"Is Any Body Home?"; Vision

Vivian Sobchack provided a provocative article that expanded my thought process regarding exile from the body. I was initially intrigued by the concept of the body being home, house and prison all at once. To differentiate between the "home" and "house" aspects of the body was unique and made sense to me. I liked how Sobchack described the body as a "house": "the place in which we live in a variable relationship of hermeneutic objectification, that we decorate and display for the edification of both ourselves and others, that confounds us with problems and expense but allows us still a certain familiarity..." (47). I found this to be a very apt analogy. As the text evolved in its complexity, the different narratives that Sobchack provided gave a more grounded foundation for the theories she espouses, much as the physical body does for one's self. Sobchack writes that "The neurological loss of proprioception is not equivalent to the surgical loss of a leg, and neither can be equated to the social loss of the very substance of personhood that is a consequence of racism," (50). I would expect the comparison of neurological and surgical loss of proprioception to be complex enough of a study; to add the social aspect of themes such as racism was a brilliant addition to me. The account of the Million Man March, particularly the inclusion of Zook's description of Stevie Wonder and his feelings was very telling, and provided a new perspective of the "lived body" for me. This tied in beautifully with the concept of placing ourselves before our images and later, within them. I just felt that it was a very powerful and appropriate example to use. I also found it astounding that Sobchack herself was able to write about her leg amputation in such scholarly terms, and provide a telling account of "feeling (her) body image," (59). One of her closing thoughts, "we must remember in our seeing that we transcend and subtend the images we produce and allow ourselves to be produced by," (60) gave me greater insight into the notion of vision and how it plays into the theme of bodily exile.