Post-Apocalyptic, the Cyborg, and the Passage of Time
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THE POST-APOCALYPTIC, THE CYBORG, AND THE PASSAGE OF TIME: A READING OF THE PARALLELS OF SCIENCE FICTION AND THE WORKS OF SAMUEL BECKETT by Aaron Pancho A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of The Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts Florida Atlantic University Boca Raton, Florida August 2011 © Copyright Aaron Pancho 2011 ii THE POST-APOCALYPTIC, THE CYBORG, AND THE PASSAGE OF TIME: A READING OF THE PARALLELS OF SCIENCE FICTION AND THE WORKS OF SAMUEL BECKETT by Aaron Pancho This thesis was prepared under the direction of the candidate's thesis advisor, Dr. Mark Scroggins, Department of English, and has been approved by the members of his supervisory committee. It was submitted to the faculty of the Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters and was accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree ofMaster ofArts. SUPERVISORY COMMITTEE: " tY\~:z........=-..:....-- _ Mar~s:Ph.D. ThesiseJVyAdvisor Eric Berlatsky, Ph.D. U~~ Carol McGuirk, Ph.D. Andrew Furman, Ph.D. Interim Chair, Department ofEnglish Heather Coltman, D.M.A. Interim Dean, Dorothy F. Schmidt College ofArts & Letters B!'ctOS~~~ ~une 2.3; Z-PIj Date Dean, Graduate College III ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The author wishes to express his sincerest gratitude to his family—Mom, Dad, Amanda, Gatsby, and Harrison—for their support and patience throughout the production of this thesis. Additionally, the author wishes to thank Dr. Scroggins, Dr. Berlatsky, and Dr. McGuirk for their endless guidance and insight. iv ABSTRACT Author: Aaron Pancho Title: The Post-Apocalyptic, the Cyborg, and the Passage of Time: A Reading of the Parallels of Science Fiction and the Works of Samuel Beckett Institution: Florida Atlantic University Thesis Advisor: Dr. Mark Scroggins Degree: Master of Arts Year: 2011 This study is an examination of the several themes and conventions of science fiction that seem to appear in the texts of Samuel Beckett. Expectedly, many of the texts produced by both science fiction and Beckett just before, during, and immediately after World War II share similar concerns; though perhaps less expectedly, these two relatively unlike bodies of work can be used to help better understand and illuminate one another. In Waiting for Godot, nuclear anxieties shed light on the play’s apparent post-apocalyptic landscape and the profound emptiness that permeates the stage. In Molloy, Hugh Kenner uses Centaur imagery to explain the title character’s Cartesian relationship with his bicycle; however, contemporary sensibilities at the time of the novel’s publication suggests a cyborg reading of the Molloy/bicycle hybrid can also be productive. And in Krapp’s Last Tape, the tape recorder serves as a figurative time v machine, which allows readers to consider the ways technology continues to allow for the capture of time and subsequent reflection. vi THE POST-APOCALYPTIC, THE CYBORG, AND THE PASSAGE OF TIME: A READING OF THE PARALLELS OF SCIENCE FICTION AND THE WORKS OF SAMUEL BECKETT An Introduction ................................................................................................................ 1 Chapter 1. The Two Days After: Reading Waiting for Godot as Post-Apocalyptic Theater ............................................................................................................ 4 Chapter 2. The Beckettian Cyborg ................................................................................. 26 Chapter 3. Navigating Time/Space in Krapp’s Last Tape ............................................. 45 A Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 63 Notes ............................................................................................................................... 66 Works Cited .................................................................................................................... 69 vii AN INTRODUCTION At a cursory glance, Samuel Beckett and science fiction may initially seem dissimilar. Their regard within the canon—the former enjoying a perch somewhere near the top, while the latter still gazing somewhere from below—could create significant distance between the two. It is, however, at this unlikely intersection that new and exciting discourse can be unearthed. Indeed the comparison has been broached: Vivian Mercier suggests that Endgame is “one of a spate of works of art directly promoted by the existence of first the atomic and then the hydrogen bomb” (174); likewise, S.E. Gontarski states that both Endgame and Happy Days are “permeated with the suggestion of nuclear devastation” (15); and Theodor Adorno echoes much of the same