Intertextuality, Metafiction and Philosophical Discourse in Dan Simmons’ Hyperion and the Fall of Hyperion
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Ennobling SF: Intertextuality, Metafiction and Philosophical Discourse in Dan Simmons’ Hyperion and The Fall of Hyperion Masterarbeit Zur Erlangung des akademischen Grades Master of Arts (MA) an der Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz vorgelegt von Philip Steiner, BA Am Institut für Anglistik Begutachter: Wolf, Werner, O.Univ.-Prof. Mag.art. Dr.phil. Graz, 2020 1 Table of Contents 0. Introduction ..................................................................................................................3 1. The Hyperion Cantos: A Synopsis ...........................................................................4 2. From Romanticism to the Pulps to High Literature: Science Fiction’s Complex Journey towards Cultural Appreciation ................................................5 3. Defining the Literary Landscape of Hyperion and The Fall of Hyperion . 10 4.Ennoblement through Intertextuality: The Blending of Literary Characters and Works in The Hyperion Cantos ................................................... 15 4.1 Embedding the Tale of Beowulf ................................................................................ 16 4.2 A Modern Take on the Canterbury Tales ................................................................ 18 4.3 An Vision of Societal Decay: The Morlocks and Eloi of The Hyperion Cantos ...... 19 4.4 A Touch of Intermediality: Musical References to The Wizard of Oz ..................... 21 4.5 Gibson and his Cyberspace: A Conceptual Foundation .......................................... 23 4.6 Further Examples and Concluding Remarks........................................................... 25 5. To Inherit the Noble Spirit of Romanticism: The Life and Works of the Romantic Poet John Keats and their Representations and Functions in Hyperion and The Fall of Hyperion .......................................................................... 27 5.1 A Romantic Perspective: Romantic Features and Themes in Hyperion and The Fall of Hyperion ...................................................................................................................... 28 5.2 Creating an Intertextual Character: The Re-narration of the Life and Death of John Keats ....................................................................................................................... 31 5.3 The Poetry of Keats: Intertextual and Meta-functions in The Hyperion Cantos .... 36 5.4 From Greek Mythology to Keats to Simmons: The Theme of the Fall of the Titans in Hyperion and The Fall of Hyperion ............................................................................ 40 6. Traces of a Prestigious Genre: The Artist Novel in Hyperion and The Fall of Hyperion: ..................................................................................................................... 47 6.1 The Role of Language and Literature in The Hyperion Cantos ............................... 47 6.2 What it Means To Become a Poet: The metafictional Theme of “The Poet’s Tale” ………………………………………………………………………………………53 2 6.3 “I am not creating a Poem. I am creating the Future”: The central Metalepsis in Hyperion and The Fall of Hyperion ................................................................................ 56 7.Noble Intertextual Divinity: Religious Perspectives on Ethics, Armageddon and Evolution .................................................................................................................. 59 7.1 Discussing Jewish Theology in The Hyperion Cantos: “The Abraham Dilemma”.. 60 7.2 A Technology Centered Allusion to Christianity: The Christian Doctrine of Resurrection and Divine Empathy ................................................................................. 64 7.3 The Final Atonement: The Symbolic Intertextuality of Yeats’ “The Second Coming” and “The Book of Revelation” ........................................................................ 67 7.4 Musings on the Ascension of Man and Machine: The Central Role of Teilhard de Chardin’s The Phenomenon of Man ............................................................................... 71 8. Conclusion ................................................................................................................... 76 9. Bibliography: .............................................................................................................. 