Under the Skin Chapter 3
Back pain – sympathy?
P50
“Subsonic” – below sound – why can she hear this?
hum of farm’s activity.
She basks naked in sunlight yet room temperature is zero – frozen glass of water.
“She wasn’t a slave” – suggests she is
p51 Clues about alien – doesn’t recognise Sesame Street Muppets
Needs to exercise to avoid pain
“She didn’t regret what she had done” – she has made a decision
p52 Map of farm?
P54 Esswis introduced
Has been through what she has but they avoid each other- compromised their principles?
“Shared suffering, she’d found, was no guarantee of intimacy”
Esswis considered to be Scandinavian incomer. Initially hated for outbidding locals.
-Satirising attitude of Highlanders to incomers – M Faber Dutch, grew up in Australia and
lives in Highlands.
Complaints – let farm fall into disrepair but sorts out any problems quickly and avoids paper
work.
Keeps walkers off land with barbed wire.
Never at social gatherings
Cancer/wooden leg
“The highlands were not a public park”
Accepts straw/surplus in lieu of rent
Parody of attitude – dislike incomers but reliant on money and people in area.
P56 “edibly pure” – snow / childlike sense of wonder
“shanks of voddissin in serslida sauce”
p57 Amlis Vess coming to Ablach farm – the boss’ son
p59 Plastic figurine – symbolises what happens to Isserley’s victims
p60 “strange how a specimen like him, well cared for, healthy, free to roam the world,
and blessed with a perfection of form which would surely have allowed him to breed
with a greater selection of females than average, could still be so miserable. By contrast,
other males, scarred by neglect, riddled with diseases, spurned by their kind, were
occasionally known to radiate a contentment that seemed to arise from something more
enigmatic than mere stupidity”
The human condition – represented by the German.
- never satisfied – always aspiring for more.
Isserley shows herself to be philosophical. Patronising about the human race as a species but
observing behaviour in a detached, scientific way.
Dehumanising
Remember she attempts to communicate with sheep and finds them closer, physically to her
kind. p63
p61”her colleagues on the farm lacked a spiritual side” - condescending
“trillions of litres of water surged” word choice suggests water is a precious commodity.
Thinking in terms of litres is unusual.
P62 “An infinitely complex display” –intelligence, likes order, scientific
“She was taking a risk in baring her feet to the world” – inhuman
also parody of the pain women put themselves through to wear high heels. She suffers in
modified shoes.
“She was doing a job no one else could do, and coming up with the goods year after
year. Amlis Vess, if he had the audacity to find fault with her, would do well to
remember that”
Been there some time.
Indispensable?
Expects criticism from Amlis Vess.
Despite being an alien harvesting humans, she is still worried about her boss – satire
P64 “New Estates” – warning – why she has chosen this job.
“A very small personal sacrifice, really, if it avoided a life time buried in the Estates”
Is this a small sacrifice – revisit later.
Buried – underground
Her appreciation of air, water and landscape all the more poignant.
“what had been done to her once-beautiful body in order for her to be sent here,”
Satire – body image / cosmetic surgery
Also criticism of society (purpose of Science Fiction)– a creature is prepared to undergo
horrific surgery to fit in on this planet and would rather isolate herself here than stay with her
own kind on the Estates. Recognition of the beauty of this planet and the resources we take
for granted. All this juxtaposed to the contemplation of the German Hitchhiker who was
clever, handsome yet dissatisfied with life. Heavily ironic.
“Decay and disfigurement were obviously par for the course down there. Maybe it was
the over crowding, or the bad food or the bad air or the lack of medical care, or just the
inevitable result of living underground. But there was an unmistakable ugliness about
Estate trash, an almost subhuman taint.”
Class division – sub class of poor people
Transformed into beast by lifestyle.
HG Wells The Time Machine
The Morlocks – look after the Eloii
Morlocks are ugly and brutal and live below ground. The Eloii are sweet and gentle but can
do nothing for themselves. Morlocks provide everything for them – food, air, clothes but also
harvest them for food.
“moisture filtration plant”
‘oxygen factory”
“toiling in filth like a maggot”
“And all she had to do in return, when it came right down to essentials, was walk on two
legs”
p66 Seaweed resembles skeletons – reminder -death camps
Word choice and symbolism all suggest neglect violence
“jagged shard”
“filthy frosted glass”
“bonfire had died”
p67 Isserley doesn’t use the toilet
“Real Life wasn’t at all like the smooth images celebrated by magazines and television”
Same concerns as us?
Satire – her purpose is to find specimens suitable for food. Human beings/ Vodsels become a
mere link in the food chain. Reduced to a product.
“Ahl” language
Activity Watch Animal Aid video clip
This is gruesome so please don’t watch if it is likely to upset you. This gives you an idea how
some workers treat animals they are slaughtering for food. There are many other videos
about the treatment of animals on this site.
http://www.animalaid.org.uk/h/n/CAMPAIGNS/slaughter/ALL///
How would Isserley feel watching this – what would this make her think of humans?