An Investigation of World-System Theory and Globalization in the Rama Novels by Arthur C

An Investigation of World-System Theory and Globalization in the Rama Novels by Arthur C. Clarke and Gentry Lee Zohreh Ramin1, Hooshmand Hedayati2 1. Assistant Professor of English Language and Literature, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran (Corresponding author) ([email protected]) 2. PhD in English Language and Literature, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran ([email protected]) (Received: Mar. 2, 2019 Revised: May. 17, 2019 Accepted: Jun. 27, 2019) Abstract Noam Chomsky argues that only a meager percentage of the world, consisting of mainly large corporations and developed nations, prosper from globalization. As stated in Immanuel Wallerstein’s World-System Theory, the modern system of the world, which is constructed according to the economic status of nations, can be divided into three levels: the core, the semi-periphery, and the periphery. While extensive research have been conducted on Immanuel Wallerstein, Noam Chomsky, and Arthur C. Clarke separately, no published work has exclusively studied Wallerstein’s and Chomsky’s theories in Arthur C. Clarke and Gentry Lee’s science fiction novels—Rama novels. This paper first aims to illustrate the relevance of Immanuel Wallerstein and Noam Chomsky and to argue that globalization, enjoyed by the core states, can be a new wave of colonization. Then, it is discussed that in the globalized world imagined by Arthur C. Clarke and Gentry Lee in their Rama novels, the semi-periphery and the periphery nations, with only a marginal role in vital space expeditions, are exploited by the core, which runs and regulates the world in the way it desires. Moreover, the paper investigates the way in which the core states in the Rama novels try to ensure a lofty role in the world, the result of which is rape, disease, bankruptcy, and murder. Keywords: Globalization, Exploitation, Rama novels, Science Fiction, World-Systems theory1 Journal of World Sociopolitical Studies| Vol. 3| No. 3| July 2019| pp. 579-604 Web Page: https://wsps.ut.ac.ir//Email: [email protected] eISSN: 2588-3127 PrintISSN: 2588-3119 DOI: 10.22059/WSPS.2020.285224.1110 Zohreh Ramin, Hooshmand Hedayati 580 1. Introduction 2019 y Jul | Literature on science fiction and interplanetary stories revolves around establishing human territories and empires on remote No. 3 3 No. | planets, and the related criticisms mainly focus on the colonial side Vol.3 | of such fictions. The imperial content of science fiction reflects the time of its emergence. John Rieder (2008, p. 3) argues that the heyday of imperialist expansionism was in the late nineteenth century, which is “the crucial period for the emergence of the genre,” and that it first emerged in the leading colonial nations – Britain and France – and later became popular in the United States, Germany, and Russia as countries involved in “serious imperial competition”. WORLD SOCIOPOLITICAL STUDIES f The criticism on the imperial side of Clarke’s science fiction, along with the disparity between the center and the margin of the Journal o Journal story have been the core point of the argument in Candelaria’s (2002a, p. 427) article discussing whether this genre is “the glorification of historical imperialism”. He argues that Rendezvous with Rama, for example, highlights the journey of the “savage periphery” (Candelaria, 2002a, p. 430) to the civilized center, and Rama is the “imperial metropolis,” as it works similar to “a harmonious machine” and is an ordered and disciplined residence (Candelaria, 2002a, p. 431). In another article, Candelaria (2002b, p. 38) considers the colonial aspect of Clarke's novels and concludes “Clarke's work is not merely subject to the prejudices of colonialism; colonialism is at the core of Clarke's novels”. Referring to Clarke’s life stages, Oliver Dunnett (2019, p. 10) contends that Clarke was not entirely an imperialist author; he presented global exchange, internationalism, and world cooperation, and helped “break down the borders and rivalries of nation-states”. No work of this kind, however, has looked at the An Investigation of World-System Theory and Globalization in the Rama Novels by Arthur C. Clarke and Gentry Lee 581 globalization aspects of Clarke’s Rama novels as a possible way of 2019 imperialism. y Jul | Certain critics discuss the human-nonhuman relation in Clarke’s No. 3 3 No. works. Thomas Clareson (1984, p. 217), for instance, believes that | Vol.3 Clarke’s science fiction is concerned with “man’s encounter with | alien intelligence,” and his works open new insights into the future, “freeing mankind from the short-sighted prejudices and limitations of earth-bound, modern civilization”. Similarly, Zoran Živković (2013, p.152) discerns anthropomorphism, that is, the possibility of alien superiority over human intelligence and human-nonhuman “confusion” in five stories written by Clarke. Kilgore (2003, p.133) mentions the expectation of human-alien encounter in Rama II and the Garden of Rama