as he writes, “In Endgame, a historical moment unfolds…After the Second World War, everything, including a resurrected culture, has been destroyed without realizing it; humankind continues to vegetate, creeping along after events that even the survivors cannot really survive” (244). It would appear there is precedent for such a partnership, and in the following pages I will attempt to further explore the potential of this approach and continue to contextualize Beckett alongside science fiction to better understand, complicate, and enjoy his extraordinary texts. Defining any literary movement can become a daunting challenge worthy of, at the very least, its own chapter. But for the sake of understanding the basic parameters and general objectives of science fiction, the opinion of Isaac Asimov may be of use: “True science fiction 1 deals with human science, with the continuing advance of knowledge, with the continuing ability of human beings to make themselves better understand the universe and even alter some parts of it for their own comfort and security by the ingenuity of their ideas” (10). It is a genre that fuses modern scientific discovery with the imaginative spirit of fiction; it envisions the future in an effort to comment on the politics of the present. Certainly there is a chronological reason to compare the two, as both maintained prolific runs throughout the 1940s and 1950s. During this time, Beckett wrote his most enduring texts, and as Edward James explains, “SF developed in maturity and complexity, and above all in sheer quantity” during the same decades (qtd. in Roberts 75). Yet, more importantly than historical dates, there is precedent for a thematic comparison. Many of the common themes readers have come to instinctively associate with Beckett—desolation and annihilation, man’s precarious relationship with technology, fluid subjectivity of time/space—are concerns essential to science fiction. Building upon those striking parallels, my project will attempt to study the following: post-apocalyptic “absence” in Waiting for Godot, reading the play with an awareness of atomic age anxiety and nuclear age narratives; the implications of a cyborg reading of Molloy, studying the union between Molloy/Moran and a bicycle; and the consequences of an elastic and inelastic time stream, exploring the subject of time travel in Krapp’s Last Tape. This collection covers a healthy cross section of Beckett’s career, offering analysis of his work that span different tropes, tones, and media. Then, these Beckett texts will be interpreted with a series of science fiction novels and short stories. And 2 while each chapter is capable of standing on its own, concepts from each will reappear in surrounding chapters. My research has yet to come across mention that Beckett was a reader, let alone an admirer, of science fiction; ultimately, though, this confirmation is unnecessary. What is of more significance here is that Beckett’s work seems to inherently demonstrate these science fiction conventions. Suddenly, comparing him to this genre of literature relies less on imposing an arbitrary alliance between two bodies of work and instead emphasizes a partnership that may naturally exist. Consciously and/or subconsciously, Beckett embodies the interests and virtues of science fiction. My intent is to use one to assist the other, and vice versa, in the name of enlightenment. As is the case with all new literary scholarship, applying science fiction to Beckett can assist readers in gaining a new understanding of an author who, despite a wealth of criticism, remains especially elusive and difficult to fully grasp. 3 CHAPTER 1. THE TWO DAYS AFTER: READING WAITING FOR GODOT AS POST-APOCALYPTIC THEATER Like a bomb, Samuel Beckett detonates previous perception of what constitutes “conventional” narrative, leaving scattered shards of prose that can serve as a new literary landscape. And in that landscape, Waiting for Godot (1953) looms large. Vivian Mercier describes the play as having “achieved a theoretical impossibility—a play in which nothing happens, yet which keeps audiences glued to their seats. What’s more, since the second act is a subtly different reprise of the first, he has written a play in which nothing happens, twice” (6). Audiences watch as Vladimir and Estragon (nicknamed Didi and Gogo) wait for an elusive figure named Godot. Their wait is briefly interrupted by the wanderings of Lucky and Pozzo, as well as visits from an unnamed boy who is apparently familiar with Godot. Otherwise, their wait is unrelenting and unsatisfying. Where we leave the two is the same as where we first meet them. Many critics have seen the play as ultimately ambiguous and indeterminate. The text’s uncertainty is as resolute as Vladimir and Estragon’s