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The Technobody: Posthumanism as a utopian/dystopian enclave in cyberpunk and postcyberpunk science fiction by Stefan Kriek 200612822 Dissertation submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree MASTER OF ARTS in the Department of English of the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Johannesburg supervised by Dalene Labuschagne Date of Submission January 2018 Acknowledgements Seldom, if ever, is a dissertation completed by the sheer will of one person alone. Therefore I would like to extend my sincerest thanks to those who supported me during this longer-than-intended undertaking. Naturally, I would like to start with my supervisor, Ms Dalene Labuschagne, whose passion for science fiction and genuine commitment to me and my topic helped me to maintain my focus on the task at hand. Thank you for having a seemingly immeasurable amount of patience for my dallying, and my propensity for delivering first drafts that resembled the writings of a man midway through a stroke. Also, I would like to thank Professor Karen Scherzinger, who, despite my constant bouts of radio silence, never gave up on me. Your willingness to support me, and field any questions regardless of when I asked them, was a tremendous boon. Then, I would like to thank my father, Johan Kriek, who phoned me incessantly to ask how far I was from completion. Regardless of my answer, he was always adamant that I should be much further. Thanks dad, for believing in me and motivating me. I’m done now. You can stop phoning. My mother, Minnie Kriek, passed away in 2013, but I am forever grateful for the role she had in shaping me as a person. She was instrumental in moulding the way I think, and had a profound impact in helping me to get where I am today. While it saddens me that she cannot see all my hard work come to fruition, I know that she would have been immensely proud of me. Abstract This dissertation intends to illustrate the ways in which postcyberpunk – the often ignored offshoot of the short-lived science fiction (SF) subgenre, cyberpunk – revises the technophobic preoccupations that usually characterise cyberpunk’s depictions of the posthuman. Posthumanism – understood here as a merging of biology and technology to a point where the human becomes something other than human – is frequently envisioned by cyberpunk as a dystopian condition in which the human/machine merger is a negative transformation that does irreparable harm to the human subject. I argue that postcyberpunk, on the other hand, depicts posthumanism as a potentially positive transformation that offers humanity an opportunity to redesign and reimagine itself. To this end I rely on Fredric Jameson’s concept of the utopian enclave, which he defines in Archaeologies of the Future: The Desire Called Utopia and Other Science Fictions (2007), as a space wherein both utopian and dystopian fantasies can take shape. I posit that posthumanism is one such an enclave, in demonstration of which I offer a reading of William Gibson’s Neuromancer (1984) – considered by a number of scholars to be the seminal cyberpunk novel – comparing it to Mamoru Oshii’s 1995 postcyberpunk animated film Kôkaku kidôtai (Ghost in the Shell). In so doing I illustrate how each text offers differing views on posthumanism, as envisioned in the figure of the cyborg, as well as in disembodied cyberspace consciousnesses, as a transformation that either threatens humanity, as in Neuromancer, or, as in Ghost in the Shell, one that offers exciting new possibilities for human existence. TABLE OF CONTENTS Page 1. Introduction and historiography: The birth of cyberpunk 1 2. Utopia, dystopia, and posthumanism as a utopian enclave 24 3. Neuromancer and posthuman dread 54 4. Ghost in the Shell and posthuman potential 85 5. Conclusion 109 Bibliography 119 CHAPTER 1 Introduction and historiography: The birth of Cyberpunk Utopian imaginings are often confined to a space which Fredric Jameson calls “the utopian enclave”. In Archaeologies of the Future: The Desire Called Utopia and Other Science Fictions, Jameson defines this space as an “imaginary enclave within real social space” (2007: 15). These are static enclosures that act as conceptual zones in which utopian fantasy and imaginings can operate. Significantly, although these enclaves remain static spaces within the social, the utopian fantasies which inhabit such a space are forever changing. As such, an enclave can play host to both utopian and dystopian speculations. Examples of utopian enclaves are varied, and Jameson finds such examples throughout history: from the emergence of money as a payment form to the possibilities offered by monastic life (2007: 16). These, and other, instances serve to illustrate