sexy, funny, or part of a “cult” 11.

(19) phenomenon that we enjoy participating in. What is true for popular culture, however, is also true for “serious” art (assuming that this distinction can be made reliably). But probably we need to broaden the notion of pleasure to the notion of some kind of sense of “gain” with respect to our purposes or interests. We may respond with anger and shock to a contemporary work of art, and this first response is certainly not pleasurable. Nor is it yet a response to a work of art. For such anger and shock often come hand in hand with a statement like “This is not really art—It is trash.”. Arguments about censorship often proceed in. just this way. Precisely to the extent that we accept that something is art – however. 治政 that may happen – the anger and shock are transformed into大 something else at least in 立. part. Perhaps the anger and shock have helped me to see something afresh, or have. ‧ 國. 學. helped me to think about or understand something differently, or change the person I. ‧. am. This change may be disturbing in itself, but with respect to the fulfillment of its. sit. y. Nat. goal or purpose can certainly be described as a “gain”. Even today, despite our. io. al. er. twenty-first-century sophistication, it is difficult to get away from the idea that art. n. must have something redeeming about it, not necessarily to reward the viewer so much as to justify its existence.. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. Sometimes the arguments needed to link contemporary art to pleasure, even when broadened to “gain”, may be slightly strained. It is precisely at these points of strain that arguments about “what is art” become most heated, if not always most interesting. But perhaps such arguments are heated and uninteresting, precisely because the two sides are fixed on quite different notions of “taste”, “pleasure” and, indeed, “art”. For Kant, pleasure simply means “the feeling of an enhancement of life”. The word “beauty” also strikes us as old-fashioned, and Kant’s phrase for “fine 12.

(20) art” [schöne Kunst] assumes beauty [Schönheitl. We are more likely to call a kitten “beautiful” than a sculpture in a contemporary art gallery. But “beauty” was merely a current word in Kant’s day, just as taste was. For Kant, beauty starts out as simply a name for that which pleases in the mere experience of it. In other words, for the moment, all we know is that for Kant beauty is a name for the “something distinctive” about art or certain natural things which we discussed above. For the moment, we need not associate beauty with what anyone, in any historical period, happened to call beautiful.. 治政 Kant’s antique language, this is no insurmountable 大 barrier. We need to forget our 立. The point is that while there is certainly a minor difficulty to he overcome in. automatic responses to words like “beauty” or “taste” and try to think our way into. ‧ 國. 學. Kant’s mode of thought, or at least not be sidetracked by mere terminology.. ‧. In Chapter 4 of Lessons on the Analytic of the Sublime, Lyotard explicates the. y. Nat. term “respect” that is depicted in Paragraph 27 “On the Quality of the Liking in Our. er. io. sit. Judging of the Sublime” of the Critique of Judgment. Lyotard’s way of explicating “respect” seems to me quite different from Kant’s way of explicating “respect”. Thus,. al. n. v i n C h explication of Kant’s Lyotard’s e n g c h i U “respect” in order to see if. I would like to examine. Lyotard’s explication of “respect” is appropriate or not.. In page 118, Lyotard points out “respect is barely a feeling”. However, Kant says “the feeling that it is beyond our ability to attain to an idea that is a law for us is RESPECT” (Kant 114). We can see that Lyotard attempts to negate that “respect” is “feeling”. It seems to me that Lyotard’s negation (respect is barely a feeling) is unnecessary and problematic. The reasons: First, Lyotard himself contradicts himself. He explains “the thought that feels respect is the thought that wants” (Lyotard 118). If “respect is barely a feeling”, why does he say that “the thought that feels respect”? 13.

(21) When we say “I feel happy”, this means that “happy” is a feeling. From Lyotard’s words “respect is barely a feeling” to “the thought that feels respect”, we can see his own contradiction. Second, before reading Lyotard’s explication of “respect”, I can understand “the feeling of the sublime in nature is respect for our own vocation” (Kant 114). In my understanding, “respect” is “the feeling of the supersensible vocation” that is “in harmony with the law [of reason]” (Kant 115). In the sublime, “respect” is the key in the change of the displeasure (results from the imagination’s inadequacy) into pleasure. Although my understanding to Kant’s “respect” may not be completely correct and clear, Lyotard’s explication of Kant’s “respect” makes. 治政大a “ ‘blank’ feeling ” “respect” more confusing. Lyotard explains that “respect” is 立. (Lyotard 118). Again, he contradicts himself. He negates that “respect” is a feeling but. ‧ 國. 學. says “respect” is a “ ‘blank’ feeling ” (Lyotard 118). How can “respect” be a feeling. ‧. and not be a feeling at the same time? This confuses me. Since Lyotard’s explanation. sit. y. Nat. of Kant’s “respect” has contradictions and confusions, it seems to me that his. io. er. explanation is quite unnecessary.. al. In page 117, Lyotard indicates a misunderstanding that we may have when we. n. v i n Ch encounter Kant’s “respect”. The misunderstanding “one is tempted to conclude i U e n g cishthat that respect is the sensation that we are looking for, the sensation which in the sublime results for thought from the presence of the Idea of reason” (Lyotard 117). Then he gives a correction “ ‘respect’ is explicitly (and strangely) described here as the affect provoked in thought not by grasping the absolute whole; rather, it is provoked by the incommensurability, the Unangemessenheit, of our ‘power’ (unseres Vermögens) of our faculty to grasp, zur Erreichung, at this moment” (Lyotard 117). He questions “what is the power?” (117). It seems to me that his correction is inappropriate. The reasons: First, in reading Kant’s “respect” in “On the Quality of the Liking in Our 14.

