INTRODUCTION The world of literature would be incomplete without the genre of science fiction. The
vastness of possibilities brought to our lives by science fiction authors is infinite.
Alternative worlds, various galaxies with various creatures, advanced technology
beyond our imagination are only a small fragment this genre is able to provide. The
possibilities we can accomplish are bound only by our creativity.
Science fiction as a genre is quite unique. As Philip K. Dick stated in one of his
letters; the best science fiction is changed into a dialogue between an author and a
reader. This dialogue is launched by a chain reaction of thoughts provided by the author
who develops a text containing a new idea.
If we want to discuss science fiction further, it is quite essential to ask ourselves,
why should we even waste time doing so. It is quite evident to say, that as our society
entered the new millennium, our culture, lives and everything that surrounds us is
somehow affected by the advanced technology. For example, in the IT industry,
engineers are influenced by the ideas presented either in SF books or movies. We can
mention not only the effort to connect a man into a computer world or plugging
technical devices into our bodies. All these scenes are taken from the world of SF.
Evidence supporting this point of view that SF rules our lives can be seen in today’s
cinematography. Just by looking at what kind of movies are most demanding by
audience, we would find, that majority of them are the genre of sci-fi or fantasy. But
why is this so? One answer to this question could be that people living in the world
today are trying to find a place to hide and is there a better place than a place where you
find space heroes who are trying to save the galaxy from the nasty aliens or mutants. It
is the pursuit of being somebody else, caused by the internal dissatisfaction of who we
really are, or in other words, it is the escape from reality that is demanded. The other
answer represents the man’s curiosity to see what the future world would be like, and
SF provides various pictures of the future reality.
Science fiction as other genres in literature as well has undergone some
development, which shaped it into a form we experience now. In order to look at the
present state of SF we need to define, what science fiction really is, therefore this topic
will be discussed in chapter one. To achieve this goal, we need to analyze a real
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definition and make boundaries of good and bad SF. There need to be opinions of the
critics presented in order to make the definition valid. Their presence during the analysis
will be able to help us to understand the SF genre from different points of view and their
opinions will draw a line which we will have to follow so as to succeed in the goal set.
Besides exploring the real definition of SF there are other aspects to consider while
engaged with any literary genre. Studying origins of science fiction is necessary to
provide the vital background to the development of SF genre and to the analysis of the
contemporary SF. Answers to the rising questions concerning with the features of
science fiction as such or why SF went just that particular direction could be found in its
history and therefore the importance of history of SF should not be underestimated. The
second part of chapter two focuses on four talented SF writers. Starting with H. G.
Wells, Isaac Asimov, Philip K. Dick and Robert A. Heinlein. They all offered
something out of the ordinary that attracted the readers of SF. Having a scope of the
science fiction authors enables us with analytical and critical thinking to other authors
and their works.
Chapter three of the thesis focuses on assigning science fiction as being part of a
speculative fiction. Nowadays, science fiction literature is not considered to create a
single literary genre. With its features and subgenres it satisfies the criteria of
speculative fiction and is often regarded as such. Therefore the chapter discusses
relations between SF and other literary genres. Analysis of the distinctive and similar
features that are present in the works of SF, cyberpunk, dystopia and a ‘similar’ genre of
fantasy are presented. Significant authors of the genres are mentioned and examples of
their significant works are provided.
Another chapter, chapter four deals with the influence of postmodernism on science
fiction that is undeniable and it is essential to present it for anyone who is concerned
with SF literature. The postmodern movement affected the course of science fiction and
through its impact SF has taken a form it possess now. Influential postmodern
philosophers with their ideas are introduced and their ideas characterized. Together with
the features that are characteristic for postmodern literature, there is enough theoretical
background provided in order to use it during the analysis presented in next chapters.
The features presented are explained and examples of them are provided.
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When having all the necessary informational background about the development of
science fiction, its features, representatives and their works, a practical part of analyzing
and finding the overlapping features between two famous works takes place. Two works
are introduced, Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World and Andy and Larry’s Wachowski
The Matrix.
The following chapter five focuses on characterizing postmodern features in The
Matrix. The chapter is divided into three parts. The first one consists of introducing and
explaining the work of The Matrix along with William Gibson’s Neuromancer, whose
work is essential in the analysis later introduced in this chapter. The second part of the
chapter reintroduces two significant postmodern philosophers whose ideas are applied
on the analyzed work. The final part of the analysis concerns with finding selected
postmodern features in The Matrix, where examples of Gibson’s Neuromancer are
provided, which are vital for the purpose of the analysis.
Chapter six focuses on the genre of SF as such and the difficulties that may arise
when one is trying to characterize a work as being part of science fiction literature. The
current chapter introduces Aldous Huxley’s novel Brave New World. Again the chapter
is divided into three parts, where the novel is characterized and analyzed. After the
proper introduction of the novel, a discussion is formed, whether the novel satisfies the
criteria of science fiction. During the analysis various points of view are presented in
order to provide an objective result. The second half of the chapter consists of analyzing
the dystopian features of Brave New World, through which a conclusion regarding the
importance of dystopia in SF literature is made.
The final chapter of the thesis concerns with the overlapping features of The Matrix
and Brave New World with the focus on the genre. Similar features are highlighted and
the analysis of them in the works is provided. Conclusion presented is based on the
examples introduced during the analysis.
Through the particular chapters presented, the thesis uncovers the world of science
fiction which is not bound by literature. It is the world around us; it is the world of
today which is shaped by the influence of SF. To be able to see the features of SF and
be able to critically address them gives us a better chance to understand the world we
live in and also the effects the literature has on our world and lives.
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1 DEFINITION OF SCIENCE FICTION
When studying science fiction literature, it is essential to possess a definition that
will manage to distinguish between SF literature and literature of other genres.
Therefore the aim of the chapter is to provide ideas presented by literary critics and
authors of SF, who employed themselves in this matter. During the process of
representing the proper definition, distinct ideas will be explained and suggestions of
critics considered.
Genre of SF represents a unique kind of fiction that made literary critics a difficult
time defining it. The most obvious definition that is suggested through its name is not
correct as an uninterested person in science fiction might think. SF does not represent
the kind of fiction, in which the main idea points towards technology as such. Literary
critics argue that the world of science fiction is more than just technology.
The aim of the chapter is to present the most suitable definition of science fiction
literature provided by literary critics and introduce several attempts provided by SF
authors themselves and literary critics as well.
In order to define SF it would be appropriate to find out when this term was used for
a first time. According to A Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory the term
‘science fiction’ was used for the first time in the year 1851 by William Wilson in his
A little Earnest Book upon a Great Old Subject. Another name that is connected with
the term is the name of a founder of a magazine Amazing Stories. Hugo Gernsback
(1894 – 1967) used the term scientifiction in order to describe the genre, now known as
science fiction.
For further studying of SF genre, it was more then inevitable to present a justifiable
definition. A definition able to understand SF, able to point out its crucial features and
characteristics. As it was mentioned before science fiction resists an easy definition.
Even the definition from a literary dictionary is vague, not as clear as we would expect
it to be.
“A science fiction story is a narrative (usually in prose) of short story, novella or novel
(qq.v.) length. … Such stories … include trips to other worlds, quests, the exploration of
space, visits to other planets and interplanetary warfare. …utopia … dystopia …past …
They are also concerned with technological change and development, with scientific
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experiment, with social, climatic, geological and ecological change.”
(Cuddon, J.A., 1998, p. 791).
There is another definition presented by the literary dictionary. It quotes Brian Aldiss
and his point of view.
“Science fiction is the search for a definition of mankind and his status in the universe
which will stand in our advanced but confused state of knowledge (science) and is
characteristically cast in the Gothic or post-Gothic mode.’ (Cuddon, J.A., 1998, p. 791).
Both of these definitions introduced are not able to satisfy an interested person in the
world of science fiction. The former one only lists series of ideas presented by SF
authors in their stories/novellas. Since the spectrum of the author’s imagination is
without boundaries and the ideas presented by the authors so far are more than enough.
Therefore the former definition does not succeed in providing us with the proper
definition of science fiction.
The latter one, introduced by Brian Aldiss is more abstract. The element of science as a
crucial part of a science fiction plot is here the leading factor. Though this may be
correct, but not in all circumstances, as it will be more discussed later in this chapter.
The only focus on the science/knowledge may be limiting and hiding other forms of
science fiction.
Book Science Fiction written by Adam Roberts also focuses on providing a
definition of science fiction. He thinks that:
“… science fiction as a genre or division of literature distinguishes its fictional worlds
to one degree or another from the world in which we actually live …”
(Roberts, A., 2000, p. 1).
He also stresses the importance of the new concept introduced in any science fiction
story as a ‘crucial separator’ between science fiction and other fantastic/imaginative
literature. In his studies he concentrates on three definitions from literary critics.
The first definition is introduced by Darko Suvin who elaborated the concept of
novum (Latin for ‘new’). Novum represents a ‘new thing’ or a ‘new phenomenon’,
which is also used as a distinguishing element between SF and the rest of the literature.
Suvin’s idea is as Roberts explains it that every science fiction story consists of one
novum or a number or interrelated nova. Therefore Darko Suvin defined SF as:
“… a literary genre whose necessary and sufficient conditions are the presence and
interaction of estrangement and cognition, and whose main formal device is an
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imaginative framework alternative to the author’s empirical environment.”
(Suvin, D., 2004, p. 375).
There are two new terms introduced by Suvin. The former one is the term of
cognition. Here Roberts defines it as form of rational and logical, which enables the
reader to understand the concept of the novum. He also states his idea that if only the
element of cognition was presented in the text, it would have to be classified as a
documentary or as scientific. Suvin also adds on the account of cognition:
“… this term does not imply only a reflecting of but also on reality. It implies a creative
approach tending toward a dynamic transformation rather than toward a static mirroring
of the author’s environment.” (Suvin, D., 2004, p. 377).
The latter term introduced in Suvin’s definition is the one of estrangement. The
concept of estrangement was used by Bertolt Brecht whose aim was to write plays for a
scientific age. Suvin quotes Brecht as he defined estrangement (Verfremdungseffekt) in
his Short Organon for the Theatre (1948) as:
“A representation which estranges is one which allows us to recognize its subject, but at
the same time makes it seem unfamiliar.” (Suvin, D., 2004, p. 374).
Roberts explained the term estrangement as it is used in the English-language criticism
– as alienation. He inclines to Brecht’s explanation and agrees on estranging of the
familiar or the known. The strength of Suvin’s definition lies in the “embodiment of a
common-sense tautology” (2000, p. 8) as it is argued from the Robert’s side. It is the
science fiction that is presented as a “scientific fictionalizing” (2000, p. 8).
Suvin’s definition of SF is quite popular by the literary critics who are interested in
the genre of science fiction. Carl Freedman in his Critical Theory and Science Fiction
also used Suvin’s point of view in a chapter defining science fiction.
“… science fiction is determined by the dialectic between estrangement and cognition.
The first term refers to the creation of an alternative fictional world that, by refusing to
take our mundane environment for granted, implicitly or explicitly performs an
estranging critical interrogation of the latter.” (Freedman, C., 2000, p. 17).
He argues that the character of the interrogation is based on cognition, which allows us
to access the text logically and rationally. If the concept of estrangement was not
present, Freedman points out that the text would represent ordinary realistic fiction. On
the other hand, if the concept of cognition was missing, the text would be a fantasy or a
text estranging only in an irrational and illegitimate way.
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A following critic introduced by Roberts is Robert Scholes. The definition provided
by him differentiates from Suvin’s. As Roberts states, Scholes in his book Structural
Fabulation:
“… has stressed the metaphorical strain of SF. He defines ‘Fabulation’ as any ‘fiction
that offers us a world clearly and radically discontinuous from the one we know, yet
returns to confront that known world in some cognitive way.’”
Roberts, A., 2000, p. 10).
According to Roberts, Scholes put more emphasis on the literary features of the science
fiction texts. For him ‘science’ is only a starting point, the real focus is based on the
process of ‘fictionalisation’.
The last critic presented by Roberts is Damien Broderick, whom Roberts also
quoted, is also a SF author and a theoretically-engaged critic, defined SF as following.
“SF is that species of storytelling native to a culture undergoing the epistemic changes
implicated in the rise and supercession of technical-industrial modes of production,
distribution, consumption and disposal. It is marked by (i) metaphoric strategies and
metonymic tactics, (ii) the foregrounding of icons and interpretative schemata from a
collectively constituted generic ‘mega-text’ and the concomitant de-emphasis of ‘fine
writing’ and characterization, and (iii) certain priorities more often found in scientific
and postmodern texts than in literary models: specifically, attention to the object in
preference to the subject.” (Roberts, A., 2000, p. 11-12).
Roberts explains the terms ‘metaphoric strategies’ and ‘metonymic tactics’ with the
occurrence of a novum in a SF tale. The novum, on one hand represents a part of the
imagined world, which is a representation of the whole environment and on the other
hand the whole SF text functions metaphorically. Example from the movie Blade
Runner is also provided. The androids (novum) from the movie are connected with the
main idea of the movie and the movie itself is taken as Roberts suggests as a metaphor
for the “alienated existence of the contemporary life” (2000, p. 13).
Another problem Broderick sees with science fiction texts is that it does not offer
things to the reader that are normally found in a main-stream literature (detailed analysis
of characters, …). Broderick argues for the focus of SF texts on the object rather than
subject.
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From the point of view introduced by another SF author and critic Gwyneth Jones
the unease presented by Broderick is not that disastrous. She simply says that:
“… SF avoids the trappings of mainstream fiction so as not to distract its readership
from the conceptual experiment it represents; fine writing is ‘de-emphasised’ in order to
allow content and concept to come more obviously to the fore.”
(Roberts, A., 2000, p. 14).
There have been more attempts to come up with a ‘good’ definition of science
fiction. There are those provided by the literary critics or even the SF authors
themselves. SF writer Philip K. Dick stated what can be used in order to define science
fiction. Dick argues that it is the presence of an imaginary world created as an
alternative to our own, which is one of the crucial parts in defining science fiction. The
shift between the alternative and the real is according to Dick the essence of science
fiction. It is the reality of unknown that the reader’s mind is shocked by.
All the definitions provided either by the critics, the authors and the members of
science fiction community, manage to have one concept in common in the definitions
provided by them. They agree upon that it is the phenomenon of the novum that is
needed to be present in any science fiction story. The success of the story depends on
the use of the novum. As to quote Roberts again:
“The more expertly the ‘nova’ are deployed, the more thorough this imaginative
encounter with difference can be.” (Roberts, A., 2000, p. 20).
Of course the process of characterizing any work as a piece of science fiction literature
is not an easy task, as it was suggested during the chapter. The ideas and suitable
definitions provided in this chapter will be reused in later chapter of the thesis.
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2 HISTORY OF SCIENCE FICTION
To portrait the development of science fiction may not be as easy as it seems. As it is
difficult to present the ‘perfect’ definition of science fiction, it is also problematic to
illustrate its history. The main difficulty lies in finding the starting point, or the
historical term, where SF has emerged for the first time. The current chapter will discuss
the origins of science fiction genre, introduces its development stages with their
characteristic features. Authors with their significant works will be provided for each
stage and at last four significant authors who influenced the course of SF literature will
be introduced in detail.
2.1 ORIGINS OF SCIENCE FICTION LITERATURE
As Adam Roberts puts it in his book Science Fiction, it is not easy to decide where to
start with the historical development of SF. There are lots of options to choose from. H.
G. Wells, Jules Verne could be defined as the fathers of science fiction. What about the
ancient literature?
“There are journeys to the Moon or heroic protagonists seeking out new worlds and
strange new civilizations in the oldest epics of human culture, from the ancient
Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh (written perhaps in 2000 BC).” (Roberts, A. 2000, p. 47).
According to A Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory there are
numerous predecessors of modern science fiction. The example this book provides is a
book Vera Historia (True History) from Lucian of Samosata. Roberts also mentions this
work. He labeled this book as a popular example of proto-SF writing. This book
presents features like interplanetary warfare and interplanetary travel.
There are some forms of early periods of writing, which could be regarded as the
predecessor to modern SF. Some of these genres are mentioned in A Dictionary of
Literary Terms and Literary Theory. They occurred during the Middle Ages and were
called vision literature. Vision literature was quite popular and widespread and it was
interested in exploring the ’metaphysical worlds’ like heaven, purgatory, hell. The most
popular one and easy to describe was hell. Exploration of hell represented the early
form of horror story and a predecessor to scientific romance.
There are also other works and authors that were influential for the development of
SF genre. It would be unwise not to mention Thomas More’s Utopia (1516) which is
also mentioned by Roberts in his book and also in A Dictionary of Literary Terms and
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Literary Theory. Roberts considers More’s Utopia as a starting point in the SF
development and names it a proto-SF, because there are not visible any futuristic forms
and there is no encounter with otherness. A Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary
Theory considers More’s Utopia:
“… to be a kind of prototype of all sorts of utopia and utopian schemes, plus adventure
quests, including expeditions into space.” (Cuddon, J. A., 1998, p. 792).
On the other hand some science fiction critics may think otherwise. Adam Roberts in
his book introduced two literary critics, Nicholls and Clute and their contributions.
“SF critic Peter Nicholls thinks that ‘SF proper requires a consciousness of the scientific
outlook’, and that ‘a cognitive, scientific way of looking at the world did not emerge
until the 17th century, and did not percolate into society at large until … the 19 th’. He
adds that ‘there is no sense at all in which we can regard SF as a genre conscious of
being genre before 19th century.’” (Roberts, A., 2000, p. 48).
Nicholls’s ideas presented in the above quotation are quite logical. He sees SF from
the technological point of view, where technology forms a significant part of the SF
story. Therefore his assumption that the genre of SF has emerged during the 19th century
is correct.
“Stress the relative youth of the mode, and you are arguing that SF is a specific artistic
response to a very particular set of historical and cultural phenomena: …”
(Roberts, A., 2000, p. 47).
This quotation also supports Nicholls’s idea. It argues that works of SF could only
take place in countries which have experienced any form of Industrial Revolution.
Through Industrial Revolution we mean any form of technological progress and this
progress is somehow portrayed also in the literature. Technology as such could
represent a fundamental part of science fiction, since technology itself can represent the
encounter with the novum, or it could be the novum itself.
There is one more literary work that is considered as a turning point in the
development of SF genre and that is Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818). Roberts
considers this book very influential and according to him the crucial part of this book
forms the central character – the monster. Everything that is connected to the monster is
a part of the novum that this book has brought up. It is the monster itself who resembles
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the encounter with otherness. It reminds an alienated existence that is so popular in
today’s science fiction.
