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BUG-EYED MONSTERS AND THE ENCOUNTER WITH THE POSTCOLONIAL OTHER: AN ANALYSIS OF THE COMMON POSTCOLONIAL THEMES AND CHARACTERISTICS IN SCIENCE FICTION by PAUL DAVID LEE Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Arlington in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT ARLINGTON MAY 2012 Copyright © by Paul David Lee 2012 All Rights Reserved ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, I would like to thank my grandfather, B.H. Richmond, for all of the financial help and moral support that he provided to me during my undergraduate and master’s work. He passed away in 2000, so he didn’t get to see his dream fulfilled of me earning my PhD. However, I would like to think that he knows, just the same. I would also like to think several important people who have helped me to get where I am today. Dr. Arvilla Taylor has also been a wonderful influence in my life and a great friend. If it hadn’t been for her help and encouragement (as well as her service as my master’s chair) I don’t believe I would have gotten as far along as I have. I would like to also thank Tim Morris for his patience and wonderful help and advice over the years. This has been a very long and sometimes stressful process, and during that time I can’t think of a better person to serve as the chair of my dissertation committee. Finally, thanks to Jacqueline Stodnick and Tim Richardson for reading my dissertation with short notice and being willing to help out. I really appreciate their help. Through all of these wonderful people and others that I don’t have the space to mention, I have become what I am today. I believe it truly does take a community. April 19, 2012 iii ABSTRACT BUG-EYED MONSTERS AND THE ENCOUNTER WITH THE POSTCOLONIAL OTHER: AN ANALYSIS OF THE COMMON POSTCOLONIAL THEMES ANDCHARACTERISTICS IN SCIENCE FICTION Paul David Lee, PhD The University of Texas at Arlington, 2012 Supervising Professor: Timothy Morris Recently, a number of non-Western Postcolonial authors have begun to use science fiction to express some of the common concerns of non-Western cultures such as hybridity, alterity and subalternity, as well as other issues like those concerning the body and community/hybridity, the future of former colonies extrapolated from colonial history, and encounters with the Other. This trend has also been common for Western writers from the beginning of science fiction as a distinct genre, and many Western authors have used it to highlight the superiority of Western empires, while others have used it as a tool to emphasize their negative characteristics. These Western authors have all written pieces either extolling or condemning both technology and its use to iv control subaltern cultures and to manipulate their societies for political and economic gain. Each of these authors (from both flavors of sf) has also found a means for expressing these concerns by taking advantage of some of the unique characteristics of science fiction; consequently, this text explores these characteristics of science fiction and their intersection with those of postcolonial fiction. Specifically, the special role of sf as a means of appropriation and decentering is addressed in Chapter 1. In Chapter 2, a more systematic definition of sf is explored, and the role of cognitive estrangement in an inclusive definition of both flavors is posited as a solution to the problem of defining sf. Chapters 3 and 4 address the Other, myth, science, landscape and extrapolation as some of the other most important overlapping characteristics of the genre. Chapter 5 further tightens the focus on sf characteristics by focusing primarily on the different approaches to technology: Western industrial/inorganic versus postcolonial organic. Finally, Chapter 6 explores the political/social implications of postcolonial/neocolonial thought and their representations in Western and postcolonial science fiction. v TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................. ……………..iii ABSTRACT ...................................................................................................................... iv Chapter Page 1. INTRODUCTION: POSTCOLONIAL SF AS APPROPRIATION AND DE- CENTERING OF WESTERN CODES………………………………………………………………………………1 2. TOWARD A USEFUL DEFINITION OF THE GENRE: APPROPRIATION AND RE-CENTERING OF THE GENRE………..…………………………..………………………………………..37 2.1 Toward a Useful Definition ................................................................. 41 2.2 Cognitive Estrangement .................................................................... .66 3. BUILDING SPECIFICS: THE OTHER AS A MAJOR DEFINITIONAL ELEMENT OF POSTCOLONIAL SCIENCE FICTION…………………………90 4. MYTH, SCIENCE, LANDSCAPE AND EXTRAPOLATION: FOUR POINTS OF DIVERGENCE IN POSTCOLONIAL SCIENCE FICTION AND THE DECENTERING OF THE GENRE…………………………………………………………….