(22) Judging of the Sublime”, I do not see any evident reason that would “tempt” me “to conclude that respect is the sensation that we are looking…” (Lyotard 117). In the Critique of Judgment, Kant clearly indicates that “respect” is “the feeling that it is beyond our ability to attain to an idea that is a law for us” (Kant 114). It is not easy to find that Kant’s words lead us to the misunderstanding that Lyotard points out. Second, in reading Kant’s “respect” in “On the Quality of the Liking in Our Judging of the Sublime”, it is also not easy to see that Kant’s description of “respect” leads us to the question of “power” that Lyotard points out. It seems to me that Lyotard’s. 治政 persuasive to be a question that needs to be asked. 大立. strategy is to make a question and then answer it. Sometimes his question is not. From the above, we can see that Lyotard’s explication (in “The Sublime as. ‧ 國. 學. Mathematical Synthesis” of Lessons on the Analytic of the Sublime) of Kant’s. sit. y. Nat. Critique of Judgment) is not quite appropriate.. ‧. “respect” (in “On the Quality of the Liking in Our Judging of the Sublime” of the. io. er. "The judgment is only aesthetic, and refers the object's presentation merely to the. al. subject" (Section 6; compare also Section 1). Properly understood, in saying that the. n. v i n C h"to the subject", Kant presentation is referred wholly e n g c h i U seems to be claiming that our. judgment of the beautiful is an activity in some way self-contained within my inner mental sphere. This idea of being "self-contained" is found, for example, in Kant's use of the word "contemplation" (Section 5). And this is part of what was meant above by the definition of the aesthetic judgment as being based upon "mere experience". However, the aesthetic judgment being based upon "mere experience" may seem odd for at least two reasons. First, if I am judging a poem, for example, I must have some information in advance, which is not part of this self-containedness - namely the meanings of the words used, knowledge of grammar, idiom and indications of tone, 15.

(23) and so on. The same would go for most other art forms: a certain level of what we might call "enabling knowledge" is necessarily involved. That is why, when visiting an art museum I might wish to buy a guidebook, or read up on the artist or period in advance. Now, certainly, the guidebook could not substitute for the experience itself, or the formation of a judgment, but it does help enable that experience. Thus, one might argue that such a judgment cannot be self-contained. Second, Kant himself later says that one's taste can be "developed" or "cultivated" (at, for example, Section 60). That is, a failure to have taste can be. 治政 idea: we do not expect children, for example, to have very 大 advanced tastes in art. This 立 changed to competent taste through the proper education. This is a familiar enough. means that at least some judgments have as a condition (though not an a priori. ‧ 國. 學. condition) the development of taste. Kant goes so far as to claim that "taste is. ‧. precisely what stands most in need of examples" (Section 32). But again, if a. sit. y. Nat. particular judgment requires such development, in what sense is it merely. io. er. contemplative and self-contained?. al. Perhaps the above objections could be answered in this way. Kant may admit that. n. v i n C hor experience (which of words) e n g c h i U develops my taste) may. knowledge (of the meanings. indeed be useful or required. But what we call “enabling” knowledge or experience. will never constitute knowledge of what kinds of properties make things beautiful (cf. Section 32, 45-51). That is why Kant insists that pleasure and pain are the only mental “presentations” that cannot be made into a concept (for example, Section 3). In other words, the beautiful does not and can never rest upon an objective concept of the beautiful, or any other such concept, inclination or value, which exists in advance. Thus Kant says the aesthetic judgment is not itself a “cognitive judgment”, i.e. is not knowledge (Section 5). Saying therefore that “I like beautiful things” is not a 16.

