Cyborgs are Iminent

Wow, what a great read! I suppose my sarcasm is apparent. However, I have an overwhelming sense that this reading would be far easier if the entire work were digested. From what I can figure out it looks like the cyborg manifesto was part of the book: Simians, Cyborgs, and Women: The Reinvention of Nature. If this is actually the case I think that a lot of our difficulty in digesting the work is the 150 or so pages that came before what we read. It is clear that Donna Haraway writes in a very unique way that has the potential to be either acutely clear in its essence or astoundingly muddled depending on your approach to it. I often find that when reading authors who take this approach a lot of the digestive process is hearing the key words they use over and over and over. This subtley builds up an almost un/sub-conscious sense or feel of what the author is trying to convey. In many ways I think Haraway is getting at a subject that cannot be nailed down and organized into pretty little boxes. Because of this there is an abstract supra-lingual quality to the ideas she is attempting to express. I don't think our inability to fully grasp her thesis or point is the fault of the author. Rather, the difficulty lies in the subject matter itself and our very limited exposure to it and motivation to understand it.

So I fully recognize that I have completely side skirted the issue of analyzing the content or attempted to make meaning out it, but I feel like the above discussion is the best thing I can contribute to the conversation at this time. Perhaps we'll have the opportunity to discuss the text more in class. Perhaps as Wendy suggested we'll encounter the same work in grad school if we find ourselves there. Maybe then we will have the foundation to effectively experience what Haraway was trying to get at...