As mentioned in A Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory, the creation of
the monster is carried out in the scientific terms, where:
“… monster created by Dr Frankenstein is the product of scientific research, knowledge
and skills. The doctor imparts life to a composite being constructed from bits of
corpses.” (Cuddon, J.A., 1998, p. 793).
There is one fact, which A Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary History considers
being a great pity and that is:
“… that Mary Shelley did not give the monster a name; many who know the basic story
but have not read the book refer to it/him as Frankenstein.”
(Cuddon, J.A., 1998, p. 793).
Despite the fact mentioned, there occurred several imitations of this book since its
publication because the impact it left on literature is significant. Even after hundred
years we can recognize the symbols occurring either in literature or cinematography.
The best example to provide is the movie The Terminator (1984) directed by James
Cameron. The robot machine completely resembles the monster from Shelley’s book.
2.2 ERA OF H.G. WELLS AND JULES VERNE
Adam Roberts devoted part of his book to the history of SF genre. He recognizes
several stages – Jules Verne and H. G. Wells, Pulp SF, The Golden Age, New Wave.
The first stage presents two, quite famous writers whose contributions are
undeniable. Jules Verne (1828 - 1905) is popular for his fantastic voyages that are set
(as Roberts says) into the present version of his world. His greatest works are Journey to
the Center of the Earth (1864), From the Earth to the Moon (1864), Twenty Thousand
Leagues Under the Sea (1869) and Around the World in Eighty Days (1873).
“A major part of Verne’s success was his ability to make scientific expertise plausible.”
(Cuddon, J.A., 1998, p. 794).
Or as Roberts says, Vernes’ SF technology is taken from existing scientific principles;
therefore it is better understood and accepted by his readers and satisfies the criteria of
SF set by Darko Suvin.
The other author mentioned in this so called ‘contribution’ stage is H. G. Wells
(1865 - 1946).
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“… one of the great originators of science fiction ideas – many of which have been
refashioned by other writers since.” (Cuddon, J.A., 1998, p. 795).
The most famous and popular works written by Wells are The Time Machine (1895),
The Island of Dr Moreau (1896), The War of the Worlds (1898).
Through his writing H. G. Wells mastered several themes such as – time-travel, the
biological mutation, alien invasion, etc.
“And it is through Wells, … , that fiction centrally concerned with the encounter with
difference is most thoroughly developed.” (Roberts, A., 2000, p. 55).
As Roberts shows in his book, Wells dealt with the encounter with the otherness, for
example meeting the new life forms (aliens, beast people).
“…; it is Wells’s dialectical sense of the interrelationship between sameness and
otherness that gives this work much of its potency: the cognitive estrangement.”
(Roberts, A., 2000, p. 63).
Roberts dedicates some time to analyze Wells’s greatest book: War of the Worlds. He
argues that the nova presented in this book is concerned with the present version of his
world. It is the violent method of building a British Empire. Aliens from the book
resemble imperialists who use their power to invade other nations. He adds that the
whole book is connected to the Age of Empires. There was British Empire at his time,
which represented the model of civilized behavior. Nowadays we face the impact of the
American Empire that treats everybody as a sort-of-American. To support his ideas
Roberts adds examples from the recent cinematography. Those are the Independence
Day (1996), where the earth is attacked by the species from other planet and the whole
world unites in order to defeat their new enemy. The whole movie is very similar to
Wells’s book. Another example he provides is the always popular TV series Star Trek,
where the confederacy takes over the other planetary systems. It is a form of an empire
building.
Roberts in the end quite originally interprets the success of Wells’ novel, which is
based on the balance between the familiar representation of the known and the
strangeness of its novum. He thinks that the development of SF is closely related to the
cultural history of that particular country and that the novum symbolically relates to the
key concerns of the society.
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2.3 PULP SCIENCE FICTION
Another stage introduced by Roberts in his book Science Fiction is the Pulp SF.
Development of SF is associated with the popular fiction, and the market dictated the
way SF had to go. It all started during the 1890s that Frank Munsey introduced the first
pulp magazine Argosy.
“Advances in the manufacture of paper out of wood-pulp in the 1880s fuelled a boom in
cheap publishing, and a wide range of magazines grew up, printed on a cheap, thick
paper that shreads easily and yellows quickly.” (Roberts, A., 2000, p. 67).
The era of pulp magazines was on its peak during 1920s and 1950s. According to a
Wikipedia.org pulp magazines introduced variety of genres. The most popular were
detective/mystery, science fiction, adventure, romance, war, horror/occult, Série Noire
stories. Science fiction magazines appeared first in the United States, but later they
became available for the readers all over the world. As a first pulp magazine to
specialize in SF introduced by Roberts was Thrill Book. It was published during the
year 1919 and unfortunately it was canceled the same year. After couple years later a
new science-fiction magazine appeared. The magazine was called Amazing Stories and
it was published by Hugo Gernsback in 1926. Gernsback’s aim was to make SF
educational almost dialectic. Through this magazine science fiction material was
introduced to ordinary readers. During the first issues this magazine published reprints
of famous writers, such as H. G. Wells, Jules Verne and Edgar Allan Poe. Later on,
young talented writers, SF fans or scientists began publishing their works through these
magazines. The most outstanding ones according to Wikipedia.org were Dr. Miles
Breuer (The Gostak and the Doshes), Stanley G. Weinbaum (A Martian Odyssey), Buck
Rogers, Philip Francis Nowlan (The Warlords of Han), E. E. ‘Doc’ Smith (The Skylark
of Space) and Mrs. Lee Hawkins Garby.
It was after 607 issues of the magazine, in the year of 2005, that Amazing Stories
stopped publishing.
Another important name occurring with the pulp SF magazines is John Campbell. He
was the editor and publisher of the first pulp science fiction magazine. He named it
Astounding Stories. It started in January 1930 and since then the magazine changed
names to Astounding Science Fiction, Astounding Science Fact and Fiction, Analog.
According to Roberts, Campbell’s main pursuit was to make SF educational,
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entertaining and analyze how people reacted to the ideas presented in the magazine. In
those days:
“Most pulp science fiction consisted of adventure stories transplanted, without much
thought, to alien planets. And most of it was so badly written that even today science
fiction still carries a slight whiff of its pulp heritage. The classic image of pulp science
fiction is a beautiful, scantily-clad, large-breasted woman being carried off by a bug-
eyed monster.” (Wikipedia, 2006).1
He tried to change several stereotypes used by the authors; for instance the overuse of
Wellsian symbol of an alien invasion.
“… John W. Campbell, Jr., is credited with turning science fiction away from adventure
stories on alien planets and toward well-written, scientifically literate stories with better
characterization than in previous pulp science fiction.” (Wikipedia, 2006).2
Among the famous writers whose works were published through this magazine were
Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein (Future History), Hal Clement (Mission of Gravity),
Frank Herbert (Dune).
There are two more authors Roberts introduces during this stage of development of
science fiction. Here belongs Edgar Rice Burroughs (1875 – 1950) and E. E. ‘Doc’
Smith (1890 - 1965). Burroughs is famous for creating a hero Tarzan. He also
concentrated on writing different genres and published his stories in pulp magazines.
The first story he published in a pulp magazine was Under the Moons of Mars.
Wikipedia.org lists other genres introduced by him; such as SF or fantasy stories set on
various planets, lost islands, westerns and historical romances.
The next author is E. E. Smith. He is considered to be the founder of space operas.
The significant works produced by him are the Skylark series and Lensman series. As
Wikipedia.org suggests E. E. Smiths is best known for the unique elements he managed
to include in his writing.
1 WIKIPEDIA.ORG, The Free Encyclopedia [online], 12. March 2006 [quoted 1. February 2006].
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_fiction_magazine>.2 WIKIPEDIA.ORG, The Free Encyclopedia [online], 12. March 2006 [quoted 1. February 2006].
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_fiction_magazine>.
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“… the extrapolation of known science and, often, the extrapolation of existing and
historic social and political patterns of the early to mid-twentieth century. Smith himself
expressed a preference for inventing fictional technologies that were not strictly
impossible (so far as the science of the day was aware) but highly unlikely: ‘the more
unlikely the better’ was his phrase.” (Wikipedia, 2006).3
Smith was one of the greatest figures of SF that influenced the popular culture. Not
only George Lucas took inspiration from Smith, but also groups of scientist who took
his creative ideas.
After the 1950’s the pulp era began to decline. It was due to introduction of
television, rising printing costs and because of their new competition – comic books.
Pulp era can be definitely considered among the crucial periods of development of SF.
It introduced not even new ideas but also some creative works that are still read today.
2.4 GOLDEN AGE OF SCIENCE FICTION
Golden Age as the next stage of the development of science fiction is also connected
with John Campbell, the editor of the SF magazine Astounding. It is mostly agreed that
the time span of this stage goes from the late 1930s to 1950s. This time period is also
known as the era of American Pulp publishing.
John Campbell as one of the main figures of the golden age managed to control the
most talented writers and by laying out his criteria of SF writing, he managed to control
the direction of science fiction.
“Write me a creature that thinks as well as a man, or better than a man, but not like a
man.” (Wikipedia, 2006).4
His ideas and the requirements he lay on his authors influenced the course of science
fiction literature and made him the influential SF figure.
Campbell’s thoughts on science fiction are stated in Robert’s book:
“That group of writings which is usually referred to as ‘main-stream literature’ is
actually a special subgroup of the field of science fiction – for science fiction deals with 3 WIKIPEDIA.ORG, The Free Encyclopedia [online], 3. April 2006 [quoted 1. February 2006].
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._E._Smith>.4 WIKIPEDIA.ORG, The Free Encyclopedia [online], 26. March 2006 [quoted 1. February 2006].
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_science_fiction>.
19
all places in the Universe, and all times in Eternity, so the literature of the here-and-now
is, truly, a subset of science fiction.” (Roberts, A., 2000, p. 75).
With authors like Isaac Asimov (Foundation (1942-50)), Arthur C. Clarke
(Childhood’s End (1953)), Robert A. Heinlein (The Puppet Masters (1951)) under his
control, science fiction started to get recognized.
“… science fiction began to gain status as serious fiction.” (Wikipedia, 2006).5
Also authors who were not initially interested in science fiction managed to add
respectability to the genre with their works. Among these authors were Karel Čapek,
Aldous Huxley, C.S. Lewis, Ray Bradbury, Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
The end of the golden age is signaled by authors writing for other magazines than
Astounding, in order to have more freedom in their writing. It is the rise of the
magazine Galaxy that is recognized as the final moment of the golden age of science
fiction.
2.5 NEW WAVE SCIENCE FICTION
It was during the 1960s that science fiction acquired new dimensions. Influential
works appeared which changed its development. Authors shifted to new ideas to enrich
their writing. It is the period of the ‘New Wave’ science fiction.
Quite groundbreaking is the year 1960 when Kingsley Amis published his New
Maps of Hell.
“…, a literary history and examination of the filed of science fiction. This serious
attention from a mainstream, acceptable writer did a great deal of good, eventually, for
the reputation of science fiction.” (Wikipedia, 2006). 6
New Wave can be characterized as a period of a change. According to Wikipedia.org
and its sources, authors during the 1960s started to experiment with the form of SF.
Through their writing, they managed to connect SF with the mainstream literature and
borrowed features from each other.
Authors were also taking an interest in the topics, which the older writers did not
consider. Long avoided sexuality became a topic widely spread in science fiction works
during this time. The most influential new wave work was Frank Herbert’s Dune (1965)
and Robert A. Heinlein’s Stranger in a Strange Land (1961). Heinlein managed to 5 WIKIPEDIA.ORG, The Free Encyclopedia [online], 26. March 2006 [quoted 1. February 2006].
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_science_fiction>.6 WIKIPEDIA.ORG, The Free Encyclopedia [online], 26. March 2006 [quoted 1. February 2006].
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_science_fiction>.
20
switch from the golden age style to the more complex style of the new wave SF. Other
outstanding authors that deserve to be mentioned are Michael Moorcock who is also
considered to be an influential figure of the 1960s. His famous works are The Final
Programme (1968), A Cure for Cancer (1971), The English Assassin (1972), The
Condition of Muzak (1977). Famous short story I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream
(1967) written by Harlan Ellison. And of course the legendary Philip K. Dick with his
legendary novels The Man in the High Castle (1962), Martian Time-Slip (1964), A
Scanner Darkly (1977).
During the 1960s writers shifted their interest from magazines to books, which
automatically meant a decline of magazines. Authors created their ideas in a novel
length and paperback production became widely used.
According to Adam Roberts the New Wave period experienced two significant
moments. One of them is the growth of authors of color the other is the rise of women
authors, which ultimately led to a growth in popularity of the science fiction genre.
Roberts also argues that it is not only literature and its literary works that attracted new
readers to science fiction.
“But a more significant factor, in terms of the sheer numbers of people attracted to SF,
has been TV and cinema.” (Roberts, A., 2006, p. 84).
The New Wave SF can undoubtedly be considered as the most flourishing time of
SF, during which authors experimented with the genre and a variety of significant
works came into existence. It is also a time when SF gained a noticeable number of
readership.
“According to John Hunstington, …, it was not until the 1960s and what is called ‘New
Wave SF’ that the genre became genuinely mass popular phenomenon.” (Roberts, A.,
2000, p. 80).
With the New Wave era of SF, science fiction literature started to take part in the
popular culture, where its importance was growing stronger with time.
2.6 ERA OF CYBERPUNK AND NEW SPACE OPERA
The next stage that ultimately follows the New Wave SF is the science fiction of the
1980s. It is the time of cyberpunk, which according to Wikipedia.org maintained the
style of New Wave science fiction, but it created its own themes and style.
21
The influential year in the development of cyberpunk is the year 1984 when William
Gibson published his masterpiece Neuromancer, for which he received both the Nebula
Award and Hugo Award. During the era of cyberpunk, the whole society was affected
by the coming trend of computers, technology itself.
Next to cyberpunk a new sub-genre of science fiction emerged from the traditional
Space Opera. As it is stated by Wikipedia.org the New Space Opera featured with more
realistic science, more detailed characters and it still used the epic settings from the
original genre. Both genres cyberpunk and new space opera were widely preferred by
writers during the 1980s and 1990s, and are even used during the present days.
There is more information provide on cyberpunk as a sub-genre of science fiction
literature in chapter three of the thesis.
Contemporary SF and the Future SF are quite difficult to discuss. The contemporary
SF is still much influenced by cyberpunk, which has widely spread since the 1980s. It
even influenced media such as TV, cinema and therefore it was introduced to the
mainstream culture as is stated by Wikipedia.org.
Both contemporary and future SF has come into a conflict. It is nicely portrayed by
Answers.com that the dividing line between science fiction and the rest of the literature
is getting thinner. Now in the world of technology, we find works that were classified as
science fiction, but now they could be considered a mainstream fiction. Also works that
state what has actually come to pass are not surprising. It seems that the older works of
science fiction have described the world we are living in now – the world of science
fiction and therefore science fiction may loose its significance or interest in this process.
Consequently it would be rash and difficult to predict the trend science fiction is going
to take in the future.
2.7 AUTHORS OF SCIENCE FICTION
The list of authors writing (who were writing) science fiction is quite tremendous.
There are some whose contributions should be remembered since they changed the
course of science fiction. This chapter deals with several authors who considerably
contributed to the world of science fiction and who do not deserve to be forgotten. The
four authors presented are symbols of almost all development stages of science fiction
22
literature. Their works are considered of high value and their presence in literature
shaped the course of SF genre. Therefore the aim of the chapter is to provide a detailed
background on SF authors whose writing influenced the sphere of SF literature to a
great extent. The information presented in the current chapter is used from
Wikipedia.org.
2.8 HERBERT GEORGE WELLS
Herbert George Wells was born in Bromley, Kent in the year 1866 and died in
London in the year 1946. Wells had a troublesome youth, which also led him to writing.
Most of his inspiration for his SF books Wells acquired, was from Jules Verne. It was in
the year 1893, when he became fully interested in writing. Wells’ first debut was The
Time Machine (1895), which was followed by The Island of Dr. Moreau (1896), The
Invisible Man (1897) and The War of the Worlds (1898) all of which were filmed.
The latter book is now of a great significance, since it was recently directed by
Steven Spielberg. The War of the Worlds is a book about a Martian invasion who came
to London with only one aim and that is to eradicate the human nation. Later in the year
1938 Orson Wells broadcasted The War of the Worlds, which caused panic in the
United States.
H. G. Wells was not only a writer of science fiction, although without any doubt the
contribution made by him is sometimes undervalued. He also wrote non-fiction. The
Outline of History (1920), A Short History of the World (1922), The Work, Wealth and
Happiness of Mankind (1931).
Throughout his life Wells could be characterized as a novelist, historian and
socialist. He was also a president of the International PoetsEssayistsNovelists Club.
The scope of Wells’ influence in the world of science fiction is enormous. The topics
he introduced (Martian invasion, time travel …) were and are used still today by some
authors. There is no doubt about his classification as a pioneer of science fiction.
2.9 ROBERT ANSON HEINLEIN
Robert Anson Heinlein was one of the most extraordinary SF writers ever living. He
was born in Missouri, United States in 1907. During his life he joined Navy where he
gained much experience which we can find also in his books. Later he was discharged
23
due to tuberculosis. He tried to join Navy again, but without success. Three wives,
Heinlein married throughout his life had an enormous impact on his writing.
Heinlein turned to writing SF in 1938 in order to pay off his mortgage. His stories
were published in the magazine Astounding that was edited by John W. Campbell at
that time. With Isaac Asimov, Heinlein belongs to one of the most successful SF writers
of the golden age. One of his first novels is Rocket Ship Galileo (1947) which belongs
to a children’s science fiction. In the year 1959 he produced Starship Troopers which
also made it to a movie. For this controversial book he received a Hugo Award. The
best know novel, which is also regarded by some as Heinlein’s masterpiece is Stranger
in a Strange Land (1961). It is also the bestselling science fiction ever published. The
book portrays ideas as counterculture, organized religion and sexual freedom. Another
fine example of science fiction written by Heinlein is a book Moon is a Harsh Mistress
(1966). It pictures a battle of independence carried out by the lunar colonies. Other not
as much known books are Glory Road (1963), I Will Fear No Evil (1971) and Cat Who
Walks Through Walls (1985).
According to Wikipedia.org, Heinlein was one of the most controversial authors of
SF, who with Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke formed the group Big Three of
science fiction. In his writing he analyzed social themes such as: radical individualism,
libertarianism, religion, aspects of emotional and physical love. His contribution was
left unnoticed and he was awarded seven Hugo Awards and one Grand Master Award
for lifetime achievement. It was then in the year 1988 that he died in his sleep.
