Perhaps I Am a Program Watching a Film Starring Androids, Humans & Beautiful Facsimiles
—on watching Blade Runner 2049 for the 4th or 5th time
I will not reveal which scene
sent me to the kitchen, why I found myself
staring from the window above
the sink,
& turning slightly to my right,
with the quirks of a well-trained
actor, or an actual glitching android,
selected the ripe tomato on the
cutting board,
held it up—calculating
weight—felt its texture—guessing what the
skin holds inside.
I inhaled its grassy scent.
Suppose for a moment
media is already more real than the physical data
our senses collect—I mean why else baptize each night
with such religiosity? Repetition. Blue light. Ones
& zeroes.
What would it be to slice the tomato
three hundred sixty times in less than twenty
seconds without cutting yourself? Carve the luscious
fruit into a hyper-
realistic miniature St. Bernard in less
than the twitch of a nervous tick—
an eye bearing the serial number
of your make & model,
your maker.
I wonder if acting techniques are relevant any
longer—Classical, Stanislavski, Method—& where
Ryan Gosling fits into these molds.
Is it acting?
In the kitchen,
I imagined a deleted scene from
Blade Runner 2049. Created separation.
A buffer between the irony & disappointment
intertwined like DNA in the scene which
I will not name.
Imagined a scene
where I become Ryan Gosling slicing a
tomato—
sync with Ryan Gosling
like a pair of headphones
or a wireless speaker.
These android films,
if they’re any good,
are always about the irony.
I painstakingly slice the tomato.
Add it to a boring salad. I realize
this kitchen could be
a simulation.
The idea is as tantalizing as all the cyber punk films,
an off world planet pushing language & boundaries, a futuristic
willingness to look hard or away at what it might mean
to be as decent—more human than human—as
some of these androids.
#BladeRunner2049 #BladeRunner #ryangosling #contemporaryart #contemporarypoetry #poetry #lovelansing #GenX #cyberpunk #philipkdick #doandroidsdreamofelectricsheep #thebladerunnerpoems
Harrison Ford and Ryan Gosling in BLADE RUNNER 2049 (Sony)