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Becoming doesn't really sound like it's a process of note, we become some thing or some form of thing all day; we become tired, become awake, become clean, become dirty, etc. But the D&G ideal of "becoming" is something of note, and it is a process, not a step in a process. The Incredible Hulk is apart from Frankenstein in that there was a normal human being, just like you or me, that was in that jade giant, or rather, still inside. So it's true that Bruce Banner becomes Hulk, but is he becoming? On the other hand, is the Hulk becoming as well? Or is that relegated only to the human side of the monster, the part we can more easily relate to? In chapter 10 of A Thousand Plateaus, fittingly named Becoming-Intense, Becoming-Animal, Becoming-Imperceptible, the duo briefly discuss the movie the 1971 movie Willard, featuring an outcast who relates more to the rats that he raises than humans. His attempts to reenter humanity are foiled, and he is punished for ever thinking of "betraying" the rat pack. As D&G state, "It is all there: there is a becoming-animal not content to proceed by resemblance and for which resemblance, on the contrary, would represent an obstacle or stoppage," (Deleuze and Guattari, 233). Becoming-animal in this case is becoming and also detaching from a singular identity and worldview. Yes, there is an expansion of your horizons and possible ability, but it is so distraught, so erratic, and so unnatural that it can become a handicap. Thus, "becoming" is notable and significant, in that to become is to eventually have to overcome, try to return to the normal world from your hero's journey. Rats, in a more causal, conversationalist sense, are oftentimes synonymous with vermin, despite the fact the word vermin can refer to any kind of unwanted, gross animal. This is also why Kafka's The Metamorphosis is actually very vague on exactly what Gregor Samsa actually turns into. A "rat" is also contextual, and can even refer to a traitor, betrayal, someone who serves to spill sensitive information to a third party. Added with the deadly history that are associated with rats as vectors of disease or as a status of urban filth, and there is no surprising reason as to why rats are hated, ostracized. As such, there is no reason as to why a similarly ostracized person couldn't feel some sort of relation to rats. Is a rat a monster? There is no good answer to that question, other than "it depends on who you're with." There are many other questions out there that have the same answer. We also tend to think of ourselves in a weird way. Particularly, we think of ourselves as apart from animal. This is purely, scientifically untrue, we are as animal as those we study and keep as pets, and sometimes that can be extremely apparent. You probably have an idea of an animalistic person, and that was because it was notable, it was shocking and different. This is not a coincidence. While on the topic of Willard, the novelization of the 2003 movie The Hulk by Peter David contains a scene of a S.W.A.T. team raiding David Banner's home, encountering and killing a gamma-irradiated rat that they mistook for a small child. A nervous conversation ensues in the aftermath where two officers disagree on whether Willard or Ben was the rat in "that old movie." D&G don't just talk about Willard however, another small topic that is pertinent to our purposes is the concept of the orchid and the wasp, which is briefly touched upon in the introduction of A Thousand Plateaus. Here, this passage rings surprisingly close to the ethos of the Hulk: "Wasp and orchid, as heterogeneous elements, form a rhizome. It could be said that the orchid imitates the wasp, reproducing its image in a signifying fashion... At the same time, something else entirely is going on: not imitation at all but a capture of code, surplus value of code, an increase in valence, a veritable becoming, a becoming-wasp of the orchid and a becoming-orchid of the wasp," (Deleuze and Guattari, 10). It isn't immediately apparent, but this is the character of the Hulk. The two souls are in processes of becoming; specifically they are becoming each other. The Hulk is becoming-human as much as Bruce is becoming-monster, in that Bruce's perception of the Hulk is mainly of loss, loss of control leading into loss of humanity. At the meantime, the Hulk's startling display of humanity is shocking even to him, sharing the same distain for Banner, the "weak" part of himself that Banner shares for the Hulk. The Hulk is not merely a hulking monster, but instead more like a 9 foot articulate toddler throwing a temper tantrum, just instead of throwing food around, it's buildings. Across the comic books that the character has appeared in, as well its adaptations, the Hulk has displayed a wide variety of emotions aside from anger, in fact, many storylines have gone on to purposely humanize the Hulk, even merging the Banner and Hulk persona's together into a archetypal edgy nineties' anti-hero. Ang Lee's divisive adaptation in 2003 was notable for having the Hulk stare blankly into nature even. That movie was also notable for partly introducing the idea of the Hulk physically grows as he grows angrier and stronger; in that movie, the Hulk is literally in a process of becoming as long as he is the Hulk. The arrival and becoming of the Banner-Hulk assemblage also causes a deterritorialization of the environment, community, and state that the creature resides in; the archetypal "city" that the monster is unleashed in causes a process of becoming in the city, its residents, its authority figures, and its forces. The city becomes-anxiety, becomes-vengeful, becomes-violence; my mind goes to the first climax of the 2003 movie where the SFPD, SFPD S.W.A.T. teams, and the California National Guard arrive to attempt to apprehend a bewildered and static Hulk, doing nothing to threaten or attack its people. In the eyes of D&G, becoming is an infinitive process, reflecting the infinitive quality of the rhizome, specifically its movement. The rhizome grows in time as much as it does in space, it moves and grows in ways that are sometimes hard to explain, connect nodes that you would not immediately think to connect. A population is not unlike a rhizome, neither is a city, neither is a person really. The characteristic quality of the rhizome is a tendency to bring down, destroy, deterritorialize. And such immense transformations are notable at heart, but they can also be cathartic and liberating. When Bruce Banner transforms into the Hulk, he sometimes notes that he likes it. And nothing is quite as cathartic and liberating as explosive anger can be. Our drive to create is rivaled only by our drive to destroy; and the two processes follow each other into an ouroboros. However that gets harder and harder to do as we enter society and enter towering infrastructures built long before us and will probably last long after us, if stereotypical apocalyptic imagery seems to suggest. Our drive to destroy lessens, and maybe our drive to create follows as well; with this particular lens, the Hulk is nothing if not our collective Id evening the odds. As Godzilla (2014) director Gareth Edwards mentioned while promoting his film: "Our caves have gone from these little huts and caves to 30 story buildings, so our nightmares become 30 stories as well." |