(24) prejudgment – it is virtually a tautology (something like “Pleasurable feelings are pleasurable”) which thus pre-determines nothing. It follows that there is no determining concept of the beautiful. It may be that what we have called enabling knowledge can be brought to bear on an object in different ways. In my judging of a Medieval painting, for example, I may look for various standard iconographic symbols. You, however, may judge it in terms of the artist’s technique and material. We are both looking at the same painting, but are forming different presentations of it. Thus, if two people disagree in their. 治政大 and thus in effect judging also be because they are interpreting the object differently 立 aesthetic judgment, it may be because of an interest in the object. However, it may. different objects. Kant only rarely touches on this issue (for example, at the end of. Aesthetic Disgust. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. Section 16).. sit. y. Nat. Can disgust “itself” be pleasing? One may reply to this enquiry in two directions:. io. er. functions or components. The functions of disgust not only regard its basic aspect, survival, but also its “vitalizing” of faculties. According to Kant, aesthetic pleasure. al. n. v i n C cognitive “the enlivening of its (53). Disgust certainly can defreeze h e n gpowers” chi U. involves. spectators’ static status and activate their cognitive abilities. Strictly speaking, though, it is the activation itself that arouses pleasure; disgust and the enlivening can enhance each other continuously, different from the ideas of its function as hooks rather than participants, or the pleasure from the transformation or diminution of its negative impact. Inspecting the components of disgust may be relatively complicated. According to Susan Feagin, “a full account of how we can come to find something like disgust enjoyable requires a sensitive analysis of its component feelings, and the roles they 17.

(25) can play in an individual’s psyche.” Disgust contains various “feeling components,” which can be “enjoyed” (Feagin 81). Disgust is, according to Carroll, an emotion (etymologically meaning “moving out”), involving “the experience of a transition or migration—a change of state, a moving out of a normal physical state to an agitated one, one marked by inner movings” (28, 24). The “inner movings” and the “feeling components” of disgust are key factors to be examined in order to clarify why this seemingly negative emotion can be pleasurable. According to Feagin, the feeling components of disgust include “the adrenalin rush, the tingles and the queasiness,” all of which can be enjoyed (81). She employs. 治政大 people, the related the experience of getting drunk as an example. For experienced 立 feeling of nausea is not only expected but also treated as an incentive to reinforce. ‧ 國. 學. such experience. Once people learn how to deal with this process, “if it ceased to. sit. y. Nat. that extent)” (82).. ‧. produce the affective components of repulsion, it would cease to attract (at least to. io. er. If disgust is regarded as an incentive, can this emotion itself be pleasurable? For. al. instance, spectators who would like to see gory autopsy and murder in the television. n. v i n C h and atmosphereUof the investigation due to series CSI may enjoy the smooth rhythms engchi. and closely surrounding the disgusting kill. However, disgust is more like “the price we are willing to pay for” the above-mentioned enjoyment (Carroll186). As long as. the emotion of disgust lingers, the pleasure does, too. It does not simply function as an eye-catcher, but significantly partakes in the whole process that can please the audience. Nevertheless, such pleasurable components merely accompany disgust, which itself is not really enjoyed. Could the pleasure be surely connected with disgust? Carroll points out that one may savor this repulsive emotion via a “metaresponse,” which “involves a kind of 18.

(26) satisfaction in the fact that one is capable of withstanding heavy doses of disgust and shock” (193). One enjoys the nauseating elements because she is satisfied with herself being able to cope with such hideousness. The enjoyment is connected with the disgust. To be more precise, the gratification is associated with the satisfying knowledge of one’s own capability of confronting the disgust. Feagin argues for a different account of the pleasure of disgust, her ideas of “meta-pleasures.” She points out that “one may take pleasure in exercising one’s ability to have the kinds of responses one is supposed to have in response to a given work” (83). This perspective differs from the Kantian idea of pleasure as derived from. 治政 “enlivening” one’s abilities. Feagin remarks that the大 audience can enjoy the awareness 立 of being in the status of disgust since having this emotion and its feeling components. ‧ 國. 學. are an “appropriate response.” The circumstances wherein the spectator is able to. ‧. enjoy disgust, a repulsive emotion, can give him or her pleasure, too (Feagin 83). The. sit. y. Nat. focus of this pleasure is on the possession of the ability. In other words, one is pleased. io. pleasure.. er. by having such an ability to enjoy. The pleasure results from being able to take. al. n. v i n Another meta-pleasure C is that can enjoy the fact that they are capable h espectators ngchi U. of flexibly adjusting themselves to appreciate disgust. This hideous emotion supposedly repels people unless they can change or modify their perspectives. Hence, the awareness of possessing this ability to flexibly modify oneself can please, too. The theory of “meta-pleasure” basically asserts that one can enjoy one’s own response to disgust. It is not exactly concerned with whether disgust itself is displeasing or not. For Carroll, the affect of disgust does enhance the attraction of the literary works:. 19.

