Chicano Science Fiction and the Shattering of Colonized Reality: the Resurgence of the Alien Sublime
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UNIVERITY OF CALIFORNIA RIVERSIDE Chicano Science Fiction and the Shattering of Colonized Reality: The Resurgence of the Alien Sublime A Dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in English by Daniel Valencia March 2020 Dissertation Committee: Dr. Sherryl Vint, Chairperson Dr. Anthony Macías Dr. Michelle Raheja Dr. Richard Rodriguez Copyright by Daniel Valencia 2020 The Dissertation of Daniel Valencia is approved: _____________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________ Committee Chairperson University of California, Riverside ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Chicano Science Fiction and the Shattering of Colonized Reality: The Resurgence of the Alien Sublime by Daniel Valencia Doctor of Philosophy, Graduate Program in English University of California, Riverside, March 2020 Dr. Sherryl Vint, Chairperson In this project I explore the uncharted domains of Chicana/o science fiction. Expanding on the interdisciplinary body of scholarship generated within the Chicana/o Studies tradition, which has generally focused on investigating the past as method to express the diverse Chicana/o experience, I deploy science fiction as method to theorize on a new consciousness of empowerment and liberation for Chicanas/os. I examine the ways in which Chicana/o science fiction not solely engages with speculative futures, but of greater magnitude, the ways in which Chicana/o science fiction dimensionalizes space and time to expose colonized reality as artificial. My project, therefore, in addition to extending upon conventional Chicana/o scholarship, engages with science fiction as an existential phenomenon by locating the experience of genuine empowerment and liberation on the resurgence of the alien sublime. The alien sublime is re-discovering the true self as the creative and vibrant essence of science fiction itself…cosmic iv consciousness as timeless, formless, boundless life-energy, which may also be understood as primordial awareness that experiences space-time-reality in material form. I contend that true liberation cannot be accessed through an imagined political identity that originates from the colonial form, but by experiencing liberation as a science- fictional practice of self-realization. Liberation, in other words, cannot be achieved within the colonized dominion of space and time, but rather, by discovering liberation as the fundamental essence of the alien sublime. Featuring several Chicana/o science fiction novels, I demonstrate how the alien sublime is expressed using a myriad of techniques. In its entirety, this project offers a vastly alternative approach to empowerment and liberation, thereby encouraging a re-evaluation that contextualizes the Chicana/o experience as an ontological activity. v Table of Contents Introduction .................................................................................................................. 1 The Chicana/o Canon ............................................................................................ 14 Chicana/o Science Fiction ..................................................................................... 17 The Alien .............................................................................................................. 24 The Sublime .......................................................................................................... 34 The Chapters ......................................................................................................... 41 Chapter 1: The Militant Alien Sublime Introduction ........................................................................................................... 45 Afro-6 .................................................................................................................... 47 The Revolt of the Cockroach People ..................................................................... 63 Conclusion ............................................................................................................ 78 Chapter 2: Chicana Consciousness and the Alien Sublime Introduction ........................................................................................................... 79 Victuum ................................................................................................................. 81 Conclusion .......................................................................................................... 103 Chapter 3: Ernest Hogan and the Alien Sublime Introduction ......................................................................................................... 105 Cortez on Jupiter ................................................................................................ 108 High Aztech ......................................................................................................... 122 Smoking Mirror Blues ......................................................................................... 133 Conclusion .......................................................................................................... 143 Chapter 4: Alternate Dimensions and the Alien Sublime Megaverse Introduction ......................................................................................................... 145 Atomik Aztex ........................................................................................................ 146 Conclusion .......................................................................................................... 173 Conclusion ................................................................................................................. 174 Work Cited .......................................................................................................... 180 End Notes ............................................................................................................ 187 vi INTRODUCTION The Chicano Mind is in the midst of a great invasion. Subatomic alien entities indiscriminately fire laser hot magma beams into Chicano Neurons within the Chicano Cerebral Cortex, pumping toxic microbe alchemy into the cellular structure of the incredible Chicano Brain. These colonizing forces deceive the Chicano Mind into perceiving itself through an impaired ontological frequency only capable of imagining liberation through a bounded, predetermined reality dictated by the invading organisms. In the language of Earthly physics, the illusory event unfolds in space-time as a .003 gravimetrical fissure of the cognitive realm in alien subspace misprocessed as a minus quantum variance in the way cosmic matter is perceived. The colonizing presence survives in the Chicano Subconscious Mind as an undetected foreign entity, generating an invisible force field, a space-time border that prevents the Chicano Mind from actuating self-awareness as pure space consciousness. And yet, sensing danger from inside the depths of the Incredible Chicano Mind, in the midst of chaotic space, the Chicano Brain is triggered by a primordial, self-activating Indigenous technology. The Alien Sublime ReEmerges as Space Consciousness…the empty space in which physical objects in the universe are created. In that instant, tHRee rABBit detects strange yet familiar anomalies penetrating his holographic brain: "tHe aLiEn sUBLime" he utters. As if waking up from several lifetimes, he frantically scans his universal matrix. "An illusion…a dream…temictli" The discovery is experienced atop of the main temple, under the celestial glow of the full moon in the sacred calendar phase of •••Tochtli. tHRee rABBit looks down at the tattoo between his index finger and thumb on the web of his left hand, three dots in the shape of a small pyramid radiate against his bronze skin. He whispers to himself, "Mi Vida Loca." It is a time of awakening… the Age of a New, Bronze, alien sublime Reality… Shorty thereafter, tHRee rABBit discovers the concept of zero and is finally able to do calculus—[kal-kyuh-luh s] 1 Such fantastic scenarios are not typically found within the range of established Chicana/o scholarship. Although thinking about Chicana/o consciousness in this context may appear counterintuitive, perhaps even sacrilegious and incompatible with the underlying principles of political empowerment initiated by foundational Chicana/o rhetoric, as well as a farfetched overture incompatible with what the Chicana/o mind is willing to accept as logical reality, utilizing science fiction as method from which to generate a new form of Chicano consciousness stands as the core of my polemic. Understanding the Chicana/o experience as a science-fictional phenomenon is that which is ultimately capable of activating a sublime transformation into a higher consciousness of utter liberation. Herein, the very process of understanding the Chicana/o as an existential possibility within alternate dimensions of reality, is that which is capable of triggering a higher consciousness of liberation that cannot be accessed through the colonized logic of the Western mind and conventional social justice ideology frequently voiced through the political imaginary. Only then, I assert, will the Chicana/o Mind be able to shift into an alternate dimensional reality defined by a boundless existence inherent to science fiction existence.1 The shifting from the political imaginary into a new consciousness