We just finished watching Orphan Black (Laura in Urbana and me here at home). I had seen it before. So had she on my recommendation. It grows on you, so another viewing was worth it. Orphan Black is thought-provoking fare for the ALS patient or anyone intrigued by the mystery of life. OB implicates questions concerning freedom and solidarity. It is simply fine entertainment thanks to the genius of Tatiana Maslany and the intelligence of the CBC.
The philosophical questions at play: genetic determinism
Genetically speaking, we are like material organizations controlled by encoded sets of instructions that determine who and what we are. Our genetics are like the technological bureaucracy of a sci fi fantasy such as OB. But is this really so? This reductionism is like equating life to a photograph understood to incorporate the information of a DNA analysis. This is indeed the genetic-technological understanding of the human being. Sadly, the defenders of the human heart seem to retreat step by step, always looking for some new inner refuge for the soul, only to have it blasted to smithereens by the Big Guns of technological science.
In Orphan Black, Big Science bears the face of smug and manipulative patriarchal technicians and their female deputies—evil fathers and “shit mothers.” They are grotesque perversions of the parental qualities they usurp. In pursuit of the aims of genetic science and engineering, these technological Big Wigs have created female (and we later learn male) clones who have been adopted and raised unaware of one another in various countries. Most have a deadly but possibly curable genetic defect because of their faulty engineering. All but two cannot reproduce. Sarah Manning is a wayward but tough young woman from the drug scene who has given birth to a daughter, Kira. Sarah is now trying desperately to reconnect with little Kira in Toronto. Upon arrival at the train station, Sarah encounters a look-alike in the act of committing suicide by leaping in front of a train. Sarah steals the handbag and police detective identity of her mangled double Beth. As Beth’s double, Sarah soon becomes aware of more look-alikes. Before long, it is clear that they are clones and that someone is trying to kill or intercept them. But the sisters have reached out to one another and begun to investigate. The plot pits the sisters against one another and then against a powerful multi-faceted genetic corporation and its rival cult groups. These regard the sisters as research property or as abominations to be eliminated.
versus human freedom and solidarity
I adopted the analogy of the still photograph to stand for the genetically fixed nature of the individual. But as we know, a still photo misrepresents human character. In motion, and by virtue of our infinitely varied interactions, we become something else, more like a fast-moving film. The cumulative power and impact of our interactions makes us, no less than genetics, what we are. To a perhaps decisive degree, we can remake ourselves, varying and transforming what we are. Our development reflects our environment and interactions. Deeply felt affinities with relatives or loved ones come into play. Whether all this militates for free will or not, it certainly militates against the frozen, fixed character of genetic determinism, analogous to the photo. Like Sarah and her sisters, we are players, thrust into the circle of some game and dealt a particular hand, but how we play it matters in the end immensely. In Orphan Black, the abstract questions of nature versus nurture, technology versus humanity, hierarchy versus personal loyalty, take on the mobility and recognizability of figures on a chessboard. We are riveted by their unpredictable moves and ever shifting constellations.
The player(s):
None of this, neither the philosophical back and forth nor the complex interplay of character, would have been possible without the genius of Tatiana Maslany. All the clone sisters of Sarah are uniquely and amusingly differentiated—the trained killer Helena, the lesbian biologist Cosima, the pill-popping suburban housewife Alison, the ice-cold geneticist Rachel, and so on—and all are played brilliantly by Maslany and synthesized into their filmic interplay. Each has her own distinctive smile, walk, language, and reflexes. You could say that this is just what all good actors do. But here acting is infused with the ambiguities of human nature. The actress, in reinventing herself creatively, lends resonance to the overriding motifs of the fixed versus the transformable. Maslany not only brings all of the contending personalities to life; she renders their evolving and shifting selves convincing. The ice queen Rachel is by turns imperious, cruel, wounded, vindictive, redemptive. The one clone plays another without ceasing to be the first, without complete absorption in her alternate. She can shape-shift without sacrificing her identity. If we wanted an analogue for the immutable presence of a human soul this might serve the purpose. I favor this analogy because it shifts the realm of the soul from stifling inner recesses to an external incalculable infinitude. The soul only manifests in the context of our challenged loyalties, friendships, family, and collective responsibilities. The irreducible integrity of our innermost being or unique soul corresponds to the Badiouvian infinite infinities of possible involvements and affinities. ALS is a no less mysterious and incurable genetic condition. This genetic fatalism plus the questions of what makes a family a family and a soul a soul lend Orphan Black its resonance with me.
Signed,
Andrew (Weeks)
Normal Thoughts 