8/13/2019 Science Fiction in the Information Age Carol Colatrella http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/science-fiction-in-the-information-age-carol-colatrella 1/13 Science Fiction in the Information Age Author(s): Carol Colatrella Source: American Literary History, Vol. 11, No. 3 (Autumn, 1999), pp. 554-565 Published by: Oxford University Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/490134 . Accessed: 26/05/2013 15:48 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. . Oxford University Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to American Literary History. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 132.248.9.8 on Sun, 26 May 2013 15:48:32 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
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8/13/2019 Science Fiction in the Information Age Carol Colatrella
Science Fiction in the Information AgeAuthor(s): Carol ColatrellaSource: American Literary History, Vol. 11, No. 3 (Autumn, 1999), pp. 554-565Published by: Oxford University Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/490134 .
Accessed: 26/05/2013 15:48
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp
.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of
content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms
of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].
.
Oxford University Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to American
Literary History.
http://www.jstor.org
This content downloaded from 132.248.9.8 on Sun, 26 May 2013 15:48:32 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Let me begin with the obligatory autobiographical preface:I am not a scholar specializing in science fiction, nor am I a
science fiction writer or editor. And as a readerof science fiction,
I probablyqualify for advanced novice status, at least as I judge
my knowledge against that of some expert students in the science
fiction seminars that I have taught occasionally for a colleague.Yet like many Americans raised on 1960 and 1970s television,
films, and popular literature,I am conversantwith the classics of
science fiction, from novels by Jules Verne, George Orwell, and
Aldous Huxley to Star Trekand its descendants. Like many of
my generation, I appreciate the plots, characterizations,and set-tings of science fiction when I see them in popular culture, find-
ing such allusions and quotations to be sometimes glibly trouble-
some and at other times comforting in their recognizability.It is
a commonplace in our time to assert that readers of science fic-
tion are curious about the ever-increasingpresence that scientific
ideas and technological inventions occupy in our lives. We trea-
surethe celebratoryand fearsome aspects of science and technol-
ogy in acknowledging that even the most progressiveinnovations
might have hidden psychological or moral costs uncomfortableto bear.
In our postmodern, American way,we are alternatelyfasci-
nated and bored by the media descriptions of cutting-edge scien-
tific and technological areas such as reproductive technologies,
genetic research, computing memory and speed, meteor move-
ment, and other futuristic issues that impinge on our present-day
reality. These areas of study are no longer confined to the re-
search laboratory and the imaginative realm of science fictionbecause all of us daily confront the ways in which present yet
future-seemingtechnologies create and/or solve social problems.Science fiction and commentary have become in our contempo-rary world what Donald Pease calls in defining the New Amer-
ican Studies "a field-Imaginary" (1). The field-Imaginary of
elite culture,and generalparlance.The frightening,Franken-steinian mageryof narrativesdescribingbiologicaland mecha-nisticadaptationsof the humancoincideswiththe realitiesof aworld n whichwecommunicate, alculate,andimaginewith theassistanceof computingdevices,somesmallenoughto wearor
carry.As microelectronicsngineersdelight n remindingus, it istheirabilityto craftsmaller, aster, ighterchipsthat drivesthemodernInformationRevolution.1 achpersonhas thepotentialto be wired,as NicholasNegropontenotesin describing he lat-
est items installedwith computerchips and testedby the MITmedialab.So, givenour history, iteraryand scientific, t is not
surprisinghatreadersof MaryShelley'snovelsuspectthat suchtechnicaladvantage o turneveryhumanbeinginto a walkingcomputermightlead to ethical,philosophical,and politicaldi-
lemmas,a premise hatwritershaveoutlined ncyberpunkitera-tureof the 1980sand 1990s.
Americanwriters,particularly hose moved by Shelley's
tale,havelong grappledwith science andtechnology n creatinga new nationalliterature, or our myth of nationalidentityisintertwinedwith ideas of scientificprogressand technologicalinnovationeven as individualauthorshaveexpressed uspicionand regretabout technicalpossibilities.2The most familiarex-
amplesappear n AmericanRenaissanceworks peculating boutthe moral influenceof naturalphilosophyandcriticallyevaluat-
ing the social costs of science. Edgar Allan Poe's hymnlike,cosmogonic prose poem Eureka 1848),Nathaniel Hawthorne's
dark stories of experimentalism("Rappacinni'sDaughter"[1848], "The Birthmark"1846],"Doctor Heidegger'sExperi-ment" 1837],"TheArtist of the Beautiful"1846]),andHermanMelville'seclectic fictions ("The Lightning-RodMan" [1856],"TheBell-Tower"1856],andMoby-Dick1851]) xamine cienceas a creative orceinevitably ransforminghosewho delveintoits mysteriesand,in somecases,anyoneelsewithina reasonabledistance(see Limon).
