Jeffrey Andrew Weinstock Taking South Park Seriously (2008)(2)

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.Rather than simply breaching, trans-gressing, or turning social structures upside down, liminal phenomena callthe structures themselves into question.Liminality dissolves the norms thatgovern structured and institutionalized relationships and is accompanied byexperiences of unprecedented potency by the liberation or release of instinctual energies (Turner, The Ritual 128).Although Turner does notspecifically mention pleasure in relation to liminality, it is suggested by hisuse of the phrase instinctual energies, which are rooted in bodily drives andinnate desires.The pleasure that accompanies liminality, then, is a material one experi-enced on an extra- or presymbolic level.Because social hegemony is sus-tained by willing consent to cultural norms and conventions, liminal imagesand their corresponding rejection/dissolution of the social operate as ideo-logical ruptures in which the body and mind are momentarily set free. Theessence of liminality, according to Turner, is to be found in the release fromnormal constraints [.on] the free play of mankind s [sic] cognitive andimaginative capabilities (On the Edge 161).To appreciate fully the revolu-tionary potential and pleasure of the liminal, considering Julia Kristeva s dis-The Pleasures of South Park 49tinction between the semiotic and the symbolic is helpful (Revolution25 29).For Kristeva, the semiotic is the material base of the symbolic; itnames the drive energies and rhythms that precede the symbolic in allsignifying practices.It can be likened to the prelinguistic noises of a baby orto vocal modulations that have no (symbolic) meaning, but are meaningful.The semiotic dimension of signifying practices is located in the chora amobile, provisional space in which energy flows and charges are principallylocated.The semiotic is revolutionary precisely to the extent that it is out-side of the Law.The image of Kenny between life and death registers on an instinctual(semiotic) as opposed to a cultural (symbolic) level.It reverberates (likesound waves), rather than reifies (like language).Much like the chora, thespace of the liminal is a pulverization of language and meaning (Kristeva,Revolution 88).The liminal does not represent instinctual energies andflows; it discharges them.This discharge of energy is analogous to the dis-charge of fluids that accompanies the orgasmic moment, as both are anunbounded release.The DepthlessI have saved one of my favorite South Park scenes for last.Despite havingseen it many times, it still evokes a chuckle.In the scene, my favorite char-acter, Cartman, is a guest on an episode of The Maury Show titled, PleaseHelp My Out of Control Child. In the hopes of winning a prize for beingthe most outlandish guest, Cartman has convinced his mother to lie abouthis behavior.Dressed like a young female prostitute, Cartman is introducedto the studio audience by a prerecorded video, in which he proclaims, Maury, I am out of control.Yeah, I use drugs.I can do what I want, bitch!Yeah, I have sex, and I don t use protection! It s my hot body; I ll do what Iwant! I don t go to school, and I kill people! Whatever! I ll do what I want!When Vanity, the other child guest on Maury s show, tells Cartman, Oh,whatever.You ain t tough, ho! I roam with gangs! he quickly retorts, Ohyeah? I roam with twelve gangs! And we only commit hate crimes! What-ever! I ll do what I want!In this scene, Cartman is performing for the television cameras.He seemsacutely aware that identity is a matter of image and style, and that by tappinginto cultural images he can alter how he is perceived.Just as Cartman s rebel-lious image draws on culturally created images of rebellion, The Maury Show isan image of the image manufactured by daytime talk shows through their cel-ebration of surface and spectacle.Thus, the images on South Park cease to sig-nify; they do not refer to some external referent, but simply to other culturallyconstructed images.To appreciate the significance of this claim, as well as to50 Brian L [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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