ManBearPig and Félix Guattari: Difference between pages

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{{Infobox South Park episode|

{{Infobox_Philosopher |

episode_name = Manbearpig |

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episode_no = 145 |

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image = [[Image:Manbearpig1.jpg|200px]] |

region = Western Philosophy|

airdate = [[April 26]], [[2006]] |

era = [[20th-century philosophy]]|

season = 10 |

color = #DEDDE2B0C4DE|

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image_name = Guattari2.jpg|

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name = Pierre-Félix Guattari|

birth = [[April 30]], [[1930]] ([[Villeneuve-les-Sablons]], [[Oise]], [[France]])|

death = [[August 29]], [[1992]] ([[La Borde clinic]], [[Cour-Cheverny]], [[France]])|

school_tradition = [[Psychoanalysis]], [[Autonomism]] |

main_interests = [[Psychoanalysis]], [[Politics]], [[Ecology]], [[Semiotics]]|

influences = [[Freud]], [[Lacan]], [[Gregory Bateson|Bateson]], [[Sartre]], [[Hjelmslev]]|

influenced = [[Eric Alliez]], [[Michael Hardt]], [[Brian Massumi]], [[Antonio Negri]] |

notable_ideas = [[assemblage]], [[desiring machine]], [[deterritorialization]], [[ecosophy]], [[schizoanalysis]]|

}}

'''Pierre-Félix Guattari''' ([[April 30]], [[1930]] – [[August 29]], [[1992]]) was a [[France|French]] [[militant]], institutional [[psychotherapist]] and [[philosopher]], a founder of both [[schizoanalysis]] and [[ecosophy]]. Guattari is best known for his intellectual collaborations with [[Gilles Deleuze]], most notably ''[[Anti-Oedipus]]'' (1972) and ''[[A Thousand Plateaus]]'' (1980).

"'''ManBearPig'''" is episode 1006 (#145) of [[Comedy Central]]'s ''[[South Park]]'' which originally aired on [[April 26]], [[2006]]. It revolves around the hunt for an imaginary and elusive "ManBearPig" as a spoof of [[Al Gore]]'s belief in and fight for [[global warming]] awareness. At the end of the episode, when he says he wants to make a movie starring himself about a subject other than "MBP" (ManBearPig) it refers to the 2006 global-warming documentary film ''[[An Inconvenient Truth]]''. His appeal to the boys can be compared with his attempts at winning youth support through his television network, [[Current TV]].

==Biography==

=== Clinic of La Borde ===

Born in Villeneuve-les-Sablons, [[Oise]], [[France]].{{Fact|date=February 2007}} Guattari was encouraged by psychiatrist [[Jean Oury]] towards the practice of [[psychiatry]], becoming impassioned from 1950 towards that field.{{Fact|date=February 2007}} Due to his frustrations with the theories and methods of French [[psychoanalyst]] [[Jacques Lacan]] — who both taught and analysed Guattari in the 1950s – Guattari became convinced that he needed to continue exploring as vast an array of domains as possible ([[philosophy]], [[ethnology]], [[linguistics]], [[architecture]], etc.,) in order to better define the orientation, delimitation and psychiatric efficacy of the practice. Guattari would later proclaim that psychoanalysis is "the best [[capitalist]] drug" because in it desire is confined to a couch: desire, in Lacanian psychoanalysis, is an energy that is contained rather than one that, if freed, could militantly engage itself in something different. He continued this research, collaborating in Jean Oury's private clinic of [[La Borde clinic|La Borde]] at Court-Cheverny, one of the main centers of institutional psychotherapy at the time. La Borde was a venue for conversation amongst innumerable students of philosophy, psychology, ethnology, and [[social work]]. La Borde was Félix Guattari's principal anchoring until he died of a heart attack in [[1992]].

=== 1960s to 1970s ===

From 1955 to 1965, Félix Guattari animated the [[trotskyist]] group ''Voie Communiste'' ("Communist Way"). He would then support [[anticolonialist]] struggles as well as the Italian ''[[Autonomists]]''. Guattari also took part in the movement of the psychological G.T., which gathered many psychiatrists at the beginning of the sixties and created the Association of Institutional Psychotherapy in November [[1965]]. It was at the same time that he founded, along with other militants, the F.G.E.R.I. (Federation of Groups for Institutional Study & Research) and its review research, working on philosophy, mathematics, psychoanalysis, education, architecture, ethnology, etc. The F.G.E.R.I. came to represent aspects of the multiple political and cultural engagements of Félix Guattari: the Group for Young Hispanics, the Franco-Chinese Friendships (in the times of the popular communes), the opposition activities with the wars in [[Algerian War of Independence|Algeria]] and Vietnam, the participation in the M.N.E.F., with the U.N.E.F., the policy of the offices of psychological academic aid (B.A.P.U.), the organisation of the University Working Groups (G.T.U.), but also the reorganizations of the training courses with the Centers of Training to the Methods of Education Activities (C.E.M.E.A.) for psychiatric male nurses, as well as the formation of Friendly Male Nurses (Amicales d'infirmiers) (in [[1958]]), the studies on architecture and the projects of construction of a day hospital of for "students and young workers".

