Can't believe how bad that movie was

In his essay, “Plato’s Pharmacy,” the deconstructionist Derrida breaks down the binaries surrounding Plato’s use of the Greek word Pharmakon. Derrida points out the slipperiness of language by illustrating how in The Phaedrus, Plato uses the word pharmakon to mean both “poison” and “remedy.” It is, perhaps, not by coincidence that in the film Johnny Mnemonic, the Asian company, responsible for so much of the society’s ills, is called Pharmakon. In the film, technology is the pharmakon: it is both the poison and the remedy. As we learn later in the film, the cure for the disease that plagued the people was always there, the company just realized that there was more money to be made treated people for the disease once they had it, instead of vaccinating them before they managed to get it. The dual nature of technology being illustrated is that while technology can kill, it can also heal.

The terrible acting in this film was fairly distracting, but one can see the opposing uses of technology at work through the film techniques. The concept of being able to use the human memory in the same way one uses a jump drive is fascinating. Yet, Johnny’s LSD-like flashes and his fear of imploding from carrying too much data are indicative of the Promethean dangers of technology. The lack of light, the futuristic costumes, the clean lines of Johnny’s appearance, all suggest a world taken over by technology and one that is very streamlined, very programmed, and very sterile.