2.10 ISAAC ASIMOV
Isaac Asimov also a member of the group Big Three of science fiction. Born in
Petrovichi, Russia in the year 1920. At the age of three his family and he emigrated to
United States. As a talented child he managed to read before he entered school. During
his childhood he spent most of his time in library reading books. Throughout his life he
received a professor degree.
Asimov started his writing career as a SF writer for the pulp magazines and through
his writing he received a reputation for being one of the most influential writers of the
golden age of SF. Among the best stories written during golden age is a story Nightfall
(1941), which is also considered by some as the best SF story of all time. During 1940s
he began to write his Foundation stories, which made it to a trilogy: Foundation (1951),
24
Foundation and Empire (1952), Second Foundation (1953) that deal with an interstellar
empire in the future. Later he added Foundation’s Edge (1982), Foundation and Earth
(1986), Prelude to Foundation (1988) and Forward the Foundation (1992).
Among his other influential works belong The Gods Themselves (1972) and the
Robot stories, where he included The Three Laws of Robotics: (i) A robot may not
injure a human being, or through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm; (ii) A
robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would
conflict with the First Law; (iii) A robot must protect its own existence as long as such
protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.
Most of his Robot stories are collected in a book I, Robot (1950) and The Rest of the
Robots (1964). Among his Robot stories, we may find SF mystery books such as The
Caves of Steel (1954) and The Naked Sun (1957).
Besides SF stories Asimov was interested in writing about history. The well known
history books written by him are The Greeks: A Great Adventure (1965), The Roman
Republic (1966) and The Roman Empire (1967). Asimov also wrote non-fiction, but
mostly on science topics.
During his life Asimov engaged several themes in his stories. Those themes are
paternalism, social oppression, and rational thought and their presence is evident in his
mystery SF stories. Asimov’s writing was also left unnoticed and he also received Hugo
and Nebula award for his writing. Books written by Asimov are by some considered of
great influence and he is often praised as a giant in a world of science fiction whose
reign ended in the year 1992 when he died.
2.11 PHILIP KINDRED DICK
Philip Kindred Dick is one of the most distinguished SF writers. He was born
Chicago, Illinois 1929. His twin sister died only in few weeks later. This event affected
Dick, which is also visible in his writing. During his life, Dick was praised by his
colleagues, but not by the literary public. This of course changed after his death, when
several of his stories made it into movies. Even now his stories do not lack the interest
they roused among the SF writers during his life.
Dick became full-time writer during 1950’s when some of his stories were published
in pulp magazines. He often suffered from financial crisis, which he tried to change
through his writing. The first published novel was Solar Lottery (1955). The Man in the
25
High Castle (1962) brought him recognition. Other quite well known novels are Martian
Time Slip (1964), Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968) – a movie Blade
Runner was based on this novel, Ubik (1969) and A Scanner Darkly (1977). Dick also
wrote short stories, amongst the well known are Impostor (1953), Paycheck (1953),
Minority Report (1956), We Can Remember It For You Wholesale (1966), Faith of our
Fathers (1967).
Dick experienced several visions and the power of recurrent dreams during his life.
He also stated that he lived a double life. All his states-of-mind are visible in his stories,
where the focus was on reality/sudden realization of reality, humanity and sociology.
His writing came to an end in the year 1982 when Dick died of a heart failure.
3 SPECULATIVE FICTION
When studying science fiction, a term speculative fiction occurs in various
theoretical texts frequently. Speculative fiction as such is a fiction consisting of several
overlapping genres. These genres are closely related and influence one another. Among
these genres we rate science fiction, fantasy fiction, supernatural horror, alternative
history and magic realism. It is therefore quite essential to discuss the relationship
between science fiction and other speculative genres in order to acquire a better
26
understanding of the genre SF, to eliminate the confusion they create and enable readers
to make distinction between them. This chapter focuses on discussing the genre fantasy,
sub-genre cyberpunk and dystopia as in contrast to science fiction.
3.1 SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY
In order to lay distinct borders between science and fantasy fiction, a definition is
required. To provide the definition of fantasy, is less challenging that to do the same
with SF. In this case even a layman may present a correct definition that would be able
to draw a visible line between SF and fantasy. Such definition could be stated as:
Fantasy, as a sub-genre of literature represents a kind of writing where author’s
imagination sets the plot of a story into a world (fantasy world), which does not
resemble the author’s own world. It is a world of various characters or creatures, where
the use of magic or any kind of unexplainable power is used. This definition is quite
straight-forward and it is not so distinct from those that are provided by more valuable
sources. According to C. Hugh Holman, William Harmon and their A Handbook to
Literature:
“… fantasy is usually employed to designate a conscious breaking free from reality. Te
term is applied to a work that takes place in a nonexistent and unreal world, such as
fairyland, or concerns incredible and unreal characters, …”
(Holman, C. H. & W. Harmon, 1986, p. 198).
As we may see, these two definitions presented so far are of the same kind. They
both see fantasy fiction set in an obviously distinct world, where the reader encounters
characters of various kinds and where some element of supernatural is present. By
providing other definitions (e.g. Wikipedia.org), the similarities revealed, will be again
supported, therefore we can assume that fantasy fiction and its definition does not have
so many obstacles tied to it as does science fiction.
As the definition of fantasy has been laid down, the border between fantasy and SF
can be made visible. Again from the layman’s point of view the main distinct feature
between science and fantasy fiction is rooted in the name of the genres. The world in
fantasy is based on some kind of supernatural force. It represents an unknown element
that has not been explained in that particular world and is taken for granted. On the
other hand a science fiction world is based on laws of science and everything else is
explained and governed by them.
27
To come up with a more reliable distinction, a definition provided by Darko Suvin
may be used. Once again Suvin believes that science fiction is “the literature of
cognitive estrangement” (2004, p. 372). The element of estrangement is a significant
part, both in SF and fantasy fiction. On the other hand the element of cognition is an
attribute that creates the border between science and fantasy fiction. Suvin argues that
fantasy portrays the elements it includes from the point of supernatural, where science
fiction obeys the rules of cognition.
“As a literary genre, SF is just as opposed to supernatural estrangement as to empiricism
(naturalism).” (Suvin, D., 2004, p. 375).
Suvin’s suggestion seems to be correct. Anything in the world of fantasy is possible.
The limit is only set by the author’s imagination. On the other hand, the reality in SF
world is based on scientific facts not on imagination. Also the fantasy world, the world
without boundaries could never represent our own, a world where we live. SF world is
of the opposite quality. It could easily represent our world, since everything is based on
the laws of science.
To sum up Suvin’s ideas, it is the element of cognition that plays an important part in
the process of distinction between the two genres. Cognition suggests (as Suvin agrees)
that the imagination in fantasy literature is not used (in a cognitive sense) in order to
explain the qualities of reality as it is done in SF literature.
There is also a different point of view on the distinction between these two genres
presented by SF writer Philip K. Dick. He believes that such a thing as a border line
between science and fantasy literature does not exist. In order to support his idea, he
presents a speculation. Dick’s speculation is presented by using mutants (characters)
from a book More than Human written by Theodore Sturgeon. He states, that a reader
can treat this book as a fantasy or science fiction. This distinction is based on the
reader’s assumption of the mutants. When the reader believes that such creatures could
exist, he treats Sturgeon’s book as SF. On the other hand, if he believes in the opposite
(such characters do not exist and could not exist), then he is reading a fantasy novel.
Dick continues on stating that fantasy is concerned with a phenomenon that majority of
us consider as impossible. Science fiction on the other hand includes a phenomenon that
could take place under the proper conditions. The assumption that Dick believes is only
based on the subjective opinion of the reader and the author.
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The influence science and fantasy fiction have on each other is evident. It may be
observed, when concerned with the classification of fantasy subgenres. Among them, a
subgenre science fantasy is present. This subgenre emerged as a connection of both SF
and fantasy. The setting in this genre is similar to the one of SF story but with visible
elements containing the essence of magic rather than of science. The best example of
science fantasy story is George Lucas’ Star Wars.
Fantasy fiction as a genre is quite prolific throughout its existence and it was after J.
R. R. Tolkien (significant representative) published his trilogy The Lord of the Rings,
fantasy gained wider readership and was recognized by the literary critics. Other authors
worth to mention are William Morris, C. S. Lewis and his Chronicles of Narnia, Robert
E. Howard, Clark Ashton Smith, Ursula K. Le Guin.
Science fiction and fantasy represent two genres of literature that are at the same
time so closely connected and so far away from each other. The influence they brought
upon each other is unquestionable and it is visible in several either SF or fantasy novels.
Therefore it is not striking to find them both grouped in a collection of genres called
speculative fiction where they can share their similarities and distinctions.
3.2 SCIENCE FICTION IN RELATION TO CYBERPUNK
The phenomenon of cyberpunk emerged during the 1980’s and since then it
influenced almost all aspects of the world. The features of cyberpunk are now visible
not only in literature, but also in cinematography, fashion, music and much more.
Throughout its existence it gained such influence that the world of today resembles a
version of cyberpunk. Current stage of science fiction literature is characterized as an
era of cyberpunk. The current part of the chapter will provide information on
cyberpunk, covering the themes occurring in cyberpunk literature, represent its
characteristic features and introduce significant authors and their works.
The term cyberpunk, falls out of the ordinary literary terms. Its features and their
presence in our lives gained strength and invulnerability not only in the world of
literature.
The origin of cyberpunk goes back to a year 1984 when William Gibson wrote his
masterpiece Neuromancer. The kind of literature he produced was later addressed as
cyberpunk. A Dictionary of Literary Terms characterized cyberpunk as a “sub-species
29
of science fiction” (1998, p. 200). Then continues on defining the words of which
cyberpunk consists of. Cyber / cybernetics connote technological communication and
study connections between the living bodies and the world of technology.
According to Wikipedia.org, cyberpunk is characterized as a sub-genre of science
fiction, which possesses features of dystopian literature. It is the kind of science fiction
that focuses on advanced technology but considers different aspects of technology.
Todd English7 elaborated on this idea. He proclaims that cyberpunk not like ordinary SF
does not speculates about the possibilities of the technology. It portrays the technology
as a part of the world and is not interested in speculating about the positive or negative
changes the technology has made. Typical cyberpunk fiction also includes the elements
such as: breakdown in social order, sense of a rebellion, corruption of governments,
surveillance technology, failing of corporations, virtual worlds, etc. Wikipedia.org states
that the protagonists of cyberpunk often represent hackers who are displayed as lone
heroes fighting for justice. They are the normal people found in an extraordinary
situation who do not seek adventure and are often manipulated or used in the end.
There is one term that is associated with cyberpunk and it is of a great significance in
almost any cyberpunk novel. The term cyberspace may be defined as Adam Roberts
puts it:
“Cyberspace is the notional space of the internet and virtual reality, a computer-
generated environment into which human beings can enter through a computer or a
virtual-reality suit.” (Roberts, A., 2000, p. 187).
Through cyberspace, cyberpunk has created a new dimension, which introduced a new
theme, now hugely considered in cyberpunk novels. It represents the conflict of the
actual and virtual reality. It is the connection of a human brain into a computer
generated world where the possibilities are limitless. There are novels where the plot
takes place mostly in the cyberspace. Among the best examples of a cyberpunk-
cyberspace story is the movie trilogy The Matrix, which will be analyzed in later
chapters.
Since the introduction of cyberpunk the number of authors interested in writing
cyberpunk increased quite rapidly. The ones worth to mention are William Gibson with
his notorious Neuromancer (1984), Bruce Sterling and his Mirrorshades: A Cyberpunk
Anthology (1986), John Shirley’s A Song Called Youth aka. Eclipse Trilogy (1985-
7 ENGLISH, Todd, ‘Cyberpunk Definitional Paper’ [online], 11. October 2003 [quoted 9. March 2006].
<http://project.cyberpunk.ru/idb/cyberpunk_definitional_paper.html>.
30
1990), Rudy Rucker with his Ware Tetralogy (1982-2000) and Lewis Shiner’s Glimpses
(1993). These are the authors who influenced the way cyberpunk took and shaped to the
form it has now.
During the development of cyberpunk several other, in some ways different sub-genres
of SF emerged. All of them influenced by cyberpunk, took its core features and
stretched them to justify their means. Cyberprep as stated above is a sub-genre of SF
and also assumes the importance of technology, but the world is portrayed as a happy
one, not dangerous or gritty. Main representative is Iain Bank’s The State of Art (1989).
Biopunk is a sub-genre of SF, focuses more on biology rather than on technology. A
well-known biopunk author is S. Andrew Swan and his Moreau Series (1993-1999).
The term postcyberpunk was first used to address Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash
(1992). It is also a sub-genre of SF which emerged from cyberpunk. The plot is much
more concerned with the characters trying to improve the society and the way of life. It
also has a more realistic description of computers. The final sub-genre of SF is
steampunk. This fiction is set in the world of our past, with the focus on technology. In
steampunk the technological devices are constructed through the science of that
particular time. It is also influenced by cyberpunk since it possesses its attitudes towards
authority and human nature. The main representatives are K. W. Jeter’s Morlock Night
(1979) and William Gibson & Bruce Sterling’s The Difference Engine (1992).
The scope of cyberpunk is enormous. Not even in literary world but also in
cinematography (Blade Runner directed by Ridley Scott), music, fashion and more.
There is no other genre of literature that has been so influential in so many aspects of
life. Through this influence cyberpunk gained power that enables it to take a new form,
which will guide the course of the science fiction in the future.
3.3 DYSTOPIA IN SCIENCE FICTION
The two following literary kinds (science fiction and utopia) are undoubtedly closely
connected and often referred to by those concerned with science fiction as a literary
genre. Before the emergence of science fiction, there were several attempts to recreate
Thomas More’s idea, but it was during the end of the 19 th century, when science fiction
31
and utopia merged in order to include utopia into contemporary literature. The
following text will discuss the influence of dystopian features in SF literature.
As it is introduced in A Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory written by
J. A. Cuddon, utopia is coined by Sir Thomas More in his book Utopia (1516). The
word is of a Greek origin, consisting of two words ‘ou’ meaning ‘not’ and ‘topos’
meaning a ‘place’, therefore the result is ‘no place’. The whole concept of utopia is also
in relation with a word eutopia, meaning a good place. To sum up the main idea of the
word, utopia lies in pursuit to create a better place, where everything is well, without
death or suffering and etc. but also in a failure of human’s efforts to do so.
The most noteworthy pre-science fictional utopias are those written by Thomas More
and Jonathan Swift (Gulliver’s Travels (1726)). The turning point in the evolution of
utopia is by some associated with the emergence of science fiction.
According to Carl Freedman who studied the genre of science fiction in relation with
utopia:
“… utopia tends to function more strongly in the more critical and novelistic genre of
science fiction than it the older genre of the literary utopia, which necessarily lacks
novelistic resources.” (Freedman, C., 2000, p. 80).
Freedman argues that among the literary figures, who were the most influential in the
development of genre utopia is H. G. Wells. Based on his studies, Freedman considers
Wells to be “the second founder of science fiction” (2000, p. 82), who managed to lay
down several forms between SF and utopia that will be put into use by authors in the
future.
Authors who were concerned with utopia and are worth to mention are: Ursula Le
Guin and her The Dispossessed (1974), Samuel Delany’s Stars in My Pocket Like
Grains of Sand (1984) and Theodore Sturgeon’s Venus Plus X (1960).
Since the invention of the term utopia, there were several attempts to create it. As A
Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory mentions, the failure of the attempts
resulted in the originating of the term dystopia. Dystopia is often regarded as the
opposite of utopia, but this may not be a correct assumption. According to C. Hugh
Holman and William Harmon dystopia is:
32
“Literally ‘bad place’. The term is applied to accounts of imaginary worlds, usually in
the future, in which present tendencies are carried out to their intensely unpleasant
culminations.” (Holman, C. H. & W. Harmon, 1986, p. 162).
The definition presented above is quite similar to the one presented by Wikipedia.org. It
suggests that the word dystopia is associated with John Stuart Mill, who considered it
simply as bad (either things or places), rather than as being opposite of utopia.
As Holman and Harmon’s definition states, dystopian worlds are usually set in the
future. This assumption brings us closer to the literary genre of SF, since it is closely
related to the future and technology. In utopian or dystopian works, the ‘better’ society
is usually developed by the use of technology, but it often fails to. It is often the cover
of the society that misleads us into believing that the society created is utopian. Only
after looking deep inside, the real truth is revealed. The main features of dystopian
fiction are (used from Wikipedia.org): some kind of a cover story that people are made
to believe in; corporations rule over the society/world; inventions of technology, which
might resemble a tool enabling the rulers to keep order in a society; protagonists who
are unable to follow the ‘accepted’ norms of the ‘better’ society; absolute surveillance
of the people living in the society; military force as a source of power; a state figure,
who everyone in the society worships; caste system and more.
During the last couple years, dystopia gained on influence in the literary or film
industry sphere. It has been accepted and widely used by science fiction, cyberpunk
authors or movie script writers, who use it in order to portray our future world
according to their visions. Among the best know dystopian authors belong Aldous
Huxley and his Brave New World (1932), George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four
(1949), Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968), William
Gibson’s Neuromancer (1984) and Robert A. Heinlein’s Starship Troopers (1959).
The power of utopia and dystopia in science fiction literature is enormous. SF writers
consider them as a number one source in their writings, in order to draw a picture, how
our society may look like in the near future. On the other hand, utopia and dystopia are
in some way also indebted to SF, since only through the genre of SF literature, dystopia
and utopia could flourish and uncover the new themes and forms.
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4 SCIENCE FICTION AND POSTMODERNISM
In order to understand the world of science fiction better, and the ideas authors
are/were trying to convey in their works, it is essential to explore the cultural changes of
the world and the influence these changes brought to us. Throughout the time, the
mankind lived through several cultural movements. Among these movements there is
one closely related to the evolution of SF genre and that is Postmodernism.
Postmodernism influenced humankind in various spheres of life, and none of them were
left intact – philosophy, politics, architecture, art, literature, music and etc. The current
chapter presents postmodernism as a cultural movement, introduces its influential
figures and characterizes its features. The later part of the chapter is concerned with
popular culture and inclusion of SF into it.
According to Stuart Sim and his The Routledge Companion to Postmodernism,
postmodernism is a form of skepticism:
“… skepticism about authority, received wisdom, cultural and political norms, etc.”
(Sim, S., 2001, p. 3).
