It would be a dramatic understatement to suggest that The Filth is more than a little self-conscious, for it is the epitome of a body in conflict with itself. It is reminiscent of The Man with the Movie Camera, in that it works creatively to draw attention to the very act of creating the text. Moreover, its authors work critically in a way that other authors seem reluctant to consider. They bring into question the text’s very abilities as medium, by means of this self-consciousness.
What I am referring to as the “self-consciousness” of the text, becomes most explicit by means of two focal points:
First, there is a strange moment in The Filth that is incredibly disruptive to the reader. In one very provocative scene, a superhero is murdered by two figures dressed entirely in black. As these figures flee a veritable superhero posse, another hero spontaneously combusts. At this point, the figures dressed in black emerge from the comic strip in which they were originally featured. The text produces this effect by positioning the former comic strip at a new and strange angle to the page. There exists, in place of the comic strip’s initial positioning, an abundance of blue absent space, that the reader is encouraged to perceive as the blank page of an empty book. Here, the black figures are featured flying across this “blank” space. The book disrupts the comic strip momentarily, and the reader is reminded of the very act of reading, as well as the creative process. Interestingly, the characters never really leave the comic book. They are subsumed by another comic strip, on the next page. Perhaps, this suggests feelings of being trapped within the medium, although I am reluctant to argue that this is denigrating.
Another point of particular interest is the means by which the “Hand,” a crime clean-up unit, proceeds. A subset of the group is concerned with the re-writing of comic book scenes. Here, the text explicitly addresses the act of creating a comic strip. The characters are no longer just interacting with other characters within the confines of the text. The events of the text are determined by another group of characters that possess the power of rewriting integral scenes. They are in possession of a series of giant pens and special ink. Here, the writing implements and the re-writing of scenes exist as a notable reference to the act of designing the book.
Something very similar is suggested in Rotman’s text when he acknowledges that he is still using the alphabet as a medium. Rotman seems to acknowledge certain inadequacies as he argues that an imageology or gesture-haptic system will emerge.
There seem to be several benefits to creating an explicitly self-conscious text. First, it is suggestively disruptive. The seam of this disruption is an interesting site for the reader to consider the very act of reading. Second, and more importantly, the text explores its own means of production; the informational system by which the text operates.