Nineteenth-centuryAmerican authors revealed
hopeand
skepticismconcerning he powerof scienceand technologytotransform social values (see Franklin).Reformerand author
tasy"(1845)of the possibility hatcryogenic ciencemight per-mit a womanwronglyconvictedof her child'smurder o escapefromthe puritanicalandrepressive nvironmentnto which shewas born.3 Mark Twain'sA Connecticut Yankee n King Arthur's
Court(1889) satirizesscientific and technologicalprogressin
science fiction writers as they delineate the likely outcome of ourobsessions with technology by framing its use within narratives
concerned with convenience and cooperation or competitionand destruction.4
In our own time, science fiction'spossibilities have encour-
aged us to think globally and even universally.The currentpopu-
larity of galactic spectacles, whether comic or serious (think also
of the movies Independence Day [1996], Men in Black [1997],Contact[1997], Gattaca[1997], Deep Impact [1998],etc.), compli-cates our notions of high and low art, of distinct and rigid generic
boundaries, as the beauty and power of science and technology
impress audiences moved by the magnitude and insidious po-tential of ideas and innovations to damage individuals, social
groups, and whole civilizations. Many SF fictions, films, videos,and games have crossed over into mainstream venues that mix
politics and entertainment,which are no longer considered sepa-rate as television news executives seek to expand their audiences,
attractingreaders,computer users, and television watchers.Con-sider the phrase "Star Wars,"which has multiple referents-it
signifies a film indebted to the television series (also now a book
series) Star Trek,strategicdefense plans of the Reagan adminis-
tration, computer games available to children and adults alike
via the Internet or commercial purchase, and the documentarytelevision coverage of the Gulf War.Politics, commerce, and en-
tertainment converge, as news from Wall Street reminds us.
Defying the strict confines of science fictions, narrativecon-
ventions dependent on extraordinarymechanistic and biologicalpossibilities, supernaturalpowers, and immortality are now rou-
tinely incorporated in mainstream fiction, film, and television,for "vampiric,""ghostly,""alien,"or even "angelic"figures fre-
quently appear within quotidian stories in these media. As anytoddler's parent knows, Sesame Street now features explicitlyalien characters alongside the more humanized Bert, Ernie, and
Zoe, and the most popular US show for teenagers has one of
their own slayingvampireson a weekly basis. There is a subgenreof Hollywood comedy concerning body switching (of father and
son, mother and daughter, sister and sister) that presents such
transformations as mystical science. Our cultural preoccupationwith risk, particularlyin testing our chances in lotteries or other
forms of organized and state-sponsored gambling, has encour-
aged the representationon film of a supernaturalizedcomponentof luck: destiny, a concept that is especially appealing when in-
corporated into modern romances like Next Stop, Wonderland
(1998). It is not surprisingthat universitycourses in postmodernfiction inevitably include texts blurring the boundaries of main-
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stream and science fictionsuch as books by J.G. Ballard,Oc-tavia Butler, Michael Crichton, Thomas Pynchon, MargaretAtwood,and WilliamGibson,works hat shouldnot remain or-doned off into the large science fiction section of your localbookstorepreciselybecausethey speak to the interestsof the
generalreaderas much as to the traditional cience fiction fan.As a generalratherthan an expertreaderof the genre,I
differ rom sciencefictionpurists,as I havediscoveredn readingthe texts underreview,becauseI am overwhelmed atherthan
invigorated yits immenserangeandproductiveield-revision-ist histories,feministutopias,technological hrillers,and spacefictions-and becauseI have neither he technicalsavvynor the
patience o indulgewildspeculativeantasy hatencouragesSili-con Valley/Alleyprogrammers r spaceenthusiasts o read fic-tions forthe science's ake.I am bemusedby howsciencefictionnarratives erveas predictorsof scientificdiscoveriesand tech-
immortality,imetravel,cloning,robots,andspacecolonies,butI am moreattracted o the powerof science fictionto trackandto motivatepoliticaland social changethan I am in its abilityto serveas a harbingerof scientificdiscovery.As an historicallymindedcritic of narrative, appreciate he commonfeature ofthe books under review n noticingscience fiction as concernedwith transformation, s FrederikPohl notes (citingTom Ship-pey) in claimingthat "sciencefiction is a literatureof change"(Hasslerand Wilcox7). The volumeseditedby GaryWestfahl,
promoted he genreand its practitioners,o John W.Campbell,Jr.,who wrote and spokemanifestoson what science fictionisversus what it is not (in his view a categorybest kept distinctfromfantasy,horror,andspeculativeiction).