Sim continues on explaining the term skepticism. He sees it as a negative feature, which
is trying to undermine the theories which have uncovered the way towards ultimate
truth and is opposed to anything as being a part of the ultimate truth. Stuart Sim
continues on presenting the characteristics postmodernism
“…postmodernism is to be regarded as a rejection of many, if not most, of the cultural
certainties on which life in the West has been structured over the last couple of
centuries.” (Sim, S., 2001, p. vii).
Both these quotations introduced by Sim are in comparison to the definition provided
by Wikipedia.org, quite similar. Wikipedia.org suggests that to come up with a
definition of postmodernism is not an easy task. It is characterized as a form of criticism
of ultimate truths and grand narratives. In order to understand the whole concept of
postmodernism more deeply, it is vital to study modernism from which postmodernism
emerged or is in reaction to it.
While studying postmodernism, the term grand narrative often occurs. The term is
closely related to the whole concept of postmodernism and it will be used in analysis
provided by later chapter, therefore it is vital to characterize it. In Sim’s book they are
34
given the name and explanation of universal theories. Wikipedia.org also considers
other name of grand narrative and that is of metanarrative.
“… a metanarrative, is a grand overarching account, or all-encompassing story, which is
thought to give order to the historical record.” (Wikipedia, 2006).8
The use of the term grand narrative is closely related to Jean-François Lyotard. It is
because of his book The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge (1979) that he
became the leading figure in the theoretical field of postmodernism. Lyotard argues
that:
“… we should reject the ‘grand narratives’ … of Western culture because they have
now lost all their credibility seems to sum up the ethos of postmodernism, with its
disdain for authority in all its many disguises.” (Sim, S., 2001, p. 3).
According to Sim, Lyotard sees that the power of the world lies in knowledge and he
believes that knowledge is communicated through a narrative where he goes on arguing
against the so called grand narratives. He does not criticize the narratives themselves. It
is the theory behind the narratives that controls them and claims to have a possession of
the ultimate truth. This approach is authoritarian and Lyotard strongly opposes it.
Therefore he introduces little narratives, which will be later introduced in the analysis
provided by later chapter. They represent a final result he was searching for. Lyotard
thinks of the little narratives as of:
“… the most inventive way of disseminating, and creating, knowledge, and that they
help to break down the monopoly traditionally exercised by grand narratives.”
(Sim, S., 2001, p. 9).
To overcome the force of grand narratives, Sim introduces Lyotard’s advice, who
suggests to stop believing in them, “in which case, they will be assumed to wither
away” (2001, p. 9). He continues on presenting a solution on how to present knowledge
without the help of grand narratives, in order to let others accept it as truthful. What he
suggests is a system of antifoundationalism:
“… a rejection of the idea that there are foundations to our system of thought, or belief,
that lie beyond question, and that are necessary to the business of making value
judgments.” (Sim, S., 2001, p. 9 -10).
Another important figure of postmodernism is Jean Baudrillard. Baudrillard’s
introduction in the current chapter is vital, since his philosophies represent a base of an
8 WIKIPEDIA.ORG, The Free Encyclopedia [online], 8. April 2006 [quoted 12. March 2006].
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metanarrative>.
35
analysis introduced later in the thesis. He introduced a term that is now widely used
during postmodernist’s discussions. By the word simulacra, Baudrillard sees the
postmodern world, where one is not able to differentiate between the reality and
simulation.
“Simulacra represented nothing but themselves: there was no other reality to which they
referred.” (Sim, S., 2001, p. 11).
He went on and argued that the Gulf War did not take place and was a mere simulation.
This point of view of course did not stay unseen and suffered a great deal of criticism.
Another controversial idea introduced in Seduction (1979) was that systems of any
kind should not be opposed but seduced. This idea called in a large amount of criticism
from feminists who argue that the word seduction encourages sexual stereotypes.
Baudrillard defines postmodernism in the terms of simulacra and simulation.
“ … Baudrillard conceives postmodernism as an endless circulation of signs from which
any sense of reality has fallen away, a world in which there are simulations and only
simulations.” (Sim, S., 2001, p. 20).
He continues on explaining the use of the signs. First they represented reality, later they
were related to signs which referred to reality and the last postmodern vision of signs is
that, they have nothing to do with the real, and they are even more real than reality
itself. Baudrillard names them hyperreal as the last form signs can take.
4.1 POSTMODERN CINEMA AND LITERATURE
As mentioned above postmodernism influenced all spheres of our culture. Among
those, which are closely related to science fiction are literature and cinema. Since
science fiction is both manifested through the movies which are now becoming a
leading media for representing SF ideas and the last to mention are books, which cannot
fully satisfy the visual criteria.
The cinema has undergone several changes throughout its development. The most
visible ones acquired during the postmodernist era are the following.
As Sim argues in his book, film theory tried to put the spectator in the world surrounded
by capitalism, patriarchy and heterosexuality. The first kind of movies Sim mentions are
those influenced by the Second World War. Other movies are film noir, films
influenced by the Vietnam War (Apocalypse Now (1979), Taxi Driver (1976)) and
36
conspiracy films (All the President’s Men (1976)). The last kind of films was influenced
by paranoia and the following sentence introduced by Sim confirms this:
“You mean there’s a CIA inside the CIA?” (Sim, S., 2001, p. 102).
In later parts of his book, Sim continues to characterize the themes that are
associated with the postmodern cinema. He argues for the influence of America and its
products but in order to satisfy the global demand the American film needs to reduce the
cultural specificity and allow a form a difference. By difference Sim means “the
difference within the structure of the text” (2001, p. 103) and “visibility of
representations of difference within the play of the text” (2001, p. 103).
After defining the major themes in postmodern cinema, Sim concentrates on
providing the typical features. The first and most obvious one is that of difference which
plays a crucial part. It is based on introducing new forms of otherness. The next feature
defining the real character of postmodern cinema is a transmutation of otherness. An
example is provided from the movie Blade Runner (1982) where humans are set against
cyborgs. A feature of the female corpse is also of a great significance. It is usually
stripped from the weight of a sexual difference and according to Sim it represents the
loss of distance in postmodern cinema. This feature is often visible in some cyberpunk
novels. The last feature introduced conveys the notion of time and with the abolition of
the limit of time. This abolition also includes cheating the death. In this essence Philip
K. Dick’s Minority Report may be considered to convey the feature of cheating the
death, since the work deals with foreseeing the crime scene or in other words,
preventing people from dying.
All the features mentioned above resemble a shift in a structure of the cinema, which
may be associated with the influence of postmodernism.
Literature or postmodern literature as well as cinematography experienced several
impacts in a form of postmodern influences. There is however a wild discussion about
the date when postmodern literature came into life. According to Stuart Sim a period of
time around the year 1960 is considered to be the time when postmodernist writing
appeared. On the other hand Wikipedia.org considers the death of Irish novelist James
Joyce (1941) as a rough time-point when postmodern literature started to be recognized.
During the time of postmodernist writing several authors with their works became
recognized by the public. If we are to discuss the variety of postmodern authors, it is
essential to mention as Sim does, that the fiction during the postmodern era is an
37
international phenomenon. There might be a misunderstanding about that the
postmodern fiction is only a matter of American authors since the list representing them
is quite long (William Burroughs, Kurt Vonnegut, …). Among the non-American
authors who are considered to be of great influence are Stanislaw Lem (Poland),
Umberto Eco (Italy) and more.
Postmodernism as a cultural movement brought several changes that had to mirror in
the way of writing and also in the ideas authors adapted. Sim lists several that were the
most dominant ones and continues on explaining them.
“Some of the dominant features of … postmodernist fiction include: temporal disorder;
the erosion of the sense of time; a pervasive and pointless use of pastiche; a
foregrounding of words as fragmenting material signs; the loose association of ideas;
paranoia; and vicious circles, or a loss of distinction between logically separate levels of
discourse.” (Sim, S., 2001, p. 123).
All the features listed above arose from the postmodernist’s core and can be identified
in several works of not only science fiction authors. The element of paranoia is quite
dominant in several SF and cyberpunk novels. Also several authors experienced with
the time or to be more specific with the timeline of their history. This is similar with the
feature of temporal disorder.
The first feature mentioned above is the feature of temporal disorder. Here Sim
focuses on the destabilizing convention of postmodernism. He strongly points out the
term of anachronism which distorts the set order by series of “inconsistencies of detail
and setting” (2001, p. 124). The time in postmodern writing does not present an already
set order. Through postmodern fiction, the present or the past is disrupted.
Another feature presented was pastiche. Sim quotes Frederic Jameson who believed:
“… the writers and artists of the present day will no longer be able to invent new styles
and worlds … only a limited number of combinations are possible; the most unique
ones have been thought of already.” (Sim, S., 2001, p. 125).
Jameson’s quotation absolutely satisfies the whole philosophy of postmodernism. He
simply believes that there is a problem to produce anything original, not in the form or
style but original in the sense – not seen or used before. The presence of pastiche is also
quite visible in SF.
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Fragmentation represents another postmodernist feature in fiction. As it is normal in
postmodern thinking, authors are against any grand conventions or norms. Therefore the
norms of writing are not followed and authors prefer different ways of structuring the
narratives. Sim provides several examples. The first one is an example of multiple
endings and the other one is a division of texts into fragments with the use of symbols,
numbers, titles, spaces.
The next feature mentioned is the looseness of association. According to Sim authors
experience with the production and perception of texts. They disrupt them by applying
changes in the composition process. Two examples are taken from William Burroughs
who used the cut-up and fold-in form in writing.
The feature of paranoia deserves also an attention, since it is the most clear one and
easily definable in the text. It is a:
“… threat of total engulfment by somebody else’s system, is keenly felt by many of the
dramatic personae of postmodernist fiction.” (Sim, S., 2001, p. 129).
Paranoia as such, absolutely belongs to the postmodern culture, since the impact of Cold
War and what people experienced left some implications on them. There are several
forms of paranoia that takes place in the postmodernist fiction. Sim illustrates the fear of
an external force (society), obstruction caused by another individual or a place and
conspiracy against someone or something.
The last feature mentioned by Sim is Vicious Circles. By the term he means an
indefinableness of the world and the writer’s text. This situation occurs when the author
himself or a historical figure appears in the text. By Vicious Circles, Sim believes in the
fusion of the world and the text. Reader is caught in a contradiction. He cannot tell the
difference from the world and the fiction.
The features of postmodernist writing provided by Wikipedia.org are quite similar to
Sim’s. It states that postmodern literature explores the subjectivism. It is concerned with
the character development and its inner states-of-consciousness. The process of
fragmentation is also mentioned and it is aimed at the narrative and the development of
characters.
Wikipedia.org also stresses the influence of computers and how they affected the
whole cultural movement and the shape their effects had on literature. The result was an
emergence of several literary genres/sub-genres. Postmodern literature expanded with
cyberpunk, excrement literature, electronic literature, hypertext literature.
39
All the elements that define postmodernism are visible in all spheres of life that
postmodernism has not left intact. Some (among them S. Sim) argue for the
representation of postmodernism as a mental illness. It may be portrayed on the example
based on the relationship of postmodernism and science fiction. They both might
represent a hemisphere of a human brain confronting with each other. The result of their
strike are the features of temporal disorder, looseness of association, paranoia, which
are present in both of them. Through their strike they complete, characterize each other
and take on the forms they have now.
4.2 SCIENCE FICTION AND POPULAR CULTURE
The position, science fiction genre occupies in the world of literature now, has
undergone a series of changes since its beginnings. SF shifted from a position of a total
outsider, often criticized by the literary critics, to a true equal partner of a mainstream
literature. Through this classification shift, science fiction managed to enter the world of
popular culture. The aim of the chapter is to discuss the influence of popular culture on
SF literature and the course of SF dictated by the mass demands.
In order to continue portraying the connection of SF genre into the sphere of popular
culture, its definition may be presented. According to Wikipedia.org:
“Popular culture, or pop culture, is the vernacular (people’s) culture that prevails in any
given society. The content of popular culture is determined by the daily interactions,
needs and desires, and cultural ‘moments’ that make up the everyday lives of the
mainstream.” (Wikipedia, 2006).9
The definition is quite straightforward. The spectrum popular culture covers is
enormous and absorbs any activities from all aspects of our lives. As Wikipedia.org
suggests, today’s popular culture (in the postmodern era) is strongly influenced by mass
production and mass consumerism. Products emphasized by the companies, are
appealing to a wide audience, which constitutes the base of the popular culture today.
These products and the culture itself are also affected by the growth in technology and
science. It is this era of our lives, so closely similar to the stories of SF, where the
9 WIKIPEDIA.ORG, The Free Encyclopedia [online], 7. April 2006 [quoted 12. March 2006].
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popular_culture>.
40
technology and science play a crucial part, and it is also through this technological
power that SF is recognized and included into the popular culture.
The process of entering SF in the popular genre was studied by Brian McHale. In his
extract POSTcyberMODERNpunkISM, McHale uses a book Columbia Literary History
of the United States (1988), where he refers to Larry McCaffery who considers SF as an
influential genre of the contemporary fiction and that SF sets the direction of recent
American fiction. McHale continues on explaining the sudden acceptance of SF. In
order to explain the relationship between SF and mainstream fiction, McHale points out
to the years between 1920s and 1940s, when these two genres existed in isolation from
each other. He sees the period of 1950s as a turning point. In this time, SF writers tried
to improve the status of SF, by applying stylistic norms of mainstream fiction and some
mainstream writers adopted their new norms from SF. McHale mentions R. H. Heinlein,
I. Asimov, T. Sturgeon, A. C. Clarke from the SF side and N. Shute, W. Tevis from the
mainstream fiction side.
Another turning point in the acceptance of SF is the time during the 1960s and the
early 1970s. This is a period of a New Wave SF. During this time SF interacted with the
postmodernist mainstream fiction. However this interaction was of a different character.
McHale refers to it as a regressive interaction, since the New Wave SF absorbed the
norms of modernist fiction during the years of 1920’s and 1930s and the postmodernist
mainstream fiction absorbed the norms of the early SF. It was not a current interaction
of the themes from both genres. This came into existence during 1970s when current
themes were adapted by both SF and postmodernist mainstream fiction. Names like
Philip K. Dick (Ubik (1969)), Samuel R. Delany (Dhalgren (1974), Triton (1976)) are
worth to be mentioned. There is one more turning point mentioned by McHale. It took
place during 1980s, and he refers to the interaction as “a feedback loop” (2000, p. 250).
What happened during this interaction is that SF adopted some already science-
fictionized postmodernist features and postmodern fiction adopted features already
postmodernized SF. The process of features adaptation resulted in recognition of SF
literary genre and its inclusion in popular culture. The names of W. Burroughs and T. R.
Pynchon are of a great significance during this era of the feedback loop interaction.
It is during these three eras of the development of the SF genre, that the process of
involvement into popular culture took place. The process of acceptance of SF into the
41
mainstream fiction became a reality when booth SF and the fiction of the mainstream
started to adapt each other features into their works.
Another theory may be presented to illustrate, how SF literature became part of the
popular culture today. The point of this theory is to portray a connection between the SF
in cinema and SF in literature. It all refers to the growing influence of film industry in
popular culture. Films as such became the final products of the mass production and
consumption. Since they appeal to a broad audience, (according to Wikipedia.org)
filmmakers are trying to maximize their profits by emphasizing their appeal. During our
era of technology and science, filmmakers shifted their interest towards SF, to develop a
SF movie. As any unbiased movie fan may notice, the genre of SF in the film industry
has gained on influence. When we look back, it started as a harmless film genre. A
movie noteworthy is Blade Runner (1982). But now the list of movies that are running
in the cinemas during these couple years is quite long. The recent ones are Paycheck
(2003), I, Robot (2004), The War of the Worlds (2005).
It is through these movies (mostly based on a SF book), that SF literature is
recognized by a viewer. The viewer is compelled to find out more about the movie itself
and therefore reaches for a book. Since there are more and more movies based on
books, more and more books are explored by the people. By the growing number of
movies, the appeal of SF literature is growing and the postmodernist industries again in
pursuit of maximizing their profits emphasize the appeal of SF books.
It is through this process of a movie appeal to a book appeal that science fiction
literature became recognized by the literary public, achieved a certain level of
dominance and as a result, became a part of the popular culture today.
The relationship between SF and popular culture is of a specific kind. As it is
suggested by Wikipedia.org only the broad appeal items dominate popular culture, and
those can be considered as part of it. Throughout the development of SF literature, it
was not considered dominant but the opposite, the outsider. It was only after the year
1950, with the influence of postmodernism and film industry, that SF literature started
to gain more respectability and acceptance by the mainstream literature. It shifted from
the outsider to a dominant element of popular culture through which science fiction
literature might acquire a new course dictated by the mass consumerism.
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5 NEUROMANCER AND THE MATRIX: FEATURES OF
POSTMODERNISM
Current chapter will discuss the influence of postmodernism, highlight its features in
a notorious cyberpunk movie with the help provided by a novel that is often
characterized as a first comer of its genre. The former one is a cult movie The Matrix
(1999), which was able to uncover several obvious postmodern elements. The latter one
represents a cyberpunk novel, written by William Gibson, Neuromancer (1984). The
presence of this book is quite crucial in the following analysis, since the ideas and the
overall philosophy have been borrowed by the Larry and Andy Wachowski (the
directors of the movie) in their movie in order to form the base philosophy.
Neuromancer may be therefore classified as their source of inspiration and during the
analysis, the similarities that exist between these two works will be revealed.
5.1 INTRODUCTION TO THE MATRIX AND NEUROMANCER
Before presenting the analysis, a short introduction to the movie and the book is
required, since an uninterested reader may not have come across them.
Neuromancer, as it was mentioned in previous chapters of the thesis, is a cyberpunk
novel written by William Gibson. Gibson, as the father of cyberpunk first introduced the
terms cyberspace and virtual reality. The plot of the book is set some time in the future,
where the world is governed by large corporations, hiring Yakuza, Japanese fighting
soldiers. The main character called Case is a computer-cowboy or in other words
hacker, whose job was to hack into the matrix, a virtual cyberspace of computer data, to
obtain crucial information for his employers. Since Case double-crossed his employers,
they managed to damage his neural system, so it was impossible for him to jack into the
matrix again. After this incident, Case became so-called middle-man, with a reputation
being able to obtain anything for anyone willing to pay. Later, Case is brought to
Armitage, an ex-special forces officer by Molly a razor-girl who undergone several
body modifications. Armitage promises to cure Case’s neural system, making him able
to jack into the matrix again, if he will agree to join him. Since Case’s partial addiction
to the matrix, he accepts the offer and is willing to do the job. Molly and Case form an
alliance and try to investigate Armitage and the one who is giving him orders.
