Science Fiction

480 Pages·2012·43.37 MB·English

DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF ALGERIA
MINISTRY OF HIGHER EDUCATION AND SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH
UNIVERSITY MENTOURI CONSTANTINE

Faculty of Letters and Languages Serial Number: ................
Department of Foreign Languages Registration Number: .....

THE NATURE OF CH ARACTERISATION IN
POST-WAR AMERICAN SCIENCE FICTION:

A STUDY OF SELECTE D NOVELS BY ASIMOV,
HEINLEIN, AND DICK

Thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the
-

Presented by: Supervised by:
Malika BELKHARCHOUCHE Pr. Ourida AMRANI

Board of Examiners:
Chairman: Pr. Brahim HAROUNI University: Mentouri Constantine
Supervisor: Pr. Ourida AMRANI University: Algiers 3
Member: Pr. Med Yazid BENDJEDDOU University: Badji Mokhtar Annaba
Member: Dr. Hocine MAOUI University: Badji Mokhtar Annaba
Member: Dr. Fatima MAMERI University: Oum El Bouaghi
2011
DEDICATION

I dedicate this work
To my beloved mother and my dear father for their love,
devotion, and unlimited sacrifice
To my sisters and brothers for their support and
encouragement

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Grateful thanks are given to my supervisor Professor Ourida AMRANI
for her generous help and advice and the valuable information she has
provided at every stage of this project. I am everywhere indebted to her
for her assistance.
My special thanks are reserved for the chairperson and the members of
the jury who have devoted much of their precious time to read and assess
this work.
I owe a special debt of gratitude to my colleague and friend Saoussen
MADOUI for her assistance and encouragement.
I wish also to thank my colleagues at the Department of Foreign
Languages and the Department of Translation for their unwavering
encouragement and support.

II
ABSTRACT

The thesis deals with the element of characterisation in post-war American science
fiction in light of the great changes in the modern world and in the fictional worlds of
the future which have the direct effect on the treatment of characters in the genre.
The development and treatment of characters in science fiction has often been
regarded as a weakness and science fiction writers have usually been condemned for
their neglect of creating complex and rounded characters with psychological depth
and intricacies of personality and for paying more attention to the science-fictional
elements such as plot, setting, and themes. By adopting a Marxist approach in the
study of novels by the leading American science fiction writers of the post-war era,
the dissertation attempts to demonstrate that the character-centred novel which has
dominated realist mainstream fiction since the nineteenth century does no longer fit
the genre science fiction which is more concerned with the different changes and
transformations in society and their effects on man and his existence on Earth and in
the universe than with individual persons and their personal concerns and problems.
After a first part devoted to the history of science fiction in general and of American
science fiction in particular, the thesis moves to the study of selected novels by Isaac
Asimov, Robert Heinlein, and Philip K. Dick, which demonstrates that characters are
treated not as individuals with personal autonomous identities, but as representatives
of all humanity that faces various pressures in society in the form of technological
progress, bureaucratic government agencies, multinational corporations, and the
military machinery. In this respect, the work examines the different factors depicted
in the narratives which constitute the major focus of the writers and which make the
characters appear as a collective entity lacking the traits of independent individual
personalities, reflecting the real condition and existence of man in the modern world.
III
TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction 1
CHAPTER ONE: Science Fiction: Definitions, Themes, and Origins 10
Introduction 10
1.1. Definitions 10
1.2. Sub-Genres and Themes 14
1.2.1. Science Fiction Sub-Genres 14
1.2.2. Themes in Science Fiction 18
1.2.2.1. Old Traditions in Science Fiction: The Fantastic Voyage,
the Gothic, and Alien Encounter 19
1.2.2.2. Time Travel and Space Travel 27
1.2.2.3. Modern Science and Technology in Science Fiction 34
1.2.2.4. Psionic Powers 55
1.2.2.5. Apocalyptic Themes in Science Fiction 62
1.3. The Origins of Science Fiction 72
Conclusion 86

CHAPTER TWO: American Science Fiction and its Dominance in the 87
Post-War Era
Introduction 87
2.1. Science Fiction Before 1926 88
2.2. The Science Fiction Magazine Era 99
2.2.1. The Gernsback Era 99
2.2.2. The Evolutionary Shift in the Campbell Era 107
2.2.3. The Decade of Transition and
Stylistic Experimentation 117
2.3. The New Wave 125
IV
2.4. From 1980 to the Present: The Age of Cyberpunk and Space Opera 136
2.5. Post-War American Science Fiction: Factors of International Dominance 145
Conclusion 162

CHAPTER THREE: Humans, Robots, and the Environment in
164
Introduction 164
3.1. Isaac Asimov: The Master of Modern American Science Fiction 165
3.1.1. Life and Career 165
3.1.2. Robots and the Laws of Robotics 172
3.2. The Caves of Steel 185
3.2.1. Summary 185
3.2.2. Human versus Robot 193
3.2.3. Environment as Character 204
3.3. The Naked Sun 214
3.3.1. Summary 215
3.3.2. The Role of Robots and the Circumvention
of the Laws of Robotics 223
3.3.3. Baley and Gladia versus the Environment 240
Conclusion 260