Guattari was involved in the [[events of May 1968]], starting from the [[Movement of March 22]]. It was in the aftermath of 1968 that Guattari met [[Gilles Deleuze]] at the [[University of Vincennes]] and began to lay the ground-work for the soon to be infamous ''[[Anti-Oedipus]]'' (1972), which [[Michel Foucault]] described as "an introduction to the non-fascist life" in his preface to the book. Throughout his career it may be said that his writings were at all times correspondent in one fashion or another with sociopolitical and cultural engagements. In 1967, he appeared as one of the founders of OSARLA (Organization of solidarity and Aid to the Latin-American Revolution). It was with the head office of the F.G.E.R.I. that he met, in [[1968]], [[Daniel Cohn-Bendit]], [[Jean-Jacques Lebel]], and [[Julian Beck]]. In [[1970]], he created C.E.R.F.I. (Center for the Study and Research of Institutional Formation), which takes the direction of the Recherches review. In 1977, he created the CINEL for "new spaces of freedom" before joining in the 1980s the [[ecological]] movement with his "[[ecosophy]]".

=== 1980s to 1990s ===

In his last book, ''Chaosmose'' ([[1992]]), the topic of which is already partially developed in ''What is Philosophy?'' (1991, with Deleuze), Félix Guattari takes again his essential topic: the question of subjectivity. "How to produce it, collect it, enrich it, reinvent it permanently in order to make it compatible with mutant Universes of value?" This idea returns like a leitmotiv, from ''Psychanalyse and transversality'' (a regrouping of articles from [[1957]] to [[1972]]) through ''Années d'hiver'' ([[1980]] - [[1986]]) and ''Cartographies Schizoanalytique'' ([[1989]]). He insists on the function of "a-signification", which plays the role of support for a subjectivity in act, starting from four parameters: "significative and [[semiotic]] flows, Phylum of Machinic Propositions, Existential Territories and Incorporeal Universes of Reference."

In 1995, the posthumous release ''Chaosophy'' featured Guattari's first collection of essays and interviews focuses on the French anti-psychiatrist and theorist's work as director of the experimental La Borde clinic and collaborator of philosopher Gilles Deleuze. ''Chaosophy'' is a groundbreaking introduction to Guattari's theories on "schizo-analysis", a process meant to replace [[Sigmund Freud]]'s interpretation with a more pragmatic, experimental, and collective approach rooted in reality. Unlike Freud, Guattari believes that [[schizophrenia]] is an extreme mental state co-existent with the capitalist system itself. But capitalism keeps enforcing [[neurosis]] as a way of maintaining normality. Guattari's post-Marxist vision of capitalism provides a new definition not only of mental illness, but also of micropolitical means of subversion. It includes key essays such as "Balance-Sheet Program for Desiring Machines," cosigned by Deleuze (with whom he coauthored Anti-Oedipus and A Thousand Plateaus), and the provocative "Everybody Wants To Be a Fascist."

''Soft Subversions'' is another collection of Félix Guattari's essays, lectures, and interviews traces the militant anti-psychiatrist and theorist's thought and activity throughout the 1980s ("the winter years"). Concepts such as "micropolitics," "schizoanalysis," and "becoming-woman" open up new horizons for political and creative resistance in the "postmedia era." Guattari's energetic analyses of art, cinema, youth culture, economics, and power formations introduce a radically inventive thought process engaged in liberating subjectivity from the standardizing and homogenizing processes of global capitalism.

== Bibliography ==

=== Works published in English ===

*''Molecular Revolution: Psychiatry and Politics'' (1984). Trans. Rosemary Sheed. Selected essays from ''Psychanalyse et transversalité'' (1972) and ''La révolution moléculaire'' (1977).

*''Les Trois écologies'' (1989). Trans. ''The Three Ecologies.'' Partial translation by Chris Turner (Paris: Galilee, 1989), full translation by Ian Pindar and Paul Sutton (London: The Athlone Press, 2000).

