Science Fiction Film & Television

Death, sex and the Cylon

Living authentically on Battlestar Galactica

Science Fiction Film & Television (2012), 5, (1), 85–113.

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3828/sfftv.2012.5
Language
English
Pages
29

Abstract

The second half of Battlestar Galactica's four-season narrative arc constitutes an extended, energetic and effective commentary on the philosophy of death initiated by Martin Heidegger's Being and Time. The Cylons demonstrate the crucial links between death, sexuality and reproduction. At first, the Cylons are infinitely downloadable and thus effectively immortal. D'Anna pursues a radical experiment in being-towards-death, deliberately and repeatedly ‘killing’ herself in a perpetual quest to understand the nature of being. For her, death has the status of a sexual fetish. Season four concerns the quest by certain individual Cylons to overcome Cylon immortality, the fulfilment of which permits some Cylons to attain what Heidegger calls an authentic being-towards-death. The end of Cylon immortality radically foregrounds the importance of sexuality and biology. The Cylons become obsessed with discourses of reproduction and racial purity, but their story ends with a radical endorsement of difference. The child Hera, a human-Cylon hybrid whose parents are played by multi-ethnic actors, becomes the ancestral mother of humanity. The show thus concludes by rejecting decisively both the old fears of racial miscegenation, and the newer fears of the techno-organic cyborg. BSG argues for a future of hybridity in which species merge, nations intersect and the biological and the cybernetic come together, leading us to a place where death establishes the possibility of meaning, and the love of bodies permits the fulfilment of that meaning.

Access Token

FormatArticle

£25.00
READ THIS ARTICLE
References
Full Text
PDF
If you have private access to this content, please log in with your username and password here

Baugh, Bruce. ‘Death and Temporality in Deleuze and Derrida’. Angelaki: Journal of the Theoretical Humanities 5.2 (2000): 73-83. ‘Death and Temporality in Deleuze and Derrida’ Angelaki: Journal of the Theoretical Humanities 5 73 83 Google Scholar

Blattner, William D. ‘The Concept of Death in Being and Time’. Man and World 27 (1994): 49-70. ‘The Concept of Death in Being and Time’ Man and World 27 49 70 Google Scholar

Call, Lewis. ‘"This Wondrous Death": Erotic Power in the Science Fiction of James Tiptree, Jr’. Science Fiction Studies 34.1 (2007): 59-86. ‘"This Wondrous Death": Erotic Power in the Science Fiction of James Tiptree, Jr’ Science Fiction Studies 34 59 86 Google Scholar

Carel, Havi. Life and Death in Freud and Heidegger. New York: Rodopi, 2006. Life and Death in Freud and Heidegger Google Scholar

Carel, Havi. ‘Temporal Finitude and Finitude of Possibility: The Double Meaning of Death in Being and Time’. International Journal of Philosophical Studies 15.4 (2007): 541-56. ‘Temporal Finitude and Finitude of Possibility: The Double Meaning of Death in Being and Time’ International Journal of Philosophical Studies 15 541 56 Google Scholar

Derrida, Jacques. ‘Geschlecht: Sexual Difference, Ontological Difference’. Research in Phenomenology 13.1 (1983): 65-83. ‘Geschlecht: Sexual Difference, Ontological Difference’ Research in Phenomenology 13 65 83 Google Scholar

Derrida, Jacques. ‘Geschlecht II: Heidegger's Hand’. Trans. John P. Leavey, Jr, ed. John Sallis. Deconstruction and Philosophy: The Texts of Jacques Derrida. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1987. 161-96. Deconstruction and Philosophy: The Texts of Jacques Derrida 161 96 Google Scholar

Derrida, Jacques. Aporias. Trans. Thomas Dutoit. Stanford: Stanford UP, 1993. Aporias Google Scholar

Derrida, Jacques. The Gift of Death, Second Edition, and Literature in Secret. Trans. David Wills. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 2008. The Gift of Death, Second Edition, and Literature in Secret Google Scholar

Dreyfus, Hubert L. ‘Foreword’. Time and Death: Heidegger's Analysis of Finitude. Ed. Carol J. White. Burlington: Ashgate, 2005: ix-xxxvi. Time and Death: Heidegger's Analysis of Finitude ix xxxvi Google Scholar

