What is consciousness? Craig's idea of it is akin to Descartes' idea of the res cogitans; Craig defines it as thinking, feeling, and suffering (presumably among other things), while Descartes defines the res cogitans as something "that doubts, understands, affirms, denies, wants, refuses, and also imagines and senses."2 And even if the connections between the body and consciousness are broken or reconfigured, the consciousness still exists and does its consciousness stuff. For instance, in Being John Malkovich, once Craig takes over John Malkovich's body, Malkovich's consciousness is repressed but still active and aware, as evidenced by the scene near the end in which he is briefly free of any consciousnesses but his own; the fact that he is so grateful for this freedom suggests that he is painfully aware of what Craig has done to and with his body.
This brings me to my next point. Craig may think that he hates consciousness, but he is deceiving himself. What he really hates are his apparent lack of control and the fact that life is often less than pleasant; he seeks happiness not through lessening his consciousness--the "curse"--but through increasing his control and quality of life. Instead of drinking himself into oblivion or committing suicide, Craig gets a job, chases after a fascinating co-worker, and takes over someone else's life--some highly consciousness-affirming activities, insofar as they arise from his impulses, desires, and ambitions. This seemingly hypocritical consciousness-pampering arises from the often extreme nature of the human condition: when someone is unhappy, life is horrible and she wants to die now; when she is happy, life is wonderful and she wants to live forever. Likewise, when Craig is unhappy, consciousness is a curse because it forces him to know suffering; when he is happy, consciousness is a boon because it lets him know pleasure. And much of that pleasure he derives from control.
Control is a persistent theme in Being John Malkovich. It is not insignificant that Craig's passion is puppetry; in fact, at one point, he is controlling Malkovich, who is controlling a Craig puppet, which is controlling another puppet.3 While many of the characters are both puppets and puppeteers at various times throughout the film, it is Craig who is so obsessed with gaining control--and a petty sort of revenge--that he locks Lotte in a cage and forces her at gunpoint to arrange rendezvous between Maxine and a Craig-infested Malkovich. And once he discovers the secret to completely controlling Malkovich, he is drunk with power and the realization that he never has to be unknown, unsuccessful Craig Schwartz again. Although he relinquishes control of Malkovich and all that comes with it to save Maxine (or so he thinks), ultimately he is a man who cannot stomach defeat, and so he charges back through Malkovich's portal to regain Maxine's dubious love. Unfortunately, the portal leaves him trapped in the mind of the unborn Emily as a permanent spectator, now unable to control even his own fate--the absolute worst-case scenario, according to Dr. Lester. Like Malkovich, Craig is completely and painfully aware of everything happening around him, for his consciousness has survived intact, but unlike Malkovich in the early stages of possession, Craig cannot express any part of his consciousness outside of himself, nor will he ever again know freedom. Instead, he is doomed until his dying day to be merely a minor anomaly in Emily's subconscious. Surely existence as Craig Schwartz, the obscure puppeteer, could not have been that bad.
Craig Schwartz, a nobody, calls consciousness a curse, but he is mistaken: consciousness in and of itself is neither categorically good nor categorically bad; it simply exists and requires a life to color it. In his obsessive quest for fame, Maxine, and more control, Craig loses sight of all else and experiences the extremes of consciousness' pain and glory, only to find himself faced with the true curse of consciousness: a complete consciousness that lacks expression or control. It is only then that he truly becomes a nobody, and this time without a chance for redemption, and all because human puppets are more intriguing than wooden ones.
October '02
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