{"id":9,"date":"2019-04-29T17:06:10","date_gmt":"2019-04-29T21:06:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/wmst240-19\/?page_id=9"},"modified":"2019-05-03T22:31:39","modified_gmt":"2019-05-04T02:31:39","slug":"the-classroom-the-theory-behind-the-project","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/wmst240-19\/the-classroom-the-theory-behind-the-project\/","title":{"rendered":"The Classroom: The Theory Behind the Project"},"content":{"rendered":"

So what is queer theory anyway?<\/h1>\n

<\/p>\n

As I’ve touched on before, The Good Place\u00a0<\/em>isn’t just queer for its representation of individuals, but rather how closely it aligns with queer theory \u00a0and\u00a0queer experiences and ways of being in the world. \u00a0While some might consider this offensive and an erasure of the struggles of marginality, I view this as radical inclusivity as a step towards socialism. \u00a0In particular, I use Jack Halberstam as the primary theoretician to evaluate the series and point out the ways in which The Good Place\u00a0<\/em>embraces queer experiences and values.<\/p>\n

Now, this might all sound very confusing or counter-intuitive but just stick with me. \u00a0I know learning the theory behind this project isn’t as fun as watching TV clips, but hey, at least I’m not trying to teach you moral philosophy, right?<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Anyway, the theories I will be using primarily come from\u00a0The Queer Art of Failure <\/em>(2011) and In a Queer Time and Place: Transgender Bodies, Subcultural Lives\u00a0<\/em>(2005), both by Jack (Judith) Halberstam.<\/p>\n

In The Queer Art of Failure<\/em>, Halberstam defines a new genre of film called Pixarvolt which uses CGI animation to pit \u201ctwo groups against each other in settings that closely resemble what used to be called \u2018class struggle,\u2019 and\u2026offer numerous scenarios of revolt and alternatives to the grim, mechanical, industrial cycles of production and consumption.\u201d[1]<\/a>\u00a0 The Good Place<\/em>, although not an animated children\u2019s film, uses a similar mode of revolt against the Bad Place throughout the show.\u00a0 As Halberstam explains,<\/p>\n

“the Pixarvolt films often proceed by way of fairly conventional narratives about individual\u00a0struggle against the automated process of innovation, and they often pit an individual, independent, and original character against the conformist sensibilities of the masses.\u00a0 But this summary is somewhat misleading, because more often than not the individual character actually serves as a gateway to intricate stories of collective action, anticapitalistic critique, group bonding, and alternative imaginings of community, space, embodiment, and responsibility.\u00a0 Often the animal or creatures that\u00a0<\/span>stands apart from the community is not a heroic individual, but a symbol of selfishness who must be taught how to think collectively.\u201d[2]<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The Good Place is the innovation in the show\u2014a new, more effective method to torture humans.\u00a0 The four humans struggle individually as they are tortured by the devils and by each other.\u00a0The main character in season one, Eleanor Shellstrop, is the non-conformist since she believes she is the only one who doesn\u2019t belong in the Good Place, therefore pitting her against the masses.\u00a0 However, Eleanor also \u201cserves as a gateway to intricate stories of collective action\u201d when she asks Chidi for help and invites others to join their ethics study group.[3]<\/a>\u00a0The Bad Place (or the experiment of \u201cthe Good Place\u201d) is a metaphor for capitalism where the goal is to create the most tortured human beings while the devils have the most fun, or in capitalist terms \u201cmaximize utility\u201d for the devils.\u00a0By trying to escape the Bad Place, the four humans plus Michael and Janet are trying to escape capitalism for the utopia of the true \u201cGood Place.\u201d\u00a0 The group bonds over their shared circumstances of struggle and resistance, especially in season two when Michael explains he has been torturing humans for over 1000 years but needs their help in order not to be \u201cretired,\u201d or killed.\u00a0They could choose not to help him, but instead, do so hoping that they will make it to the real Good Place in return.\u00a0The characters then imagine a new space together where they can live their best lives as the best versions of themselves\u2014essentially a queer socialist utopia.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The selfish individual that stands apart is Eleanor.\u00a0 While portrayed as the main heroine, she is also constantly causing hardship for the rest of the group through her individualism and narcissism.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Okay, so that kinda covers the basics with\u00a0The Queer Art of Failure<\/em>, what’s next?<\/span><\/p>\n

Well, let’s get into an explanation of time and space of course!<\/p>\n

Let’s look at some of Halberstam’s definitions:<\/p>\n

Queer: \u201cNonnormative logics and organizations of community, sexual identity, embodiment, and activity in space and time\u201d[4]<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Postmodernism: \u201cIn relation to new forms of cultural production that emerge both in sync with and running counter to what Jameson has called the \u2018logic\u2019 of late capitalism. \u00a0Simultaneously a crisis and an opportunity – a crisis in the stability of form and meaning, and an opportunity to rethink the practice of cultural production, its hierarchies and power dynamics, its tendency to resist or capitulate.\u201d\u00a0[5]<\/span><\/p>\n

