Ice King, Body without Organs, Schizo-Carnivalized Body Dialogs on Madness between Deleuze and Bakhtin

Abstract

The Ice King is an unstable character from Ooo in Adventure Time. His relationship with the entire universe, even this one so colorful and fun, seems fragmented and hindered, especially due to his mind, which sometimes appears to operate in a very chaotic and specific programming, and at other times gets lost in memory gaps. In this uncertain scenario, the character appears mad, and this opens a path to understanding: what is an Ice King? What is the connection between his madness and the struggle for life? When we understand Simon's existence, the first life of Ice King, it also reveals a paternal relationship with Marceline, the recurring punk-demon-vampire of the series. This bond expands our understanding of the character and pushes us toward a reading of a revolution-madness that involves the destitution of powers over the body, utilizing carnivalization. This article aims to interpret the construction of the character Ice King as a schizo-carnivalized figure (the union of carnivalization with the schizo body), based on philosophical and narrative-cultural hermeneutic analysis, grounded in Bakhtin, Artaud, Deleuze, and Guattari. Specifically, we use Bakhtin's ideology on Carnival and the Body without Organs, formulated by the writer and revolutionary-madman Antonin Artaud and theorized by Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari. Our goal is to understand the relationships of the mad body as a way to survive amidst the dehumanizing process. For this reason, the role of Ice King in Adventure Time is very pertinent, as it demonstrates a body strained to the maximum of its mental and physical capacities in a world that has been carnivalized in its post-apocalypse.

Key words: Ice King; madness; revolution; body without organs.