Also Make the Heavens

Skrifter utgivna av Avdelningen för litteratursociologi vid Litteraturvetenskapliga institutionen i Uppsala Publications from the Section for Sociology of Literature at the Department of Literature, Uppsala University 60 Also Make the Heavens 1 2 Svante Lovén Also Make the Heavens Virtual Realities in Science Fiction Uppsala 2010 Avdelningen för litteratursociologi vid Litteraturvetenskapliga institutionen i Uppsala The Section for Sociology of Literature at the Department of Literature, Uppsala University 3 Parts of the second chapter have previously been published in “Even better than the real thing? Counterfeit realities and twentieth century dystopian fiction”, Human IT. Tidskrift för studier av IT ur ett humanvetenskapligt per- spektiv, 2–3, 2001, pp. 233-289. Cover photograph by the author. Cover design by Martin Högvall. Printed at Kph Trycksaksbolaget, Uppsala, 2010. Copyright © Svante Lovén 2010 ISSN 0349-1145 ISBN 978-91-88300-49-2 4 Till Elisabeth, Magnus och Anna 5 6 Contents Acknowledgements 9 Introduction 11 1. The charm and danger of the illusion 1. Introduction 29 2. The seductive image and the weakness of our nature Plato 31 Christian iconophobia 34 The illusion as witchcraft: Two Renaissance allegories 39 3. The human demiurge The celebration of illusionist art 43 The man-made world and the dream of order 47 The Romantic poet as creator god 55 4. The technological spectacle Romantic mistrust of technology 59 The virtual reality of the panorama 60 The virtual reality as decadence: J.K. Huysmans’ Against Nature 70 2. The humanist reaction 1. The terror of direct experience 79 E.M. Forster, “The Machine Stops” 80 2. Escape of the masses The threat of film 84 Aldous Huxley, Brave New World 86 3. Coming to America The complete illusion 92 4. Televised reality The medium of conformity 97 Televisions 101 7 3. The culture of simulations 1. The rule of measure and the cybernetic marketplace Cultural contexts 117 Frederik Pohl, “The Tunnel Under the World” 126 Daniel F. Galouye, Simulacron-3 129 The gnostic pattern 136 2. Philip K. Dick Introduction 143 Time Out of Joint 147 The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch 158 4. Computer space 1. Introduction 166 2. Posthuman apotheosis John Varley, “Overdrawn at the Memory Bank” 174 Vernor Vinge, “True Names” 178 3. Postmodern coda: William Gibson, Neuromancer Introduction 188 The idealist delusion 195 Case’s development 201 Concluding remarks: Virtual reality and the American experience 212 Bibliography 221 8 Acknowledgments The major part of this book was written within the research project ”IT, narrative, and the literary system”, which was conducted at the Division of the Sociology of Literature, Department of Comparative Literature, University of Uppsala, and financed by Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation. I have also received support from the University of Gävle. During the writing of this book a number of individuals have read drafts, attended seminars, come up with reading suggestions, and gen- erally expressed interest in a way that made me feel that my investigation, excentric as it may be in the context of Swedish academe, has been worth the effort. I owe special thanks to Johan Svedjedal, who welcomed me aboard the research project, and supported my investigation even when it strayed from its original plan. Alan Shima offered valuable comments and generously gave of his time and expertise during the finishing phase of editing, over and beyond the call of duty. Bob Goldberg gave precious advice during a critical phase of writing. I have also received valuable input from Claes Ahlund, Bo G. Ekelund, and Michael Gus- tavsson. Martin Högvall helped me make the cover look good. I dedicate this book to my wife Elisabeth, and to our children Magnus and Anna. 9 10 INTRODUCTION There is a popular tale being told about our present age and it goes something like this: We are constantly seeking new ways to take leave of good old, dull reality. Blockbuster 3D movies filled with stunning visual effects and computer graphics, multi-channel high definition home cinema systems, and boundless on-line communities and gaming worlds invite us to lose ourselves in digital dreamscapes, ever richer, ever crispier, ever more complete. Unfiltered, unmediated reality pales and dwindles outside our homes-turned-multimedia centers, while media conglomerates thrive on our never satisfied craving for the make- believe. Early versions of this narrative were told well before the emer- gence of the current industry of illusions. From antiquity and onwards, the competitive relationship between first-hand reality and its alluring alternatives have caused concern as well as fascination amongst phi- losophers, theologians, and artists. But during the twentieth century, following the explosive growth of film, television, and computers, a host of opinion makers from all walks of public life have dramatised the conflict in utopian and dystopian terms. This strategy followed the truism that, until it has become naturalised