(the) American (Novel of)

The Breathing Breach of Etiquette
limit of the social ideals of the body that it threatens to break down
the barrier between the human body and the nonhuman body, breach
the boundary between the living body and the dissected cadaver. This
monstrous body threatens to take on a life of its own. An article in
Muscle & Fitness titled “Monster Mash: The Sequel” reads:
The strength of Frankenstein, the size of King Kong: This sequel
has it all, in five muscle-building formulas. You know what happens
in sequels, right? No matter how gruesome the final scene
of the first movie, no matter how much mayhem and destruction,
no matter that it seemed the villain was shot, hanged, burned
or otherwise fatally wounded, somehow he rises from the grave
to plunder and pillage a new crop of terrified teens. In this Musclefied
sequel, our super-sized rouges are back—despite the veinpopping,
muscle-crunching, will-testing trials they endured in
Part I—and ready to descend into the dungeon, known to outsiders
as the gym. Yet they aren’t on the hunt with a blade and a
lust for vengeance. They’re definitely out to maim, however, through
a rather insidious tactic: full-bore weight training. The plot twist?
The type of pain our miscreants prescribe will make you stronger
and bigger, perhaps a monster yourself. Dare to enter, and perhaps
accomplish what many sequel “good-guys” can’t: survive for Part
III. . . . No. 1: Wake your triceps from the dead. This full-on assault
will make all three triceps’ heads pop out of your skin, wriggling
and writhing as they take on a life of their own. 5
As this and countless other advertisements and articles make clear,
hardcore bodybuilders aspire to monstrosity, to breaking down the borders
of the body, losing control of the insides of the body, which come out
to the surface wriggling and writhing as they take on a life of their
own. This, the most regimented, disciplined, and controlled body found
in our culture, the disciplined body par excellence, is a body that defies
control. This skin so thin reveals the workings of arteries, the twitching
of fiber, the interstices between tendon, meat, and bone. This body is
meat. This body is you.
So while the hardcore bodybuilder does not identify with you
and your car payment, you and your mortgage, you and the growth of
your stock portfolio, you and the growth of your prestige among your
colleagues and in your field, you identify with him and his finite flesh,
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