Corporate Agriculture and the Exploitation of Life in Portal 2

Abstract

This article examines the agricultural dimensions of Portal 2 and two of its key paratexts, arguing that the game’s potato motif functions as a satire of industrial agricultural practice, dramatizing both the vastness of corporate power and the plight of its silenced victims. I argue for an understanding of the potato as a biotechnological product, drawing from a range of contemporary and historical texts to establish its role in a long history of exploitation and social inequality. These aspects enable the game’s establishment of a cohesive narrative in which potato science originates Aperture Science’s ascent and growing corruption, in a trajectory that culminates in its brutal exploitation of human test subjects. The game also celebrates rebellion against that corruption through the dynamics of gameplay and the development of its main character as a rival biological power.