Suicide and contemporary science fiction

206 Pages·2015·1.386 MB·English

by  Atwood, Margaret Eleanor, Gibson, William, Gutiérrez-Jones, Carl, Johnson, Rian, Lem, Stanisław, Nolan, Christopher Robert, Wells, Herbert George

SUICIDE AND CONTEMPORARY
SCIENCE FICTION
SuicideandContemporaryScienceFictionexaminesthefascination
with suicidal crises evident in a range of science fiction.
Specifically, this study explores a seemingly counterintuitive
proposition: in moments of dramatic scientific and technological
change,theauthorsoftheseworksfrequentlycastself-destructive
episodesascatalystsforbeneficialchange.CarlosGutiérrez-Jones
argues that this creative self-destruction mechanism is invoked
by H. G. Wells as a means of negotiating Victorian anxieties
regarding evolutionary theory, by Stanislaw Lem as he wrestles
with the prospect of nuclear self-destruction at the dawn of the
spaceage,byWilliamGibsonasheconsidersthedevelopmentof
artificial intelligence, by Christopher Nolan as he explores the
cyberneticcolonizationoftheunconscious,byRianJohnsonashe
links aspects of video gaming to the neoliberal militarization of
institutions,andbyMargaretAtwoodassheconsidersimpending
ecological disaster and the rise of bioterrorism. These authors
oftendepictsuchscientificandtechnologicalchangesinafashion
that requires the central characters to transform themselves in
hopesofremainingrelevantinaradicallyalteredenvironment.
carlos gutie´rrez-jones is Professor of English at the
University of California, Santa Barbara. His research interests
include American studies, contemporary fiction, critical race
studies, the literature of human rights, and science fiction.
Gutiérrez-Jones is the author of Critical Race Narratives: A Study
of Race, Rhetoric, and Injury and Rethinking the Borderlands:
Between Chicano Narrative and Legal Discourse, as well as several
co-edited volumes and numerous articleson literature,film, legal
studies,andculturaltheory.

SUICIDE AND
CONTEMPORARY
SCIENCE FICTION
CARLOS GUTIÉRREZ-JONES
UniversityofCalifornia,SantaBarbara
32AvenueoftheAmericas,NewYork,ny10013-2473,usa
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©CarlosGutiérrez-Jones2015
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Firstpublished2015
PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica
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LibraryofCongressCataloginginPublicationData
Gutierrez-Jones,Carlos.
Suicideandcontemporarysciencefiction/CarlosGutierrez-Jones,University
ofCalifornia,SantaBarbara.
pages cm
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
1. Sciencefiction–Historyandcriticism. 2. Suicideinliterature. I. Title.
pn3433.6.g88 2015
809.3ʹ8762–dc23 2014048589
isbn978-1-107-10040-4Hardback
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For my uncle, James S. Coleman

Contents
Acknowledgments page ix
Introduction 1
1 Living to Wonder: Darwin, Evolution, and The Island
of Doctor Moreau 21
2 Stranded Contacts: The Transformative Potential of Grief
in Stanislaw Lem’s Solaris 44
3 StealingKinship:NeuromancerandArtificialIntelligence 78
4 Escaping One’s Self: Narcissism and Cycles of Violence
in Inception and Looper 102
5 Environmental Adaptation: Creative Apocalypse
in Margaret Atwood’s Maddaddam Trilogy 129
Afterword: Creative Self-Destruction and 9/11 151
Notes 165
Works Cited 179
Index 191
vii