Misconceptions About Compulsions

As we discussed Clay’s Ark in class yesterday I kept thinking about similar plots structures. This led me to look up films about viral outbreaks. Most outbreak films such as Contagion often portray people dying of the disease, but in Clay’s Ark it is the opposite. Again we see this similar plot scheme to Fledgling where a group of people gain abilities or enhance themselves by a substance, which one could interpret as either the venom or disease. In both cases each person gains super human abilities, but it comes at a cost and some people do die because of it. However, as I looked as the list of outbreak films a lot of them did not have the same plot as Clay’s Ark. The difference is in Clay’s Ark the disease causes the infected to do immoral actions such as, rape, and incest.

Butler here again is questioning our notions of what makes us human and or what is humanity. I question if when what makes us human is gone do we turn invisible? To further elaborate, in the article “I’m a Black Gentrifier, But My Success Is Invisible” the narrator defines herself as a complex person. She is black, but also a female and a lawyer, but because of her skin color she is categorized differently and sectioned off into an outside sphere, which makes her invisible. In Clay’s Ark the humans section themselves to one place, but in the article people are defined to a certain place. This notion of certain types of people being labeled to live in one place has infected the views of people. The infected notion comes from a view of compulsions or forced actions, which some are really found in the human race. However, some stereotypes are viewed as compulsions, which construe of outlook of a human being. I wonder if this is another trope about race relations that Butler is trying to force us to look at.

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