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CYBERPUNK FICTION: the WORKS of WILLIAM GIBSON and BRUCE STERLING AS EXAMPLES of the POST-1980S SCIENCE FICTION TRADITION

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CYBERPUNK FICTION: the WORKS of WILLIAM GIBSON and BRUCE STERLING AS EXAMPLES of the POST-1980S SCIENCE FICTION TRADITION T.C. ANKARA ÜNİVERSİTESİ SOSYAL BİLİMLER ENSTİTÜSÜ BATI DİLLERİ VE EDEBİYATLARI (İNGİLİZ DİLİ VE EDEBİYATI) ANABİLİM DALI CYBERPUNK FICTION: THE WORKS OF WILLIAM GIBSON AND BRUCE STERLING AS EXAMPLES OF THE POST-1980s SCIENCE FICTION TRADITION Doktora Tezi ÖZLEM ŞAHİN SOY Ankara-2012 ii T.C. ANKARA ÜNİVERSİTESİ SOSYAL BİLİMLER ENSTİTÜSÜ BATI DİLLERİ VE EDEBİYATLARI (İNGİLİZ DİLİ VE EDEBİYATI) ANABİLİM DALI CYBERPUNK FICTION: THE WORKS OF WILLIAM GIBSON AND BRUCE STERLING AS EXAMPLES OF THE POST-1980s SCIENCE FICTION TRADITION Doktora Tezi ÖZLEM ŞAHİN SOY Tez Danışmanı Prof. Dr. Sema E. EGE Ankara-2012 iii iv TÜRKİYE CUMHURİYETİ ANKARA ÜNİVERSİTESİ SOSYAL BİLİMLER ENSTİTÜSÜ MÜDÜRLÜĞÜNE Bu belge ile, bu tezdeki bütün bilgilerin akademik kurallara ve etik davranış ilkelerine uygun olarak toplanıp sunulduğunu beyan ederim. Bu kural ve ilkelerin gereği olarak, çalışmada bana ait olmayan tüm veri, düşünce ve sonuçları andığımı ve kaynağını gösterdiğimi ayrıca beyan ederim.(24/01/2012) Tezi Hazırlayan Öğrencinin Adı ve Soyadı ÖZLEM ŞAHİN SOY İmzası v PREFACE This thesis aims to discuss and clarify the literary Cyberpunk Science Fiction sub-genre and the movement, which appears to be a cultural outcome of the 1980s. This is a period that combines fast technological improvements with changing social structure in the United States of America and England. William Gibson and Bruce Sterling‟s six novels are to be studied as examples of Cyberpunk science fiction in this context. The study consists of five parts, including a brief introduction, a descriptive chapter in which the necessary definitions of and arguments concerning the sub- genre are given, two chapters that study three novels from each of the writers and a concluding chapter. Cyberpunk Science Fiction authors reflect their anxiety about the possible outcomes of current technological developments while writing about their assumptions about technology in the near future. They describe a world where man cannot stay away from technology, even if it causes the end of humanity. The works of Gibson and Sterling are accepted as the outcomes of the social and cultural atmosphere of the late-twentieth century and this thesis aims to provide a detailed descriptive study on the subgenre and the works of these authors. vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank Professor Oya Batum Menteşe, Professor Belgin Elbir and Professor Berrin Aksoy whose support and advice were invaluable. I especially would like to express my gratitude to Professor Gülsen Canlı and Assoc. Prof. A Lerzan Gültekin, who encouraged me all through this process and helped me with substantial advice. I also thank the members of the Atilim University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences for the helpful and friendly atmosphere they have created while I was writing this dissertation. I am indebted to my colleagues Asist. Prof. Dr. Gökşen Aras, Dr. Kuğu Tekin and Dr. Barış Emre Alkım for their support, this thesis would not have been possible without their encouragement. Last but not the least; I would like to show my gratitude to my family who have provided every kind of support and, more important still, light relief. I would like to thank my husband Hilmi Soy not only for encouragement but also for his technical support. vii CONTENTS Page Preface........................................................................................................................v Acknowledgements..............…………………………………………………...…...vi Contents…………………………………………………………………...………..vii INTRODUCTION......................................................................................................1 CHAPTER I: Cyberpunk Science Fiction as an Outcome of the Late Twentieth- Century........................................................................................……………………8 A) Cyberpunk Science Fiction .....................................................……………...9 B) An Overview of the Cyberpunk Movement in a Historical Context…....17 C) The Relationship of the Cyberpunk Movement with Late Twentieth- Century Culture and Philosophies.…………….....................................................22 CHAPTER II: Neuromancer, Mona Lisa Overdrive, Count Zero by William Gibson as examples of “Cyberpunk Fiction”……………………………..……...47 A) Neuromancer……………………………………………………………….50 B) Count Zero ………………...............…………………………….……........70 C) Mona Lisa Overdrive ……………………………………………....…....…84 CHAPTER III: The Artificial Kid, Schismatrix, and Islands in the Net by Bruce Sterling as examples of “Cyberpunk Fiction”…..................................................101 A) The Artificial Kid………………………………………………………......104 B) Schismatrix………………………………………………………………...115 C) Islands in the Net …………………………………………………………128 CONCLUSION....