*''Chaosmose'' (1992). Trans. ''Chaosmosis: an ethico-aesthetic paradigm'' (1995).

*''Chaosophy'' (1995), ed. Sylvere Lotringer. Collected essays and interviews.

*''Soft Subversions'' (1996), ed. Sylvere Lotringer. Collected essays and interviews.

*''The Guattari Reader'' (1996), ed. Gary Genosko. Collected essays and interviews.

*''Ecrits pour L'Anti-Œdipe'' (2004), ed. Stéphane Nadaud. Trans. ''The Anti-Œdipus Papers'' (2006). Collection of texts written between 1969 and 1972.

*''Chaos and Complexity'' (Forthcoming 2008, MIT Press). Collected essays and interviews.

In collaboration with [[Gilles Deleuze]]:

*''Capitalisme et Schizophrénie 1. L'Anti-Œdipe'' (1972). Trans. ''[[Anti-Oedipus]]'' (1977).

*''Kafka: Pour une Littérature Mineure'' (1975). Trans. ''Kafka: Toward a Theory of Minor Literature'' (1986).

*''Rhizome: introduction'' (Paris: Minuit, 1976). Trans. "Rhizome," in ''Ideology and Consciousness'' 8 (Spring, 1981): 49-71. This is an early version of what became the introductory chapter in ''Mille Plateaux.''

*''Capitalisme et Schizophrénie 2. Mille Plateaux'' (1980). Trans. ''[[A Thousand Plateaus]]'' (1987).

*''On the Line'' (1983). Contains translations of "Rhizome," and "Politics" ("Many Politics") by Deleuze and Parnet.

*''Nomadology: The War Machine.'' (1986). Translation of "Plateau 12," ''Mille Plateaux.''

*''Qu'est-ce que la philosophie?'' (1991). Trans. ''What Is Philosophy?'' (1996).

Other collaborations:

__NOTOC__

*''Les nouveaux espaces de liberté'' (1985). Trans. ''Communists Like Us'' (1990). With [[Antonio Negri]].

==Plot==

*''Micropolitica: Cartografias do Desejo'' (1986). Trans. ''Molecular Revolution in Brazil'' (Forthcoming October 2007, MIT Press). With Suely Rolnik.

{{spoiler}}

*''The party without bosses'' (2003), by Gary Genosko. Features a 1982 conversation between Guattari and [[Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva]], the current [[President of Brazil]].

[[Al Gore]] visits South Park Elementary, and talks about the terrible ManBearPig, who roams the Earth. ManBearPig is "half-man, half-bear and half-pig," or half-man and half-bearpig. It is also suggested that he might be half bear, half man-pig (what is most likely is one-third man, one-third bear and one-third pig). [[Recurring South Park characters#Randall "Randy" and Sharon Marsh, Shelley and Grandpa|Stan's Dad]] says the former [[Vice President of the United States|VP]] is desperate for attention; [[Stan Marsh|Stan]] feels sorry for him because he has no friends. Al Gore begins pestering Stan, however, and when Gore breaks down on the phone, Stan agrees to go to a meeting about ManBearPig. Al Gore declares that ManBearPig is hiding in the [[Cave of the Winds (Colorado)|Cave of the Winds]], and when he explains that he will excuse the children from school, they agree to go with him.

[[Image:Manbearpig_Drawing.JPG||thumb|180px|left|Manbearpig, as he is portrayed in an illustration Al Gore carries around with him, to spread what he calls "ManBearPig Awareness."]]

=== Works untranslated into English ===

In the cave, Al Gore forces the kids to follow him off the path and gives the "ManBearPig call" by yelling out, "GWODE!" Gore begins shooting wildly with a shotgun he brought along, causing a cave-in that leaves the kids trapped in the caverns. While there, the boys search for a way out, and [[Eric Cartman|Cartman]] discovers a small cavern filled with gold, pearls, and other treasures. He attempts to keep the others from locating it, and comes up with a plan to get the treasure out of the cave by ingesting it.

Note: Many of the essays found in these works have been individually translated and can be found in the English collections.

*''Psychanalyse et transversalité. Essais d'analyse institutionnelle'' (1972).

*''La révolution moléculaire'' (1977, 1980). The 1980 version (éditions 10/18) contains substantially different essays from the 1977 version.

*''L'inconscient machinique. Essais de Schizoanalyse'' (1979).

*''Les années d'hiver, 1980-1985'' (1986).