Throughout the book, Case and his team is asked to do several jobs. They need to
43
manage to get hold of a consciousness of McCoy Pauley, a computer jockey and Case’s
former mentor. The next person who will help them in their job is Peter Riviera, a drug
addict and a psychopath, who can perform hallucinations on people, so they see what he
wants them to see. Later on Case and Molly discover that Armitage or a colonel Willis
Corto is given orders by Wintermute, an AI (artificial intelligence). Its aim is to break
free from a Tessier-Ashpool, a family clan, where Wintermute and another AI called
Neuromancer form an ICE – intrusion countermeasures electronics. Case, with the
consciousness of Pauley McCoy, alias Flatline Dixie, manage to execute a military
virus, and with its help manage to set Wintermute free from the T-A ICE. Case and
Molly are paid for their jobs, Flatline Dixie is given what he was promised, Peter
Riviera killed also with Armitage and Wintermute becomes part of the matrix, or the
matrix itself.
The next work is the movie The Matrix, which may be thought as a step-brother to
Neuromancer, because of their overlap in various parts, but a reader should be aware
that they are not as similar as the first glance might suggest. The plot of the movie is
also set in the future, when the real world is devastated after a struggle between the
humans and the machines. During the movie, characters are involved in two quite
distinct worlds. One, being the real, where people live deep in the earth, since after the
war, the world outside is devastated and full of fierce full machines, programmed to kill
human beings and to destroy their only city. The main character is a hacker Neo, or the
chosen One, who is trying to find an answer to a question: “What is the Matrix?”. He is
contacted by Trinity, also a hacker who brings him to Morpheus. Morpheus presents a
choice to Neo, which may provide the answer to Neo’s question and to the ultimate
truth. Neo obviously accepts the proposal and learns that the world he lived in was only
a virtual reality. A faked copy of the real world created by the machines with the
purpose to keep human beings under control. The humans were kept alive, jacked into
the matrix and used as power cells keeping the machines functioning. The people were
used only as a tool. The movie The Matrix is a trilogy, where the plot is carefully
divided into three parts. The first part shows Neo as the chosen one, where he learns the
truth and becomes the One, who according to a prophecy, can save the humans from the
enslavement of the machines. During the second part of the movie, Neo and his friends
hack into the matrix, and try to stop the machines from becoming more powerful and
free the people of Zion, the only human city in the real world. The third part portrays
44
Neo’s struggle to stop the machines from getting to Zion and face his final enemy in the
matrix, an agent Smith a former guarding program, who took control over the matrix.
During the final fight, Neo manages to stop the machines and a new era is about to start,
when the machines and people manage to live with each other in peace.
5.2 J. F. LYOTARD AND J.BAUDRILLARD: THEIR INFLUENCE ON THE
MATRIX
The influence Neuromancer has on The Matrix is partially visible by presenting their
plots and settings. The overlap will be unfolded in the following analysis where the
main focus consists of highlighting the postmodern features of the movie, with the help
from the book and of classifying them as part of the postmodern culture.
Both of these works may be classified as either part of the postmodern literature and
cinema, since they were produced during the time when postmodernism already existed
and was flourishing. But to judge them, based on the criteria of their origin, would not
be accepted by the critics. Before highlighting the postmodern features, postmodern
philosophers Jean François Lyotard and Jean Baudrillard and the impact of their ideas in
the movie need to be explained. There was enough information on their background
provided in a chapter concerned with postmodernism and therefore it will not be
presented here. As already mentioned Lyotard was opposed to the grand-narratives and
suggested the use of little narratives instead. The struggle between them is quite often
visible either in postmodern literature or film. Their existence is also formed as a part of
The Matrix especially visible with characters and their actions. Several important
characters from the movie meet the notorious Oracle, who shows them a way how to
complete their part in the whole story. The predictions of the Oracle could be
understood as small pieces of puzzle, where each piece is of the same importance to the
whole. As mentioned Neo, Morpheus, Trinity, Naobi contact the Oracle, who tells them
about their destiny in the matrix. Neo is told that he actually being the One, is not the
chosen One Morpheus tells him he will become. The way the Oracle behaves towards
Neo is quite unique. She tells him, what he needs to hear in order to become the One.
After the prophecy Neo, follows his own way to become the chosen One and to fulfill
his destiny. Accomplishment of his little narrative is essential towards the story or the
whole concept of the movie. The next character is Morpheus, to whom the Oracle tells
that he will be the one to find and save Neo from the artificial world of the matrix.
45
Morpheus follows this narrative and is willing to die in order to succeed. Together with
Neo and their narratives, they form different parts of the whole, where the whole
represents finding and becoming the One. The third character who possesses a little
narrative of his own is Trinity. Her story consists of falling in love with the One (Neo)
and therefore her task, which she manages to do, is to bring Neo back from the dead and
to help him realize that he is the chosen One. The last character that contacted the
Oracle is general Naobi. Her narrative is of a different sort. It does not fall into a
category of little narratives, which helps Neo in his path of becoming the One. Naobi’s
little narrative reveals itself in the third part of the movie, when it is up to her to help
Neo to save people of Zion and to stop the Armageddon that is about to come. Naobi
through her narrative uncovers a unique feature about Neo. Neo is the only one, who
possesses two little narratives in the movie. The first one is his way of realizing and
becoming the One and the second one is his way of becoming the savior.
In The Matrix, the little narratives are the crucial elements in forming the plot of the
movie and they also hold the status of significance over the characters. It is therefore,
when the little narrative comes to an end, the importance of the character starts to loose
on its significance. Neo as the central character, important for the movie possesses two
little narratives and after completing them, he is no longer attractive for the plot of the
story and the main concern is shifted other direction. The same happens with other
characters. Trinity, again after falling in love with Neo and helping him to realize that
he is the one, looses her importance in the story and dies in the final, third part of the
movie. Morpheus and Naobi also loose their significance, but they maintain their
presence in the movie. In the end, they become quite passive characters that are
depended on Neo’s actions and cannot stop the inevitable.
Lyotard’s point of view and his philosophy of little narratives is (as it may be
argued) present in all fiction, since the characters of the story have their way or purpose
in their fictional world and trough their narratives they find their own truth that is to
some degree not affecting the people and the world around them but on the other hand it
is shaping the whole concept of the story.
Another postmodern philosopher mentioned was Jean Baudrillard. Baudrillard is
quite notoriously well known in postmodern circles, since his theory about reality and
signs drew a lot of attention from the critics. The foundation of his philosophy lies in
the term simulacra and simulation. According to him, we could no longer distinguish
between the real world and the world of simulacra that is more real to us than the
46
original. He also uses the term hyperreal to address signs that have nothing to do with
reality and are only derived from the simulations of it. The reason to include
Baudrillard’s principles in this thesis is quite simple. Postmodern works like The Matrix
and Neuromancer are based on the concept of Baudrillard’s ideas, which is why it is
essential to mention him.
The directors of The Matrix must have been familiar and inspired by Baudrillard’s
Simulacra and Simulation. The ideas presented in this book are based on the
relationship between the reality and simulation. The basic concept of the movie is also
based on the relation between the world of the matrix that seems to be more real than
the real world itself. It is vital to mention that several science fiction authors already
experimented with the ideas similar to what Baudrillard suggests. One of the well-know
is Philip K. Dick. In his SF novel Ubik (1969), characters are trapped in situations
where they can no longer distinguish whether they live in a real world or in a world of
people who are already dead, but their bodies with their minds are safely placed in
moratoriums where their loved ones are able to talk to them. After one incident
characters of this novel are trapped in a world of confusion, when in the end they realize
that the world they live in is not the one they thought it to be. During the novel several
signs emerge to indicate the alien reality. Based on Baudrillard and his thesis, these
signs could easily represent hyperreal signs that have nothing in common to the real
world. The perfect example of such a sign is when Mr. Runciter, one of the main
characters possess a coin where a portrait of his employee is on a fifty-cent coin.
“… Who’s this on all three coins? Not the right person at all. And yet he’s familiar. I
know him. And then he recognized the profile. I wonder what this means, he asked
himself. Strangest thing I’ve ever seen. Most things in life eventually can be explained.
But – Joe Chip on a fifty-cent piece?” (Dick, Philip, K., 2001, p. 224).
Mr. Runciter is quite obviously surprised by the picture on the fifty-cent coin. The
reality he experiences does not meet his expectations, but it is accepted by him and
therefore such a change may be understood as the shift from the real to the hyperreal,
since Joe Chip’s face on the coin is contradictory and has nothing to do with the real
reality and creates a new reality where this situation can happen.
The work of Philip K. Dick was only mentioned to show the reader that the ides the
authors of The Matrix and Neuromancer present are groundbreaking, but on the other
hand, they were used quite often before by other SF authors. William Gibson and
brothers Wachowski only introduced them from a different point of view.
47
As mentioned above, the world of The Matrix is based on relationship between the
reality and simulation. The introduction to The Matrix at the beginning of this chapter
mentioned the artificial world of the matrix, where the people who are plugged into it
cannot recognize that the world they live in is a pure computer simulation, programmed
by machines. As Baudrillard’s philosophy suggests, we may come across two realities.
One, being only a simulation, which does not possess any elements of the real and acts
as a substitution of the real and the other one is thought to be the original reality. The
problem emerges, when we try to distinguish between these two realities. Baudrillard
therefore mentions that the process is deceiving and we cannot be really certain, since
the simulations representing reality are more real than the reality itself. In The Matrix,
the directors created two distinct realities. The one presented as the real, consists of
people who went through the process of being able to differentiate between the reality
of the matrix and the reality of the real world. Their purpose is to hack into the artificial
world and enable the other people to see the difference. The other reality is the reality of
the matrix. People living in this reality are blinded from the truth and live their lives as
if nothing has ever happened. They are completely deceived by the virtual simulation of
the real world and the signs presented to them are more real than the reality itself.
Therefore it was at first hard for Neo to believe, when he realized that that the world he
lived in during his life was only a simulation.
The hyperreal signs as they were present in Dick’s Ubik are also introduced in The
Matrix. They can not be associated with the real world, since they are already based on
simulations of simulations. These signs are accepted to be part of the simulated reality
of the matrix. A perfect example of a hyperreal sign is a Déjà vu. Déjà vu is a
complicated symbol in a simulated world. It already simulates a situation that was
already experienced. In the world of the matrix it resembles an error in the program
when the guarding programs change the reality of the matrix to their liking in order to
do what they are programmed for. In the movie, Neo experiences Déjà vu, and after this
occasion he and his friends are hunted by the agents. There are other examples of
hyperreal signs during the movie. The most obvious ones are, when people whose
reality is blinded by the virtual reality designed by the machines, experience the
encounter of the machines and the ones who are hacked into the matrix in order to show
them the truth. For example, agents can partially form the reality of the matrix to their
liking as well as Neo, who is the chosen One, and also his friends who know that the
reality of the matrix is based on the rules that can be avoided to some extent. In the
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beginning of the movie Trinity is chased by one agent and both of them manage to jump
from one building to another. The ordinary people confused by the world of matrix,
working as policemen experience their jump, take it as a hyperreal sign, which of course
is based on another simulation, and that is a simulation of a real world by the world of
the matrix. Another sign that supports this theory is, when Neo contacts the Oracle
during the second part of the movie. She explains to him the basic rules, how the whole
virtual reality of the matrix is governed. He learns that all the supernatural elements in
the matrix, like vampires and such are only unauthorized actions of programs whose
existence have been eliminated, but failed. Such characters and their actions are also
signs, which are only resemblance of other simulations. The purpose of hyperreal signs
in the artificial simulations may work as a resemblance symbol, which may help to
recognize a reality of real signs between the reality of hyperreal signs that is based on a
pure simulation.
The aim of this part of the analysis was to demonstrate, whether a work of literature
or film culture may be classified as a postmodern, when the analysis is based on the
philosophies of two major postmodern philosophers. François Lyotard and Jean
Baudrillard are the most significant figures, whose ideas influence the way the
postmodern culture undertake. Since their philosophies shape the postmodern thinking,
it was vital to introduce their thesis, and the way they are noticed in The Matrix, since
their influence may be the most vivid one.
5.3 POSTMODERN FEATURES IN THE MATRIX
The second part of the analysis is based on characterizing the postmodern features
presented by Stuart Sim in his The Routledge Critical Dictionary of Postmodern
Thought. They were introduced and explained in the chapter four, concerned with
postmodernism. During this part of the thesis, they will be reintroduced and analyzed
through the movie The Matrix with particular examples provided.
The first postmodern feature introduced will be the feature of pastiche. As it was
explained before, postmodern authors and critics argue for the inability and
impossibility to introduce new and original phenomenon. Therefore, they believe that
postmodern works are only copies consisting of taking elements from several different
authors and their works and representing them in a new fashion.
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The Matrix as a postmodern work also contains elements of pastiche. To correctly
portray this feature in the movie, there is a need to introduce William Gibson’s
Neuromancer. This book is of a great significance during this analysis.
While analyzing both works, the most striking example of pastiche that a reader
comes across, is the cyberspace world, which possesses the exact name, matrix. In
Neuromancer, it was characterized as:
“’Cyberspace. A consensual hallucination experienced daily by billions of legitimate
operators, in every nation, by children being taught mathematical concepts … A graphic
representation of data abstracted from the banks of every computer in the human
system. Unthinkable complexity. Lines of light ranged in the nonspace of the mind,
clusters and constellations of data. Like city lights, receding …’”
(Gibson, W., 1995, p. 67).
In The Matrix, Morpheus talks to Neo to whom he explains the characteristics of the
matrix and defines it.
“’Right now we’re inside a computer program?’ ‘Is it really so hard to believe? Your
clothes are different. The plugs in your arms and head are gone. Your hair has changed.
Your appearance now is what we call residual self image. It is the mental projection of
your digital self.’ ‘This … this isn’t real?’ ‘What is real? How do you define real? If
you are talking about what you can feel, what you can smell, what you can taste and see,
then real is simply electrical signals interpreted by your brain. This is the world that you
know. The world as it was at the end of the 20th century. It exists now only as part of a
neutral interactive simulation … that we call the matrix. You’ve been living in a dream
world Neo.’” (Wachowski, L. & A. Wachowski, 1999, timeline: 00:38:13-00:39:16).
Both these definitions may distinct from one another in some details. Since the
cyberspace in Neuromancer represents a database system, where the essential data are
stored, in The Matrix, it is a computer generated world, artificial in its true essence.
Despite the distinctions, the main concept of cyberspace remains the same in both
works. The only most striking feature is the name, both the cyberspace in Neuromancer
and in The Matrix possesses. Certainly the directors of the movie were greatly inspired
by William Gibson.
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There are other examples of pastiche present. The following one also consists of a
reuse of a word. It is the word Zion that is found in both works. In Neuromancer it
presents a cluster in the Freeside that is strongly influenced by Rastafarian movement.
Zion colony was found by five members who have their own religion based on God
named Jah. Zionites uncover their prophecy:
“’Soon come, the Final Days … Voices. Voices cryin’ inna wilderness, prophesyin’ ruin
unto Babylon …’” (Gibson, W., 1995, p. 135).
The element of prophecy is visible in The Matrix, in the form of Oracle who
prophesized the arrival of the One, who will save the people of Zion and stops the
enslavement of the people plugged into the matrix.
“’When the matrix was first built, there was a man born inside who had the ability to
change whatever he wanted, to remake the matrix as he saw fit. … After he died the
Oracle prophesized his return and that his coming would hail the destruction of the
matrix, end the war. Bring freedom to our people. … ‘”
(Wachowski, L. & A. Wachowski, 1999, timeline: 00:43:23-00:44:05).
Since Neuromancer is of a great model for The Matrix, it is therefore obvious to find
similar elements, which may be presented in a form of pastiche. Despite the fact that
both works are strong models of cyberpunk literature, the whole atmosphere of
Neuromancer still prevails in The Matrix and that is why the feature of pastiche is so
evident.
Another feature that comes into the discussion is the feature of paranoia. Paranoia in
the sense of being controlled by someone else with the ceaseless felling of suspicion and
with the absence of any self control.
All these characteristics of paranoia presented above, feature in The Matrix. People
who are plugged into the matrix without knowing it are automatically under control.
They actions are watched by guarding programs. Their existence is not valued by the
machines, since they are easily replaceable. On the other hand, there are characters in
the movie, like Neo, who feeling suspicious, is trying the find the truth, find the answer
to his question. What he discovers is a surveillance system that keeps anyone living
under control, taking away from them their right to be under their own control.
The power of paranoia in the movie was so evident that the viewers of the movie
started to feel suspicious. They were paranoic in a sense that they thought to be also
51
under control of the machines or someone, something else, unable to realize what is real
and what is fake.
Paranoia as being part of the postmodern features could not be left out in The
Matrix, where it evoked a revolution in the world of matrix and outside it as well.
The last postmodern feature analyzed, is the feature of temporal disorder. It may be
explained as the author’s purpose to play with the time, when the occurrences in the past
may influence the events in the future. This play with the timeline is also introduced in
The Matrix.
The world of the movie is separated into two distinct individual parts. The first one,
consisting of the real world, which is set some time in the future around the year 2199,
when the mankind lost the war with the machines and now is ruled and mostly
controlled by them. The second part represents the world of the matrix. The time of this
world is set around a year 1999. Of course this world is a computer simulation that is
not realized by its inhabitants. It is remarkably done by the directors of The Matrix that
these two distinct worlds can influence each other so much. It is a constant struggle to
make these two worlds one, but each side (either man or machine) with a different
purpose. The purpose of the machines is to eradicate what is left of the human kind and
to keep them under control in their artificially created world. On the other hand the
purpose of the rebels is to show the real truth to those still plugged into the matrix and
destroy all the machines governing the system. The coherence of their actions also
affects both the real and the artificial world. One side represented by Neo and his
friends who hack into the matrix in order to eliminate the machines from the inside, to
obtain the necessary information from the Oracle and etc. If Neo and his friend succeed,
meaning they change the past or present, since they resemble the world of the matrix,
therefore by doing so, their actions have consequences, which have to mirror in the
future. Future, meaning the real world. Therefore, if the success is granted in the
past/present, the machines are destroyed and the world of future is the world of peace.
The opposite side of this struggle occurs, when the machines manage to exterminate the
human kind from the real world. If this situation becomes true, then the occurrences of
the future change the course of the occurrences in the past/present. In other words, all
living human kind from the real world is exterminated and looses the chance to live in
the real world. The destroyed future brings back the past/present of the world of the
matrix, where the future of humans is governed and under control.
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The feature of temporal disorder in this analysis is of a unique quality. It concerns
with timelines of the past, present and the future, it is therefore quite difficult to discuss
such a topic, as time in The Matrix, since the only valid time during the story is the time
of the future around the year 2199. Nevertheless, the feature is still present, as it was
explained by the analysis, through the struggle between the real world and the world of
virtual reality.