Campbell is quoted in Science Fiction and Market Realities
as claiming that "[s]ciencefiction . .. unlike other literatures,as-sumesthatchange s thenaturalorderof things" 16),a boldand
overlyexclusionary tatement f one recognizes hat realistandnaturalistnarrativesmplicitlyor explicitlypromotepoliticalorsocial changeby delineating he humancost of the statusquo,such as HermanMelville's riticismof navaldiscipline n White-Jacket 1850),HarrietBeecherStowe'sof slavery n UncleTomsCabin(1852), Upton Sinclair'sof meatpacking n The Jungle(1906),or feminist iteraturedentifying he pain of patriarchal
oppression,such as Kate Chopin'sTheAwakening 1899) andCharlottePerkinsGilman's"TheYellowWallpaper"1892).Yet
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although other kinds of fiction can be seen as promoting change,I agree with Campbell that only science fiction narratives focus
on change as imagined to have already taken place, as the fiction
is set in some futureperiod or in a past or presentwith a different
history or bearing different technological circumstances from
what the present-day reader knows. The reader can afford to be
retrospectively nostalgic in contemplating what is presumed to
have already happened as successful or not. Or,as Bruce Frank-
lin wrote so elegantly of nineteenth-centuryAmerican examples:
"From the perspective of the present, this science fiction of the
past shows just how much an age determines and displays itself
through what it sees as remote possibilities" (ix). The speculative
capacities of science fiction narrativesacknowledge ever-presentAmerican overlappinginterests in technological progressand re-
gretful optimism about social problems, so it is not surprisingthat in our definitively and defiantly ambivalent age contempo-
rary fictional narratives have incorporated the conventions and
strategies familiar from science fiction of what is bad about thegood or good about the bad.
In the early twentieth century, Campbell's pronouncementsaccounted for science fiction as a distinct genre examining the
possibilities of social change formulatedby scientificand techno-
logical developments in order to develop distinctive publishingvenues for science fiction (SF) and relatedgenres such as fantasy,but today criticswonder whether such a divide, if it exists, is goodfor SF. In 1988 Larry McCaffrey noted, "[I]thas only been dur-
ing the past twenty years that truly major literary talents havebeen drawn to science fiction in the country that produced the
atom bomb and landed on the moon" (1166), and he bemoaned
the fact that "theaccomplishments of science fiction have contin-
ued to remain overlooked by the literary establishment,"likelybecause "it emerged in the United States from the pulp maga-zines" (1167).5While print science fiction may have a limited fan
base (all too often presumedto be adolescent boys and men), the
Hollywood media spectacle has helped to make science fiction a
ubiquitous discourse within futuristic and historical realist fic-
tions because film's technologically enhanced language can now
serve our need to see enormous special effects made possible by
digital video editing, hence Kevin Reynolds's Waterworld1995)and James Cameron's Titanic (1997).6
The science fiction writers and critics representedin the vol-
umes under review (either in their own words or via critical anal-
yses of their novels and short stories) emphasize both classic and
popular culture features of the genre while also explicating itssignificance as a force for political change in Anglo-American
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society.Speculationon SF conventions and on the impact ofSF principlesfor society are two intertwining hreadswoven
throughthe fivevolumesunderreview;however, he authors ofthe monographs,n the inevitabledepthand profundity hat isavailablen 200 rather han 20 pages,moresuccessfully xplainlargerculturaldimensionsof the science fictiongenre.Becausetwo of the threeanthologiesunder reviewdeveloped rompro-ceedingsof the annualEatonconferencen California-Immor-tal Engines,from the April 1992 conference, and Science Fiction
and MarketRealities,rom theApril1990conference-while thethird anthology, Political Science Fiction, reprints essays from a
1993specialissue of Extrapolations,heyrepresent significantcrosssection of viewsfromwriters,editors,and criticsthatcanbe readprofitablyby all readers nterested n the past, present,and futureof sciencefictionor in the relationsbetween iteratureand science.The Eaton volumesoffer short pieces bearingthe
signs of theiroriginas oralpresentationsfew footnotes,many
arch okes,andtheappearance f ad libs to otherspeakers) hatfocusrespectively n thetopicsof immortality ndtheeconomicworldof mostlyAmericanSF witha nod towardEuropeanSF,while Political Science Fiction collects longer and more devel-
book has been printedby a major publishinghouse, been suc-cessfullymarketedo a generalaudience,andreceivedgenerallypositive reviews indicates that his argumentappeals to more
peoplethan fansof his science ictionandchildren's ooksortheattendeesatDragonConorotherscience iction anconventions.