*''Cartographies schizoanalytiques'' (1989).

Other collaborations:

Meanwhile, a rescue team has assembled to find the boys, despite Al Gore's pleas that the caves should be filled with molten lead in order to kill ManBearPig (presumably in reference to the ending of ''[[Alien³]]''),

as the children have undoubtedly been killed by the beast and it must be killed. He then decides to divert the flow of a nearby stream in order to cause a flood that fills the cavern in an attempt to kill the monster. It is also revealed around this point, by the searchers, that the boys are probably near Smugglers' Den &mdash; a room full of fake treasure which was set up by the Cave of the Winds staff as a [[photo op]] for visitors.

The boys, meanwhile, believe that Cartman &mdash; bloated with fake gold and jewels &mdash; is really ill, and try to find a way out, carrying him. The cave soon floods, and Kyle actually risks his life to get Cartman to safety. The boys manage to escape just as a memorial is being held for them. They scream at Al Gore for using ManBearPig to get attention&mdash;he is too full of himself to care&mdash;and, when Cartman [[defecate]]s all the gold&mdash;which he learns is fake&mdash;they scream at him too.

At the end of the episode, Al Gore dons a superhero cape and exclaims "I'll make a movie starring me. Then people will take me serial." This could merely be a jab at ''[[An Inconvenient Truth]]'', but the cape and the exclamation "Excelsior!" are references to the "Godfather of Comics," [[Stan Lee]] who used the line as his signoff in editorials for [[Marvel Comics]]. The phrase has recently been revived for the Stan Lee hosted reality show ''[[Who Wants to be a Superhero?]]''.

*''L’intervention institutionnelle'' (Paris: Petite Bibliothèque Payot, n. 382 - 1980). On [[institutional pedagogy]]. With Jacques Ardoino, G. Lapassade, Gerard Mendel, Rene Lourau.

==Trivia==

*''Pratique de l'institutionnel et politique'' (1985). With [[Jean Oury]] and Francois Tosquelles.

[[Image:manbearpig.jpg|thumbnail|right|When Cartman first finds the treasure.]]

*(it) ''Desiderio e rivoluzione. Intervista a cura di Paolo Bertetto'' (Milan: Squilibri, 1977). Conversation with Franco Berardi (Bifo) and Paolo Bertetto.

*The term "ManBearPig" has become a [[political neologism]] that skeptics on conservative political blogs frequently use in place of "global warming." Sometimes "ManBearPig" is also used as a substitute for Al Gore himself.{{fact}} ManBearPig is shown above Gore in [[Al Gore's Penguin Army video scandal|Al Gore's Penguin Army]], a video posted on [[YouTube]] and presented as an amateur effort, which was later proved to have been made by [[DCI Group]], a Republican marketing firm tied to [[ExxonMobil]]. It is unknown whether the makers of South Park authorized DCI Group to use the image.

*The boys visit the [[Cave of the Winds (Colorado)|Cave of the Winds]], which is an attraction near [[Colorado Springs, Colorado|Colorado Springs]]. This is the second episode based around a visit to a real-life Colorado ___location (the first being "[[Casa Bonita (South Park episode)|Casa Bonita]]"). It might be noted, however, that the real Cave of the Winds entrance is near the rim of William's Canyon, with no sizeable rivers uphill. (The nearest is Fountain Creek)

*The crisis of the boys getting trapped by the cave-in, as well their appearance at their own funeral, is reminiscent of the events in ''[[The Adventures of Tom Sawyer]]'', where Tom and Becky Thatcher are lost in a cave. There is also gold hidden in that cave, the stolen property of Injun Joe.

[[Image:Stop ManBearPig.jpg|thumbnail|right|The bumper sticker handed out by Al Gore in the episode.]]

*The fake treasure in the Cave of the Winds is reminiscent of the "gold" in ''[[City Slickers II: The Legend of Curly's Gold]]'' (however, real hidden gold is discovered at the conclusion of ''City Slickers II'').

*There is no real ManBearPig in this episode. The only times ManBearPig appears in the episode are in Gore's drawing or when it turns out to be Gore in costume. This is in contrast to the earlier episode "[[Volcano (South Park episode)|Volcano]]", in which [[Scuzzlebutt]] is a real monster.