The current chapter intended to analyze the movie The Matrix in relation with
Gibson’s Neuromancer from a postmodernist’s point of view. In order to succeed in its
aim it was divided into two parts. The first part referred to two main postmodern
figures, Jean François Lyotard and Jean Baudrillard and their philosophies, which
influence the course of postmodernism. The second part consisted of analyzing
postmodern features listed by Stuart Sim in The Matrix. During the latter part of
analysis William Gibson’s cyberpunk novel Neuromancer was introduced in order to
portray some of the features more accurately.
As mentioned above, the former part of the analysis consisted of two main
postmodern philosophies. One of them introduced by Jean François Lyotard, who
opposed the use of grand narratives. Instead, he preferred the use of little narratives.
Their use in the story of The Matrix is portrayed through the main characters and how
their actions shape the main theme of the movie. The analysis suggests that the little
narratives of the characters are essential in forming the atmosphere of the movie. The
next philosopher introduced is Jean Baudrillard with his point of view on reality as a
simulation. His presence in the analysis of The Matrix as a postmodern work is to some
extent of a greater value, since one the main theme of the movie consists of searching
the truth, the real truth in the unreal world of the matrix.
To be able to characterize any work as postmodern, it must possess features of
postmodern kind. Therefore the aim of the latter analysis was to discuss the presence of
postmodern features in The Matrix. The features discussed were pastiche, paranoia and
temporal disorder. A SF novel, Neuromancer was introduced, which presence was vital
to portray the postmodern features in The Matrix.
It may be argued that the result of the analysis is still in question. How does any
work satisfy any postmodern criteria, in order to be characterized as postmodern? The
analysis of the chapter tried to provide an answer to the question.
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6 BRAVE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE FICTION
The spectrum of the literary genre of science fiction is beyond any doubt, quite
enormous. As it was presented and characterized in previous chapters, SF genre
involves itself in rather peculiar topics. Some of them were introduced a long time ago,
and today they become reintroduced and presented to the SF public. This includes also,
more and more distinguished genre of dystopia in the sphere of cinematography. The
plots of the movies are set in the future with lots of special effects, where the society
created is a typical kind of dystopia, with all the features necessary to characterize it as
such. These movies are characterized as SF and therefore a simple question may be
asked whether a literary work as Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World (1932), which
clearly is dystopia, may be characterized as science fiction.
The popularity of dystopia in popular culture and today’s cinematography owes
without any doubt to a father of utopia, Thomas Moore. The definitions of utopia and
dystopia will not be discussed here, since the previous chapters already provided proper
definitions and examples. The current chapter will be involved in analyzing the work of
Aldous Huxley in the sphere of science fiction literature. It will be divided into two
parts. The first one will discuss whether Brave New World satisfies the criteria of SF
provided by Darko Suvin and other criteria. The second part will be based on analysis
defining the relations between dystopia and science fiction. Both these analysis will be
based on chapter one concerned with the definition of SF literature and chapter three,
where the relationship between SF and dystopia was introduced.
6.1 INTRODUCTION TO BRAVE NEW WORLD
Before introducing the analysis, a short introduction to Brave New World is
presented. The plot of the story is set after the Nine Years’ War, when the rest of the
human kind that survived agreed to initiate a form of world control, which would stop
all unpleasant events, like wars, etc. The world described afterwards features with
control, where humans are no longer born the natural way. They are produced in
Hatchery and Conditioning Centres all over the world. The society produced is divided
into a caste system consisting of Alphas, Betas, Gammas, Deltas and Epsilons. Each
caste is employed with a work assigned to its caste level, in order to ensure the social
and system stability of the world. The first part of the story twists around an Alpha-Plus
Bernard Marx, who somehow does not fit into the stable world. His individuality is
54
suppressed by the whole social system and he is not allowed to express himself freely.
Helmholtz Watson also an Alpha-Plus and a friend of Bernard suffers the same fate.
Bernard is a psychologist who is involved with the conditioning process called
hypnopædia. As a psychologist, he is allowed to visit a Savage Reservation, where
people are not in touch with civilization. Bernard likes Lenina Crowne a Beta-Minus
embryo worker, and asks her to go with him and visit the Reservation. Lenina, confused
by his behavior nevertheless accepts his invitation. Before their departure, Bernard talks
to Thomas, who is the director of the Central London Hatchery and Conditioning
Centre. He shares a story with Bernard, who learns that the director himself visited the
Reservation before and lost his partner during his stay. During their stay in the
reservation Lenina and Bernard come across two civilized people. One male and one
female; mother and son. Bernard learns that the mother named Linda is the girl whom
the director lost during his holiday in the Reservation. The man is called John, later
referred to as The Savage is a son of the director. The Savage retells his whole story to
Bernard who realized his true background and provides permission for him and his
mother to go back to civilized London. Bernard brings them both to the director
Thomas, after a scene, the director resigns and Bernard is not transferred to an Island, a
place everyone is afraid to go. Since Bernard becomes John’s guardian, his popularity is
of the opposite as before. He is liked by the women and through the Savage, he obtains
quite a reputation. When the Savage refuses to play a tool used by Bernard to secure his
success, he is rejected by all. Bernard seeks solitude in Helmholtz, with whom the
Savage is able to share all his secrets. During his stay in London, Lenina is obsessed
with John, who is unable to express his inner feelings he carries for her. Since, she is
not accustomed to be loved in the Shakespearean way, John rejects her and she falls into
a confusion and desperation. In the meantime Linda, who is constantly under the
influence of a drug called soma dies. John disappointed and in grief tries to show
freedom to Delta workers by throwing away their soma rations. Bernard and Helmholtz
learn about his doing and go for his rescue. They are all caught and brought Mustapha
Mond a world controller for Western Europe. He sends Bernard and Helmholtz to
Falkland Islands but before they are sent, they discover that an Island is a place for
individuals who do not fit into the world of stability. John tries to go with them, but
Mustapha considers him as an ongoing experiment, during which the Savage tries to
seek solitude outside the city, where he is constantly harassed. Since his inability to
cope with the civilized world of the future, he is pushed into committing a suicide.
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6.2 AN ANALYSIS OF THE GENRE
As the introduction to the plot of the story might suggest, the process of classifying
Brave New World as a genre of science fiction literature does not fall into a category of
being without obstacles. The first impression of the book is quite confusing on one hand
since it would not satisfy the criteria of proper science fiction. On the other hand, there
are indications that Huxley’s novel may be classified as science fiction after all. The
goal of this analysis is based on defining whether Brave New World does or does not
satisfy the criteria of SF as they were presented by science fiction critic Darko Suvin.
According to literary critics, it is Darko Suvin, who came up with the most sufficient
definition of science fiction literary genre. He introduced the term cognitive
estrangement. It consists of two independent parts. The former one, often referred to as
cognition could be defined as logically explained, or in other words based on science
and scientific research. The latter term estrangement is used in order to address an alien
theme, process or element. Alien to our own that we are used to. Therefore the
combination of the two words within SF literature may be explained as author’s creation
of the world that is alien to our own, but based on scientific principles, which are
explained using the terms of science or logic. The novum is explained in order for the
reader to take is as much plausible as possible.
If Suvin’s point of view on SF is used, then it may be argued that Brave New World
satisfies the criteria and be classified as a science fiction novel. It does provide both
elements of cognition and estrangement. The examples of the former element are
provided at the beginning of the book, where the director of the hatchery explains to
young students the process of producing the members of their society.
“… where the Alphas and Betas remained until definitely bottled; while the Gammas,
Deltas and Epsilons were brought out again, after only thirty-six hours, to undergo
Bokanovsky’s Process. ‘Bokanovsky’s Process’, repeated the Director, and the students
underlined the words in their little notebook. One egg, one embryo, one adult –
normality. But a bokanovskified egg will bud, will proliferate will divide. From eight to
ninety-six buds, and every bud will grow into a perfectly formed embryo, and every
embryo into a full-sized adult. Making ninety-six human beings grow where only one
grew before. Progress.” (Huxley, A., 1989, p. 4).
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And he goes on explaining the further parts of the process to the students who eagerly
write down his words.
The quotation provided above may be looked at by using the definition provided by
Darko Suvin. Since the people are no longer born the natural way, as they do nowadays
and were at the time the novel was written (even though the process is possible), this
vision seems highly alien to what we experience now. It can be said that it is not even
the process that is explained in words, understandable for the reader, but it is the idea
why this process is being used in order to achieve the goal set. The idea presented
through the process of producing people and separating them into different caste levels
is alien and estranges itself in comparison to the situation, which we do not consider
strange or alien in any sense. Since both terms, cognition and estrangement is presented
in the quotation provided, the final resolution may argue for satisfying the criteria
provided by Darko Suvin. Both terms might still undergo more analysis. As mentioned,
their presence in the quotation above is evident. The only question that arises is that,
which one needs to be more dominant, in order to classify a work as SF.
As explained in previous chapters both elements are crucial and can not be avoided
in any SF work. It is the element of estrangement that makes the work more attractive
and popular. The estrangement moves the reader and makes him think. On the other
hand, it is the work of cognition that brings us closer to the alien element. It is the
process of cognition, through which we are able to understand and accept the process
(in our example) of producing people as our own in the future. Therefore it may be
concluded that their presence is inevitable and the importance of attraction lies in the
sphere of estrangement which needs to be cognitively explained.
On the other hand, there might be several other attempts to look at Brave New World
as a science fiction novel. One of those attempts may include Philip K. Dick’s point of
view on science fiction. He strongly believed in the process of estrangement, which
creates SF of a good quality. It is the shift from the unknown that makes us compare our
own to the new, alien. In comparison to Suvin’s point of view, Dick argues only for the
existence of the new, strange, novum. He does not include the element of cognition in
his definition. The element of cognition is of a less concern to him. Dick leaves the
process of characterizing a work as science fiction on the reader. The example of his
theory is quite simple. Huxley’s Brave New World, is about a world in the future, which
was affected by the effects of war. In order to avoid them, people created a society
based on a caste system, where human beings are produced and conditioned to stay
57
happy and never sad or alone. To be able to achieve such a goal, the society suffers the
loss of individuality, beauty or art whatsoever, right to be alone, right to do or be what
one wished without acting suspicious. The book provides a model of a human attempt to
succeed in creating a stable society where everyone is without any worries. When the
reader reads through the story and he himself is convinced that the picture of the society
portrayed in the book might represent his society in some time in the future, then he
certainly is reading a science fiction book. On the other hand, if the reader is not certain,
rather he is not convinced by the book that the society and the world in the future may
look like in the book, then without any doubt he is not reading a science fiction novel.
Dick’s theory might not be accepted by the literary critics. If the proper definition
was based on his criteria, then the effect might take a form, where according to some,
there would be no SF books and on the other hand, some would consider almost all
books as science fiction. This point of view is of course not plausible, if looked at the
way as it is portrayed above. But in some cases the reader’s own judgment during the
process of characterizing a book or a movie as part of science fiction culture, is needed.
The novel Brave New World belongs to those novels, which provide one more
aspect that plays a crucial part in the process of characterizing it as a SF novel. The
phenomenon if looked at from several directions might provide several results. The
element of time is that kind of phenomenon. Aldous Huxley wrote Brave New World in
1932. At this time, the text he wrote and ideas he expressed, were quite new, alien and
strange. Since the first part of the analysis argued that it managed to satisfy Suvin’s
criteria, therefore it could be argued that at the time Brave New World was published, it
might be definitely classified as science fiction. Descriptions, such as:
“Liquid air, television, vibro-vacuum massage, radio, boiling caffeine solution, hot
contraceptives, and eight different kinds of scent were laid on in every bedroom. The
synthetic music plant was working as they entered the hall and left nothing to be
desired. A notice in the lift announced that there were sixty Escalator-Squash Racket
Courts in the hotel, and that Obstacle and Electro-magnetic Golf could both be played in
the park.” (Huxley, A., 1989, p. 100).
Such a description as the one presented above, might easily invoke feelings of
something, which mankind could achieve only in the future, but definitely not at the
time of the origin of the book. This illusion was easily evoked at that time by many
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other SF writers, since technology was not developed as it is nowadays. Therefore, to
sum up, during the 1930’s Brave New World with its ideas and its inventions presented
could be classified as science fiction, since before, they were described as parts of far
reality.
On the other hand a second implication may be presented. After seventy-four years
from the birth of the book, a different opinion may be formed. All the sensational ideas
and creations as they were praised during 1932 and since are now part of the everyday
life. The main idea of producing people and separating them into a caste system is now
possible. There is not an element with a new, strange capacity that would estrange our
world today from the one portrayed in the book. There is still of course the contrast
between the brave new world’s society and our own, but the tool, used to accomplish it
is not of a strange and alien character. Thereat, Brave New World may be classified as a
contemporary fiction.
The process of classifying a work as a science fiction is a tedious one. Since, it is
problematic to present an accurate definition of SF genre, the only valid one that can be
accepted is the one supported by literary critics. Therefore, that is why Darko Suvin’s
definition of SF was presented. Although, while concerned with science fiction
literature, it is often not correct to always rely on the definition. The reader’s point of
view must be also taken into consideration. Even if the work falls into the criteria of the
definition, the reader may still possess the idea that he is not reading SF at all. This part
of the process of classification is often regarded as secondary and not taken into a full
consideration. And after all, there has a new problem arisen into the sphere of science
fiction literature. It concerns works written by authors, where the ideas presented by
him came already into existence and are not alien or strange to us any more. Then, the
process of classification gains two sides, which represent two points of view. The first
one represents views on the works from the time, when the authors first published them.
The conditions of that particular society and science must be taken into an account. The
next one looks at the work as a current contemporary fiction. All the novas expressed by
the author are now taken for granted and they do not estrange us in any way.
As the analysis above presented, it is not easy to classify a work as science fiction as
is it not easy to present a satisfying definition of science fiction literature. The process
of classification comes across obstacles, which might represent various points of view
and they must be taken into consideration, while declaring the final verdict.
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6.3 SCIENCE FICTION IN RELATION TO DYSTOPIA
The following part of the analysis consists of the relation between the literary genre
of science fiction and genre of dystopia. Their coherence was already discussed in
previous chapter. During this analysis, the aim will be to uncover the dystopian features
of Huxley’s Brave New World and portray how they relate to the genre of science
fiction and in the raising popularity of dystopian occurrence in science fiction.
Brave New World can be considered to be without any doubt a dystopian novel. It
possesses the features characteristic for a dystopian fiction as they are introduced by
Wikipedia.org.
The main feature of dystopian fiction presents the creation of a society, which
managed to eliminate all the evil characteristics of societies before. The society created
consists of people who are able to live their lives in happiness without any worries of
becoming sad or ill. As it is in Brave New World, people of the dystopian society, or as
they addressed it as civilized are unable to feel sad or ill. They see their world as a
perfect solution and it does not even cross their minds to question the real status of the
society. They are unable to see, what hides behind and see the real character of the
society and the world. The tools used to acquire the blindness create a form of control. It
is the artificial control over the people that enables the rulers to hide the truth. The form
of control presented in Brave New World takes on several forms. The first form consists
of producing people into a perfectly organized caste system. When, they are ‘born’ they
undergo a series of mind conditioning to ensure the fact that they will be happy with
their place in the society.
“’Alpha children wear grey. They work much harder than we do, because, they’re so
frightfully clever. I’m really awfully glad I’m a Beta, because I don’t work so hard. And
then we are much better than the Gammas and Deltas. Gammas are stupid. They all
wear green, and Delta children wear khaki. Oh no, I don’t want to play with Delta
children. And Epsilons are still worse. They’re to stupid to be able …’”
(Huxley, A., 1989, p. 27).
Their comfort and stability can only be achieved if everyone in the society is
satisfied with his place in the caste system and with the work that is assigned to him.
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Each one of them experiences conditioning especially assigned to him and his caste.
And therefore:
“’It’s an absurdity. An Alpha-decadent, Alpha-conditioned man would go mad if he had
to do Epsilon Semi-Moron work – go mad, or start smashing things up. Alphas can be
completely socialized – but only on condition that you make them do Alpha work. Only
an Epsilon can be expected to make Epsilon sacrifices, for the good reason that for him
they aren’t sacrifices; they’re the line of least resistance. His conditioning has laid down
rails along which he’s got to run. He can’t help himself; he’s foredoomed. … You
cannot pour upper-caste champagne-surrogate into lower-caste bottles. …’”
(Huxley, A., 1989, p. 228).
Everything in such a society has its rightful place and purpose. Of course, the
production and conditioning of the people is only the base of the control. The whole
society in order to succeed in the pursuit of the everlasting happiness uses other forms
of control as well.
Another significant source of control is in a form of a drug invoking happy feelings
without the terrible aftermaths caused by from alcohol.
“’… And what you ought to do is on the whole so pleasant, so many of the natural
impulses are allowed free play, that there really aren’t any temptations to resist. And if
ever, by some unlucky chance, anything unpleasant should somehow happen, why,
there’s always soma to give you a holiday from the facts. And there’s always soma to
calm your anger, to reconcile you to your enemies, to make you patient and long-
suffering. … Now, you swallow two or three half-gramme tablets, and there you are.
Anybody can be virtuous now. … ‘” (Huxley, A., 1989, p. 244).
Soma as explained in the quotation above may be explained as a secondary tool to the
process of control. People are made to be satisfied, with the position they are put in, but
for the minor collisions that could take place, there is soma, a tool, which makes things
look much better.
Since, the aim is to have the population always happy and careless; various forms of
fun-centres are formed in order to avoid having people alone. They are conditioned not
to seek out solitude at any costs. For the purpose of succeeding, hypnopædic slogans are
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taught in sleep. Dystopian society in Brave New World forbids solitude, because
everyone belongs to everyone else, and on the other hand everyone is important, even
the less liked Epsilons who form the base of the society.
All the ideas and inventions presented above sound too good to be left without any
evil hidden behind them. The success of such a society also lies in the abandonment of
several things possessing a great value. Especially, a society portrayed in the Brave
New World was forced to give up history, art and religion. Beauty and art is connected
with history itself. The world controllers of Brave New World thought that beauty
might attract people to history, and therefore:
“’ … We haven’t any use of the old things here.’ ‘Even when they’re beautiful?’
‘Particularly when they’re beautiful. Beauty’s attractive, and we don’t want people to be
attracted by old things. We want them to like the new ones.’”
(Huxley, A., 1989, p. 225).
Basically, the old things represented in the form of history and art do not cooperate
within a stable society. By studying and admiring history and art, people realize things
or concepts from different points of view. They are taken away from the artificial
boundaries of stable dystopian societies and become a threat to the society itself.
