Abstract
At least since Jonathan Swift, science fiction (whatever one wishes to call it) has been used to convey the ideological principles and the assumptions about contemporary society of science fiction authors. This seems especially significant when these principles and assumptions are considered to be discredited or obsolete in the eyes of much of the public which normally consumes science fiction. It is thus worth examining how this process of transmission unfolds in practice. Two texts to be considered are Aurora by Kim Stanley Robinson and Purgatory Mount by Adam Roberts. Both authors espouse ideologies which might be considered problematic by many of their contemporaries – Robinson being a Marxist and Roberts a moralist whose philosophical positions appear rooted in Christianity. Meanwhile, both are driven by their ideological visions to conclusions which challenge the notions underpinning the genre of science fiction. Both authors “package” their ideological material in forms which either serve to conceal their stances until the reader has unwittingly accepted them, or locate their stances in such plain sight that the reader barely notices them (much like Poe’s Purloined Letter). While much of this reading is based on Jamesonian principles (Robinson being one of Fredric Jameson’s favourite science fiction novelists) it also points out how deep critical analysis is not required to extract the novelists’ basic ideas from the texts – although both Robinson and Roberts clearly desire such analysis and structure their texts accordingly.
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
ROBINSON, ROBERTS, JAMESON, SPACE TRAVEL, SCIENCE FICTION, SPECULATIVE FICTION
