Becoming Horse–Capitalism and the Human Identity: An Analysis of Boots Riley’s Sorry to Bother You

Abstract

The aim of the article is to dissect the phenomenon of capitalist labor in the US as depicted in Boots Riley’s film Sorry to Bother You (2018). The primary focus of the article is the film’s rendering of the creation of horse humans which the article reads as a metaphor for class relations in the modern society. First, the article analyzes the film’s plot in the context of the cultural assumptions and beliefs connected with the figure of the horse. Next, it draws on Deleuze and Guattari’s concept of “becoming-animal” in order to unveil the revolutionary potential possibly latent in hybridization. Finally, after commenting on the ways in which capitalism weaponizes technological development, the article inscribes the notion of hybridization into the nature-culture dichotomy.