Similar situation is experienced with religion in Brave New World. Since, the society
created is full of happiness, without any pain or solitude, it is logical that there is no
need for religion or God himself. One only turns to God, if he is alone, in grief, in pain
or he longs for something. But in dystopian society, all these things have been
processed. One is never alone, or in grief, if so, there is soma to take him on the holiday
of happiness. Also, there is no pain present, everyone belongs to everyone else and
people are provided in order they do not long for what they cannot get.
“’You can only be independent of God while you’ve got youth and prosperity;
independence won’t take you safely to the end.’ Well, we’ve now got youth and
prosperity right up to the end. What follows? Evidently, that we can be independent of
God.’ ‘The religious sentiment will compensate us for all our losses.’ But there aren’t
any losses for us to compensate; religious sentiment is superfluous. … ‘Call it the fault
of civilization. God isn’t compatible with machinery and scientific medicine and
universal happiness. …’” (Huxley, A., 1989, p. 239-240).
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All the questions related to religion and God and their presence in dystopian society are
fully answered in the quotation above. They present themselves as an absence, or as not
needed to be present, since their purpose is eliminated by the pursuit of eternal
happiness.
When taken into consideration, the pros and cons of a stable society as portrayed in
Brave New World, it may be noticed that such a society suffers a great loss of
individuality. It is individuality and self expression with the individual freedom that are
not compatible with dystopian society. The form of control, which guides the people to
accept and do what, is required. The values that people possess now are irretrievably
lost and cannot be claimed back. It is always the side of the losses that attract the reader
or a movie maker.
Since the basic elements of the dystopian society in dystopia were presented, what is
the relation between them and science fiction? Often the connection lies in the
technology or the technological process that is used to ensure the form of control. In
dystopian fiction, the process of everlasting happiness is granted by the technology
controlled by those who are in power. Therefore, it is the dystopian idea together with
the technology that presents the novum of the fiction and forms the base characteristics
of science fiction. Dystopia together with the literary genre of science fiction is often
used today by science fiction writers and movie directors to portray the future, or what
shape is the world taking, and what can become true after several years of our pursuit of
happiness and leisure.
Therefore, the combination of science fiction together with dystopia may be
understood as a warning, the book, the authors and movie directors try to evoke and
present. A warning, which will enable us to avoid the mistakes that would lead us to
such a future. During the past couple years, dystopia has become a part of popular
culture in the sphere of cinematography. The recent movies produced only support the
idea; Gattaca (1997), The Matrix (1999), Equilibrium (2002), Aeon Flux (2005),
Ultraviolet (2006), V for Vendetta (2006).
Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World is of a unique quality in the combination with
science fiction literature. As the analysis presented tried to prove, it is often not an easy
task to classify a work as part of science fiction. The problems that might take place are
either concerned with the proper definition or the reader’s point of view, which is
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sometimes neglected. Brave New World introduces another interested obstacle in the
process of classification and that is of time and scientific progress. Since it was written
in the year 1932, the ideas presented there are not as breathtaking as they were when the
book was first published. This feature only concerns with books, which ideas presented
have already come into existence in the real world, and therefore the classification
process is based on the point of view that relies on the element of time.
Brave New World also possesses a characteristic, which enables it to take part in the
sphere of popular culture. As the previous chapters indicated, science fiction, which can
now be regarded as part of popular culture, is in deep interesting relationship with the
genre of dystopia. It may be regarded that SF is somehow starting to obtain those ideas
and includes them into its spectrum. The relation is growing stronger as the movie
readers may experience in cinemas, which are supplied with lots of movies that
represent the combination of science fiction and dystopia. The authors are afraid that the
dystopian ideas have already taken form in our lives and through their work they try to
demonstrate what an effect they can have on us, if people allow to be consumed by
them.
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7 BRAVE NEW WORLD AND THE MATRIX: AN ANALYSIS OF
THE GENRE
Both of these works are of a great influence, either in the sphere of literature or
cinematography. When standing alone, they represent single piece of literature or
cinema with typically self occurring features. On the other hand, when combined,
several similar features may be noticed and characterized.
The aim of the chapter is to provide an analysis and interpretation of similar features
occurring both in The Matrix and Brave New World. Examples of the similar features
will be provided as well.
The most obvious feature that occurs in both works is the feature of the genre. Brave
New World as classified in the previous chapter, features with the elements of dystopian
fiction and is therefore characteristic example of dystopia. This is not so easy to say
with The Matrix. In Brave New World, the civilized world that is created has one
purpose and that is to avoid the feelings of pain, sadness and loneliness in order to
create a stable society. Therefore, the society is governed by the people who possess
power to control the rest of humans and provide them with the false feelings of
happiness. In The Matrix, the artificial world that is created by the machines produces a
society where people plugged into the cyberspace are not deprived of the evil feelings of
sadness, loneliness. They are provided with all the feelings people usually experience in
everyday life. In the cyberspace of the matrix, the society that is created has the same
values as the society created in Brave New World. With one difference only that people
plugged into the matrix possess all the good and bad elements affecting the society,
whereas in Brave New World the elements that may violate the course of the society are
eliminated. In either way, the acquired level of satisfaction is achieved.
Despite their differences, the societies created in both works own several aspects that
are present in either one of them. It is the element of control that is the most vivid one.
In The Matrix, it is the false projection of the world that keeps everyone plugged into it
satisfied and busy with his own artificial concerns. It is the virtual world that may be
compared to the world controlled by world controllers in Brave New World. People in
both societies are under control, hidden far away from the truth. They are deprived of
the most important value and that is the value of inner freedom. Inner freedom to do
what one likes, not what one is conditioned to like. It is the inner freedom that allows
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one to freely choose from the possibilities. The main problem concerned with inner
freedom in both societies created is related to the aspect of choice. People are no longer
given any choice; the difficult matters are already decided for them without their
knowing and for their convenience.
Another similarity may be portrayed through the characters. They are unable to
escape the power of the artificially controlled world, once they were brought up in it.
The people who were ‘born’ in such a society, are conditioned, and experience its riches
are unable to resist its temptation. It is a form of addiction.
Linda, a character from Brave New World, who always lived in the civilized world,
was lost in the Savage Reservation, where she was forced to get accustomed to the
habits and customs of the Indians. This is what she said, when after several years, she
met a civilized human being.
“’Oh, my dear, my dear.’ … ‘If you knew how glad – after all these years! A civilized
face. … ‘ … ‘What I had to suffer – and not a gramme of soma to be had.’ … ‘And I
was so ashamed. Just think of it: me, a Beta – having a baby: put yourself in my place.’
…’And flying back in the evening from Stoke Poges. And then a hot bath and vibro-
vacuum massage … But there.’ … ‘Civilization is Sterilization,’ I used to say to them.
And ‘Streptocock-Gee to Banbury-T, to see a fine bathroom and W.C.’ as though they
were children. But of course they didn’t understand. How should they? And in the end I
suppose I got used to it. … ‘But it’s all different here. It’s like living with lunatics.
Everything they do is mad.’” (Huxley, A., 1989, p. 120-122).
All the features of the civilized world Linda was addicted to are listed above. She was
unable to live a happy life in the Reservation, either she was not provided with the
material things or she was not able to adjust to the Indian society and was thought to be
a recluse.
There is one character in the movie The Matrix, who was also brought back from the
artificial, virtual world to the reality. Since, he is unable to fulfill his life; he still seeks a
way to get back to the matrix. The only way to do that is by betraying his friends.
“’Do we have a deal, Mr. Reagan?’ ‘You know … I know this steak doesn’t exist. I
know that when I put it in my mouth … the matrix is telling my brain that it is … juicy
… and delicious.’ ‘After nine years … you know what I realize? Ignorance is bliss.’
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‘Then we have a deal.’ ‘I don’t want to remember nothing. Nothing. You understand?
…’ ” (Wachowski, L. & A. Wachowski, 1999, timeline: 01:01:07-01:01:55).
Cypher and also Linda, are unable to cope with the difficulties of the worlds they
were brought into. Their minds are consumed by the fake promises of happiness. In a
way they are both addicted and far beyond any help.
The same situation occurs when a character tries to make a transfer from the
uncivilized to the civilized world or from the real to the artificial world. An example
from the Brave New World may be presented. A character John the Savage, son of
Linda, to whom she always talked about a world where dreams come true. Since, he is
an outcast of the Indian society; he is convinced by Linda that in the civilized world he
would be able to start a new life with Lenina by his side.
“’O wonder!’ he was saying; and his eyes shone, his face was brightly flushed. ‘How
many goodly creatures are there here! How beauteous mankind is!’ The flush suddenly
deepened; he was thinking of Lenina, of an angel in bottle-green viscose, lustrous with
youth and skin food, plump benevolently smiling. His voice faltered. ‘O brave new
world,’ he began …” (Huxley, A., 1989, p. 141).
His expectations of the civilized world were at that time of the story quite high. When
he experienced the real nature of the civilized world, he was disgusted. He hated the
programmed people without any inner feelings. His most disappointments were that
people were unable to feel love, like he could for Lenina or grief when his mother Linda
died. During the talk with the state controller Mustapha Mond he stated that the he
could never accept a world where grief, love, beauty, pain and all sort of
inconveniences were absent, for his own.
“’But I like the inconveniences.’ ‘We don’t,’ said the Controller. ‘We prefer to do
things comfortably.’ ‘But I don’t want comfort. I want God, I want poetry, I want real
danger, I want freedom, I want goodness. I want sin.’ ‘In fact,’ said Mustapha Mond,
‘you’re claiming the right to be unhappy.’ ‘Not to mention the right to grow old and
ugly and impotent; the right to have syphilis and cancer; the right to have to little to eat;
the right to be lousy; the right to live in constant apprehension of what may happen
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tomorrow; the right to catch typhoid; the right to be tortured by unspeakable pains of
every kind.’ … ” (Huxley, A., 1989, p. 246-247).
John the Savage is unable to go with his friends to Falkland Islands. He is forced to stay
in the civilized world as a form of experiment. Since, his hatred of the brave new world
is enormous he leaves the city and finds a shelter on the outskirts where he could seek
solitude and confess his sins. When he is found by the civilized people, who in lust for
entertainment push him into committing a suicide. John, as well as Linda with Cypher
could not undergo a transfer from one world to another. They all die in the pursuit to
escape the new world and try to get back were they think they belong and can find the
eternal happiness.
Another similarity, which may be observed between The Matrix and Brave New
World, is that they both present two worlds and a conflict between them. In The Matrix,
the authors created a world of virtual reality created by the machines in order to use the
human beings as power cells. On the other hand, there is a world outside the boundaries
created by cyberspace. Huxley also created two distinct worlds. One that is the result of
world wide control, where people are controlled and conditioned. Merely puppets, with
whom the world controllers pull their strings. The other world is the world of Savage
Reservations. People in the reservations are not influenced by the power of technology,
they continue on living their primitive lives.
Both the artificial world of the matrix and the civilized society of the Brave New
World can be regarded as alike. Their similarities come out from their features. They
both are used as a tool of control. People are given their destiny without a possibility to
change it. The other combination with similar characteristics is the combination of the
real world from The Matrix and the Savage Reservation from Brave New World. The
Savage Reservation represents a world of values, where the way of life has not been
touched. Despite the fact that the status of such a society is regarded as primitive, the
Indians are not blinded from the truth, which is absent in a civilized world. In The
Matrix, people from the real world are also forced to live outside the main land, which
is crowded by the machines. These people are set free and they can realize between the
fake and the real.
What is significant on their relation, is the way, they are portrayed. Both the real
world and the Savage Reservation are described as the junkyard. In Brave New World,
the Savage Reservations are far from the cities and are guarded by the electric fences.
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On the other hand the real and only city in The Matrix is hidden deep inside the earth far
away from the surface. Both of these places somehow lack the possession of the
advance technology that would enable them to become more luxurious and prosperous.
It is the technology that enables both artificial worlds to be more superiors. The
superiority is presented in different ways in both works. In Brave New World, the
technology as such empowers the civilized people to be guarded from the disgusting
Indians. In The Matrix, it is again the technology that enables the machines to overcome
the people of Zion.
The struggle between both worlds is decided by the power of technology. The ones
who are more advanced are on the winning side and can control the course of the future
for their advanced and primitive neighbors as well.
The final similarity presented in this analysis is concerned with the characters of both
stories. The feature analyzed is based on a form of control over the characters who are
unable to escape it.
In The Matrix, Neo and his friends to whom the real truth has been revealed still do
not possess the luxury of the inner freedom. Their actions are still bound to the
guidelines of the Oracle and almost always consult their actions with her. It is an
interesting conflict, since the Oracle represents a computer program that is part of the
matrix and provides help to Neo and in a way controls his actions. Therefore it can be
concluded that Neo, could not really escape the power the matrix had over him.
Similar situation takes place also in Brave New World. Bernard Marx, who is unable
to fit into the dystopian society and wishes to escape it, is not strong enough to resist the
luxuries provided by it. There are often situations, when Bernard overcome by his inner
feelings is forced to take soma to escape the cruel reality of his own. Also in the end,
when Bernard and Helmholtz are sent into an island, they still rely on the society to do
so and it can be argued, that the society on the islands will be of similar kind to the one
controlled by the world controllers.
To sum up, it is the overwhelming power of the dystopian luxuries and technology
that its inhabitants are influenced by and it is in their inevitable destiny to be consumed
and controlled by them.
Both Brave New World and The Matrix are quite distinct works, but they possess
one element, which brings them together. The analysis focused on the genre, these two
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works represent. It is the genre of dystopia, which characterize both works with features
through which their influence can be identified and similarities could be analyzed.
Naturally, there are other similarities but, they have not been mentioned and analyzed in
the analysis provided. The main focus was drawn closer towards the genre of dystopia,
which creates their characteristic features. Through the analysis, a conclusion can be
made, which would suggest that the importance of dystopia is gaining on its strength not
only in the science fiction literature but also science fiction cinematography.
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CONCLUSION Science fiction represents a unique genre in the world of literature. Since its origin,
SF was not regarded as a respected kind of literature. Throughout its development,
science fiction writers experimented with various kinds of features that would enrich the
genre and enable it to take part among the literature recognized by the literary critics.
The literary genre of SF possess several interesting aspects, among one of them is the
difficulty to introduce a valid definition, which would satisfy the criteria of proper SF.
There were and are several attempts of the critics and even SF writers themselves to
succeed in the aim. So far, a definition presented by a well known SF critic Darko Suvin
is able to satisfy the necessary criteria laid down by the literary critics. Of course the
definitions and ideas of other authors and critics should not be neglected, since the
process of classifying a work as science fiction is a tedious one. During the analytical
part of the thesis, several aspects needed to be considered during the process of
classification. It is usually the reader’s point of view, which is not influential enough
and in some cases may present the most important element in the process. The analysis
also introduced a problem, which is typical with science fiction now. The matter
consists of the old works regarded as SF. Today, in the world of advanced technology,
we are surrounded by machines and the lives people live may describe dreams people
used to dream in the past. Dreams as inspiration of science fiction works are now true
and from today’s point of view, these works could be regarded as part of contemporary
fiction. This concern may acquire two solutions. Either we accept a present point of
view or we consider the situation of the past and adapt the point of view of author’s
culture in a particular time.
Science fiction also ran across several obstacles, when one is concerned with its
origin. There are of course several theories that present distinct ideas, but there is one
theory that is accepted by the majority. It addresses Mary Shelley and her work as a
groundbreaking point in the development of science fiction. Shelley is regarded by
some as the mother of science fiction literature. Another important figure of science
fiction is H. G. Wells. He is thought to be the father of science fiction and his work is
more than influential and it helped to shape to form of science fiction.
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Throughout the development of science fiction, there were several works introduced
by authors form the science fiction spectrum like Robert A. Heinlein, Isaac Asimov and
Kingsley Amis from the spectrum of contemporary literature, which were influential
enough that science fiction became either recognized by the public and literary critics. It
is through the emergence of such works that science fiction takes part in the popular
culture and is read by wider audience than it was during its beginnings.
Closer to the present day, genre of science fiction as well as other genres of literature
experienced the influence of postmodernism. New subgenres were introduced, which
may set the future course of science fiction. A subgenre of such influence is cyberpunk.
Since its origin in 1984, it influenced various spheres of human culture and it managed
to create its own subgenres. Its features are also reflected in the contemporary fiction
and the distinction line separating such works is vague.
During the final stages of the science fiction development, the abbreviation SF took
on a new meaning. It did not only address science fiction literature, but also other
genres as well. Among them is fantasy, which together with science fiction possessing
various similarities and their influences upon on another is enormous. Other genres are
supernatural horror, alternate history and magic realism. This group of literary genres is
now addressed with the abbreviation SF, meaning speculative fiction. All the genres in
the group mentioned possess similar features, which enabled a creation of such a group.
Throughout the analysis, an importance of dystopia genre is suggested. It is in the
capacity of this genre to answer the hidden question this thesis set out to answer. The
question focused on the concerns with the future of the genre. For a long time, the main
theme of science fiction works was based on the interplanetary traveling and
discovering. The era presented is long forgotten. The next era presented was introduced
by the author’s experiments with the reality and employing the features from the
mainstream literature. This tendency prevailed also in the new subgenre (cyberpunk),
which emerged. Today, all the features applied by SF writers no longer present a
science fiction novum that would estrange the reader in any way. Therefore the most
relevant question to ask would be what the future course of science fiction will be like?
The new shape of science fiction might be introduced by the emergence of a new
subgenre, where the ideas presented would be sufficient enough to estrange the reader.
Some critics suggest another solution that would answer the question asked. The new
shape science fiction literature may take lies in going backwards or in other words,
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shifting the focus of science fiction on the past, but what will the real course of science
fiction be, is a matter of science fiction itself.
Today, it may be said that science fiction flourishes at its peak. Its acceptance among
the mainstream fiction and inclusion in popular culture are only proofs of the
proposition. The importance of dystopia in today’s SF is visible through its presence in
the SF movies presented in the cinemas, which offer the viewer more than they can
swallow. Although, as already mentioned, the real problem of science fiction lies in its
future. The vision of it is vague, but not uncertain. Several paths have been proposed, it
is only a matter of time to see, which path will be chosen.
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RESUMÉ Svet vedecko-fantastickej literatúry je svetom, ktorý môžeme neustále skúmať
a napriek tomu nedokážeme odhaliť všetky jeho tajomstvá. Hlavným úmyslom práce je
nahliadnuť do tohto sveta a zobraziť jeho dianie v minulosti, súčasnosti a budúcnosti.
