Careful now, it's about to get nerdy in here...

So I've had this one idea for a little write-up for a while, ever since I heard this song by In Flames:



The lyrics talk about cyborgs, and as I began to really listen to the lyrics they reminded me quite a bit of an old cyberpunk book,  Marge Piercy's He, She, and It, I read as an undergrad. As it turned out, I ended up writing my final paper on that book, which led me to find Donna Haraway's Cyborg Manifesto. Haraway claims that an exploration and embrace of the cyborg – that which exists simultaneously in (at least) two worlds – can serve as a counterpoint to the dualistic perspectives that currently shape our world view and, in her opinion, inform worldwide oppression and submission.
 I found the text really fascinating, especially as it pertained to the idea of the cyborg as an entity, real or imagined, which could subvert sexism, racism, species-ism -- basically, all -isms. Down with -isms! Anyhow, a point that I took away from synthesizing the two texts was that the ability of the cyborg to really subvert oppressive ideology and tradition is dependent on the extent to which we can conceive of ourselves as cyborgs in the first place. After all, a cyborg is defined by Haraway as a "hybrid of machine and organism." It is in this hybridity that flexibility is found, and indeed, come to think of it, the idea of hybridity is prevalent in studies of identity formation and so forth. And while my mind wants to jump to the "see Google Glass for evidence" argument, I think there's work to be done before we can draw that connection in considering ourselves as hybrids of organism and machine. In fact, I see a tension in the ways in which we do and do not view ourselves as cyborgian -- this is implied by the ways in which we conceive of "technology." More on that later.

For the time being, I'd like to assert my original idea for an essay. The idea was to compare In Flames' "Jester Script Transfigured" with that most profound of metal's cautionary tales of the hybrid human, Black Sabbath's "Iron Man." I see each song uniquely illuminating human relationships to/fears of/hopes for technology, as such. I not only want to cover the song as text (that is, its lyrics). I will also attempt some basic musicology in my analysis. Yep.

I. "Iron Man"

Looking at "Iron Man," it becomes apparent that one may take the lyrics literally, which I did for some time as a youngster. The idea of an armored humanoid forged for war was striking and, coupled with the sinister dirge-march of the music, gave a clear indication of the band's moral stance on this issue. So yes, my original understanding of the song, which still sticks with me today, is of a comic-book tale in which the metal warrior realizes consciousness and goes berserk. Sabbath provides the classic, time-worn warning against playing God in the realm of technology.

But it was brought to my attention, I'm not sure where, that in fact the iron man is also an allegory for the dehumanizing effects of the war machine on its young, markedly human participants. This comes through in lyrics like "We'll just pass him there/Why should we even care?" Conjures up images of the ongoing mistreatment of war veterans in the United States and elsewhere. And its message is pretty damn clear -- the things that we create to serve our selfish purposes, we will wish to discard when they are no longer useful or, worse, unsightly, embarrassing, disturbing. And these things will return against our will.

Strangely (or perhaps not), "Iron Man" has gained new relevance by its linkage to the Marvel film franchise of the same name, in which the song is used to add heft to the badass-ness of the titular character, without paying any mind to the thematic content of the song itself. Tony Stark, a.k.a Iron Man, is, after all, a multimillionaire war profiteer, arguably the very embodiment of those who seek to gain from war without suffering the repercussions.

How does this analysis correspond to ideas of hybridity, multiple identities, the cyborg?