Post|Apocalyptic Representations 1979-2016 A
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EXPLODING EMPIRE: POST|APOCALYPTIC REPRESENTATIONS 1979-2016 A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE DIVISION OF THE UNIVERSITY OF HAWAIʻI AT MĀNOA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENT FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN ENGLISH DECEMBER 2016 By Steven Holmes Dissertation Committee: John Rieder, Chairperson Glenn Man Darin Payne John Zuern Matthew Romaniello Keywords: Apocalypse, Empire, Science Fiction © Copyright Steven Holmes 2017 All Rights Reserved Dedication This dissertation is dedicated to the memory of my grandfather, Jack Bigley (1920-2015), whose commitment to peace and security as a World War II veteran, police officer, and fireman has been a guiding force throughout my life. i Acknowledgements I would like to thank my chairperson, Dr. John Rieder, and each of my committee members, Dr. John Zuern, Dr. Glenn Man, Dr. Darin Payne, and Dr. Matthew Romaniello for their support throughout the writing process and in my research in the years beforehand. Additionally, I would like to thank the Early Modern Forum, who generously helped me workshop several chapters of this dissertation in the early writing process. I would also like to thank the conference attendees of the International Conference for the Fantastic in the Arts, and the attendees of the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa English Department colloquium series, for their lively discussions when presenting on sections of this research. I would also like to thank the Graduate Student Organization and the Yun T. Chen Chuan Tu Student Travel Endowment, the Alan MacGregor Travel Scholarship, and the English Department Travel Fund at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa for their support in presenting selections of this research at conferences. Finally, I would like to thank my parents, Ken and Rose Ann Holmes, who have supported me throughout this writing process and who have been anchors of support throughout my life. ii ABSTRACT Exploding Empire: Post|Apocalyptic Discourse 1979-2016, is a cross-medial, transnational study of apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic narrative representations in the United States, Canada, England, and Japan. In particular, this dissertation examines the antagonistic relationship such discourse has to empires and the history of imperialism. The vertical bar in “Post|Apocalyptic” indicates that the term refers to both apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic discourses. I chose that character to reinforce the significant conceptual overlap among different media forms (novels, films, video games) and sub-genres (post-apocalyptic, science fiction, horror). This dissertation responds to the common critique of post|apocalyptic discourse, posited by critics from Susan Sontag to Naomi Klein, that it primarily atrophies political activity and fails to provide meaningful social criticism. This dissertation argues that while some forms of post|apocalyptic discourse can reinforce hegemonic beliefs, post|apocalyptic narrative forms can also contribute to rational-critical debate within the public sphere and help foster awareness of global concerns, such as climate change. This dissertation focuses on Octavia Butler’s 1980s and 1990s prose fiction, Japanese animation during the 1990s, Cormac McCarthy’s The Road and Margaret Atwood’s MaddAddam trilogy, the trans-national films of Guillermo Del Toro and Alfonso Cuarón, and the game The Walking Dead from Telltale Studios. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements…………………………………………………………………………….... ii Abstract…………………………………………………………………………………………. iii Table of Contents……………………………………………………………………………….. iv List of Figures…………………………………………………………………………………… v Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………… 1 Chapter One: Making America Great Again: Octavia Butler’s “Speech Sounds” and the Parable Series…………………………………………………………………………………………… 19 Chapter Two: Tokyo Apocalypse: AKIRA and The Ends of Evangelion………………………. 43 Chapter Three: The Road and McCarthy’s Postmodern Nostalgia for the Present…………….. 83 Chapter Four: Post-colonial Post|apocalypse in Novels after 2001…………………………… 101 Chapter Five: Abandoning the Public Sphere: From Children of Men to Pacific Rim……….. 132 Chapter Six: Raising Clementine: Forming Ethical Subjectivity in Telltale Games’ The Walking Dead……………………………………………………………………………………............ 158 Conclusion: Teaching Post|Apocalyptic Discourse…………………………………………… 199 Appendix Interview 1: Jeff Gillette..….…………………………………………………………. 205 Interview 2: Austin Aslan….…………………………………………………………. 210 Interview 3: Mark Yohalem..…………………………………………………………. 218 Interview 4: James Silva………………………………………………………………. 227 Interview 5: Vitaly S. Alexius……………………………………………………........ 231 Works Cited…………………………………………………………………………………... 