Beauty and the Beast

184 Pages·2012·1.86 MB·English

by  Michael Taussig

beauty
and the
beast

b e a u t y
a n d t h e
b e a s t
M I C H A E L
T A U S S I G
THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS
CHICAGO AND LONDON
michael taussig is the Class of 1933 Professor of Anthropology
at Columbia University. He is the author of many books, including
I Swear I Saw This, Walter Benjamin’s Grave, and My Cocaine Museum,
all published by the University of Chicago Press.
The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637
The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London
© 2012 by The University of Chicago
All rights reserved. Published 2012.
Printed in the United States of America
21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 1 2 3 4 5
isbn-1 3: 978-0-226-78985-9 (cloth)
isbn-1 3: 978-0-226-78986-6 (paper)
isbn-1 0: 0-226-78985-3 (cloth)
isbn-1 0: 0-226-78986-1 (paper)
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Taussig, Michael T.
Beauty and the beast / Michael Taussig.
pages. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn 978-0-226-78985-9 (cloth : alkaline paper)
isbn 0-226-78985-3 (cloth : alkaline paper)
isbn 978-0-226-78986-6 (paperback : alkaline paper)
isbn 0-226-78986-1 (paperback : alkaline paper)
1. Beauty, Personal. 2. Beauty culture. 3. Surgery, Plastic.
I. Title.
gt499.t39 2012
646.7—dc23
2011050372
o This paper meets the requirements of ansi/ niso z39.48-1992
(Permanence of Paper).
The bartender’s smile widened. His ugliness was
the stuJ of legend. In an age of aJordable beauty,
there was something heraldic about his lack of it.
william gibson, Neuromancer

contents
Author’s Note ix
Gik of the Gods 1
El Mexicano 11
A Rare and Delightful Bird in Flight 15
Winnypoo 20
Spending 29
Cool 35
The Designer Smile 42
The Designer Body 47
Mythological Warfare 59
Beauty and Mutilation 66
The Exploding Breast 71
Virtual U 78
The History of Beauty 83
History of the Shoe 98
Surgeons of the Underworld 109
The Designer Name 116
Law in a Lawless Land 127
The Tabooed Clek 140
The Fat Kid and the Devil 149
Acknowledgments 155
Notes 157
Works Consulted 163
Index 169

author’s note
Beauty and the Beast poses the question of beauty in relation to vio-
lence, wondering why so many stories in Colombia about cosmetic
surgery—which the author calls “cosmic surgery”—take delight in
the death or disFgurement of the patient. For what is involved is not
simply the coexistence of glamor and terror in the world around us
today, but their synergism.
If, therefore, I choose to write about this in a fairytale mode, it is
to heighten, not diminish, reality, as well as its aesthetic surge, for
is there not a powerful aesthetic at the heart of terror? Is there not
glamor galore in being a throat- cutting paramilitary, a badass narco,
or a street gang member, Gouting all the rules and them some? The
mix of charisma and loathing attached to the more spectacularly well
known paramilitaries and narcos is of a piece with their stables of
beautiful women, beautiful horses, and majestic Geets of black SUVs.
Gang members in the slums are not quite so elevated, of course, but
they have their motorbikes and dreams, and are no less beholden to
startling techniques of bodily dismemberment, although they are
likely to be even more inventive with language, haircuts, clothing,
and percussion grenades than the really bad guys at the top.
How much here is true and how much fantasy is a fair enough
question, so long as it assumes their insuJerable fusion, which is
another reason to be aware of what we all knew but didn’t know
we knew—that aesthetics is as crucial to the tough guys and the
state as it is to bigger breasts, face liks, or willowy thinness through
liposuction. Surely the endless images and sounds of police with
masks, bulletproof vests, machine guns, shiny black riot gear, heli-
ix