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A review by jamrock
Ink by Sabrina Vourvoulias
5.0
On dehumanisation in ‘Ink’, by Sabrina Vourvoulias
This post briefly summarises and discusses themes in the novel, Ink, by Sabrina Vourvoulias. The 2012 novel was provided as a set text during the Posthumanism module of my Cultural and Critical Studies (MA) degree. For that reason this post is ‘part mini-review’ and part discussion on how the novel provides a way to explore ideas related to posthumanism; specifically for this text, the concept of dehumanisation.
Vourvoulias’ ancestry is fascinating in its own right and explains much of the passion with which she writes on certain topics, specifically immigration and South American mythology. Vourvoulias’ father was American, born in Chicago to Greek immigrant parents, but raised in Latin America. Vourvoulias’ mother was born and raised in Mexico, then Guatemala, becoming a U.S. citizen two years before her death. This short bio could be described as the backstory, almost the plot, of Ink.
The genre of the book I would describe as supernatural (as in magical realism) dystopian fiction. I can’t decide if I agree with describing this as dystopian. Reading it in 2023, many of the issues dealt with in the text feel hyperreal and current or historically true. The book relates a story in a world where immigrants in the United States have been marked indelibly with biometric tattoos. These immigrants, mostly from South America, are given colour coded tattoos which signify their origin and status. These people are referred to as “inks”. Anti-immigrant rhetoric results in the inks being scapegoated and subjected to increasingly harsh reprisals from the both the government and vigilantes. The “Cleanse America” vigilante group which kidnaps inks and dumps them over the border did not feel like a stretch of the imagination in today’s world.
Many of these inks (and some of the non-inks) possess spirit animals (los nahuales) with varying associated magical powers. The story is narrated by different characters throughout the novel as the lives of the inks are made increasingly awful by an authoritarian government and angry mobs spurred on by anti-immigrant rhetoric. I could just as well be describing Britain in 2023 by this point. As the plot unfolds, various alliances are formed between citizens, spirits, gangsters and geeky teenagers. The love story between one of these teenagers and a gang member has made the book popular and I am not the only reader that was surprised to find themselves rooting for the gang! It’s almost a fun YA romp, except when it’s not because the story had me in tears multiple times and there are some really unpleasant (but not gratuitous) scenes. It’s solid and that’s as much of a review as I am going to attempt here. The rest of this post explores how the story allows for a good discussion on the posthuman themes mentioned at the beginning.
The following section contains spoilers
On interspecies and the arbitrary Enlightenment-division of human from non-human animal: the book, from the outset, introduces the idea of the spirit animal and twinning of humans with their animal companion. This quite nicely breaks down the artificial humanistic barrier between humans and their real-life kin. From a critical posthumanism perspective this is the (much required in my view) de-centring of the human subject.
Before touching on the topics of dehumanisation, it’s useful (and quite disheartening) to look at the Wikipedia entry for the term.
Dehumanization is the denial of full humanness in others and the cruelty and suffering that accompanies it. A practical definition refers to it as the viewing and treatment of other people as though they lack the mental capacities that are commonly attributed to human beings. In this definition, every act or thought that regards a person as “less than” human is dehumanization.
Dehumanization is one technique in incitement to genocide. It has also been used to justify war, judicial and extrajudicial killing, slavery, abortion, the confiscation of property, denial of suffrage and other rights, and to attack enemies or political opponents.
The book starts with a scene in Guatemala where a young girl is about to undergo a twinning ceremony with her spirit animal in the local village. This event is despoiled by dwarven evil spirits and soldiers (which I read as linked in the same way the girl is with her animal companion) who barbarously murder the villagers and the children. A genocide against animals and indigenous people, a great start. The soldiers’ actions could be described as inhuman, their justification ostensibly that the villagers are ‘less than human’ because they are ‘part animal’ and their (the villagers’) dehumanisation justifies the soldiers’ (and their non-human/inhuman spirits) slaying of them.
In a later scene, a kidnapped ink asks if her abductor is worried that knowing her name might make her seem human. To the kidnapper her status as an ink makes her ‘less than human’ which in his mind justifies the act of illegally deporting her. This perceived status justifies (in their mind) the action of one kidnapper raping her. This scene is not gratuitous in any way but really cut deep to read, especially when related by her spirit animal. This then makes the reader consider the kidnapper and rapist as ‘inhuman’.
When discussing upcoming anti-ink legislation, the government’s language describes ‘aliens’ and ‘non-aliens’. The inks are described using language that marks them as not of this planet. This provides the official cover for imprisonment, maltreatment and forced sterilisation. When escaped children-inks are captured, they are shackled and paraded through the streets like chattel animals. This dehumanisation of children however sparks moral outrage (in citizens who seemed otherwise fine with this happening to adult inks).
There were countless other useful examples of inhuman vs human, especially in the story of the teenage girl’s relationship with the leader of a gang. Her previous boyfriend’s violence to her appears justified in his mind as she is dehumanised in his mind through her relationship with this gang member.
It will be interesting to hear the views of other students and how they interpreted dehumanisation through their reading of this text.