that both tangible and conceptual space can represent a utopian enclave. What these various enclaves have in common is that they are “something like a foreign body within the social: in them the differentiation process has momentarily been arrested, so they remain as it were momentarily beyond the reach of the social” (16). These enclaves, and the utopian possibilities that inhabit them, remain on the horizon of the social: visible, yet just beyond our reach, offering both the allure of utopia and the threat of dystopia. It could be argued that one such enclave is posthumanism. In her essay on posthumanism, Veronica Hollinger (2009: 269) argues that as “a cultural signifier, ‘posthuman’ faces a number of diverse directions”. It can, for example, be understood as a “perspective from which (philosophical) humanism can question itself” (2009: 270). However, this study is primarily concerned with posthumanism as defined by Robert Pepperell, author of The Posthuman Condition: Consciousness Beyond the Brain (2003). Pepperell, like Hollinger, notes that posthumanism can indicate a move away from humanism, but that it, more often than not, refers to a hybridisation, “a general convergence of biology and technology to the point where they are increasingly becoming indistinguishable” (2003: iv). A posthuman is therefore an individual that incorporates technology into the body, making it an inseparable part of its physical and mental identity. Posthumanism offers a space rich in utopian speculations, its imaginative possibilities going beyond contemporary innovations, such as pacemakers and prosthetic limbs, becoming a playground for 1 hyper-advanced man/machine hybrids far beyond current scientific possibilities. Moreover, as David Bell argues in An Introduction to Cybercultures (2003), while some visions regarding posthumanism are “apocalyptic and antihuman, other formulations of human-machine interfacing are conjured that have potentially productive outcomes” (2003: 142-143). Posthumanism is a key feature in the Science Fiction (SF) subgenre called cyberpunk, where it is usually depicted in two ways: the mind/machine merger in cyberspace and the body/machine merger in the figure of the cyborg. Although this kind of utopian enclave allows for the play of both utopian and dystopian possibilities, SF, especially cyberpunk, often views posthumanism as a dangerous trap, one that threatens to distort the human body and mind. Yet, regardless of, or due to, cyberpunk’s preference for high-tech, dystopian narratives, the subgenre was met with praise when it exploded onto the 1980s SF scene. For a time, it was the next ‘big thing’, influencing novels, film and even fashion. However, its popularity soon waned and, in his essay “After the Deluge: Cyberpunk in the 80’s and 90’s,” Tom Maddox argues that, as the 1980s neared its end, so too did cyberpunk. He contends that the genre had taken “its canonical fifteen minutes of fame and now should move over and let something else take the stage” (Maddox, 1992: para. 16). A similar sentiment is echoed by Lawrence Person in his essay “Notes towards a Postcyberpunk Manifesto” (1999). Nevertheless, although both agree that cyberpunk experienced diminishing popularity and appeal, they also find that the subgenre itself did not so much disappear as take on a new shape: postcyberpunk. Owing to the stylistic similarities between cyberpunk and postcyberpunk, the term ‘postcyberpunk’ is seldom used, and the differences between the two subgenres are often disregarded. Yet, a key difference between the two is their perceptions of technology, in particular the way in which each narrates their theorisation of posthumanism. Where cyberpunk authors traditionally view posthumanism as a dystopian enclave, a technological merging of man and machine that threatens to dehumanise its subject, little attention is given to how postcyberpunk treats the posthumanist enclave as a utopian space where the human can be reimagined. The purpose of this dissertation is to show how, with the transition to postcyberpunk, the posthumanist enclave, a space previously inhabited in cyberpunk predominantly by dire dystopian prophecies, has now become a site open to more optimistic possibilities. As a case study I provide a close reading of 2 William Gibson’s Neuromancer (1984) — the text that arguably inaugurated the cyberpunk genre1 — comparing it with Japanese director Mamoru Oshii’s 1995 postcyberpunk animated film Kôkaku kidôtai (Ghost in the Shell).2 I will show how Neuromancer depicts posthuman figures, specifically cyborgs and disembodied consciousnesses, as outwardly superior to normal flesh and blood human bodies and minds, but also ones who end up losing their identities, free will, empathy and innate humanness.