Disch'schildren's ooks,whichhaveinspired he animatedmusical films The Brave Little Toaster (1987) and The Brave
Little Toaster Goes to Mars(1998), are similarlycarefullycrafted
to appealto thebroadestpossibleaudienceby imaging echnol-
ogy according o its humanlikevulnerabilities nd its futuristic
capabilities. f we believethat our applianceshavesentimentalattachments o us, as we have to them,then it is all too easy toshudderat the phrase "plannedobsolescence"when it is dis-cussedbyvariousappliances. t is not surprisinghatcontempo-rary ictionreflectsandrefractsourcontinuing ngagementwithold and newmedia,or to putthe situation n BraveLittleToaster
terms,wecannotthrowout ourappliances ven f theyaresuper-
sededbynewer,bettermodelsbecauseour old friendshave beengoodto us. AsWallStreetanalysts rack heapproachingonver-
genceof old andnewchannelsof information-telephone,tele-vision, and computing-cultural critics inevitablyremark onnovelizationsof films and televisionshows and the increasingtendencyof one medium o alludeto or quoteanother thinkoffilmor postmodern ictionalcharacters efinedby theirviewingof television howsand Internet anzinesdevoted o embellishingon mass media narratives).Media are not thrownaway, onlyabsorbed.
Alvinand Heidi Tofflerhave claimed hatoursis an infor-mationage, the third wavesucceedingpreviouseras formedbythe agricultural evolutionand the industrialrevolution.8n aninformationage, everyonebecomes a critic,for betteror worse,because the proliferationof informationencourages ransmis-sion, reception,sale,andexchangeas the basicmode of humanexistence,but the democratization f information s not neces-
sarilyempoweringor individualsor forsociety.As informationbecomes an availablecommodity,we all "know"whetherwewant/need/demandr not, abouteverything:romtheroyal am-
ily'sdisplayof griefafter PrincessDiana'sdeath to the intimatedetailsdrawn romthe sex livesof publicofficials.Each "factoid"seemspotentially mportant or futureconversation,whether tis relayedover a cellularphone, in an Internetchat room, orwithinproximity o a televisionstudio,in orderto understandthe floatingreferences f ourdayin headlinesand sound bites.
