David Howard
Dr.Husain
ASTU 100
December 12th
“Liking What You See” By Ted Chiang Election Interviews
The “documentary” “Liking What You See” by Ted Chiang is presented as a series of interviews conducted at Pembleton University with students and faculty interested in making calliagnosia mandatory. Calliagnosia is a procedure that takes away one’s ability to perceive beauty (Chiang 297). The movie is an examination of the impacts of beauty, the merits of the procedure and the corruption of the decision making process. While the beautiful go on to lead happy lives, the “un beautiful” are shunned and forever without their soulmate. However in the absence of a perception of beauty, partners are chosen based on substantial qualities, making pairings more stable. This stability leads to cohesion and therefore validates the use of Calliagnosia.
The student’s perception of calli was that it was itself, as well as the fact that it cannot eradicate appearance-based discrimination. It eliminates the innate predilection and the inherent propensity for such discrimination to occur in the first place, which is what it does in a sense when it evens out the odds. If you want to teach others to overlook appearances, you won’t have such a difficult time doing so if you do it this manner. In an ideal scenario, you would begin in a setting in which everyone has embraced calliagnosia, and then you would socialise them to not value appearances. The first interview is with Tamera Lyons, a first year students at the University of Pembleton who vehemently objects to the elimination of calliagnosia. Tamera feels deceived by Pembleton. She chose it because when she was accepted there was no policy against calliagnosia. Her plan was to have the calli turned off when she turned eighteen. The institution should have been upfront about their intention to change their policy. The opposite side of the argument was made in the next interview with Maria, the head of Students in charge of Equality Everywhere (SEE). SEE deems the cosmetically altered version of their peers as a violation of their civil rights. As a part of the committee to amend the code of ethics, she became privy to a new app for “spex,”, a kind of virtual-reality glasses (Lee 37). The implications of their appearances was of great concern. XXXXXXX((Flesh out more of Maria’s point of view
“A lot of people worry that calli might make them asexual or something, but actually physical beauty is only a small part of what makes a person attractive. No matter what a person looks like, it’s much more important how the person acts; what he says and how he says it, his behavior and body language. And how does he react to you? For me, one of the things that attracts me to a guy is if he seems interested inme.” Maria Says. It’s like a feedback loop: you catch him looking at you, he notices you looking at him, and things start to spiral from there. That is not altered by Calli. There’s also the pheromone chemistry to consider; obviously, Calli has no influence on that. Another concern is that Calli will make everyone’s face appear the same, although this is also untrue. A person’s face always displays their personality, and calli only adds to it. You know how they say you’re responsible for your face at a certain age? With Calli, you realise how true that is.
In his interview, Dr. Joseph Weingartner, a neurologist, clearly explains the altered perceptions caused by calliagnosia (Shang 71). Humans recognizes desirable features based on an internal standard. The procedure does not interfere with the individuals’ perception of physical appearance nor fashion trends. But while Calliagnosia does not disrupt “lookism” in society, it helps create a social equilibrium that is not based on superficial differences. In the movie, with her calli turned off, Tamara realises the beautiful girl in the mirror is in fact herself. Before the procedure, she could not have observed any differences (Loudis 31). Later, she tries to reconcile with her ex-boyfriend, Garrett, hoping he too will turn off his calli; but he never does even though he thinks Tamera is attractive when she turns on her Calli. The implication is that calli upholds lasting relationships. The parties in the relationship will never be tempted by outsiders who they might have considered as attractive or alluring. They cannot betray each other.
Calliagnosia Miscommunication
The messiness of the process is another theme of the movie. For example, people for Ethical Nanomedicine (PEN) spread the false message that calli has destroyed students’ self image by disrupting their thought process and is causing self-imposed harm (Chiang 299). In another instance, Maria discovers that PEN’s message is self-serving as its membership includes many from the plastic surgery industry. After implementation of the procedure at the university, the President of the National Calliagnosia Association, along with other anti-calli corporations, bribe students to resist the onslaught triggering the hyperstimulation of their brains. But many students support the initiative. In fact, across the nation, many institutions opt for the procedure. Before the election, PEN’s spokespeople focus their remarks Calli’s inability to fight lookism as it cannot detect bigotry. To counter the beauty bias, students must vigilantly maintain their perceptual faculties. In mass rallies, pro-calli groups called for a rejection of the election results due to a purported breach. The speech succeeded in changing the minds of most students. The election results, contrary to popular opinion, indicated that 64% voted against calli (Chiang 293). Many students, including Tamera, decide to have their calli turned on.
Ultimately, calli reduces ‘lookism biases and discrimination’. It puts people on equal footing, and ensures lasting relationships. The reduction in the ability to perceive beauty enhances societal well-being. Therefore, policies should be set up to uphold cosmetic surgery ensuring that all people are accorded the same opportunities and equal consideration by society.
At one point in the evolutionary process, physical beauty played an important part in the propagation of species. The more beautiful you were, the better your chances of finding a mate. But humanity has evolved beyond this and so beauty has fulfilled its role. In modern society, beauty does more harm than good as it has become is a subtle form of prejudice that does more harm than good.
Works Cited
Chiang, Ted. “Liking what you see: a documentary.” Stories of Your Life and Others (2002): 281-323.
Lee, Christopher. “Enacting Asian Canadian,” Canadian Literature, vol. 199, 2008, pp. 28-44.
Loudis, Jessica. “Science as magic.” TLS. Times Literary Supplement 6073-6074 (2019): 31-32.
Shang, Wanqi. “A Post-Humanist Study of Ted Chiang’s Stories of Your Life and Others.” International Journal of Education and Humanities 3.3 (2022): 66-75.
“Liking What You See: A Documentary.” Enotes.com, Enotes.com, https://www.enotes.com/topics/liking-what-you-see.