Theology of Bioshock (Part II)

Christian tradition has held that sin has at least three characteristics which are on display in the game quite wonderfully.  Namely, sin is addictive; sin deforms us; and sin eventually drives us insane.  The main enemies in the game are both fascinating and tragic, which happened to be called ‘Splicers’.  These Splicers have gotten addicted to Adam at such a level that they simply do not live as normal human beings anymore.  They wander the streets with various weapons, looking for the next fix of Adam.  Additionally, their addiction to Adam has horribly warped their bodies, with tumours and various other malformations, making them grotesque and sorrowful to look at.  Finally, and perhaps the most tragic of all, they utter strange phrases from their past, like an echo, as if they were still living their lives but had not realized the pathetic level they had in fact reached.  Here we see clearly the threefold pattern of sin, that it is addictive, deforming, and induces insanity.

Sin is addictive because we are trying to fill an infinite void in our spiritual life with something that is not infinite.  God made us for Himself, and to try to fill that void with pleasure, wealth, power, or honour, simply is not going to cut it.  As we begin down the road of sin, it at first tastes very good.  We get a buzz off of the sin, but eventually this buzz wears off.  At this point we seek the high again, but this time we need more stimulation, but strangely, get less effect.  This process leads into addiction, which is rightly called slavery.  The Splicers of Rapture mirror this in their addiction to Adam.  Remembering that Adam is essentially a codeword for Sin, these poor souls are addicted to Sin.

The second effect of Sin (and Adam) is that is deforms us, makes us ugly.  This element is on great display in the Medical Pavilion, where the most important part of the whole Pavilion is the plastic surgery ward, called Dr. Steinman’s Aesthetic Ideal.  When we enter the Pavilion, the first thing we see is an advertisement with the picture of a very attractive woman saying “With Adam, there is no reason for not being beautiful!”  We come to find out that Adam can make plastic surgery extraordinarily successful, and thus all people in the city can become beautiful.  The irony of Adam is that the more you use it, the more you will deform with tumours and other phenomena.  Thus the very thing that makes you beautiful, is in fact what ultimately makes you ugly.  This is what sin does to us.  For at first, the high we get from sin can make us feel happy and in a certain sense, beautiful, but the more we walk down that road, the very thing that made us ‘beautiful’ leaves us very ugly.   In another encounter, earlier in the game, we see female ghost crying in the bathroom, lamenting the fact that no one will find her attractive because she has spliced herself too much.  But it is precisely in this atmosphere that even the concept of beauty becomes faded and eventually lost.  Through this section of the game we find numerous audio logs from Dr. Steinman, the head surgeon, who shows this unbelievable transition.  At first he firmly believes in the ‘Aesthetic Ideal,’ but the more Adam takes a hold of him he starts to doubt even the most basic principles of human beauty.

When Picasso became bored of painting people, he started representing them as cubes and other abstract forms. The world called him a genius! I've spent my entire surgical career creating the same tired shapes, over and over again: the upturned nose, the cleft chin, the ample bosom. Wouldn't it be wonderful if I could do with a knife what that old Spaniard did with a brush?

And

Why do we have two eyes? Because there’s a law that says we must? Two eyes, two legs, two ears, two breasts…

Every culture may have different ‘Aesthetic Ideals’ then another, but to propose having anything other than one nose and two eyes is the heights of madness, but this is precisely the result of Adam, of Sin.  For at first we have a clear idea of what beauty is and seek it, then when we fall short of it we call ourselves ugly, and finally we lose sight of what beauty is altogether and essentially call all things ugly.  A quote from when Steinman meets Jack:

What can I do with this one, Aphrodite? She WON'T... STAY... STILL! I want to make them beautiful, but they always come out WRONG! That one... too fat! This one... too tall! And this one... too symmetrical! What's that, Goddess? An intruder? He's ugly. Ugly! UGLY! UGLY!

It is an old Christian adage that God is Beauty.  When we sin we lose God.  When we lose God we lose what is truly beautiful.

The final result of sin is insanity.  In our city of Rapture there are some extraordinary examples of this.  We of course have the Splicers who wander the city, deranged and insane, but there are two characters that truly exemplify this transition into utter madness: Dr. Steinman and Sander Cohen.  We have already seen Dr. Steinman, but we have not looked at the end of his story.  After deciding to redefine beauty, he started having ‘visions.’

Aphrodite is walking the halls - shimmering, like a scalpel... 'Steinman, 'she calls, 'Steinman! I have what you're looking for! Just open your eyes!' And when I see her, she cuts me into a thousand beautiful pieces.

Hearing this line brings home the true insanity that lies behind them, but there is more.  In Steinman’s case, it seems that one can trace the insanity to a moment.

Steinman: Four-oh silk and ...done.

Nurse: The nose looks terrific, Doctor Steinman ...Doctor?

Steinman: You know, looking at her now... I didn't realize how much her face sags... Scalpel...

Nurse: Excuse me?

Steinman: Scalpel!

Nurse: Uh, doctor, she's not booked for a face lift...

Steinman: Let's just come in here and... *starts whistling*

Nurse: Doctor... Stop cutting... Doctor, stop cutting... Get me the chief of surgery! Get me the chief of surgery NOW!!!

The Doctor’s obsession with Adam has driven him insane, but he is not the only one whose obsession for his work in the midst of Adam has driven him mad, the other is Sander Cohen, the artist.  When we first meet Sander, one of his disciples is playing a beautiful piece on a piano.  This piano has one distinct difference from normal ones: it is covered in dynamite. After apparently failing to play it right, Cohen presses a button and blows up the piano.  He then gives you a task to kill numerous people and take pictures of them as his ‘Masterpiece.’  So thoroughly obsessed with his art, and yet so thoroughly insane, he believes murder to be art.  Here is a quote attesting to his insanity too good to pass up:

The Wild Bunny, by Sander Cohen. I want to take the ears off, but I can't. I hop, and when I hop, I never get off the ground. It's my curse, my eternal curse. I want to take the ears off, but I can't! It's my curse, it's my fucking curse! I want to take the ears off! Please! Take them off! Pleeeeeeease!

While Cohen and Steinman are certainly certifiable, the insanity implied by sin does not always mean this.  Perhaps a better term might be ‘small world syndrome.’  Sin shrinks the world around us, as more and more elements in it become invisible to us and fall away, until we are left in a tiny little box to live in with painted windows on the inside.  We see this clearly in Cohen and Steinman, as both become obsessed with esoteric elements within their expertise, leaving them incapable of even performing normally in society.  Once again, in a city without God, this should not come as a surprise.  A great definition of insanity, which comes from Father Corapi is said thusly: “Insanity is being out of touch with reality, and reality is God.”  As sin drives us further and further from God, it drives us further and further from reality.