It is our ever-presentanxiety that we might be missingsomething mportant, ome bit of evidence hatmightmake the
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whole case clear,that mightidentifywho is responsible or thecrime, ortherealwaysalready s a crime,whether t willbeeven-
tuallypunishedor not. Weare all Scullyand Mulder,of televi-sion's TheX-Files,searchingour familybackgrounds, ealthre-
cords,contemporary vents,andbasicallyeverythingo findtheevidence hatwill supportwhatwe suspectand fear-that thereis evil in the human soul, a looming conspiracy, ome powergreater han us, an alternateuniverse,extraterrestrialife, yourspouse/neighbor/bosswho is an alien. Perhaps ears about the
growingdiversityof our cultureor the loomingpresenceof thegovernmentand mediaintrudingupon the privateand the per-sonal shade our understanding f the future'spossibilities.AsAlexanderStarnotes, in a reviewof Disch'sbook: "Thebug-eyedextraterrestrialasjoinedthe folkloreof American ife,be-
comingone morefigure n the multicultural ageant" 10). Or
perhaps t is the sheerproliferation nd transmission f informa-tion thatgroundsour anxieties. nanycase,whetherdue to polit-
ical ideologyorpsychologicalatigue,we canattestto feelingsofdisorientation ommonto paranoia,drug psychosis,andmediaoverstimulation swe decodewhatevermessagesare availableorthepurposesof survival,recognizinghat all choices are contin-
gentlymade of equalpartsoptimismandanxiety.9Seekingedginessof mood andgenre,popularmedia of the
informationage-sampling in rap and hip-hopmusic, digitalvideonews ransmissionsntheInternet, ndcomputer-animatedspecialeffectsin televisionshows and films-incorporate tech-
nologiesinto existingdiscourses hatarenot quitethe sameforthe supplements,whetherthese be in the form of chemicalsor
Narrative ormsare alteredas all stories tend towardhyperme-dia:the readermustbe thoroughly ngagedandexperimentaln
puttingtogetherthe pieces that appearto escape our control.Like the cynicaland confusedCase,cyber-cowboynarratorofWilliamGibson'sNeuromancer1984),who quicklymoves fromconversationo conversation nd triesto
figureout who can be
trusted n an ageof virtualappearances,weyearn,flee,and findthe technologywe use as both attractive ndrepellant n its vio-
lence,andwe areeventually urprisedhat thereis moreto life,but perhapsnothingelse worthwritingabout, as Case'sstoryendsin an uncomplicated omanceandblandsurvival.
Recognizing ciencefictionas an influential enre n its useof linguisticand genericconventions, he texts underreviewde-lineatea tensionbetweenscience fiction'spowerto raise social
andpoliticalconsciousnessandthe economicpowerof themar-ketplace n disseminating ciencefictionworks. Life is difficult
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grimmestpossibilitiesenvisionedby fiction,creatinga curiouskind of empowermenthatrefigures ur alienatedoss of controloverever-changingnddemandingdeas andinnovations.12
Nostalgia for the imaginedpresent s what science fictionis all about, says my local science fiction booksellerMarkSte-
phens,a situation hatmy colleagueAnneBalsamohasidentifiedas ourlonging o consider hegenreas "thehistoryof the future."
Althoughthe sciencefictionworldviewmore oftenthan not em-
phasizeshumanestrangement,Mark and Anne find themselvesinvenues nwhicheachis oftenengaged ncommunication boutsciencefictions,sharingreactions o fictionswithcustomers, ol-
leagues,and students,by theorizingabout fictionalparallels oculturalvalues and events.Those human nteractions,ikethoseat conventions, nevitablyadd to one'sappreciationof the textsand encourage he formationof readingcommunities hathelpto make the genrepopularand ubiquitous.Closingas I began,by acknowledginghe expertiseof readerswhose engagements
withsciencefictionrespectivelyeflectwidereadingandinterest-ing perspectives n culture,I realizethat its incredible bilityto
morphfromreality o possibilityand from one styleor ideologyto anotherprovidesscience fiction with its power.Because sci-ence fictionsimultaneouslyeplicates, einvigorates,ndreplacesnarrative trategiesand conventionswhileofferingculturalcri-
tiqueof the presentwrappedsometimeswithina past or future
setting,it speaksto almost anyone regardlessof status,career,age,nationality, thnicity, lass,or gender. n ourdiverse,multi-
cultural world createdby means of scientificpossibilitiesandtechnologicalapplications,any science fiction narrativehelpseventhe lessexpertreadermanagewhatcould be chaosbycreat-
inga seeminglyunmanageableictionalworldwithin he confinesof a book.
Notes
1. "Throughoutthe past fourdecades, both the productivityand performanceof microelectronics have advanced at exponential rates unmatched in techno-
logical history. The number of transistors per microchip has skyrocketedby a
factor of 100 million, while the cost of a chip has remained virtually constant.
And the amount of energy consumed in a binary switchingtransition has been
reduced by more than five decades Consequently,microelectronics has become
the principal driver of the modem Information Revolution" (Meindl 16-17).
2. In this paragraphand that following, I summarizepassages from my essay
"Science and Literature"(1999). Also see the recent textbook anthology The
EnglishLiteraturesof America, 1500-1800, edited by Myra Jehlenand Michael
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