* The Cave of the Winds is filled with [[stalactite]]s, and [[stalagmites]] shaped like [[male]] [[genetalia]]

*Al Gore uses the word "serial" (The closed captioner captioned every occurrence of this word in the episode as "cereal") in place of "seriously/serious". This is in reference to his gaffe on ''[[The Oprah Winfrey Show]]'' when he was asked for his favorite ''[[cereal]]'' and his answer was "[[Oprah Winfrey|Oprah]]", mistaking the word "cereal" for serial. [http://archive.salon.com/ent/col/mill/2000/09/25/oprah/index1.html]

[[Image:mbpgore.JPG|thumbnail|right|Al Gore at his computer.]]

*Al Gore's ManBearPig campaign is not taken seriously by anyone. This represents one of the very few times in South Park when adult characters (other than [[Chef (South Park character)|Chef]]) actually disbelieve a bogus threat.

*The "[[Excelsior]]" tag line that Al Gore uses is a nod to the "Godfather of Comics," [[Stan Lee]]; the line was his signoff in his "[[Stan's Soapbox]]" editorial column in [[Marvel Comics]]. "Excelsior!" is the [[state motto]] of [[New York]], which is presumably why Stan Lee used it.

[[Image:Smuggler's_Den.JPG|thumb|left|245px|Smuggler's Den.]]

*The "Excelsior Hotel" in Little Rock, Arkansas is where Al Gore asked for Bill Clinton to endorse his bid for president in 1988, which he did not get. It is also the hotel where Clinton allegedly groped [[Paula Jones]]. [http://archive.salon.com/politics/feature/2000/10/24/hotel/print.html]

*Much of the episode is an offshoot of the movie [[Volcano (film)|Volcano]]. The initial disbelief; "Excuse me, Excuse me, this cave in wasn't no accident, and it isn't going to stop unless we move fast!" "What do you mean, the cave in is over" "I'm afraid you have a much bigger problem" and eventual flooding.

*Al Gore has also appeared in episode 314 "[[The Red Badge of Gayness]]". He is seen measuring curtains in the background of the oval office and says, "I'm so glad I don't have your job," to the then President [[Bill Clinton]] after a large [[Confederate States of America|Confederate]] rally is held outside the White House.

*In the cave, when they are sleeping, Cartman behaves just like [[Humphrey Bogart]]'s delusional and greedy character in ''[[The Treasure of the Sierra Madre]]''.

*There is a very similar episode of ''[[Married... with Children]]'' where [[Al Bundy]] and family discover gold in a stream in the mountains and Al ends up going mad and taking everyone hostage, only to find out that it is [[iron pyrite|fool's gold]] planted by the rangers as part of a mine experience.

*Al Gore laughed off his sensationalized depiction in this episode, calling the creators "nuts": "Their comic sensibility is aimed at a different demographic than the one I inhabit, but I still find a lot of what they do hilarious." [http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-gore05.html]

*The water bottle Cartman uses to help ingest the fake treasure has the label "wottur", a poke at the many varieties of bottled waters.

*If you look closely during Al Gore's eulogy to the four boys, the flower pot to his right moves up between the scenes.

*In Al Gore's base of operations, a box bearing the Apple logo, possibly that of an [[iPod]], a Mac Mini, or other Apple product, can be seen in the background. This is most likely a nod to the fact that Gore is a part of the board of directors of [[Apple Computer|Apple]]

*The sequence in which Gore "stalks" the boys while dressed as Manbearpig may be a reference to the [[1977|1977]] movie [[Snowbeast]], which features similar music and presentation to that segement and whose tagline is "The legendary creature is half man... half animal... and a cold blooded killer!"

=== Select secondary sources ===

==See also==

*[[Cryptozoology]]

*[[Global Warming]]

*[[Al Gore]]

*[[Éric Alliez]], ''La Signature du monde, ou Qu'est-ce que la philosophie de Deleuze et Guattari'' (1993). Trans. ''The Signature of the World: Or, What is Deleuze and Guattari's Philosophy?'' (2005).

==External Links==

*Gary Genosko, ''Félix Guattari: An Aberrant Introduction'' (2002).

*Gary Genosko (ed.), ''Deleuze and Guattari: Critical Assessments of Leading Philosophers, Volume 2: Guattari'' (2001).

==External links==

*[http://youtube.com/watch?v=09_5T8UmQQI&search=ManBearPig A video excerpt of the episode]

*[http://www.revue-chimeres.org/guattari/guattari.html Chimeres site on Guattari (in French)]

*[http://www.morethings.com/god_and_country/ptolemy-manbearpig.htm Ptolemy, Manbearpig, Global Warming and Epistemological Humility]

*[http://multitudes.samizdat.net/_Guattari-Felix_.html Multitudes page on Guattari (in French)]

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