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The American Jeremiad in Twentieth and Twenty-First Century Science Fiction and Film Joseph Franklin Brown Jr

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The American Jeremiad in Twentieth and Twenty-First Century Science Fiction and Film Joseph Franklin Brown Jr Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Doctoral Dissertations Graduate School 2009 Children of men: the American jeremiad in twentieth and twenty-first century science fiction and film Joseph Franklin Brown Jr. Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_dissertations Part of the English Language and Literature Commons Recommended Citation Brown Jr., Joseph Franklin, "Children of men: the American jeremiad in twentieth and twenty-first century science fiction and film" (2009). LSU Doctoral Dissertations. 387. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_dissertations/387 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at LSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in LSU Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized graduate school editor of LSU Digital Commons. For more information, please [email protected]. CHILDREN OF MEN: THE AMERICAN JEREMIAD IN TWENTIETH AND TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY SCIENCE FICTION AND FILM A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in The Department of English by Joseph Franklin Brown Jr. A.B., University of Georgia, 2002 M.A. Auburn University, 2004 May 2009 ©Copyright 2009 Joseph F. Brown Jr. All rights reserved. ii DEDICATION This project is dedicated to my wife, Theresa Brown, whose love, patience, and encouragement made finishing this project possible. It takes a special kind of person to leave her home some five hundred miles away so that the person she loves can pursue a dream. For all of those early mornings to work and late evenings listening to ideas or reading drafts, this is for you and our future. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This dissertation would not have been possible without the help of some extraordinary and generous people. The LSU Graduate School, through the LSU Graduate Dissertation Fellowship, fully funded my research during the 2008-2009 academic year. I will always be exceedingly grateful to the LSU Graduate School for choosing me to receive this distinguished and generous fellowship. To be able to devote my entire energies to this project was a great blessing, indeed a rare one, and I am very thankful for the opportunity. I have been very fortunate to have Dr. Carl Freedman direct this project. From my first days on campus, Dr. Freedman made himself available to discuss my ideas and work. I am eternally grateful for his willingness to work with me over long distance during my last year in the program, discussing revisions over the phone, and mailing edited drafts. His insight has made me a better thinker and writer and the following pages attest to the effectiveness of his leadership and instruction and the enrichment of his friendship. In addition, I would like to acknowledge the other members of my dissertation committee: Dr. John Lowe, Dr. Brannon Costello, and Dr. Lauren Coats. They have been exceedingly helpful throughout this process, whether suggesting reading or considering drafts of chapters, and always generous with their time. Particularly, Dr. Brannon Costello, in helping me prepare this project and other materials for the job market, has been a valuable asset, a model of professionalism, and a good friend. Finally, I would like to acknowledge my mother, Sybil Brown, who always made education, knowledge, and learning priorities in my life. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS DEDICATION............................................................................................................................... iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS........................................................................................................... iv ABSTRACT................................................................................................................................... vi INTRODUCTION “MAY THE LORD MAKE IT LIKE THAT OF NEW ENGLAND”.............................................1 CHAPTER ONE A VEIL OF PROTECTION...........................................................................................................10 CHAPTER TWO “PEACEFUL” METHODS: SCIENCE FICTION AND THE CULTURAL COLD WAR......... 54 CHAPTER THREE “LIKE WE’RE JUST EXISTING IN THE RUINS”: THE AMERICAN JEREMIAD AND ENVIRONMENTAL DISASTER IN POPULAR SCIENCE FICTION FILM AND THE WORK OF KIM STANLEY ROBINSON................................................................................................ 95 CHAPTER FOUR “WOLVERINES!” THE AMERICAN JEREMIAD AS COUNTERSUBVERSION AND RESPONSE IN SCIENCE FICTION CINEMA 1980 TO THE PRESENT.............................. 145 CONCLUSION “THEIR GREAT AND TERRIBLE FREEDOM”...................................................................... 190 WORKS CITED......................................................................................................................... 193 FILMOGRAPHY........................................................................................................................ 198 APPENDIX: PERMISSION....................................................................................................... 200 VITA........................................................................................................................................... 201 v ABSTRACT This dissertation considers the dynamic and resilient influence of the jeremiad, an early American religious and literary mode, on contemporary American literature and culture. It argues that the polemical, dystopian, and apocalyptic narratives so abundant in twentieth-century literature and film participate in an ingrained literary tradition that accounts for society's misfortunes as penalty for its social and moral evils while, at the same time, emphasizing an American exceptionalism born out of a belief in the society's election through its covenant with God. The project makes connections between early-American texts and related works of twentieth and twenty-first century American literature and science fiction in order to engage issues of American nationalism and to interrogate how these texts construct and reinforce an American identity. It investigates how groups during different historical periods adapted the jeremiad either to advocate or to critique political and cultural movements. Chapter one discusses this history of the jeremiad, situates the project within previous scholarship on the form, and argues for the continued relevance of the jeremiad in twentieth and twenty-first century fiction. Chapter two considers the role of the jeremiad in the work of Robert A. Heinlein during the cultural Cold War. Chapter three concerns the indebtedness of environmental science fiction and film to the American jeremiad tradition and, more specifically, how their dual imperatives of polemical and exceptionalism rhetoric continue to shape the ways that Americans conceive of environmental problems and policy. Finally, chapter four interrogates the role of the jeremiad in science fiction films since 1980 that function as countersubversive texts and, subsequently, in films that serve as critical responses to earlier attempts at foreclosing dissent. vi INTRODUCTION “MAY THE LORD MAKE IT LIKE THAT OF NEW ENGLAND” It has become commonplace to talk of America as a city upon a hill. Contemporary American politicians of all persuasions have invoked the historical metaphor to advocate for their particular policies or ideology. Some have conjured the metaphor for the nation in order to invoke its greatness and prowess, while others have used it to appeal to the nation’s virtuous founding principles in calls for reform. President Ronald Reagan’s frequent reference to “the shining city on a hill” stands as the most well-known example of its use (though embellished). Of course, the original sentiment, of America as a city upon a hill, was articulated first by John Winthrop in his 1630 speech given to the new members of the Massachusetts Bay colony as they arrived aboard the Arbella. We have come to know his speech as “A Model of Christian Charity.” Winthrop’s speech is a short sermon on the new demands, economic, social, political and spiritual, that life in the new world would require. A broad-ranging sermon, it covered aspects as pragmatic as how the new community would approach lending, forgiveness of debts, and how neighbors would provide for each other in times of calamity or of scarcity. More importantly, however, the sermon described the relationship this new community would have with God. Comparing themselves to the Israelites, these colonists saw themselves as entering a new wilderness and, as such, having entered into a new covenant with God: what Winthrop likened to a marriage of “most strict and peculiar manner” in which God would be “the more jealous of our love and obedience.” His message carried with it a dual meaning: great is the reward if the covenant is kept, but great too is the damnation risked in failing. Reminding his fellow colonists of this charge, he used the metaphor, now famous, of a city upon a hill. He explained that the “eyes of the world 1 are upon us” and that, if we were to fail, “we shall be made a story and a by-word through the world.” Their failure, he said, would “open the mouths of enemies to speak evil of the ways of God.” On the other hand, their success would provide an example to the rest of the world. People then would say,
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