(27) In my account, disgust is inextricably bound up with the attraction of the genre insofar as it is a regularly recurring concomitant of the fascination which is the source of the pleasure in the genre. Some monsters probably could not be fascinating unless they were also disgusting. (86) Nevertheless, its capability of attractive enhancement does not neutralize its negative feature, which means it can still arouse “an uncomfortable affect.” The disgust itself can be the factor of attraction, augmenting the monster’s fascination. The affect of disgust can reinforce the attraction of monsters. The “uncomfortable” feature of disgust does not decrease its enchantment. It. 治政大its enjoyment. Disgust does not require meta-responses and meta-pleasures to reveal 立. can stir pleasure without the neutralization or the reasoning of its displeasing nature,. ‧ 國. 學. similar to Lyotard’s elaboration of the Kantian sublime paradox:. ‧. As it is expounded and deduced in its thematic, sublime feeling is analyzed as. sit. y. Nat. double defiance. Imagination at the limits of what it can present does violence to. io. er. itself in order to present that which it can no longer present. Reason, for its part,. al. n. seeks, unreasonably, to violate the interdict it imposes on itself and which is strictly critical, the interdict. v i n Cprohibits that finding objects corresponding h e n git from chi U. to its concepts in sensible intuition. In these two aspects, thinking defies its own finitude, as if fascinated by its own excessiveness” (55, italics added). In the sublime, the imagination approaches the limits of representation as if it violently defeats itself in order to show its strength. Lyotard deliberates the paradoxical aspect of the sublime, which is interconnected with positive negation and fierce play, constantly refuting its known borders of power range so it expands to extremity. Comparably, the sublime and disgust both disrupt the reasoning process, wherein the “inevitable” and “unreasonabl[e]” fascination performs as an energy “for 20.

(28) the vital force” which is a dynamical metaphor of pleasure (Lyotard 55, 61), related to the “animating3 ” principle “which sets the mental powers into a swing that is purposive, i.e. into a play which is self-maintaining and which strengthens those powers for such activity” (Kant 142). Furthermore, the theoretical complications of aesthetic disgust are elucidated in The Critique of Judgment: “One kind of ugliness alone is incapable of being represented conformably to nature without destroying all aesthetic delight, and consequently artistic beauty, namely, that which excites disgust” (141). In other. 治政大art? How can CSI and other TV simply conclude that disgusting works cannot be fine 立 words, if works arouse disgust, aesthetic pleasure is not possible. Thus, could we. series about hideous murderous crime scenes be so popular? Even if one refutes the. ‧ 國. 學. idea that popularity does not qualify them as art, classical literary works such as. ‧. Oedipus the King, Medea, Hamlet, and so forth, are smeared by the blood of patricide,. sit. y. Nat. regicide, filicide, and homicide, yet they are commonly recognized as fine art. Are. io. al. er. those killing scenes different from the murders that provoke disgust? Do their murders. n. differentiate in kind or in degree? From the judgment of taste, what kinds of murder. Ch. engchi. are they? Actually, through closer examination,. iv n Kant’s U aesthetic treatise provides. explanations on disgusting artworks related to the “superiority” of fine arts that can represent ugly repulsive works such as “the Furies, diseases, devastations of war, and the like” in an aesthetically delightful way: “Things that in nature would be ugly or displeasing” can be manufactured as works of art (141). Nevertheless, Mary A. McCloskey asserts that “ugly” artworks should be considered counter-instances against Kantian ideas of aesthetics:. This animating and enlivening arousal of pleasure can be in the artworks of “Genius” which will be discussed later (Kant 136, 144). 21. 3.

(29) To consider the first horn of this dilemma in relation to Kant’s position. The “problem of the ugly” is usually explained in connection with works of art rather than natural objects or humble artefacts. So Goodman explains it. Thus such works as Gruenewald’s Crucifixion, Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex and Goya’s Witches’ Sabbath are thought of as works of aesthetic worth which are ugly or at least non-beautiful. Since Kant holds that being beautiful is a necessary condition for a work’s having aesthetic worth, such counter-instances count against his theory, given that they are accepted. (10) Human creations can be ugly but with “aesthetic worth,” exemplified in classically. 治政大 not nature, which is recognized artworks. Ugliness is usually associated with humans, 立 transformed from mere refutation to ambivalently repulsive pleasure via artistic. ‧ 國. 學. representation. This assertion of McCloskey’s does not completely exclude ugliness. ‧. and disgust from Kantian aesthetics because the experience of disgust can vary. sit. y. Nat. subjectively. Objects that are regarded as ugly and disgusting may be pleasant or. io. er. naught to someone. Worms, for instance, can be disgusting but not to everyone. Kant claims that “one kind of ugliness … excites disgust,” but not “all kinds of ugliness …. al. n. v i n Callh matters that are commonly excites disgust” (141). Moreover, not considered engchi U. disgusting necessarily arouse disgust. Only the works that “excite disgust,” according to Kant, cannot be of artistic delight. If the generally recognized disgusting objects do not arouse disgust to certain spectators, they can still be treated as artworks to them. Besides, disgust is “attractive for Kant precisely on account of the chances and possibilities inextricably entangled with these dangers” (Menninghaus 113). John Macarthur notes that “Derrida insists that Kant depends on the radical singularity of disgust, its inability to be named” (Macarthur 35). Although disgusting ugliness and monstrosity are regarded as an aesthetic disvalue by most aestheticians, Carolyn 22.