…..……………………………………..……………………...143 BIBLIOGRAPHY………………………………………………………………...153 TÜRKÇE ÖZET……...……………………………………………………...…...164 ABSTRACT………………………………………………………………….…...166 1 INTRODUCTION In this dissertation, “Cyberpunk Fiction: An Analysis of the Works of William Gibson and Bruce Sterling as Examples of the Post-1980s Science Fiction Tradition”, Neuromancer, Mona Lisa Overdrive, and Count Zero by William Gibson The Artificial Kid, Schismatrix and Islands on the Net by Bruce Sterling are analysed as examples of Cyberpunk science fiction that appeared as an outcome of a post- 1980s social and cultural environment. However, since Cyberpunk is seen as a reflection of postmodern attitudes by critics such as Fredric Jameson, Jean François Lyotard, Jean Baudrillard, Arthur Kroker and Paul Virilio, the dissertation will also address the relationship between Cyberpunk fiction and late-twentieth century studies. As new computer technology became an integral part of man‟s life and society, science fiction writers were also influenced by it and made statements about its real and potential influence on cultural and political life. The way the 1970‟s science fiction writers handled the subject of the combination of the technological and the biological, has influenced the 1980s‟ Cyberpunk writers, but their only concern was not the “cyber” part. The authors of Cyberpunk novels have developed their own style especially focusing on the “punk” of the imagined close future or virtual world. The word “punk” actually refers to the cultural phenomenon experienced in Britain and the United States of America (especially New York) during the 1970s, which was a result of negative social conditions and unemployment (O‟Hara, 2003: 27). What lies in the shaping of the viewpoint of “Punks” is the disappointment of the unemployed white, young, working class and its alienation and hatred towards any socially accepted norms and institutions. This 2 thought system was shaped in the streets with this awareness. (O‟Hara, 2003: 27). Cyberpunk writers used this viewpoint of “punks” in shaping their characters like Case in Neuromancer, Bobby in Count Zero or Arti in The Artificial Kid. These characters are alienated from social life, they do not have regular jobs or a respectable status in the society, and they are, in a way, trying to prove their existence through their reactions like being punks in the streets. Cyberpunk fiction presents men or subjects as inactive objects controlled by technology or users of technology. The cyberpunk protagonists are passive and ineffectual anti-heroes who have no security or communal bonds as seen in the Neuromancer and The Artificial Kid. They are fragmented and decentred individuals as the characteristics of Postmodernism suggest. They become objects, instead of subjects through the influence of the invasive development of all types of technology. This can be read as a kind of deliberate warning on the part of the cyberpunk authors, or as a sort of anxiety about the results of improvements in the fields of science and technology. The authors, in a way, are warning people about thinking on the possible outcomes of current technological developments. Another idea that brings Cyberpunk and Postmodernism close to each other that, technology creates a crisis for culture. The immense improvements in various fields of technology have created fear and anxiety in the twentieth century. This fear and anxiety reached a maximum point through the end of the century and marked its cultural formation. The works of Cyberpunk authors are productions of this specific era which has been called “the Dataist Age” (Bukatman, 1993:346), reflecting the fear and anxiety in a pessimistic way. The world Gibson and Sterling describes is full of terror and violence caused by or struggling with advanced technology. 3 The popular imagination started to be strongly influenced by cybernetics (which means “the interdisciplinary study of the structure of complex systems, especially communication processes, control mechanisms and feedback principles” (http://www.bookrags.com/Cybernetics - Retrieved 03.09.2010) and information technology in the second half of the twentieth century. The imagination of Cyberpunk authors represent of this specific era in that they use images, metaphors and language directly derived from cybernetics and information technologies. In their works information technology dominates social, cultural, political and economic interaction on a global scale. Gibson and Sterling‟s novels describe such individuals whose lives are dominated by, especially, information technologies and cybernetics. Bruce Sterling puts forward that science fiction has been dealing with the influences of technology on human life; however what distinguishes Cyberpunk from previous science
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