Lewis Carroll, Linguistic Nonsense, and Cyberpunk Jennifer Kelso Farrell Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, [email protected]
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Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Doctoral Dissertations Graduate School 2007 Synaptic boojums: Lewis Carroll, linguistic nonsense, and cyberpunk Jennifer Kelso Farrell Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_dissertations Part of the English Language and Literature Commons Recommended Citation Farrell, Jennifer Kelso, "Synaptic boojums: Lewis Carroll, linguistic nonsense, and cyberpunk" (2007). LSU Doctoral Dissertations. 3650. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_dissertations/3650 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at LSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in LSU Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized graduate school editor of LSU Digital Commons. For more information, please [email protected]. SYNAPTIC BOOJUMS: LEWIS CARROLL, LINGUISTIC NONSENSE, AND CYBERPUNK A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in The Department of English By Jennifer Kelso Farrell B.A. University of Montana, 1998 M.A. Montana State University, 2001 August 2007 © Copyright 2007 Jennifer Kelso Farrell All Rights Reserved ii Acknowledgements A project of such undertaking requires input, time, and effort from a great many people. My dissertation director, Dr. Carl Freedman, was invaluable in the generation of this dissertation because he knew when to push me and when to give me space. I couldn’t have finished this project without the time, knowledge, and skills of Dr. Elsie Michie. Without Dr. Lisi Oliver, the dissertation would have been missing some vital structure, and for that I am thankful. Dr. Robin Roberts provided a keen eye for my tendency to over-generalize. All four members were accessible and generous with their time, something that made this project possible. Other people without whom this project would never have finished: Dr. Lillian Bridwell- Bowles, Karen Powell, Warren Hull, Dr. Warren Waggenspack, and everyone at Communication across the Curriculum. To my friends Sean Flory, Ilana Xinos, Tiffany Walter, Lisa Costello, Rich Hauser, Ioanna Panos, Courtney George, Christen Cummins, and Denise and Isaac Millstein for lending sympathetic ears, shoulders, and pens throughout the past five years. If I’ve forgotten anyone, I’ll catch you next time around. Thank you to April and Tom Kelso and Richard and Susan Farrell, wonderful family helped make this all possible. And, of course, thank you to my spouse and teammate, Justin Farrell. The past decade would not have been nearly as successful or fun without you. We finally made it! iii Table of Contents Acknowledgements .............................................................................................................................iii Abstract ................................................................................................................................................. v Introduction: The Question ................................................................................................................. 1 Chapter One: That Damn Egg! ........................................................................................................... 8 Chapter Two: Paper Worlds and Ink Seas ....................................................................................... 51 Chapter Three: What Lies Beneath: Freud, Joyce, and Burgess ................................................... 78 Chapter Four: Dilating Doors and Estranged Readers .................................................................. 119 Conclusion: Alice’s Latest Adventures .......................................................................................... 157 Works ................................................................................................................................................ 172 Appendix: Science Fiction’s 19th Century Roots .......................................................................... 190 Vita .................................................................................................................................................... 197 iv Abstract Tracing a line from Lewis Carroll to 20th-century science fiction and cyberpunk, this project establishes an alternate genealogy based on the use of linguistic nonsense. Science fiction, rather than being merely a genre defined by specific narrative devices or character traits, is instead a language in and of itself. And like any language, it must be learned in order to be understood. Carroll used nonsense as a means of subverting conventional 19th-century opinions of language and, and by extension, society. Carroll was so successful at this that in 1937 American psychiatrist Paul Schilder discussed the dangers to a child’s mind inherent in Carroll’s work. For Schilder, Carroll’s writing, through the violence he commits on language, mirrors a physical violence found in the actions of the characters in Carroll’s works. The linguistic violence that Schilder points out is subtle in Carroll’s works, but is made more overt in science fiction. But before jumping into science fiction, one must acknowledge James Joyce’s contribution to the genre. Joyce borrows heavily from Carroll in Finnegan’s Wake while he adds to the English language a multiplicity of words, phrases, and voices from outside the English language, creating a complex linguistic matrix. It is Anthony Burgess’ A Clockwork Orange that merges Carroll’s nonsense with Schilder’s feared violence. As cyberpunk burst onto the scene in the 1980’s, with William Gibson’s Neuromancer, nonsense took on new levels as technology-driven language blended with multi-cultural phrases in the fluid environment of cyberspace. The fluid environment of cyberspace, and its language, is explored through the works of Pat Cadigan and through Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash. v Introduction: The Question In an 1864 letter to the editor of Punch magazine, Lewis Carroll described his work, tentatively titled ―Alice‘s Adventures Underground,‖ with the following words: The heroine spends an hour underground, and meets various birds, beasts, etc (no fairies), endowed with speech. The whole thing is a dream, but that I don‘t want revealed till the end. (Cohen, 29) From this simple description, it is hard to imagine that Carroll‘s work was going to be an enduring classic. And yet, nearly one hundred and fifty years later, there are very few who are not familiar with Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. So ubiquitous are these works, in fact, that popular culture teems with references from the Alice books, but perhaps nowhere as often as in science fiction. What does 20th-century cyberpunk literature have to do with a mild mannered 19th- century British don who hid his shyness behind the façade of a children‘s writer? This is the question this dissertation hopes to answer. At first glance, it seems as though the two have absolutely nothing in common. But, when one realizes the don in question is none other than the Reverend Charles Dodgson, better known to the world as Lewis Carroll, author of such classics as Alice‘s Adventures in Wonderland and Alice‘s Adventures Through the Looking Glass, the connection becomes slightly more focused. There is no doubting that Carroll‘s creatures continually appear in popular culture from music videos to video games to works of science fiction. What is in question is why. Why do Carroll‘s characters figure in science fiction? Is it just the oddness and the bizarre quality of his works that cause popular culture to reach back to them? Or, is it possible that Carroll‘s influence penetrates deeper than just his psychedelic characters and surreal plot twists? The goal of this dissertation is to find an answer that goes beyond the superficial weirdness of Carroll‘s worlds. 1 Lewis Carroll created an intellectual paradigm involving the mutability of meaning that continues to shape the way 20th-century science fiction works are constructed. In letters Carroll commented on the arbitrary nature of language and its meaning as evident in a letter to Edith Rex: ―My view of life is, that it's next to impossible to convince anybody of anything‖ because ―one of the hardest things in the world is to convey a meaning accurately from one mind to another.‖ (qtd in Blake 68) Language is the medium through which nonsense (non-meaning), memory, and dream (reality and alternate realities) are interpreted and communicated from one individual to another. We are always in a state of interpretation and transmission, and it is through language that we are able to somewhat accurately broadcast our information. So that there is a common ground, language is devised of rules that govern its structure and use. These rules are known and understood, although the underlying social and political mechanisms that also help construct language may not be. Despite language‘s seeming adherence to logic, ambiguities exist in the actual meanings of words and how they are used. These ambiguities are what Lewis Carroll explored, manipulated, and exploited. Carroll‘s most important contribution to the genre of science fiction is what he accomplished through the linguistic game of nonsense. Science fiction draws from Carroll in three key ways that help to create a reading