This post briefly summarises and discusses themes in the novel, Ink, by Sabrina Vourvoulias. The 2012 novel was provided as a set text during the Posthumanism module of my Cultural and Critical Studies (MA) degree. For that reason this post is ‘part mini-review’ and part discussion on how the novel provides a way to explore ideas related to posthumanism; specifically for this text, the concept of dehumanisation.
Vourvoulias’ ancestry is fascinating in its own right and explains much of the passion with which she writes on certain topics, specifically immigration and South American mythology. Vourvoulias’ father was American, born in Chicago to Greek immigrant parents, but raised in Latin America. Vourvoulias’ mother was born and raised in Mexico, then Guatemala, becoming a U.S. citizen two years before her death. This short bio could be described as the backstory, almost the plot, of Ink.
The genre of the book I would describe as supernatural (as in magical realism) dystopian fiction. I can’t decide if I agree with describing this as dystopian. Reading it in 2023, many of the issues dealt with in the text feel hyperreal and current or historically true. The book relates a story in a world where immigrants in the United States have been marked indelibly with biometric tattoos. These immigrants, mostly from South America, are given colour coded tattoos which signify their origin and status. These people are referred to as “inks”. Anti-immigrant rhetoric results in the inks being scapegoated and subjected to increasingly harsh reprisals from the both the government and vigilantes. The “Cleanse America” vigilante group which kidnaps inks and dumps them over the border did not feel like a stretch of the imagination in today’s world.
Many of these inks (and some of the non-inks) possess spirit animals (los nahuales) with varying associated magical powers. The story is narrated by different characters throughout the novel as the lives of the inks are made increasingly awful by an authoritarian government and angry mobs spurred on by anti-immigrant rhetoric. I could just as well be describing Britain in 2023 by this point. As the plot unfolds, various alliances are formed between citizens, spirits, gangsters and geeky teenagers. The love story between one of these teenagers and a gang member has made the book popular and I am not the only reader that was surprised to find themselves rooting for the gang! It’s almost a fun YA romp, except when it’s not because the story had me in tears multiple times and there are some really unpleasant (but not gratuitous) scenes. It’s solid and that’s as much of a review as I am going to attempt here. The rest of this post explores how the story allows for a good discussion on the posthuman themes mentioned at the beginning.
The following section contains spoilers
Spoiler
On being human: the story is weaved of relationships between humans, between humans and animals and between humans and the earth. The characters experience desire, love, rejection, disaster, death and mourning. This feels like a good way to consider the qualities and emotions typically associated with human before we begin with posthuman.On interspecies and the arbitrary Enlightenment-division of human from non-human animal: the book, from the outset, introduces the idea of the spirit animal and twinning of humans with their animal companion. This quite nicely breaks down the artificial humanistic barrier between humans and their real-life kin. From a critical posthumanism perspective this is the (much required in my view) de-centring of the human subject.
Before touching on the topics of dehumanisation, it’s useful (and quite disheartening) to look at the Wikipedia entry for the term.
Dehumanization is the denial of full humanness in others and the cruelty and suffering that accompanies it. A practical definition refers to it as the viewing and treatment of other people as though they lack the mental capacities that are commonly attributed to human beings. In this definition, every act or thought that regards a person as “less than” human is dehumanization.
Dehumanization is one technique in incitement to genocide. It has also been used to justify war, judicial and extrajudicial killing, slavery, abortion, the confiscation of property, denial of suffrage and other rights, and to attack enemies or political opponents.
The book starts with a scene in Guatemala where a young girl is about to undergo a twinning ceremony with her spirit animal in the local village. This event is despoiled by dwarven evil spirits and soldiers (which I read as linked in the same way the girl is with her animal companion) who barbarously murder the villagers and the children. A genocide against animals and indigenous people, a great start. The soldiers’ actions could be described as inhuman, their justification ostensibly that the villagers are ‘less than human’ because they are ‘part animal’ and their (the villagers’) dehumanisation justifies the soldiers’ (and their non-human/inhuman spirits) slaying of them.
In a later scene, a kidnapped ink asks if her abductor is worried that knowing her name might make her seem human. To the kidnapper her status as an ink makes her ‘less than human’ which in his mind justifies the act of illegally deporting her. This perceived status justifies (in their mind) the action of one kidnapper raping her. This scene is not gratuitous in any way but really cut deep to read, especially when related by her spirit animal. This then makes the reader consider the kidnapper and rapist as ‘inhuman’.
When discussing upcoming anti-ink legislation, the government’s language describes ‘aliens’ and ‘non-aliens’. The inks are described using language that marks them as not of this planet. This provides the official cover for imprisonment, maltreatment and forced sterilisation. When escaped children-inks are captured, they are shackled and paraded through the streets like chattel animals. This dehumanisation of children however sparks moral outrage (in citizens who seemed otherwise fine with this happening to adult inks).
There were countless other useful examples of inhuman vs human, especially in the story of the teenage girl’s relationship with the leader of a gang. Her previous boyfriend’s violence to her appears justified in his mind as she is dehumanised in his mind through her relationship with this gang member.
It will be interesting to hear the views of other students and how they interpreted dehumanisation through their reading of this text.