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The Human Body
Monday, September 29th, 2003 by joelFrom time immemorial we have celebrated our
bodies.? Which is why the advent of the gun has been such a sad
development.? Not because it’s a frighteningly effective way of killing
people, even though that’s true, but because it eliminates the joy and
beauty of physical combat.
Since guns became a cheap and easy way of killing
people, we have been trying to recapture the beauty and joy of our
bodies as weapons.? In order to do this, we have turned to fiction and
fantasy.? Every time a comic book company invents a character, they have
to find some way to circumvent the issue of bullets.? Superman has skin
like armor and bullets just bounce off him.? Spider-Man has a sixth
sense that tells him when and where bullets are coming and super-quick
reflexes that allow him to dodge at just the right moment.
In cinema, too, we celebrate larger-than-life
characters with the supernatural ability to avoid projectiles so that
they can engage in melee combat.? Fists and swords may not be more
powerful than guns in real life, but in our minds they hold much greater
power.? Jedi Knights can simply deflect bursts of pure plasma energy
with their lightsabers.? In The Matrix Neo can simply stop
bullets with his mind so that those who battle him are forced to do so
hand-to-hand.?
I suspect we all secretly dislike guns in our
entertainment because they ruin our fun.? Powerful mythic warriors of
the past are reduced to meat-bags into which we can pump lead.? Yet
another fine instance in which fiction comes to our rescue to save us
from harsh reality.