Dreyfus, Hubert L. Being-in-the-World: A Commentary on Heidegger's Being and Time, Division I. Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1991. Being-in-the-World: A Commentary on Heidegger's Being and Time, Division I Google Scholar

Freud, Sigmund. Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality. Trans. and ed. James Strachey. New York: Basic Books, 1975. Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality Google Scholar

Freud, Sigmund. Beyond the Pleasure Principle. Trans. and ed. James Strachey. New York: W.W. Norton, 1989. Beyond the Pleasure Principle Google Scholar

Freud, Sigmund. Civilization and Its Discontents. Trans. and ed. James Strachey. New York: W.W. Norton, 1989. Civilization and Its Discontents Google Scholar

Haraway, Donna. ‘A Manifesto for Cyborgs: Science, Technology, and Socialist Feminism in the 1980s’. Feminism/Postmodernism. Ed. Linda J. Nicholson. New York: Routledge, 1990. 190-233. Feminism/Postmodernism 190 233 Google Scholar

Heidegger, Martin. Being and Time. Trans. John Macquarrie and Edward Robinson. New York: Harper and Row, 1962. Being and Time Google Scholar

Krell, David Farrell. Daimon Life: Heidegger and Life-Philosophy. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1992. Daimon Life: Heidegger and Life-Philosophy Google Scholar

Levinas, Emmanuel. God, Death, and Time. Stanford: Stanford UP, 2000. God, Death, and Time Google Scholar

Mandic, Mo. ‘Being-towards-Death and Its Relevance to Psychotherapy’. Journal of the Society for Existential Analysis 19.2 (2008): 254-66. ‘Being-towards-Death and Its Relevance to Psychotherapy’ Journal of the Society for Existential Analysis 19 254 66 Google Scholar

Mulhall, Stephen. ‘Human Mortality: Heidegger on How to Portray the Impossible Possibility of Dasein’. A Companion to Heidegger. Ed. Hubert L. Dreyfus and Mark A. Wrathall. Malden: Blackwell, 2005. 297-310. A Companion to Heidegger 297 310 Google Scholar

Nietzsche, Friedrich. Thus Spoke Zarathustra: A Book for All and None. Trans. Walter Kaufmann. New York: Penguin, 1988. Thus Spoke Zarathustra: A Book for All and None Google Scholar

Sartre, Jean-Paul. Being and Nothingness. Trans. Hazel E. Barnes. New York: Pocket Books, 1956. Being and Nothingness Google Scholar

Schalow, Frank. The Incarnality of Being: The Earth, Animals, and the Body in Heidegger's Thought. Albany: SUNY Press, 2006. The Incarnality of Being: The Earth, Animals, and the Body in Heidegger's Thought Google Scholar

Vessey, David. ‘The Meaning of a Deathless Life’. Battlestar Galactica and Philosophy: Mission Accomplished or Mission Frakked Up? Ed. Josef Steiff and Tristan D. Tamplin. Chicago: Open Court, 2008. 289-99. Battlestar Galactica and Philosophy: Mission Accomplished or Mission Frakked Up? 289 99 Google Scholar

White, Carol J. Time and Death: Heidegger's Analysis of Finitude. Burlington: Ashgate, 2005. Time and Death: Heidegger's Analysis of Finitude Google Scholar

Willems, Brian. ‘When the Non-Human Knows Its Own Death’. Battlestar Galactica and Philosophy: Knowledge Here Begins Out There. Ed. Jason T. Eberl. Malden: Blackwell, 2008. 87-98. Battlestar Galactica and Philosophy: Knowledge Here Begins Out There 87 98 Google Scholar

Wilts, Alissa. ‘Evil, Skanky, and Kinda Gay: Lesbian Images and Issues’. Buffy Goes Dark. Ed. Lynne Y. Edwards, Elizabeth L. Rambo and James B. South. Jefferson: McFarland, 2009. 41-56. Buffy Goes Dark 41 56 Google Scholar

If you have private access to this content, please log in with your username and password here

Details

Author details

Call, Lewis