(30) Korsmeyer points out its uniqueness and “advantage,” that is, the capacity to “confoun[d] no contrary beliefs” with “special aesthetic force” which can “transfers the immediate aversion of disgust to the work of art” (Korsmeyer 56). According to Beville, this penetrating force of “aesthetic sensibilities” is triggered by disgust, the response to the “primitive and biological fears.” The aesthetic imagination can be aroused by diseased spectacle such as repulsive monsters. Zombies and vampires, for instance, are monstrous creatures dangling around the category of death and life. These creations of human imagination can not. 治政大 49). In other words, disgust, and unleash their faculties of aesthetic activities (2013, 立. only devour both human flesh and their conginitive judgments, but also can stimulate. one of the “fear responses” related to human survival instinct, activates “aesthetic. ‧ 國. 學. sensibilities” to generate “imaginary” monstrosities, which embody the primordial. ‧. and biotic fright and disgust. This aesthetic emotion continues to exist, thrive, and. sit. y. Nat. inspire the “popular imagination” (Beville, 2009, 49). This artistic or fictional. io. al. er. stimulation and reaction offers no apparent religious or spiritual transcendence and. n. consolations, but drags spectators to mere performances of flesh and blood. This. Ch. dramatic sensual inspiration of disgust is similar. engchi. iv n toUthe less indicated,. “visceral” facet. of the sublime. Stephen K. White analyzes this “secular” aspect of the sublime via Burkean notions (concerning the “human infinite”), revealing a “new aesthetic-affective dynamic,” not only connected to shock and infinity derived from nature, but also to the “human infinite,” genius artworks, considered as “humanization” of the sublime, the worldly sublime which is “increasingly associated with feats of human subjectivity” (74-75). This new facet of the sublime does not necessarily exclude. 23.

(31) Kant’s perspectives; rather, they function like a supportive instrument to interpret human monstrous works in Gothic literature. This “subjective” trait of the sublime can be attributed to Kant’s purposiveness that frees aesthetics from the restraint of purposes and the “argument by design,” which readjusts the focus on the spectators’ play with artworks, refusing conceptual fixations and treating aesthetics as “a means to apprehension instead of an act of transcendence” (Sha 2). What are the discrepancies and similarities between disgust and the sublime in the. 治政大 differs in that respect, moving beyond, but disgust lacks of “beyondness” or, at least, 立 Gothic? The conventional comprehension of the sublime involves an aspect of. as it encounters no transcendence. Combining the previous elaboration of the visceral. ‧ 國. 學. sublime with disgust may result in a hybrid lens, that is, aesthetic disgust.. ‧. In other words, aesthetic disgust is an extreme disposition encouragement that. sit. y. Nat. offers no ethereal solutions, arousing people’s sensation but not providing a higher. io. er. purpose, reason, elevation or beyond, as a deep dark abyss devouring light, which, however, encourages spectators to confront4 and cope with the bare, visceral. al. n. v i n C h of the spectacles.USince these discursive the purposeless purposiveness engchi. existence,. non-. objective judgment of taste are presently inclined to, which leans towards the probe of perception and potential reactions of the beholders, the spectacles that are conceptually considered negative can be aesthetically judged positive and pleasurable. Foucault points out the aestheticization of revolting crime in literature and its key attractive interplay:. 4 One could fall in the interwoven mood of angst and disgust because the enclosing darkness is similar to the void beyond established or establishing knowledge, which is comparably encountered in the sublime, akin to Heideggerian angst confrontation. 24.

(32) A literature in which crime is glorified, because it is one of the fine arts, because it can be the work only of exceptional natures, because it reveals the monstrousness of the strong and powerful, because villainy is yet another mode of privilege: from the adventure story to de Quincey, or from the Castle of Otranto to Baudelaire, there is a whole aesthetic rewriting of crime, which is also the appropriation of criminality in acceptable forms. (2006, 68) The artistic splendidness of transgressive forces is underlined and “justified” its. 治政大 felonious right and its tactics of performance: 立. entitlement to be read aesthetically. Foucault further explicates this privileged. In appearance, it is the discovery of the beauty and greatness of crime; in. ‧ 國. 學. fact, it is the affirmation that greatness too has a right to crime and that it. ‧. even becomes the exclusive privilege of those who are really great. The. sit. y. Nat. great murders are not for the pedlars of petty crime. While, from Gaboriau. io. al. er. onwards, the literature of crime follows this first shift: by his cunning, his. n. tricks, his sharp-wittedness, the criminal represented in this literature has. Ch. engchi. made himself impervious to suspicion;. iv n and U the struggle. between two pure. minds - the murderer and the detective - will constitute the essential form of the confrontation. (2006, 68-69) This struggle proceeds similarly to the aesthetic contest between unbounded forces and unbendable stasis, the artistic play between the faculty of imagination and understanding. Beauty, via repulsive means of ugly representations, is remarked not simply as a dull formulaic judgment of cognition, but as a vigorously transforming interactions of enlivening forces that are born and expire continuously and interchangeably. 25.