………………148 4.1 Mythos and Scientia……………………………………………...……150 4.2 Extrapolation............................……………………………………….178 4.3 Kim Stanley Robinson’s Extrapolation as (non)Western Thought Experiment… ……..…...…………………..…….....….. 189 5. TECHNOLOGICAL DIVERGENCES: WESTERN INDUSTRIALISM VERSUS NON-WESTERN ORGANICS OF FORMER COLONIES……………………………………………………………....……...……201 6. THE MULTITUDE AND THE SPECTACLE: POLITICAL IMPLICATIONS OF POSTCOLONIAL/NEOCOLONIAL SCIENCE FICTION…….....................................................................................................246 REFERENCES..............................................................................................................281 BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION..................................................................................287 vi CHAPTER 1 POSTCOLONIAL SF AS APPROPRIATION AND DE-CENTERING OF WESTERN CODES A number of non-Western and non-European postcolonial authors have begun to use science fiction to express some of the common concerns of former colonies such as hybridity, alterity and subalternity. Some recent examples of non-Western postcolonial authors – ones who may have Eurocentric influences but consider themselves part of non-European traditions – include Nisi Shawl and Andrea Hairston who have written short pieces concerning the body and community/hybridity, as well as Nnedi Okorafor- Mbachu and Vandana Singh who have extrapolated the future of former colonies from the events of colonial history. Karin Lowachee, Celu Amberstone, Ven Begamudre also have written short pieces about encounters with the alien or the Other, and Opal Palmer Adisa, Maya Kankhoje and Tobias Buckell have written stories re-imagining the past in terms of colonialism. Although exactly when the genre known as science fiction began is highly contentious, one can argue that the tendency to use sf as a mode of expression for colonial and postcolonial concerns has been common in Western writers from the beginning of science fiction as a distinct genre. And, the current trend toward postcolonial science fiction also highlights its aptness for expressing specific postcolonial issues like identity, mimicry and liminal mindsets. In fact, many Western authors used sf originally to highlight the superiority of Western empires, while others have used it as a tool to emphasize the negative consequences of Western imperialism, technology and science. These Western authors include people 1 like Jules Verne, H.G. Wells and Edward Bellamy who have all written pieces either extolling or condemning both technology and the use of it to control subaltern cultures and maintain hegemony. More recent Western/Eurocentric authors like Kim Stanley Robinson and Jonathan Lethem also use the genre to express colonial/postcolonial consequences both on humans and on the natural world. Both of these authors explore the consequences of Western colonial expansion and appropriation through characters that colonize other worlds, most often to the detriment of those worlds and the creatures that are on those worlds. So, in Western texts there is an ambivalence; on one hand the texts often criticize imperialism and the exploitation of other cultures and lands, but at the same time these texts are written from a European colonial mind-set, one that emphasizes Western sensibilities and treats them as superior, as the yardstick by which other cultures are judged. For example, Kim Stanley Robinson’s Mars Trilogy explores the cultural and environmental consequences of colonizing Mars. Through the three books the author transposes concerns of invading and exploiting nature onto the blank slate of Mars. Although the Mars of his trilogy is lifeless, some groups are opposed to terraforming (or “areoforming” in the parlance of the text) the planet because altering the landscape is intrusive and anthropocentric. However open Robinson’s attitude is to non-Western ideals, this particular trilogy still comes from a Western perspective on power influences and an exploitative interaction with nature. In fact, even the “Reds,” the characters who are adamantly against areoforming Mars, still come from a capitalistic mindset of trading basic Martian substances (like carbon dioxide and iron) as commodities that can be used to live a self-contained life on the planet. And their attitude toward the planet itself 2 is that while it shouldn’t be altered it’s perfectly okay to alter themselves so they can exploit its resources and treat it as a new homeland. It is as if these characters have essentially “turned native,” much like characters from a Kipling
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