Objasnenie jednotlivých aspektov vedecko-fantastickej literatúry ponúka práca,
rozdelená do teoretickej a praktickej časti. Prvá časť poskytuje všeobecné informácie
týkajúce sa vedecko-fantastickej literatúry so zameraním na definíciu žánru, jednotlivé
historické obdobia spolu s uvedením autorov a ich diel. Ďalšie kapitoly opisujú vplyv
ostatných literárnych žánrov na SF literatúru a naopak. Postmodernizmus spolu so
svojimi charakteristickými črtami vplývajúcimi na vývin vedecko-fantastickej literatúry
taktiež vytvára samostatnú kapitolu práce. Druhú časť tvorí analýza dvoch diel a to
Brave New World (Prekrásny Nový Svet) od Aldousa Huxleyho a film The Matrix. Obe
diela sú analyzované prostredníctvom teórií sprostredkovaných v teoretickej časti.
Cieľom práce je poskytnúť dostatok informácií týkajúcich sa žánru a ich neskoršie
použitie v analytickej časti práce. Práca je rozdelená do nasledovných kapitol.
Prvá kapitola skúma vedecko-fantastickú literatúru z pohľadu kritikov. Jej cieľom je
predstaviť uspokojujúcu definíciu žánru, ktorá je schopná naplniť požiadavky
literárnych kritikov. V danej kapitole sú taktiež prezentované myšlienky spisovateľov
vedecko-fantastickej literatúry a ich pohľady na žáner. Poznatky z kapitoly sú neskôr
použité v praktickej analýze.
Ďalšia kapitola sa zaoberá vedecko-fantastickou literatúrou, ktorá svojou
unikátnosťou a rozmanitosťou myšlienok prezentovaných jej autormi predstavuje
neopakovateľný prvok vo svete literatúry. Počas svojej existencie jej literárnymi
kritikmi nebol pripisovaný veľký význam. Vedecko-fantastická literatúra bola súčasťou
len malej skupiny ľudí, ktorí dokázali už vtedy oceniť jej skryté kvality a doposiaľ
neodhalené možnosti.
Až neskôr autori ako Robert A. Heinlein, Isaac Asimov a Frank Herbert pod
vedením Johna W. Campbella dokázali predstaviť svet „science fiction“ širokej
verejnosti. Ako vydavateľ časopisu Astounding Stories, kde sa združovali významní
autori vedecko-fantastickej literatúry, dokázal John W. Campbell určiť budúci smer SF
literatúry. Campbell vyžadoval od svojich spisovateľov, aby sa dokázali odpútať od
stereotypov SF žánru, ktoré vznikli počas éry pulp magazínov. Časopis Astounding
Stories útočil na čitateľa rozličnosťou myšlienok prezentovaných SF autormi, ktorí do
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svojich príbehov dokázali zakomponovať SF prvky, s akými sa čitateľ ešte v danom
žánri nestretol. Éra Johna Campbella a jeho časopisu Astounding Stories je často
charakterizovaná ako Zlatý Vek vedecko-fantastickej literatúry.
Od tejto doby vývoj SF literatúry začal naberať na obrátkach. Éra Zlatého Veku sa
skončila a prišla nová, ešte výraznejšia a vplyvnejšia. Počas éry, ktorá bola
charakterizovaná ako Nový Smer, autori začali experimentovať, začali si požičiavať
prvky z vtedy súčasnej literatúry a naopak. Tento proces vymieňania si prvkov medzi
SF a súčasnou literatúrou bol podľa Briana McHalea typický práve pre éru Nového
Smeru. Autori sa dokázali odpútať z doteraz nadobudnutých stereotypov ako boli
vesmírne boje a medziplanetárne cestovanie a začali experimentovať s témou reality.
Medzi priekopníkov tohto druhu SF literatúry môžeme považovať Philipa K. Dicka.
Dick považoval SF literatúru a myšlienky prezentované v jeho dielach ako súčasť
dialógu medzi čitateľom a spisovateľom. Podľa neho, čím výraznejšia myšlienka v
knihe, ktorá dokáže zapôsobiť na myseľ čitateľa rozmanitejším spôsobom, tým lepšie
hodnotenie knihy samotnej.
Taktiež netreba zabudnúť na koniec éry Nového Smeru, keď SF literatúra začínala
byť akceptovaná a začala si budovať svoje miesto v literatúre širokej verejnosti.
Rovnakým spôsobom sa stala vedecko-fantastická literatúra súčasťou populárnej
kultúry. SF si svoje miesto právoplatne zaslúžila a to i vďaka vzrastajúcemu nárastu
záujmu o filmové adaptácie kníh vydaných SF spisovateľmi.
Koniec Nového Smeru naznačil nástup novej éry, za ktorej otca môžeme považovať
Williama Gibsona a rok vzniku 1984. Gibson sa napísaním svojej najvýznamnejšej
knihy Neuromancer zaslúžil o vznik Cyberpunkovej éry. Osemdesiate roky dvadsiateho
storočia reprezentovali nárast vplyvu počítačov a spisovatelia ako William Gibson,
Bruce Sterling a John Shirley sa snažili o vyjadrenie následkov, ktoré môžu vzniknúť
v spoločnosti o niekoľko rokov. Nešlo o opisovanie katastrofických následkov
vyplývajúcich z používania počítačov, išlo skôr o zobrazenie spolunažívania ľudí
a strojov. Éra Cyberpunku, ktorá je bližšie spracovaná v samostatnej kapitole, vytvorila
nový svet. Svet počítačov a virtuálnej reality, kde sa odohráva dej a hrdinovia plnia
svoje úlohy.
Môžeme tvrdiť, že ešte do dnešného dňa vedecko-fantastická literatúra po nástupu
cyberpunku nepriniesla nový žáner, ktorý by nastolil jej smer. Čo sa však udialo je
splynutie SF literatúry a filmu. Z čitateľa sa stáva divák, ktorý nedokáže pohltiť ponuku
filmovej produkcie. Svet SF filmu spojil doteraz všetky známe SF myšlienky a svety
75
spolu so žánrom dystópie. Dystópii spolu s literárnym žánrom “fantasy” je venovaná
samostatná kapitola, ktorá je zameraná na zobrazenie ich vzájomného vzťahu a vplyvu.
Filmy charakterizované ako SF predstavujú svety, kde človek viac či menej závislý na
počítačovej technike a technológiách vôbec, žije v umelo vytvorenej spoločnosti, ktorá
je pod rúškom klamstva definovaná ako šťastná a stabilná. Po odokrytí tajomstva
úspechu, človek odhalí pravdivú stránku spoločnosti, kde je potláčaná individualita,
dochádza ku strate ľudských hodnôt a život ako taký stráca svoju cenu.
Typickým dielom, ktoré môže byť bez akýchkoľvek pochýb charakterizované ako
dystópia je Brave New World (Prekrásny Nový Svet) od Aldousa Huxleyho. Huxleyho
dielu je venovaná samostatná kapitola, ktorá sa zaoberá jeho analýzou a prípadným
zaradením do sveta vedecko-fantastickej literatúry, kde prevládajú prvky dystópie ako
literárneho žánru. Predstava Prekrásneho Nového Sveta ako je zobrazená v knihe
opisuje svet zničený po deväťročnej vojne. Ľudstvo sa rozhodlo, že podobná udalosť sa
už nikdy nesmie zopakovať a vydalo sa vytvoriť svet nový, stabilný, bez násilia,
strachu, bolesti a kde budú všetci šťastní a spokojní. Daň, ktorú museli zaplatiť je
z nedystopického pohľadu privysoká. Ľudstvu sa preto podarilo vytvoriť spoločnosť,
v ktorej je každý jej člen kontrolovaný. Ľudia, ktorí sa vymykajú požadovaným
vlastnostiam sú pod hrozbou strachu posielaný na miesto – „ostrov“, kde sa nachádzajú
ľudia predstavujúci hrozbu spoločnosti. Prekrásny Nový Svet predstavuje niekoľko
foriem kontroly zabezpečujúcich globálnu stabilitu. Ľudia sa už nerodia tradičným
spôsobom. Rodina ako základná sociálna jednotka spoločnosti zanikla. Slová ako otec,
matka, rodina pre nikoho nič neznamenajú. Dochádza k produkcii ľudí a ich
nasledovnému rozdelenie do piatich typov kást. Jednotlivé kasty podliehajú výchove
charakteristickej pre danú kastu. Ľuďom v kastách prislúchajú osobité pracovné úlohy,
ktorých vykonávanie ich vedie k šťastiu a spokojnosti.
Druhou významnou pomôckou, pre dosiahnutie požadovaného stavu spoločnosti, je
využívanie drog. „Soma“ predstavuje záchytný bod k ceste ku šťastiu. Ak predtým
použité spôsoby zlyhali a člen spoločnosti sa necítil šťastný, nedokázal prijať pocit
umelo evokovaný spoločnosťou, je tu soma, ktorá mu pomôže zabudnúť na všetko zlé
a umožní mu odpútať sa od okolitej reality.
Opísaná spoločnosť spolu so somou vytvára ľudí, ktorí sú neustále spokojní. Ľudia,
ktorí netúžia po ničom, čo nemôžu získať alebo dosiahnuť. Môžeme usúdiť, že
Huxleymu sa podarilo vytvoriť perfektnú a bezchybnú spoločnosť, pretože ľudia ňou
dostatočne ovplyvnení, v skutočnosti žili vo svete, kde boli naozaj šťastní. Ak však
76
vykonáme analýzu danej spoločnosti zistíme, čo všetko museli ľudia obetovať, aby
dosiahli vytúžený cieľ. Z jej negatívnych stránok už bola vymenovaná jedna a to určitá
forma kontroly. Členovia takejto spoločnosti už nerozhodujú samostatne, možnosti
voľby sú im prezentované. Individuálne prejavy nezávislosti sú potlačované. Dochádza
k strate individualizmu za účelom vytvorenia kolektívnej identity, kde sa ľudia od seba
navzájom vôbec neodlišujú. Každý, kto je nejakým spôsobom odlišný od ostatných je
nežiaduci. Ide o minimalizáciu odlišnosti.
Medzi ďalšie obete „perfektnej“ spoločnosti patrí história, umenie, krása,
náboženstvo a Boh sám. V Huxleyho svete umenie a krása nemajú svoje právoplatné
miesto. Spolu s históriou predstavujú reálnu hrozbu a ich existencia je utajovaná.
V stabilnom svete nie je priestor pre veci minulé. Od ľudí sa očakáva, aby oceňovali
a vážili si veci nové, ktoré sú „krajšie“ ako história sama. Rovnaký prípad predstavuje
náboženstvo a Boh. Vo svete, kde sú všetci šťastní a vlastnia veci, ktoré vlastniť môžu
a nesnívajú o veciach, ktoré získať nemôžu, je existencia Boha nepodstatná. Svet
technológií predstavujúcich základnú pomôcku pre vytvorenie šťastného a stabilného
sveta nepotrebuje pre svoju existenciu Boha. Ľudia sú vychovávaní, aby verili
v spoločnosť a jej kontrolórov, ktorí im dokážu zabezpečiť ich požadovaný blahobyt.
Huxley vo svojej knihe predstavil niekoľko postáv, ktoré trpia a nedokážu sa
vysporiadať s požiadavkami takejto spoločnosti. Jej členovia tieto postavy odsudzujú,
nedokážu ich akceptovať medzi seba. Takéto postavy nespĺňanú požiadavky kolektívnej
identity, vytvárajú svoju vlastnú, a preto predstavujú hrozbu stability. Sú vyslaní na
ostrov, ktorý v skutočnosti nepredstavuje hrozbu, ale miesto, kde ľudia neakceptovaní
v dystopickej spoločnosti, môžu žiť v pokoji a šťastí. Počas celého príbehu Huxley
poukazuje na závislosti postáv od komfortu ponúkaného civilizovaným svetom. Ako
napríklad Bernard, postava vykazujúca prvky individualizmu v knihe, nie je schopný
vysporiadať sa s tlakom civilizácie a mnohokrát použije somu k tomu, aby tieto
nástrahy dokázal prekonať. Ďalšou postavou je Linda, ktorá pri svojej návšteve
rezervácie zostala v nej uväznená, nedokáže akceptovať jej nové normy, zvyky a stáva
sa z nej samotárka. Linda je členmi nového sveta za svoje činy odsudzovaná. Pri jej
návrate do „civilizovaného“ spoločnosti je ňou skonzumovaná. Jej závislosť na
komforte ponúkaného civilizovaným svetom v spojení s niekoľkoročnou absenciou je
natoľko silná, že jej nedokáže odolať.
Samozrejme v celom príbehu vystupujú aj postavy, ktoré sú po príchode do
„civilizovaného“ sveta znechutené. Jednou z nich je John, syn Lindy narodený
77
v rezervácii. John nedokáže pochopiť hodnoty vytvorené v novom svete a je zhrozený,
ako ľudia dokázali zahodiť individualitu, samostatnosť, krásu, umenie a náboženstvo.
On, takisto ako aj Linda, je ním pohltený a skonzumovaný. Pri jeho neúspechu odolať
jeho vplyvu spácha samovraždu.
Kniha Prekrásny Nový Svet, predstavuje dva od seba úplne odlišné svety. Na jedenej
strane existuje spoločnosť, kde dochádza k deštrukcii osobných hodnôt a strate
ľudskosti na úkor technického pokroku a globálneho poriadku. Na druhej strane sa
nachádza spoločnosť primitívna, v ktorej pretrvávajú jednoduché hodnoty
a individualizmus. Z pohľadu postáv ide o vzájomné nepochopenie a neschopnosť
akceptovať rozdielnosti spoločnosti, aj keď obe so svojimi výhodami a nevýhodami
disponujú deštrukčnými vlastnosťami.
Druhé dielo opisované v práci predstavuje film The Matrix, ktorý je bližšie
rozpracovaný v samostatnej kapitole č.5, opierajúcej sa o poznatky postmodernizmu.
Matrix, takisto ako Prekrásny Nový Svet, predstavuje typickú kombináciu žánrov
dystópie a cyberpunku. Tu tvorcovia bratia Wachowski vytvorili tiež dva svety a ich
vzájomný zápas. Ide o svet virtuálnej reality (matrix), kde ľudia žijú svoje životy bez
toho aby si uvedomovali, že žijú v umelo vytvorenom svete virtuálnej reality. Tento
svet inak označovaný ako „cyberspace“ (kybernetický svet) je svet naprogramovaný
strojmi, ktoré zápasia s človekom o svoju existenciu. Na druhej strane, druhý svet je
svetom skutočným, zdevastovaným po vojne medzi ľuďmi a strojmi. Tí, čo prežili, sa
schovávajú vo vnútri zeme v poslednom existujúcom meste a vedú nekonečný súboj
snažiac sa vyslobodiť ľudí pripojených do matrixu. Film predstavuje trilógiu a jeho
príbeh zobrazuje hľadanie vyvoleného človeka, ktorý dokáže zachrániť ľudstvo
a poraziť stroje.
Matrix je dielo s motívmi podobnými Prekrásnemu Novému Svetu s prvkami
postmodernizmu. Jeho jednotlivé vlastnosti sú prezentované a charakterizované
v analýze diela. V procese analýzy je predstavené dielo Williama Gibsona,
Neuromancer. Gibsonov virtuálny svet dát, taktiež volaný matrix, zmienka proroctva a
až príliš podobné postavy, predstavujú základný kameň inšpirácie režisérov Matrixu.
Prvky intertextuality v Matrixe sú len vďaka Neurmancerovi odhalené a neskôr
analyzované. Taktiež žánrová podobnosť dystópie zväzujúca Matrix a Prekrásny Nový
Svet, je prezentovaná a analyzovaná v samostatnej kapitole. Obidve diela predstavujú
svet dystópie, kde je ľudstvo kontrolované a umelo usmerňované, za predpokladu
78
udržania stability, šťastia a svetového poriadku. Prostredníctvom predstavených diel je
analyzovaná dôležitosť významu dystópie v žánri vedecko-fantastickej literatúry. Jej
charakteristické črty sú opísané, analyzované a predstavené na príkladoch vybraných
z daných diel.
Cieľom práce je vytvorenie objektívneho pohľadu na svet vedecko-fantastickej
literatúry, ktorá bola dlho odsudzovaná literárnou verejnosťou. Prezentácia jednotlivých
vývinových období žánru upozorňuje na vplyv iných žánrov na vedecko-fantastickú
literatúru a naopak, pričom ide o vykreslenie aktuálnej pozície SF vo svete literatúry.
V neposlednom rade, práca poukazuje na vplyv postmodernizmu, ktorý do určitej miery
usmernil smer, ktorým sa SF literatúra uberala.
V praktickej časti sú predstavené dve diela, ktoré podliehajú analýze podloženej na
teoretickom obsahu práce. Myšlienky Darka Suvina a jeho definícia SF žánru sú
analyzované v diele Prekrásny Nový Svet od Aldousa Huxleyho. Prostredníctvom
daného diela sú zvýraznené prvky dystópie a jej vplyv v rámci SF literatúry.
Druhým dielom podliehajúcim analýze je film Matrix. Matrix, často považovaný za
kultový film, podliehajúci vplyvu postmodernizmu, ktorého charakteristické črty
a prvky sú hlbšie analyzované v práci. Počas analýzy často dochádza k odvolávaniu sa
na dielo Williama Gibsona Neuromancer, ktoré je jej nevyhnutnou súčasťou.
Postmodernistický pohľad na Matrix umožnil rozmanitejšiu analýzu diela, pričom sa
držal základnej filozofie filmu ako takej.
Poslednú časť analýzy predstavuje spojenie dvoch diel a to Prekrásneho Nového
Sveta a Matrixu so zameraním na žáner. Časový rozdiel, existujúci medzi oboma
dielami nedokázal zakryť spoločné prvky, ktoré sa nachádzajú v obidvoch dielach. Opäť
významnou zložkou analýzy je dystópia a jej vplyv. Prostredníctvom dystópie dochádza
k analýze svetov vytvorených v oboch dielach a ich vplyv na postavy, ktoré im
nedokážu odolať.
Práca predstavuje komplexný pohľad na vedecko-fantastickú literatúru zameranú na
jej históriu, sprostredkovanie správnej definície, charakterizáciu pod žánrov a vplyv
postmodernizmu. V analytickej časti práce prezentované teórie predstavujú základný
kameň, o ktoré sa analýza opiera so zameraním na dve diela. Prostredníctvom analýz sa
čitateľ dozvie o zložitosti sveta SF literatúry, právoplatne uznávaného literárnymi
kritikmi spolu s jeho zaradením do sveta populárnej kultúry, kde si svoje miesto určite
zaslúži.
79
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