(33) Pleasure of Displeasure: The Aesthetics of Ugliness in CSI Open up a few corpses: you will dissipate at once the darkness that observation alone could not dissipate. —Michel Foucault Beautiful art displays its excellence precisely by describing beautifully things that in nature would be ugly or displeasing. The furies, diseases, devastations of war, and the like can, as harmful things, be very beautifully described.. 政治大 —Immanuel Kant Crime and detective dramas such as CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, CSI: New 立. ‧ 國. 學. York, CSI: Miami, Criminal Minds, and NCIS: Naval Criminal Investigative Service have dramatically mushroomed in recent years. CSI, especially, has been ranked in the. ‧. top ten of the Nielsen ratings since 2001 (Kissell, 2001, 26). It “has become the. sit. y. Nat. hottest program on television, ranking as primetime’s most-watched show (averaging. al. er. io. nearly 30 million viewers) and becoming the Eye net’s top-rated scripted series since. v. n. ‘Murder, She Wrote’” (Kissell, 2002, 20). Its popularity comes with reproach. CSI has. Ch. engchi. i n U. been accused of fictional exaggeration of forensic science. Dan Krane, DNA specialist, indicates that in CSI people “never see a case where the sample is degraded or the lab work is faulty or the test results don’t solve the crime.” “Real scientists” criticize that this crime show does not provide audiences with scientific knowledge but fictional science or science fiction (Willing, A.01). Pettey and Bracken also point out “such distorted presentations often imply that scientists are the ‘truth’s ultimate custodian’ (Pettey & Bracken 6). CSI sets up, Harrington argues, a “fantastic world where ambiguous or disruptive identities can be fixed by the traces of DNA left by the individual; a world where crime can be solved, the truth known with certitude, and 26.

(34) order restored” (366). He upholds that “fictive vision” of stability and reinstatement of order is the significant feature of attraction in CSI (379). According to Tait, in the “fictioned universe” of CSI, “evidence is rarely open to interpretation” (48). Gever also suggests that CSI fictionalizes “the matching process” of DNA “as definitive” and “ignores successful challenges to the iron-clad veracity of this method of identification” (453). The CSIs resemble “the most perfect reasoning and observing machine the world has seen” (Harrington 372). However, these critics overlook several “imperfections” and ugliness in this crime drama. In addition, they. 治政 simply mentions that “the show visually alludes to 大 its own autopsy aesthetic” (375). 立. oversimplify or disregard the attraction of the aesthetic aspects of CSI. Harrington. Tait summarizes that in CSI “science is staged as an aesthetic, with the performance. ‧ 國. 學. of procedures set to contemporary music” (49). Otherwise, they just remark, “the. ‧. aesthetic style of the program never tries to mimic documentary realism” (Gever 49).. y. Nat. What is the aesthetic style of this popular crime show? What elements are. er. io. sit. “beautified”? Does beautification fully express the style of this TV series? Is the. al. n. perfection of the CSIs the factor that induces the pleasure of appreciation? According to Geraghty, the analysis. v i n of C television pays less attention to “the audio and h e nprograms gchi U. visual organization” since critics thought “television’s audio/visual. pleasures are often deemed to be limited by size of screen and poor-quality image” (33). In the following passages, I reveal that the doubts, contradictions, weakness, ugliness, imperfections, and terror are the elements that distinguish the aesthetics of this crime drama. The intensive aesthetic effect of ugliness and terror will be elaborated via Lyotardian and Kantian theory of negative aesthetics from three aspects of CSI: the process of investigation, the criminals, and the crime scene investigators. 27.

(35) In his Attempt to Introduce the Concept of Negative Magnitudes into Philosophy, Kant indicated “the opposition of the beautiful and the ugly.”. For instance,. “displeasure has its positive grounds as much as pleasure and can be called ‘negative pleasure.’” Also, “aversion can be called a negative desire, hate a negative love, ugliness a negative beauty, blame a negative praise” (Wenzel, 1999, 417). This idea of ugliness has been much less discussed than the idea of beauty. Although in his most representative work of aesthetics, the Critique of the Power of Judgment, Kant pondered over the “Analytic of the Beautiful” instead of the “analytic of the ugly.” It is because “‘Analytic of the Beautiful’ is sufficient for the larger purpose of the. 治政 Critique of the Power of Judgment. One can modify Kant’s大 explanations of “the 立 Beautiful” to obtain “the Ugly” (Wenzel, 1999, 420).. ‧ 國. 學. Wenzel, in addition, points out “the ugly can be fascinating and hold our. ‧. attention for a long time. We can even be obsessed by something ugly” (2005, 132).. sit. y. Nat. For example, when one listens to music, several discords displease one for a while. io. er. and become impressive and pleasing reinforcement of experience later. This unpleasant ugliness eventually “enhances the experience and strengthens our. n. al. faculties” (132).. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. A more intensive aesthetic experience of ugliness or disharmony is treated in Kant’s “Analytic of the Sublime” and Lyotard’s “The Sublime and the Avant-Garde.” Lyotard pointed out “pleasure and pain, joy and anxiety, exaltation and depression— was christened or re-christened by the name of the sublime” (455). This experience sometimes mingles terror with pleasure. Kant’s and Lyotard’s idea of sublime is not merely about the “elevation” discussed by Aristotle but about “intensification” (Lyotard 459). When one confronts displeasing and even menacing spectacle, one is aroused and agitated. In the process, according to Kant, one would be through “an 28.

