Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Hiding behing the Mask of Punishment

When reading Michel Foucault’s Disciple and Punish this idea of always being watched as a form of punishment made me think of the film V for Vendetta when the whole city of London is constantly being monitored and given strict rules that they must follow. In this film ordinary life becomes a prison. They do not know when or if they are being watched at that very moment, but they fear being seen or noticed by officials the most. So instead of having a prison in this case they are already punished by being monitored by their every move. The authority figures are not officers in uniforms, so anyone you do not know could be part of the police. Therefore you never know who is watching you. There is surveillance all over the city as well, so if they want to find you they have the power to. The only way for V to hide is under a mask, so that even if he is seen no one will know who he is.



For me this film shows how restricting and cruel it can be just to know you are being watched. This form of punishment in prisons would probably prove to me very effective.

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