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Underground > Books, Criticism & Writing >

Books About Body Modification

22:03 / 08.09.05

I am taking a literature class right now that concerns issues of collecting and collectors, both in real life and literature. We eventually have to write a critical paper of some length, and I have been thinking that I would like to focus on body modification and try to connect or at least compare that to some of the same dynamics of collection.

So I was wondering if anyone could recommend any books regarding body modification. I would love to hear about texts of a critical or personal nature, but what I am really looking for are novels or stories that feature body modification as a central theme, as I would like to use a work of literature as the central theme of the essay. But like I said, anything is helpful.

I figure this board is the place to ask, if anywhere is. Thanks a lot!

23:46 / 08.09.05

I would search out "The Modern Primitive" that was on Research press, now remodelled as V Vale Press. There are tons of books for the new flesh crowd. I would search out "Psychocybernetics" a book by Maxwell Maltz who was a leading Plastic Surgeon that dealt with Bodilly Dysmorphia and Self-Image Problems. Bioaestheticism I would call it. Goto a tatoo parlour or a Body Piercer's.

08:15 / 09.09.05

have just wandered over to bookshelf, and though these aren't fiction they may be useful as background theory; Alternative Femininities: Body, Age and Identity, Samantha Holland, 2004, who looks at relationship between body modifications (tattoos and piercing), femininity and ageing. Also Women's Bodies, Women's Lives, edited by Miedema, Stoppard and Anderson, 2000, has one paper on fascial cosmetic surgery, one on liposuction and is a generally good collection of essays on gender/embodiement. Two books I haven't looked at yet but sound relevant are Body Modification by Mike Featherstone (ed) from the Theory, Culture and Society series and In the Flesh: The Cultural Politics of Body Modification by Victoria Pitts. Good luck with project, and if you do find any fiction or good theory let us know!!

13:50 / 09.09.05

If you go to the shop section on BMEZINE.com, there might be some books of interest to you there. Good luck!

16:40 / 09.09.05

Seven Tattoos: A Memoir In The Flesh, by Peter Trachtenberg, may be just what you're looking for. It's an autobiographical novel, with tattoos and the body-mod culture as one of the main themes; it follows the author as he collects seven tattoos - some of them from very prominent artists - and details the symbolism, life-events, travels, and choices that lead him to acquire each piece. Well-written and entertaining, if perhaps a tad narcissistic, but most autobiographies are, aren't they?

04:41 / 18.09.05

Body, the second volume in the nine-volume design omnibus Symbol Soup is dedicated to analysing the ever-increasing elidation between body, art and advertising.

19:53 / 19.09.05

What level of modification are you looking for? If you want to go beyond piercings and tattoos then you could take a look at Man Plus by Frederick Pohl.

The novel follows someone being turned into a cyborg capable of surviving on Mars. There's a huge focus on how this affects him on a personal level - his feeling of humanity, his relationship with his wife, etc.

rising and revolving

00:13 / 21.09.05

Skin, by Kathe Koja is great. Out of print, but you might be able to find it online or via library. It's a dash purple, and may have dated badly, but it's basically body mod meets Survival Research Laboratory (the version in the book is Surgeons of Demolition, but it's SRL in all but name) scene-porn.

Was nifty when I read it, though.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

20:21 / 21.09.05

I'd second the Koja recommendation.

20:51 / 21.09.05

Thanks for all of your help, guys. I actually am interested in more speculative approaches towards body modification...if anybody knows of any cyberpunk or any other sci fi (or anything else) that addresses body augmentation through, say, technology, I would be interested to hear about it. I was thinking about using Bruce Sterling's spex stories from _A Good Old Fashioned Future_ as a source as well. Again, thanks for all of the terrific recommendations!

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

08:36 / 22.09.05

In which case I'd also suggest Alfred Bester's Tiger Tiger (or The Stars My Destination, as it was also known). In fact, I'd recommend it anyway. To anyone.

Less searchable M0rd4nt

14:27 / 22.09.05

In that case you might take a look at Richard Morgan's work (Altered Carbon, Broken Angels, Woken Furies), which contains lots of bod-mod, augmentation for cosmetic, combat or other purposes and body-swapping.

03:01 / 25.09.05

reccomending sf-horror melodrama ANTIBODIES by David J. Skal.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

08:10 / 25.09.05

And China Mieville's Bas-Lag stuff- some of the stuff in there with the Remade (especially in The Scar) is quite extraordinary.

21:13 / 26.09.05

This might be exactly what you want, or it might be too out-there, but Greg Bear's Blood Music (started as a short story, grew into a novel) is about a guy who creates intelligent micro-organisms, then, when his project is threatened, injects them into his own body.
Act 2: They begin re-engineering his body on the cellular level. He becomes a colony organism, with one mind... sort of.
Act 3: They're contagious.

It's not explicitly about, like, piercings or cybernetic limbs (Google Stelarc for real-life stuff on that), but it does have a generally trans-human view of the body and of the strange ways technology can influence our evolution.

14:49 / 30.09.05

another theory title for you:

Thinking Through the Skin (Transformations S.)
Sara Ahmed (Editor), Jackie Stacey (Editor)

This exciting collection of work from leading feminist scholars including Elspeth Probyn, Penelope Deutscher and Chantal Nadeau engages with and extends the growing feminist literature on lived and imagined embodiment and argues for consideration of the skin as a site where bodies take form - already written upon but open to endless re-inscription. Individual chapters consider such issues as the significance of piercing, tattooing and tanning, the assault of self harm upon the skin, the relation between body painting and the land among the indigenous people of Australia and the cultural economy of fur in Canada. Pierced, mutilated and marked, mortified and glorified, scarred by disease and stretched and enveloping the skin of another in pregnancy, skin is seen here as both a boundary and a point of connection - the place where one touched and is touched by others, both the most private of experiences and the most public marker of a raced, sexed and national history

06:21 / 03.10.05

In terms of body modification/augmentation from a Cyberpunk perspective, I'd guess that many of Gibson's descriptions of Molly in Neuromancer are fairly formative for the genre. She's had a whole lot of work done, most of which is integral to her function - razorblades under her fingernails, permanent mirrorshades with computer displays in them, etcetera.

08:37 / 07.10.05

Blood by Michael Moorcock. Seem to remember one of the central characters goes through a process of progressive body modification.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

11:02 / 07.10.05

Having already mentioned Mieville's Bas-Lag series (featuring the Remade) I've just read his short story "Jack" (which is in "Looking For Jake")- tis all about the Remaking.