(36) enlargement of the mind which feels itself empowered to overstep the limits of sensibility from another (practical) point of view” (2000, 138). We may call this process an extreme entertainment that agitates, threatens, terrifies, and displeases us at first in order to intensify our aesthetic experience and feeling of pleasure. It gives us “feelings of mixed wonder and oppression” (Will 16). The ugliness and the sublime, the negative judgment of taste, I will elaborate, are the powerful weapons of CSI. In every episode, the scene begins with an ugly and cruel murdering process or the murdered victim. The investigator would arrive at the terrifying scene and examine the body and the surrounding. In “Sex, Lies and Larvae” (Season 1, Episode. 治政 10), the victim is found crawling with maggots. The大 crime scene is disgusting and 立 gruesome. After Gilbert Grissom, the supervisor of the CSIs, via clear scientific. ‧ 國. 學. procedure, tries to reveal the date of the death, the ugly impression of the maggots and. ‧. the decomposing corpse somehow changes. Things that appear “ugly at first become. sit. y. Nat. beautiful when taste is more ‘educated’ and when we have learned how to take new. io. er. perspectives. A more sophisticated play between imagination and understanding may produce harmony where earlier perception has produced only disharmony” (Wenzel,. n. al. 2005, 132).. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. After collecting evidence from the crime scene, the autopsy of the victim would begin. The coroner would cut the corpse open and reveal its inside to the audience. Via digital effect, CSI creates “images that evoke the somber realness of human flesh—dead, weighty, inert human flesh.”. It “combines eyewitness accounts with. statistical data to produce images of truth akin to . . . ‘anatomical realism’” (Gever 456, 457). The corpse is “fictioned” to look more “dead” and terrifying than one can see in reality. Jermyn elaborates that such “violence presented in graphic detail, overemphasizes reality. . . . In real life, action is never viewed with such concentrated 29.

(37) focus. . .” (60). This method of “realism” agitates viewers and tests their limits of sensibility. After opening the dead body, the coroner and the CSIs would discuss and attempt to determine the cause of death. They not only talk about the process of murder, but also visualize it. Audiences would see how the organ is penetrated by a sharp object and how the blood floods and spurt from the artery or brain. Meanwhile, the sound of penetration and spraying would be produced. When the CSIs know the cause of death, they would look for murdering weapons. 治政 of murder in various ways in order to find out which one is大 the most possible. Viewers 立 and collect evidence from the suspects. They will simulate and visualize the process. would see the victims are killed repeatedly and variously. It is like listening to a. ‧ 國. 學. symphony—some parts repeat, and some vary. The music of death continues to. ‧. stimulate audiences’ sensibility.. y. Nat. Although the autopsy and simulation of bodily lethal penetration in CSI is. al. (Kant 190). Van Dijck explains the spectacle of body opening:. er. io. sit. frightening, it does not “destroy all aesthetic satisfaction” and “arouse loathing”. n. v i n It seems much easier to watch C such operation via U the screen, as it somehow h an en gchi distances the patient from his own body and protects him from the direct view that may trigger feelings of fear or shame. (224, my italics) The body is filtered and cleaned up by both the endoscopic camera and the television camera. Surgery is turned into a non-invasive, almost aesthetic experience, unadulterated by pain, scarring instruments or potential complications. (227, my italics). The autoptic vision is adjusted to arouse discomfort but not overwhelming disgust. This adjusted vision makes it possible for viewers to stand the displeasure at first and 30.

