• Abstract and Figures
• Public Full-text

TECHNO-APOCALYPSE: ANALYZING TECHNOCRACY IN CAT’S CRADLE, ORYX AND CRAKE, AND ITS REAL WORLD ANTECEDENTS A Thesis by JULIA LINDSAY Submitted to the Graduate School at Appalachian State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS May 2018 Department of English TECHNO-APOCALYPSE: ANALYZING TECHNOCRACY IN CAT’S CRADLE, ORYX AND CRAKE, AND ITS REAL WORLD ANTECEDENTS A Thesis by JULIA LINDSAY May 2018 APPROVED BY: _____________________________________ Chris Meade Chairperson, Thesis Committee _____________________________________ Zackary Vernon Member, Thesis Committee _____________________________________ Germán Campos-Muñoz Member, Thesis Committee _____________________________________ Carl Eby Chairperson, Department of English ______________________________________ Max C. Poole, Ph.D. Dean, Cratis D. Williams School of Graduate Studies Copyright by Julia Lindsay 2018 All Rights Reserved Abstract TECHNO-APOCALYPSE: ANALYZING TECHNOCRACY IN CAT’S CRADLE, ORYX AND CRAKE, AND ITS REAL WORLD ANTECEDENTS Julia Lindsay B.A, Appalachian State University M.A., Appalachian State University Chairperson: Dr. Chris Meade This thesis interrogates the relationship between technocracy and the destruction of the world in two contemporary works of speculative fiction, Oryx and Crake and Cat’s Cradle. The creation of technologies within a closed society and the asymmetries of power that develop from the distribution of technology lead to observable shifts in biological, social, and environmental realms. The development of this technocracy in the twentieth century is reflected in the maturation and expansion of science fiction, as writers within the genre attempt to criticize material and cultural elements of technocracy through their work. Vonnegut and Atwood display how a technocratic society leaves crippled environments and disabled, genetically altered, and abused bodies of human and non-human animals in its wake. The last chapter will discuss the negative effects of technocracy in the social realm, specifically turning to linguistic regressions, the dissolution of familial bonds, and the denial of subjectivity to those not involved in the creation, dissemination, and control of technologies. The variation in the technologies that Vonnegut and Atwood focus on, as well as the scope of the damage inflicted by their technocratic societies, reveal the historical realities of these authors situated in two distinct epochs. iv Acknowledgments This thesis would not have been a success without the work of my director Dr. Chris Meade. He tirelessly and thoughtfully edited the many iterations of this work and provided much-needed emotional support through the editing process. The sources that he provided me with have enriched my thesis and have given my scholarship a new and exciting direction. I would also like to thank my other committee members Dr. Zackary Vernon and Germán Campos-Muñoz. These two professors have been mentors for me throughout my undergraduate and graduate career, and their careful insight helped me see details and contradictions that I had overlooked. I owe a few shout-outs to my family and friends for listening to me excitedly babble, rant, and cry throughout the writing process. Their support is immeasurable. To my cohort, I thank you for the many conversations we shared, for the lightbulb moments, and for helping me understand Microsoft Word. v Table of Contents Abstract………………………………………………………………………………………...…iv Acknowledgments………………………………………………………………………………....v Introduction………………………………………………………………………………………..1 Chapter One: Historical Developments of Science Fiction and Technocracy…………………….9 Chapter Two: Scars of Techno-Apocalypse on the Environment and on Human and Non-Human Animals…………………………………………………………………......................................42 Chapter Three: Love, Expression, and Subjectivity in a Technocratic World...………………...89 Final Thoughts………………………………………………………………………………….126 Works Cited………………………………………………………………………………….....129 Vita……………………………………………………………………………………………...133 vi Introduction This thesis examine two literary works, Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake (2003) and Kurt Vonnegut’s Cat’s Cradle (1960) as dramatizations of the apocalyptic ramifications of the political, social, and economic system operating currently in the United States— technocracy. In The Heavens and the Earth: A Political History of the Space Age (1985), Walter McDougall defines technocracy as “[t]he institutionalization of technological change for government purposes, that is, the government-funded and managed r&d [research and development] explosion of our time” (5). McDougall’s definition mainly captures the political and economic aspects of technocracy in which the State invests in the research and development of technology—particularly that which is suitable for war. However, as many Marxist and materialist critics have pointed out, the deterministic base/superstructure model set forth by Karl Marx ignores the interplay between systems of production and culture. Similarly, McDougall’s definition fails to underscore the value systems that shape, and are shaped by, an economy centered on state-funded technology production. I will use Oryx and Crake and Cat’s Cradle as a lens through which to untangle the co-created economic, political, and cultural realities of a technocratic state. Both novels take place in the United States or, in the case of Oryx and Crake, what previously was the United States. Additionally, both novels highlight how the development of technology—for war, for national superiority, and for the extreme profit of a select few—has become the very center of the economy. They criticize technocracy by showing the incredible damage and injustices wrought by this kind of system. This, again, is where McDougall’s definition fails to cover the depth and scope of technocracy. It is not simply a system in which the government redirects its interest and investment into technology production. More than that, technocracy 1 is a system that reorganizes and redefines the entire labor force and all the citizens of this country, creating increasingly deeper divisions of wealth and subject-positions. Throughout this thesis, I will touch on the inherently alienating elements of technocracy and the depth of this alienation from global to individual levels. In a globalized world, one cannot isolate one nation’s culture and economy. Technocracy happens on a global scale, and Atwood’s and Vonnegut’s novels detail how American technocracy has affected other nations for the worse. The apocalypses in both novels stem from biotechnologies created for war or for intentional harm, and apocalypses know no national boundaries. Taking a comparative framework suits the historical character of this project. I am looking at the development of a multi-faceted system, and, as the novels are separated by half a century, their similarities and dissimilarities reflect how technocracy has continued to develop after the 1960’s and what other political and cultural factors have mutated it. As such, I take a historicist perspective in the first chapter. Vonnegut and Atwood are called upon to demonstrate parallels between historical developments and the concerns of their work, but much of the textual analysis will come in the second and third chapters. The first chapter takes Vonnegut’s and Atwood’s aversion to the science fiction label as a point of departure. It will show how the development of the science fiction genre, which becomes increasingly more political in the mid-twentieth century, is linked with the solidification of technocracy. Here we see the interplay of the base and superstructure—the definition and parameters of science fiction change as authors respond to this economic reality. This chapter will demonstrate several developments simultaneously. I will explain how the practice of science and the research and development of technology have changed in the twentieth century. I will show how these changes have fostered an anxiety characteristic 2 of the modern era surrounding technological development and the experience of historical time. Finally, I will show how the relationship between the individual and technology has become estranged. To do this, I will look to different periods of history including antiquity, the shift to the modern era, and the industrial revolution. While these periods reveal an increasing alienation from technology through time, they will not be examined as a linear narrative. Rather, I will draw upon them as a mode of comparison and a means to explain the current state of the individual’s relationship with technology in a technocratic era and how that is related to a greater societal and individual alienation. Chapters Two and Three will reveal how the material reality of a technocratic state and the concomitant value systems that it fosters leaves irreparable physical and cultural damage. I organize chapters Two and Three based on similar effects that both novels highlight. Thus, Chapter Two will discuss how both novels showcase the effects of a technocratic system on the environment and on human and non-human animal bodies. Chapter Three will in turn investigate the impact of technocracy in social structures. It will show how this system damages relationships—threatening familial, romantic, and platonic love—as well as how it mutates, curbs, and controls language and expression. Within these chapters, I analyze the different ways in which Atwood and Vonnegut approach these themes. For

Load more

  140

Copy Link