236 iv LIST OF FIGURES 2.1 Still from a Schick Razor Advertisement 60 2.2 Evangelion-themed Pachinko Machine 60 2.3 Shinji flanked by Ritsuko and Misato from Evangelion 1.0 70 2.4 Shinji with Rei’s blood from Evangelion 1.0 71 2.5 Shinji’s dream during Third Impact from The End of Evangelion 79 6.1 Number of Games with “Zombie” Tag By Year on Steam 162 6.2 Player’s Frame in “A New Day” 178 6.3 Lee Tears Himself Out of the Picture in “A New Day” 181 6.4 Kenny’s Orders About the Food in “Starved for Help” 187 7.1 Jeff Gillette’s “DISYLND” 205 v Exploding Empire: Post|Apocalyptic Representations 1979-2016 The post|apocalyptic since 1979 has dominated multimedia representations of the future, participated in and critiqued transnational cultural production, and epitomized the confluence of mass culture and literary recognition. It is no accident that stories of global transformation have taken place during a time of overwhelming cultural and economic change. The post|apocalyptic emerges from the transformations of modern life. Earlier narratives focus on the threat of new technologies, particularly nuclear weapons, but more recent discourse also focuses on globalization, the preponderance of disposable labor, and loss of faith in the public sphere. Additionally, post|apocalyptic narrative characterizes the struggles between different institutions: the state, corporations, and sometimes the church. Post|apocalyptic representations are sometimes accused of being complicit in the formation of neoliberal globalization, where states and corporations collude in producing passive, compliant subjects on a global, transnational stage. Whether it be Susan Sontag in the 1960s or Naomi Klein in the 2010s, critics of post|apocalyptic representations often blame them for a banal inertia concerning issues at the heart of democracy: to what extent can individuals take part in the formation of the rules that govern their lives? To what extent do individuals believe they can take part in the discussions and debates dividing the public sphere? Why, after all, should individuals even bother with “issues” when everything is hopeless anyway? The critique that post|apocalyptic narratives atrophy democratic thought will be true for some texts, when there is such a broad and diffuse range of texts under consideration. The post|apocalyptic has exploded across media forms. Despite the reliance of blockbuster films on transnational cultural production, many post|apocalyptic texts at least ostensibly critique globalization, such as Children of Men (2006), Pacific Rim (2013), and Mad Max: Fury Road 1 (2015). But post|apocalyptic discourse can also reify nationalist ideology, instigate theological paranoia, or echo the dogmatic pessimism often apparent in post-modern narrative structures. Post|apocalyptic narrative contributes to shaping the tenor and tone of cultural moods, national conversations, and transnational metanarratives. This is where literature and rhetoric collide. By post|apocalyptic, I am piping together the “apocalyptic” with the “post-apocalyptic” because the various forms of apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic narrative inform each other, despite generic and modal differences. In “apocalyptic” texts, humanity comes face to face with existential threats, but can avoid cataclysm (for example, in Pacific Rim (2013)), whereas in “post-apocalyptic” texts, the cataclysmic event has already occurred (as in The Road (2006)). The post|apocalyptic is a discursive formation that includes all of these disparate modes and genres. It expresses the multivalence of contemporary subjectivity, foregrounding the fact that contemporary life abounds with a multiplicity of strategies and options for confronting ethical, political, and economic challenges. Subjectivity refers not just to opinions and beliefs based on personal experience, but the formation of the subject politically and ideologically through the vectors of desires: the desire for safety, the desire for autonomy, the desire for structure. The post|apocalyptic can contribute to political, aesthetic, and cultural paralysis. It can reify apathy and indifference. It can use marvelous worlds to impose pernicious concepts of normativity on the authors’ living presents. Moreover, the prevalence and persistence of post|apocalyptic discourse can unintentionally act to make the emergence of oppressive conditions or the deterioration of modern life feel inevitable and therefore living individuals feel helpless. Sometimes the overabundance of hopeless representations can have a dampening effect on the desire to innovate solutions to real, living problems. 2 But the post|apocalyptic can also inspire. Post|apocalyptic narratives can challenge apathy and indifference. They can present worlds where empire explodes, where individual subjects can and do attain individual agency and respond to the exigencies