78 0. Introduction For decades, science fiction authors have had the reputation of paying considerably more attention to intellectually stimulating concepts than to literary artfulness. However, contemporary SF novelists such as Dan Simmons, Cixin Liu, Haruki Murakami, Margret Atwood, and William Gibson do much more than simply create vast, interplanetary, narrative universes filled with alien creatures, or exhilarating futuristic scenarios. These authors have left behind the often-rigid prose styles of their forefathers Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clark, and Philip K. Dick, to indulge in a more stylistically complex way of writing. In this thesis on intertextuality, metafiction, and philosophical discourse in modern science fiction, I will focus on a series by one of these authors, namely the Hugo award-winning Hyperion Cantos by Dan Simmons. In his best-selling novels, Hyperion and The Fall of Hyperion Dan Simmons unleashes an array of intertextual references to Greek mythology, English literature (such as The Canterbury Tales and Beowulf), poetry (most importantly John Keats’ epic poems “Hyperion” and “The Fall of Hyperion: A Dream”), religious texts, and well-known science fiction authors such as Mary Shelley, H.G. Wells, and William Gibson. Furthermore, it is a metafictional work that deals with the aesthetic and stylistic challenges of writing, as well as the cultural importance 3 of high literature, implicitly put forth by the metaleptic pen of one of the main characters, the poet Martin Silenus. I will showcase in my master’s thesis that Simmons not only employs literary devices such as intertextuality, metafiction, metalepsis, and mise en abyme for the sake of cunning artistry but also purposefully utilizes them to achieve three distinct objectives. Firstly, discourse on literature, including questions of cultural value, theoretical matters, and aesthetics, is put forth. Secondly, Romantic ideals regarding the arts and a possible union between humanity and nature are evoked and juxtaposed with ecological and religious issues. Thirdly, philosophical discourse on artificial intelligence, virtual reality, posthumanism, and techno-dependency is foregrounded and discussed. Consequently, this thesis will highlight that The Hyperion Cantos are among those modern sci-fi works in which the sophisticated employment of literary devices creates a literary experience, both stimulating to the mind and the senses. 1. The Hyperion Cantos: A Synopsis It is important to acknowledge at this point that this thesis will deal exclusively with the first two installments of The Hyperion Cantos. Due to the immense scope of the series, the follow- up novels Endymion and The Rise of Endymion will not be part of the analysis. This is, however, also due to stylistic and theoretical reasons because although the story of The Hyperion Cantos is continued in the Endymion novels these works differ greatly from their predecessors in style and narrative structure. Now, to render my analysis more accessible it seems key to provide a synopsis of the plot of the two Hyperion novels. The books revolve around seven protagonists sent on a pilgrimage to the legendary time tombs on the mysterious planet Hyperion. They are informed by the CEO of the Hegemony Meina Gladstone that the tombs will open around the time of their arrival and that they must reach them before the alien intruders, the Ousters, manage to claim the tombs and the mysterious secrets awaiting within them. These characters are the priest Lenar Hoyt, the Consul (whose name is not given), the poet Martin Silenus, the scholar Sol Weintraub, the detective Brawn Lamia, the templar Het Masteen, and Colonel Fedmahn Kassad. Aside from short transitional scenes in which the reader follows the pilgrimage of these characters, the first novel is split into six chapters in which the pilgrims (except Het Masteen) tell their individual stories to each other. All of these stories are connected one way or another to the planet Hyperion and the legendary monstrosity known as the Shrike, a spiky, time- traveling demon from the future that torments the inhabitants of Hyperion. In the second novel, 4 the pilgrims are hunted by the Shrike in the area around the time tombs whilst a massive military conflict between the Hegemony and the Ousters takes place in the orbit of Hyperion, a war that subsequently expands to a Hegemony wide crisis threatening all of mankind. In the meantime, a reconstructed personality, called cybrid, of the Romantic poet John Keats searches for the true reasons behind said conflict and uncovers that it is all part of an insidious scheme planned by the TechnoCore, a complex community of originally ‘enslaved’ yet now independent AI that has formerly pledged loyalty to mankind. A colossal plot unfolds itself, involving both the past, the present, and the distant future. 2. From Romanticism to the Pulps to High Literature: Science Fiction’s Complex Journey towards Cultural Appreciation When we analyze The Hyperion Cantos, one of the first aspects that strikes the eye is the stylistic complexity of these texts. Throughout Hyperion and The Fall of Hyperion, a vast amount of metafiction and intertextuality