and emphasizes that Clarke maintains WORLD SOCIOPOLITICAL STUDIES optimistic views toward internationalism and “explore[s] the f adequacy of human relationships and knowledge” for “creating a Journal o Journal better future”. Earlier criticisms on Rama series represented the impossibility of human understanding of the aliens and aliens’ culture. To Slusser (1977, p. 61), for instance, the world of Rama is too mysterious for the humans to comprehend and “man has become the stupid tourist before the mysteries of the universe”. In his view, human beings are helpless “before the mysteries of the universe,” and put “the blame for that helplessness back on man as well” (Slusser, 1977, p. 60). Accordingly, Rabkin (1980, p. 52) believes that Rendezvous with Rama pictures the human attempt to communicate with and understand the universe, which does not care “to be understood” by the humans whose “curiosity” (Rabkin, 1980, p. 51) is thwarted. This indifference was first detected by Thorn (1977, p. 81), asserting the impossibility of human communication with aliens as the Ramans “could not contact Zohreh Ramin, Hooshmand Hedayati 582 humanity just as humanity could not contact the alien”. On the 2019 y other hand, more recent critics have a more optimistic view. Miller Jul | (1988, p. 341), for example, argues that this frustration of human- No. 3 3 No. | alien communication and human understanding of the universe might stimulate “an energy of mind,” encouraging the characters to Vol.3 | “think in new ways” and developing “newly conditioned responses” (Miller, 1988, 337). Engler (2007, 112) considers this lack of comprehension as an inevitable fact of the future, as human beings “use technology … to act like gods”; this explains the reason for which Clarke’s use of science in Rama series is developed to a point that it is similar to magic, which can be called the convergence of “religion and science”. WORLD SOCIOPOLITICAL STUDIES Detailed discussions about the human-alien relations seem to be f limitless in Clarke’s Rama novels. However, a significant aspect of these narratives has been overlooked: the human-human, the Journal o Journal developed-undeveloped, and core-periphery relations, as they come to close contact in a globalized world. Thus, the main objective of this study does not concern the mysteries of human-alien encounters, which are far from being relevant to the concerns of the world today. In an interview, Clarke himself once revealed that the primary function of science fiction is addressing “real problems and possibilities” as it is a “concerned fiction” (Clarke in McAleer, 2003, p. 113). The focus of our study is to address the predicted result of the integration of nations in the Rama novels, and the colonial aspirations of superpowers in the shadow of globalization. The assumption of globalization as a new wave of colonialism favoring world’s core states has provoked considerable debates in recent literature. Most of the recent works written in the field of postcolonial literature condemn globalization as, they argue, the global economy and the division of labor only favor the centers, An Investigation of World-System Theory and Globalization in the Rama Novels by Arthur C. Clarke and Gentry Lee 583 while the peripheries are reduced to the workplaces of the 2019 developed nations (Greven, 2007; Antonio, 2003). Dirlik (2002, p. y Jul 442) argues that globalization, as a form of modern colonialism, | No. 3 3 No. both imposes the “Euro-American dominance over the globe” and | “spread[s] globally the ideologies of development generated by Vol.3 | capitalism”. Other critics focus on Alderson, who maintains that the core nations are reluctant to have “trade” and “investment relations” with the periphery nations. In his view, “Globalization has preeminently been a process of deepening, of the thickening of economic relationships among core countries (and a handful of East Asian NICs). It has been a process in which the ‘periphery’ has become progressively irrelevant” (Alderson, 1998, p. 1544). Edging on the discussions above, this research mainly seeks to WORLD SOCIOPOLITICAL STUDIES answer a) how Wallerstein’s World-System and Chomsky’s f globalization are related, b) how the periphery and the semi- Journal o Journal periphery exploitation is reflected in the Rama novels and c) what the picture of a globalized world is in the novels in question. In addition to the above questions, this research further aims to illustrate that the world imagined by Clarke and Lee is controlled and regulated by the core states, and the result of this globalization, as pictured in the novels, is core-centric, favoring the privileged – not all the states equally. 2. Wallerstein’s World-Systems Developed by Immanuel Wallerstein, the theory of World-Systems maintains that the world economy has been divided into three categories: the “core,” the “semi-periphery,” and the “periphery,” where the economically powerful states are in the core, and the labor in the other two groups.

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