Posthumanism in John Carpenter's The Thing

Society has always held a curiosity for the non-conformal body, the deviant, the abomination, and the monster. From Beowulf's Grendel, the Victorian sideshow freak and Victor Frankenstein's laboratory creation, and through to the modern cinematic creations such as Giger's Alien, the posthuman has both fascinated and appalled. In some cases, such as with Mary Shelley's unfortunate beast, the monster has garnered pity; a misunderstood misfit that is sympathised more than it is feared. The posthuman "Other" is always identifiable, if not always associable.

Posthumanism is a critical theory that realises mankind's fallibility, vulnerability, and inconsequence within the universe. For the last century science fiction, through literature and cinema, has analysed the human, and exactly what defines the human, physically and psychologically, perhaps further than any other popular media. And the alien, more specifically the extra-terrestrial, presents us with a being that often rivals humanity in terms of intelligence and wisdom, and at other times cruelty and ignorance, but importantly, is always differs from us in appearance.

The extra terrestrial creature in John Carpenter's The Thing reminds us of our inferiority; genetically it is the superior life form. The Thing is an unusual creation, in that it is immediately identifiable, as is any effective cinematic creature design, despite having no secure form or consistent features. Instead, the sexless, faceless alien mimics its victims, which it must first consume, often merging several of these assimilated forms into grotesque, ever shifting amalgams that are only in part identifiable as human, a common trait of the postmodern subject. There is never genuine explanation as to why the creature must consume that which it mimics, though this could be considered essential to the plot; the Thing kills not because it is evil, but purely for self preservation, an important factor that separates the creature from our sentient values; Carpenter never reveals the Thing's motives, or exactly how intelligent it is.

In Carpenter's movie, the human body, mind and body, is viewed as little more than disposable flesh; though the alien mimics the form of those it has assimilated, its victims are inconsequential once gone. The mutation of the character's identities produces images hideous and shocking, but never less than magnificent; despite its alien design, the Thing demands a certain level of respect. It is the efficient hunter, one step above man on the evolutional ladder, never conforming to one analytical or interpretational state, a unified mind even in coexistent bodies. The non-identifiable Thing, far removed from the more traditional, sympathetic monster such as Dracula or Frankenstein's creation, is terrifying because it is simply the better beast, and not unlike the virus it is a form without our limitations that will continue to adapt and consume until it is the planet's dominant organism. To the Thing we are the threat, we are the alien. The film's downbeat ending, with MacReady and Childs unsure whether the creature has been destroyed or is in fact one of them, suggests that man has met his match.