| Abstrakt: |
In Isaac Asimov's short story "Ugly Little Boy" (1958), an ambitious scientist imports from the past a Neanderthal boy who is viewed as physically repellant. Initially, Dr. Hoskins values Timmie and markets the success of his timetransgressing experiment. Timmie is exhibited as a "freak" on television; his body is subject to extensive and excruciating tests. When a more profitable specimen can be re-animated from the more recent past, Timmie is expendable. Timmie is the ultimate alien, in body, behavior, and origin. He is thus triply marked under Erving Goffman's Theory of Stigma. What can we learn from this cultural representation of a Neanderthal? This essay uses Asimov's story as a springboard to consider the exploitation of the Other. (i) Historically, individuals with anomalous bodies have been exhibited and exploited as "freaks." In Rosemary Garland Thomson's terminology, "normates" constructed a paradigm that allowed them to feel superior and exercise a domination over individuals with "extraordinary bodies." Today, stigma and discrimination continue; television and other media have replaced the circus tent as the site of the modern "freak show." (ii) As a powerless Other, Timmie cannot resist Dr. Hoskins's abusive battery of tests. Throughout history, test subjects have been drawn from among the poor, prisoners, or despised minorities. (iii) As an alien, Timmie has been imported into the modern world from a time and place so distant that it is unrelatable. Like a migrant worker, Timmie is an outcast who is discarded when his labor is no longer valued. (iv) In contrast, Timmie's nurse provides a nurturing care that resists, albeit unsuccessfully, his commercial exploitation. The nurse's care practice provides an alternative approach to dealing with a strange, vulnerable, and alien individual. "Ugly Little Boy" thus invites consideration of the moral philosophy now known as Care Ethics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