Queer Time: \u201cSpecific models of temporality that emerge within postmodernism once one leaves the temporal frames of bourgeois reproduction and family, longevity, risk\/safety, and inheritance\u201d\u00a0[6]<\/span><\/p>\n

Queer Space: \u201cPlace-making practices within postmodernism in which queer people engage and it also describes the new understandings of space enabled by the production of queer counterpublics\u201d [7]<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Okay, so what do those actually mean?<\/span><\/p>\n

Queer: Halberstam is referring to alternative and nonheteronormative\/respectable creations of family (often without marriage, children, or blood relations), identity, and uses of time and space.<\/span><\/p>\n

Postmodernism: According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, Postmodernism is \u201c<\/span>a late 20th-century movement characterized by broad <\/span>skepticism<\/span>, subjectivism, or relativism; a general suspicion of <\/span>reason<\/span>; and an <\/span>acute<\/span> sensitivity to the role of <\/span>ideology<\/span> in asserting and maintaining political and economic power.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0[8] \u00a0They go on to explain that the theory rejects the idea that \u201c<\/span>There is an objective natural reality, a reality whose existence and properties are logically independent of human beings\u2014of their minds, their societies, their social practices, or their investigative techniques. Postmodernists dismiss this idea as a kind of naive <\/span>realism<\/span>. Such reality as there is, according to postmodernists, is a <\/span>conceptual<\/span> construct, an <\/span>artifact<\/span> of scientific practice and <\/span>language<\/span>.<\/span>\u201d [9] \u00a0When used in queer theory, Postmodernism can be used to explain that white, bourgeoisie, cisgender, heteronormative culture is not, in fact, natural, but rather a construction designed to help maintain class differences and social hierarchies.<\/span><\/p>\n

Queer Time: Queer time is a disruption of what some consider the \u201creality\u201d of time for alternative modes. \u00a0For example, time can take on a different meaning and feeling when on drugs. But not only is the experience when on drugs different, the respectability of and value for \u201cadulthood\u201d and longevity are brought into question. \u00a0This disrupts bourgeoisie expectation of and desire for a theoretical endless future.<\/span><\/p>\n

Queer Space: This too challenges respectability. \u00a0For example, Halberstam talks about triple X theaters in downtown New York City. \u00a0By abandoning the concept of public versus private by creating a place for public sex, a queer place is created with cross-class interactions. \u00a0Other examples of queer placemaking include kiss-ins held at malls with queer couples which challenge again the assumed heteronormativity of a location and the idea of public\/private and respectability.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

So what do these concepts have to do with\u00a0The Good Place<\/em>? \u00a0Because it takes place in the afterlife, many of the concerns of hetero time don’t exist and the characters inhabit queer time. \u00a0There is no future or longevity or the possibility of children. \u00a0In addition, the humans are constantly getting their\u00a0memories erased and starting again. \u00a0Because of this, they have no future or past because they are continually reliving the same time. \u00a0Instead, their present becomes their reality as they try over and over again to improve themselves. \u00a0Within this pattern, a cyclical time frame emerges rather than linear, or in the spirit of the show a “jeremy bearimy” timeline, where things loop around, cross over, and repeat.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

A more concrete example is Eleanor and Chidi being rebooted. \u00a0In doing so, they disrupt cause and effect temporality. \u00a0They stop the accumulation of the past into the present by restarting and offering a radical reimagining of the future. \u00a0This is because every time they are rebooted, they are freed from traumas and relationships of the past. \u00a0What this allows is multiple different timelines in which they can recreate their relationship in different ways. \u00a0For instance, in some of the reboots they fall in love, but in others, they are friends, or even just teacher and student. \u00a0In season 2, when Eleanor discovers that in a previous reboot they were in love, she jokes around that perhaps they should be rebooted so that she can forget about it since Chidi does not love her in this reboot. \u00a0In fact, at the end of season 3, Chidi is rebooted on his own so that he can interact with his ex-girlfriend without their relationship interfering with the present. \u00a0Therefore, cause and effect is replaced with an endless opportunity for reinvention and exploration.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

One problem with the reboots is that they don’t allow the humans (or Janet) to learn from the past. \u00a0This is a problem in queer culture as well, due to erasure of queer history and the very real loss of an entire generation of elders due to the AIDS crisis. \u00a0Because of this, new generations of queer individuals cannot learn from the mistakes of previous generations. \u00a0In the context of the show, the humans repeatedly make the same mistakes and have to figure out again and again that they are actually in the bad place, making their journey to the actual good place difficult.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Ultimately, though, having multiple timelines (or another way to see it is chances) allows the characters to explore themselves more fully and broadly, giving way to a fluidity that is not often seen in television. \u00a0This includes sexual fluidity. \u00a0For example, watch this scene:<\/p>\n