CHAPTER FOUR:
261
Introduction 261
4.1. Robert A. Heinlein: The Dean of Science Fiction Writers 261
4.2. Starship Troopers: The Military Saga of American Science Fiction 272
4.2.1. Summary 272
4.2.2. The Education of a Soldier 280
V
4.2.3. The Military: The Power that Blots Out Character 297
4.3. Stanger in a Strange Land: A Novel of Cultural Revolution 307
4.3.1. Summary 307
4.3.2. Valentine Michael Smith and Jubal Harshaw:
The Teachers of a Generation 317
4.3.3. Stranger in a Strange Land: The Subversive Cult Book
344
Conclusion 356

CHAPTER FIVE:
357
Introduction 357
5.1. Philip K. Dick: Life and Career 358
5.2. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? : The Nature of Humanity
Questioned 372
5.2.1. Summary 373
5.2.2. Human versus Android or Human versus Inhuman 382
5.2.3. Dystopian World 401
5.3. Ubik: The Reality Breakdown 412
5.3.1. Summary 413
5.3.2. Dead or Alive Characters 420
5.3.3. The Plight of Living in the Modern Technological World 435
Conclusion 449
Conclusion 450
Works Cited 455

VI
INTRODUCTION

Science fiction is the distinctive literature of our age of science and technology.
to a
rapidly changing world and to share insights about an age in which space travel,
computers, electronics technology, genetic engineering, and nuclear doom have
become the basic features that challenge human existence on Earth. Today science
fiction is widely recognised as the only branch of literature which even attempts to
speculate about the destiny of the human race in light of the complex and dizzying
scientific progress and rapid technological developments, along with the great
changes in all aspects of human life. Relying on speculation and extrapolation,
science fiction suggests different futures for humanity that one might not have
considered previously and provides imaginative interpretations of life conditions in
the contemporary world that may guide the future of human civilisation. Although
science fiction is sometimes quite radical in its visions, it has successfully become
one of the most popular cultural movements in the second half of the twentieth
century and early twenty-first century. People often tend to believe that we live in a
science fiction environment where we see the oldest dreams of science fiction being
actually realised and being made into believable visual images on the screens, and
where we see various technologies proliferating, human dependence on machines
increasing more and more, and world-changing events, such as world wars and
revolutions, social and cultural movements, industrial and natural catastrophes,
se of a variety of topics
and motifs, such as post-apocalyptic worlds, encounters with aliens, robots, time
travel, colonisation of other planets, alternate histories, space wars, and psychic

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powers, have made the science fiction mode more diverse in its forms than any other
genre of literature and have led to the extension of its forms of expression to include
movies, TV series, computer games, media advertising and music, in addition to the
phenomenal increase in the science fiction book sales.
Although several categories of literature that were considered the origins of
science fiction, such as the gothic stories and fantasy, were written in earlier
centuries and began outside the United States, science fiction as an independent and
respectable literary genre is a phenomenon of the twentieth century and mainly an
American activity that was born, named, and flourished on the American land.
American science fiction dominated and still dominates the discourse and public
consciousness worldwide helped by the rapid technological evolution and the rise of
the United States to a super-power status in the scientific, economic, and military
fields. During the first two decades since its emergence in the American pulp
magazines in 1926, science fiction was intensely scorned and contemptuously
ignored by the mainstream literary critics and academics who were the powerful
arbiters of literary fashion. In spite of the wide popularity science fiction had
achieved among the growing numbers of its readers, the conventional literary
authorities despised science fiction because of the low quality of writing of its
unskilled and inexperienced young writers and the lack of a realistic view of the
actual problems and experiences of the world. After decades of struggle
characterised by both failures and successes, science fiction has finally been accepted
and recognised as a respectable literary genre with its own conventions and
traditions, and with the critical and academic heritage it has established throughout
almost a century of practice. Science fiction is now a genre that has achieved stylistic
and technical sophistication and intellectual maturity, and also a genre that helps

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people understand their rapidly changing contemporary world and come to grips with
the crises facing humanity in the technological age.
However, it seems that science fiction is still open to criticism as it is often
condemned for its lack of convincing characters and its concentration on setting and
story problem at the expense of developing strong and rounded actors with
description and psychological depth. Critics often regard the treatment of characters
in most science fiction as a weakness and sometimes as neglect on the part of science
fiction practitioners who are drawn more to the description of new landscapes (on
Earth or on other planets) and the big changes in society brought in by the
development of technology, leading them to rely on stock figures and caricatures that
lack the essential traits of individual personality inherent in realistic fiction. For
instance, mainstream critic Robert Scholes in his work Structural Fabulation (1975)
and science fiction critic Kingsley Amis in New Maps of Hell (1975) consider that
the complexity of ideas and the development of themes in science fiction replace
character and the intricacies of personality, while Carl Malmgren in Worlds Apart
(1991) and Karl Kroeber in Romantic Fantasy and Science Fiction (1988)
concentrate on the cognitive function of the genre which stems from the scientific
outlook of the world and which leads to an impersonal dealing with characterisation.
Other critics have identified other aspects in the science fiction narratives that attract
the attention of writers and lead them to relegate the development of characterisation
to a subordinate position. For example, Mark Rose in Alien Encounters (1981) and
Gwyneth Jones , affirm that
science fiction writers tend to foreground the landscape and setting with a special
focus on gadgets and technological devices, and to rely on caricatures and stock
characters. In fact, wherever the aspect of characterisation in science fiction is

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