as a part of everyday life, the significance of any new technology can only emerge upon consid- eration of its future potential. New media and information technolo- gies, in particular, are assessed on the basis of their future promises (or threats) rather than their actual achievements. It stands to reason, then, that some of the most sustained and com- prehensive articulations of cultural attitudes visavi the omnipresence of virtual reality are to be found in science fiction narrative. Around the turn of the millennium, the appearance of a number of lavish Holly- wood science fiction films, notably The Truman Show and The Matrix, signalled that the current reality industry and the problems which it 11 entails had come to loom large in the popular conciousness.1 These films, while to all appearences eminently postmodern, continued a line of critical scrutiny which has been conducted in utopian and dystopian science fiction (henceforth referred to as sf) since the early twentieth century, and which is the proper object of this study. Sf both reflects and informs surrounding cultural discourses, and at its best it does so with striking astuteness. By virtue of its specific narrative mode it has proved eminently well suited to pinpoint and highlight the philosophical and ideological knots which mar the ever spreading, ever tightening web of electronic information that surrounds the globe. From ambi- tious texts stretching from E.M. Forster’s “The Machine Stops” (1909) to William Gibson’s Neuromancer (1984), I will follow the main is- sues into contemporary discourses of science, politics, education, aes- thetics, among others, and also into religious and philosophical tradi- tions whose authority adds weight to these discourses. Although the science fiction genre provides the main material used in this investigation, it is not a genre study. It does no doubt add to the knowledge of many sf texts, some canonical, some obscure, but my objective has been to use sf as a means to illuminate and bring into relief broader cultural perceptions and themes which are focused in the notion of “virtual reality”. By defining and discussing fictions explor- ing this notion in a fairly wide historical and conceptual framework, the study may possibly be a disappointment to the reader intent on how specific innovations have been anticipated and developed in the sf tradition. It will, however, seem all the more relevant for those interested in what they signify in a wider cultural context; how “virtual reality” aquires its cultural meaning by bluntly confronting us with what is surely one of mankind’s oldest questions: What is real and what is not? Our own ever more refined and convincing powers to produce artifices to fool our own senses have constantly fuelled our capacity for onto- logical uncertainty, showing how precarious and unreliable, indeed illusory, are our attempts to separate between essence and appearance, reality and illusion. The Ur-text of the tradition considered in this study is arguably Plato’s simile of the cave in The Republic. It illustrates the idealist phi- losophy with a narrative of people locked in a cave and presented with a shadow show, which they believe is all the reality there is. This kind 1 Other films which deal with the theme include They Live (1988), Lawnmower Man (1992), Strange Days (1995), Dark City (1998), eXistenZ (1999), The Thirteenth Floor (1999), The Cell (2000), and Vanilla Sky (2001). 12 of metaphysical paranoiac scenario also haunts Western literature, and drama in particular, e.g. Shakespeare, Calderón, Strindberg, Beckett. The historical preference for scenic treatment of the theme seems quite logical given the theater’s traditional task of producing multisensory illusionist effects, and, as it were, transmute scenic elements into a unity which, ideally, is perceived as a world unto itself, whole and complete. In fact, the term “réalité virtuelle” was coined by the French dramatist Antonin Artaud in 1938, signifying the totality of verbal and physical elements of the theatre.2 The multisensory, virtual reality of the stage has also been a pow- erful metaphor for poets and novelists to illustrate, encourage, or alle- viate metaphysical anxieties in the gnostic vein. The idea of the world as prop or façade – brought up to technological speed in the films men- tioned earlier – comes to signify a state of spiritual ignorance, delusion or imprisonment which is deemed part of the human condition. In nineteenth and twentieth century poetry and prose, techniques of visual illusionism are frequently used as metaphors to describe a moment of cosmic unveiling, or uncovering of the “abyss”. In a key passage in Moby Dick, Ahab’s conceives of the whale as the manifestation of a cosmic evil operating behind the physical surface of things. All visible objects, man, are but as pasteboard masks. But in each event – in the liv- ing act, the undoubted deed – there, some unknown but still reasoning thing puts forth the mouldings of its features from behind the unreasoning mask.

Load more