NO UTOPIA IS AN ISLAND: THE ECOSYSTEM OF UTOPIAS IN PAUL MCAULEY’S QUIET WAR SAGA by KERRI BEAUCHESNE 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 MASTER OF ARTS IN ENGLISH THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT ARLINGTON December 2012 Copyright © by Kerri Beauchesne 2012 All Rights Reserved ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Just as no utopia is an island, neither is a researcher. My first thanks go to my mother, Marian Beauchesne, who has shared in the financial and emotional challenges of this journey. I am grateful for the many hours she spent listening to me talk about my work and reading draft after draft; she knows this thesis nearly as well as I do. Special thanks also to my son Joshua, to whom this thesis has been a particularly annoying and demanding younger sibling. To Dr. Kenneth Roemer, thesis director, thank you for your patient mentorship despite numerous setbacks and for letting me take risks with this project. To Dr. Stacy Alaimo and Dr. Kevin Porter, committee members, for insightful feedback and guidance. To my friends who have cheered me on, especially Beth Kennedy, Joy Sterrantino, and Jamye Aldape. And finally to my fellow scholars at Phinished.org, whose encouragement and advice eased the two most crucial months of drafting. November 1, 2012 iii ABSTRACT NO UTOPIA IS AN ISLAND: THE ECOSYSTEM OF UTOPIAS IN PAUL MCAULEY’S QUIET WAR SAGA Kerri Beauchesne, M.A. The University of Texas at Arlington, 2012 Supervising Professor: Kenneth Roemer In this thesis, I argue that a new, ambitious variety of literary utopia, which I call an ecosystem utopia, has developed over the past forty years, chiefly in science fiction and fantasy. My primary examples are Paul McAuley’s The Quiet War and Gardens of the Sun. An ecosystem utopia portrays a dynamic network of societies in a text’s fictional time and space. Like a traditional utopia, it explores the structure and functioning of individual utopias, and like the critical utopia, their flaws and ambiguities. Sociopolitically complex, it explores threads of influence, alliance, conflict, exploitation, and dominance within and between multiple societies. To analyze such a complex system, I have created a hybrid methodology, econet criticism, which blends ecology with a variant of Actor-Network Theory to analyze individual utopias and trace their interactions. This is an exploratory work, a first step toward developing a new way of conceiving and analyzing utopia. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................................................................................iii ABSTRACT ..................................................................................................................................... iv LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.............................................................................................................. ix LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................................. x Chapter Page PART 1. OVERVIEW OF THESIS ................................................................................................... 1 1. INTRODUCTION……………………………………..………..….. ..................................... 2 1.1 Description of Thesis ........................................................................................ 3 1.2 Utopian Studies ................................................................................................ 6 1.2.1 Definition .......................................................................................... 6 1.2.2 Classification .................................................................................... 9 1.3 Ecosystems and the Environment ................................................................. 12 1.4 Framing a Complex System ........................................................................... 15 1.5 Actor-Network Theory .................................................................................... 17 1.5.1 Structural Terms ............................................................................. 19 1.5.2 Dynamic Terms .............................................................................. 20 1.6 Econet Criticism ............................................................................................. 21 1.7 Structure of Thesis ......................................................................................... 23 PART 2. MCAULEY’S SOCIAL THEORY ...................................................................................... 24 2. THE NATURE CONTINUUM ....................................................................................... 25 2.1 Dichotomy versus Continuum ........................................................................ 25 2.2 Avernus on Nature ......................................................................................... 32 2.3 Blurred Boundaries ........................................................................................ 34 v 2.4 Sri Hong-Owen versus Avernus ..................................................................... 37 3. ENGINEERING NATURE ............................................................................................ 42 3.1 Engineering principles .................................................................................... 43 3.1.1 “Natural” versus Directed Change ................................................. 43 3.1.2 A Complex Undertaking ................................................................. 43 3.1.3 The Creative Vision ........................................................................ 45 3.1.4 The Unpredictable .......................................................................... 45 3.1.5 The Problem of Speed ................................................................... 46 3.1.6 Implications for Utopian Enterprise ................................................ 47 3.2 Irreversibility and Unrepeatability ................................................................... 49 4. NETWORK STRUCTURE AND DYNAMICS ............................................................... 58 4.1 Network Structure .......................................................................................... 58 4.1.1 Small and Large Networks ............................................................. 58 4.1.2 Centralized and Decentralized Networks ....................................... 59 4.1.3 Nested and Interlinked Networks ................................................... 61 4.2 Network Dynamics ......................................................................................... 63 4.2.1 The Inevitable Collision of Interests ............................................... 63 4.2.2 Tidal Shifts ..................................................................................... 66 4.2.3 Hinge Points ................................................................................... 68 4.3 Conclusion ...................................................................................................... 70 PART 3. MCAULEY’S ECOSYSTEM OF UTOPIAS ..................................................................... 71 5. COLLAPSE AND RECOVERY .................................................................................... 72 5.1 The Overturn .................................................................................................. 72 5.2 Recovery and Exploration .............................................................................. 78 5.2.1 Recovery on Earth ......................................................................... 78 5.2.2 Interplanetary War .......................................................................... 82 vi 5.2.3 Colonizing the Outer System ......................................................... 84 5.2.4 Outer Utopian Nexuses .................................................................. 89 6. THE QUIET WAR ......................................................................................................... 91 6.1 The Pre-War Period ....................................................................................... 91 6.1.1 Earth’s Ecosystem of Utopias ........................................................ 91 6.1.1.1 Greater Brazil’s Ecosystem of Utopias .......................... 95 6.1.1.2 The European Union and the Pacific Community .......... 98 6.1.2 The Outer System ........................................................................ 102 6.1.2.1 The Old versus the Young ........................................... 102 6.1.2.2 Mutual Construction ..................................................... 105 6.1.2.3 Rainbow Bridge, Callisto, Jupiter System .................... 106 6.1.2.4 Minos, Europa, Jupiter System .................................... 110 6.1.2.5 East of Eden, Ganymede, Jupiter System ................... 111 6.2 The Quiet War .............................................................................................. 115 6.2.1 Offense: Earth’s Hawks ................................................................ 115 6.2.2 Defense: The Outers .................................................................... 115 6.2.2.1 Paris, Dione, Saturn System ........................................ 116 6.2.2.2 Dione’s Proponents of Peace ...................................... 121 6.2.2.3 Marisa Bassi and the Ghosts ....................................... 124 6.3 Conclusion ...................................................................................................