Eugenics, Genetic Determinism and the Desire for Racial Utopia in the Science Fiction of Octavia E
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Eugenics, Genetic Determinism and the Desire for Racial Utopia in the Science Fiction of Octavia E. Butler Andrew Schapper Submitted in total fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy April 2014 Faculty of Arts School of Culture and Communication The University of Melbourne Abstract African-American writer Octavia E. Butler brought the ethics of eugenics to the forefront of science fiction. Butler’s fiction demonstrates an obsessive focus on the ethics of directing human evolution by eugenic practices. I contend that Butler uses eugenics to achieve racial utopia that hinges upon the eradication of physical markers of difference. She envisions eugenics, genetic engineering and genetic mutation as potential means of solving problems of race, gender, class, and religious-based oppression by eradicating the biological causes of physical difference. Such an obsessive focus on biological causes of human behavior makes her fiction extremely biologically deterministic. For Butler, revising behavior always means altering biology. However, in her narratives, eugenic practices are always directed by external sources, revealing her ultimate pessimism about humanity’s ability to save itself. Her stories suggest that it is only through molecular level biological change that humanity can achieve any kind of meaningful utopia, but that the ability to direct such change will remain forever out of humanity’s reach. It is my argument that after 1980, Butler’s science fiction increasingly demonstrates a belief that it is only through eugenically altering humans that we will continue as species without destroying ourselves. Consequently I have limited my analysis of her work from the publication of her novel Wild Seed (1980), to her last published book, Fledgling (2005). Butler’s untimely death in 2006 has since sparked increasing interest in this intriguing and unique science fiction author. Her contribution to literature more generally is only now being acknowledged. It is the purpose of this thesis to reposition Butler’s fiction as important ethical discussions of the extent to which guided reproduction can be an evolutionary panacea to the abundant problems that seem to inevitably arise when humans encounter physical, spiritual, and intellectual difference. Declaration I, Andrew Schapper declare that: i) the thesis comprises only my original work towards the PhD except where indicated; ii) due acknowledgment has been made in the text to all other material used; iii) the thesis is fewer than 100,000 words in length, exclusive of tables, maps, bibliographies and appendices. Signed ………………………………………. Acknowledgements I would like to thank the following people without whose help this work would never have been completed. Firstly, Dr. Grace Moore who has been the most supportive, helpful, and inspirational supervisor I could have hoped for. Secondly, Dr. Anne Maxwell who has helped me enormously from undergraduate studies onwards. Thirdly, to my amazing parents Dr. Janet and Dr. Mark Schapper, who have not only read more of this work than could reasonably be expected, but have also supported and encouraged me along the way. Fourthly, my wonderful sister Cathy Schapper whose own work on eugenics inspired me, but also whose proofreading and constant discussions have had a profound impact on my writing and thinking. Lastly, to my beautiful wife Erika for putting up with this project for our entire married life, I could never have done this without your support and care. Table of Contents Introduction 1 Chapter 1: Eugenics and Reproduction in Wild Seed 37 Chapter 2: Religion, Science and Genetic Determinism in Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents: 72 Chapter 3: The Contagious Pandemic: Utopia, Dystopia, Eugenics and Apocalypse in Clay’s Ark 110 Chapter 4: Eugenics, Miscegenation and the Eradication of the Other in the Xenogenesis Trilogy 144 Chapter 5: Eugenics and Genetic Engineering: Miscegenation and Vampirism in Fledgling 182 Conclusion 220 Bibliography 228 Introduction Science fiction often deals with the role that science and technology might play in the future of humanity. Octavia E. Butler was the only female African-American science fiction author to have achieved international recognition in the second half of the twentieth century. She brought discussions of the ethics of manipulating human evolution and the role of biological science in our social development to the forefront of science fiction. Across her oeuvre Butler’s fiction demonstrates an obsessive focus on the ethics of directing human evolution by eugenic practices. Her fiction not only provides unique views on eugenics and genetic engineering, but on Western culture