(38) continue to watch the whole show. Therefore, they can have a “wider context” to transform the displeasure into pleasure (Wenzel, 2005, 132). According to Harrington, “CSIs dramatize a stable body, one whose DNA acts as a flawless signifier of identity.”. He also argues that “this sense of identity as stable,. tied to biology, promotes a conservative, reassuringly clear understanding of individual identity, including sexual identity” (374). However, he fails to notice the “unstable” elements that reveal DNA as an imperfect “signifier.”. In “Bloodlines”. (Season 4, Episode 23), the victim, Lindley Parker, is raped and survives at first. She identifies Todd Coombs as the rapist. The CSIs find that Todd’s DNA does not exactly. 治政大 CSI Grissom decides to match. Although Lindley insists that he is the criminal, 立. believe in the DNA test. Todd is released, and then Lindley is murdered. At last, the. ‧ 國. 學. CSIs find out that Todd is the rapist and the murderer. Todd is, medically speaking, a. ‧. “Chimera” whose fraternal twin brother’s cell merged into his. Thus, he has two sets. sit. y. Nat. of DNA. In this episode, the “stable” and “flawless signifier of identity,” DNA, is. io. er. challenged. This stain or ugliness of the investigation does not devaluate CSI. On the. al. contrary, it impresses viewers and gives them more pleasure (Huntley, May 2004).. n. v i n C halthough GrissomUpays lots of effort to observe the In “Sex, Lies And Larvae,” engchi. maggots from the victim, breeds them in order to determine the timeline of death and convicts the suspect of murder, his superior stops him and tells him that his evidence will not be understood and recognized by the jury. Thus, the scientific methods are frustrated. The disappointing and ugly side of crime scene investigation is shown. Actually, in the first episode of the first season, “Pilot,” the imperfections and ugliness are already there. Although Brunsdon notices “a move towards the medicalization of crime within the crime series, with the focus moving away from the police as the solvers of riddles to pathologists and criminal psychologists,” he ignores 31.

(39) a move from the cold forensic scientists to the sentimental CSIs (242). In the show, the crime scene investigators are not the “perfect reasoning and observing machine” (Harrington 372). Warrick Brown has a gambling problem. Holly Gribbs is shot. Jim Brass is easily angered. Catherine Willows is troubled by her single motherhood. Gil Grissom is frustrated by the politics of his superior. Huntley elucidates the characteristics of the CSIs: CSI established its quirky characters early on, through their interactions in the lab or their reactions to the cases they’ve worked on. The writers and actors have. 治政大 it. (Huntley, Nov. audiences ingested the information without really realizing 立 inserted details about the characters so smoothly into the narratives that. 2004). ‧ 國. 學. In “Gum Drops” (Season 6, Episode 5), CSI Stokes almost obsessively searches for a. ‧. little girl. Without being calm and objective, he believes the girl is still alive and acts. sit. y. Nat. accordingly. In “Crate ‘n Burial” (Season 1, Episode 3), CSI Willows wants to. io. er. disregard the law and help Charles who covers for his grandson. She wonders if they, the CSIs, can assist the alive rather than the deceased victims. In “Goodbye and Good. al. n. v i n Luck” (Season 8, Episode 7), after aCseries and frustrations, h eofnaccidents gchi U. CSI Sidle. doubts the CSI, the legal system, and her power to help people. She and CSI Litra inspect an abused woman who is stabbed in the back. Meanwhile, the woman’s husband comes back and tries to punch her in front of them. Litra (about the Jimenez's): How are we going to handle this? Sidle: Well, the guy's under arrest. Litra: He'll be free by tomorrow. Her husband is obviously abusing her. (sighs) There's got to be something we can do. Sidle: We'll be back for her body next month. Or his. Or both. There is 32.

(40) nothing you can do about this, Ronnie. Don't kid yourself. Marlon West, a boy Sidle tries to save, commits suicide in jail. It is the last straw that breaks the camel’s back. She leaves CSI. In her letter for Grissom, Sidle expresses the sadness, the very ugliness of being a CSI: Truth be told, I’m tired. Out in the desert, under that car that night, I realized something, and I haven’t been able to shake it. Since my father died, I’ve spent almost my entire life with ghosts. We’ve been like close friends, and out there in the desert, it occurred to me that it was time for me to bury them. I can’t do that here. I’m so sorry. No matter how hard I try to. 治政 fight it off, I’m left with the feeling that I大 have to go. I have no idea where 立 I’m going, but I know I have to do this. If I don’t, I’m afraid I'll self-. ‧ 國. 學. destruct, and worse, you'll be there to see it happen. (Season 8, Episode 7). ‧. In “'Who and What” (Season 8, Episode 6), Terry Lee Wicker, the cold-blooded. y. Nat. criminal who kills women and children contingently. The blue paint killer, in “What's. er. io. sit. Eating Gilbert Grissom” (Season 5, Episode 6), sets a blue paint trap and murders five. al. people. He looks ordinary and kind, but he takes lives from his victims without. n. v i n C h Of The Third Reich” hesitation and remorse. In “'Pirates e n g c h i U (Season 6, Episode 15), Sneller experiments on people. He dissects them alive and tortures them to death. Sneller even sews two people together at their back. He doest not care that his victims are girls, boys, students, or his brother. Out of these inexplicably monstrous and horrifying behaviors arouse “the ‘soul-shattering’ sense of awe and wonder one experiences upon encountering a phenomenon which truly exceeds the grasp of understanding.”. “An apprehension of sublime” is agitated (Will 7-8).. The “cinematic appearance through high-resolution images and high-colour depth” beautifies CSI shots (Tait 53). This crime drama is “unique in its visual 33.