[S1E4] Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, eps. 14–19

Episode Notes

We decide that this is just going to be podcast with some long ass episodes and really dig into episodes 14 through 19 of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex. Before we even get into the episodes, we already have a lot to say about the series and how it relates to the current political reality of when we recorded this episode—which was the day news outlets declared Biden the winner of the 2020 American Presidential election.

Okay, look, I cut out a lot of our election discussion, so just like… know it could’ve been worse, okay?

Anyway, after front-loading this conversation with some political talk, we used it to jump into Major Kusanagi’s need for Section 9 to maintain her body, the capitalist view of the economy as a game you can win, Section 9’s complicity in upholding the injustice of capitalism, the Tachikomas awakening to class consciousness, Batou’s relationship to gender (Gender: It’s Not Just For The Major) and toxic masculinity, the patriarchal hegemony on the gendered expression of emotions, Aramaki’s relationship with the Major, Japanese nationalism and nationalist violence, cycles of revenge and the inscription of revenge narratives into a national identity, the potential value and danger of the merging of consciousnesses and creation of new identities, and the tension between efficacy and righteousness in Section 9’s fulfilling of their role as government agents.

Also, apologies for some of the weird audio on this one. It turns out Discord was really laggy (and variably so) for us and Niamh’s mic volume got fucked up at one point. Fae had a hell of time trying to get things sounding okay. ‧º·(˚ ˃̣̣̥⌓˂̣̣̥ )‧º·˚

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Works Cited in this Discussion

“Ghost in the Shell: the Major’s Body (3)” by Claire Napier (full series: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)

“The Work of Art in the Age of Its Technological Reproducibility” by Walter Benjamin

“Beyond the Image in Benjamin and Bazin: The Aura of the Event” by Monica Dall’Asta, published in Opening Bazin: Postwar Film Theory and Its Afterlife

“Entomology of the Pinup Girl” from What is Cinema?, vol. 2 by André Bazin

“The Ontology of the Photographic Image” from What is Cinema?, vol. 1 by André Bazin

Content Warnings for this Discussion

Racism
Classism
Deformation and Weaponization of the Body
Alcohol
Ableism
War Crimes
Nationalist Violence
Kidnapping & Organ Harvesting

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