generally. In her novels, Butler uses the concept of eugenics as a way to imagine the eradication of physical markers of difference. For her, the oppressive and hierarchical institutions of Western patriarchy can only be overcome through biological intervention. In her desire for divergent races to breed away physical differences, Butler overtly reinterprets aspects of the utopian eugenic goals of many late nineteenth and early twentieth-century eugenicists. Whether as projected utopian worlds or dystopian visions expressing anxieties about Western culture, writers since the nineteenth century have used science fiction to meditate on the nature and character of human identity to a large popular readership. In the wake of the eugenics movement in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and in the postwar period, authors including Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Aldous Huxley, Joanna Russ, Ursula Le Guin, Margaret Atwood, and Octavia E. Butler have used science fiction as a way of discussing ethical problems regarding the tensions between evolutionary outcomes and the means used to achieve them. Butler’s fiction in particular demonstrates an all-consuming focus on the moral and ethical gap between controlling biological evolution and the erosion of individual rights that such control might precipitate. Butler’s fiction is gaining increased critical attention and the ethical richness of her novels has sparked intense literary debate. However, Butler’s depictions of eugenics and genetic engineering have either been overlooked, or have resulted in divergent interpretations as to their purpose. Hoda M. Zaki describes Butler’s writing as 1 ‘biologically essentialist’1 but does not examine how her characters manage to create utopias from genetic manipulation. As I discuss later in this chapter, Cathy Peppers dismisses claims of eugenics in Butler’s work by describing it as ‘biophilic, not eugenic.’2 However, such a claim is tautological, as the biophilic nature of Butler’s writing relies on a deep-seated biological essentialism that is at the foundation of much eugenic thought. Michelle Erica Green also hints at an essentialist impulse in Butler’s fiction. Again, Green tries to distance Butler from eugenic ideas by positing that her fiction breaks with the kind of biological determinism upon which hardline and non-liberal forms of eugenics have historically relied. As yet, there is no criticism that investigates the distinct presence of what I am calling the utopian eugenics that impels Butler’s writing. It is therefore the purpose of this thesis to examine Butler’s depictions, interpretations, and criticisms of eugenics to show that she sees biological evolution by eugenic manipulation as the only viable way to effect meaningful social change, in spite of its intrinsic dangers. It is my contention that Butler uses eugenics to achieve utopian states, all of which hinge upon the eradication of physical differences. She envisions eugenics, genetic engineering and genetic mutation as avenues to solving problems of race, gender, class, and religious-based oppression. She does so by formulating eugenic techniques that eradicate the biological differences that distinguish both different human groupings as well as divisions between human and non-human beings. Butler’s fiction thus demonstrates a firm belief in biology as the main constituent that defines human, indeed all, sentient behavior. Her revision of human behavior is always contingent on genetic engineering and eugenic manipulation of human biology. Those who control biology control the future of human character. However, in Butler’s narratives, eugenic practices are always directed by an external source, whether by genetic accident, the deliberate selective breeding of a four thousand year old demigod, an extraterrestrial disease, an alien species, or an ancient race of vampires. In taking humans’ evolutionary future out of their hands, Butler reveals her ultimate pessimism about humanity’s ability to save itself from self-annihilation stemming from nuclear catastrophe, human-made climate change, and ideological 1 Zaki, Hoda M. ‘Utopia, Dystopia, and Ideology in the Science Fiction of Octavia Butler.’ Science Fiction Studies. vol. 17, no. 2, 1990, pp.241. 2 Peppers, Cathy. ‘Dialogic Origins and Alien Identities in Butler’s Xenogenesis.’ Science Fiction Studies. vol.22, no.1, 1995, p.55. 2 extremism. Her stories suggest that it is only through molecular-level biological change that humanity can achieve any kind of utopia, but that the ability to direct such change will remain forever beyond humanity’s capability. Science fiction is a space where social, political, economic and technological concerns can be explored away from the limitations of realism. What actually constitutes science fiction is notoriously difficult to define.