Science Fiction In Argentina: Technologies Of The Text In A Material Multiverse

247 Pages·2016·3.512 MB·English

by  Joanna Page

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Science Fiction in Argentina
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DIGITALCULTUREBOOKS, an imprint of the University of Michigan Press,
is dedicated to publishing work in new media studies and the emerging field
of digital humanities.
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Science Fiction in Argentina
Technologies of the Text in a
Material Multiverse
Joanna Page
University of Michigan Press
Ann Arbor
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Copyright © 2016 by Joanna Page
Some rights reserved
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-
Noncommercial- No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. To view a
copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/ or
send a letter to Creative Commons, 171 Second Street, Suite 300, San Francisco,
California, 94105, USA.
Published in the United States of America by the
University of Michigan Press
Manufactured in the United States of America
c Printed on acid- free paper
2019 2018 2017 2016 4 3 2 1
A CIP catalog record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Names: Page, Joanna, 1974– author.
Title: Science fiction in Argentina : technologies of the text in a material
multiverse / Joanna Page.
Description: Ann Arbor : University of Michigan Press, [2016] | Includes
bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2015044531| ISBN 9780472073108 (hardback : acid- free
paper) | ISBN 9780472053100 (paperback : acid- free paper) | ISBN
9780472121878 (e- book)
Subjects: LCSH: Science fiction, Argentine— History and
criticism. | Literature and technology— Argentina. | Fantasy fiction,
Argentine—H istory and criticism. | BISAC: LITERARY CRITICISM /
Science Fiction & Fantasy. | LITERARY CRITICISM / Caribbean & Latin
American.
Classification: LCC PQ7707.S34 P34 2016 | DDC 860.9/35882— dc23
LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015044531
http://dx.doi.org/10.3998/dcbooks.13607062.0001.001
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To my brother,
who came into this world to disrupt my neat ordering of it,
a talent I now admire.
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The entire soul, then, must consist of tiny
atoms, strung out through sinews, vitals, veins.
— Lucretius, On the Nature of Things
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Acknowledgments
Parts of this book were written during a period of extended research leave
in 2012, funded by the British Academy, and I am extremely grateful for the
peaceful and productive time this afforded me. Research trips to Argentina
were also funded by Robinson College and the Centre of Latin American
Studies. While working on this book I benefited enormously from the friend-
ship and helpful advice of many colleagues in Argentina, including Cristina
Reigadas, Clara Kriger, Sandra Gasparini, Carlos Gamerro, Federico Lorenz,
and Pablo Piedras. Cecilia Gil Marino aided me in tracking down some of
the more elusive materials that formed the basis of my research for the first
chapter in particular.
Closer to home, a symposium organized by Ian James in 2013 in Cam-
bridge, “Science and Technology in Contemporary French Thought,”
opened up some fruitful paths of research. Gerald Moore was very generous
in sharing his expertise on Stiegler with me, and I am also grateful to Ed
King for his feedback on a draft of the second chapter and for the inspiration
of his own work on graphic fiction.
Early versions of some of the material contained in this book have been
published, or are forthcoming, in journals and edited volumes. The section
on Holmberg formed the basis of an article in Spanish to be published with
the title “Reflexividad en la obra de Eduardo Holmberg: El rol de la ciencia
ficción y la fantasía en la modernización y el control de las masas” in a special
issue of the Revista iberoamericana, “La ciencia ficción en América Latina:
Aproximaciones teóricas al imaginario de la experimentación cultura.” The
section on El Eternauta is drawn from an article entitled “Intellectuals, Rev-
olution and Popular Culture: A New Reading of El Eternauta,” published
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in Journal of Latin American Cultural Studies 19, no. 1 (March 2010). Part of
chapter 6 appeared in Arizona Journal of Hispanic Cultural Studies 16 (2012)
and another part in a compilation of essays edited by Jennifer Feeley and
Sarah Wells with the title Simultaneous Worlds: Global Science Fiction Cinema
(University of Minnesota Press, 2015). I am grateful to the publishers for
their permission to reproduce this material.
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Contents
Introduction 1
1. Fantasy and Science between Intellectuals and
the Masses 15
Science, Fantasy, and the Masses in Holmberg’s
Narrative Fiction 16
El Eternauta: The Intellectual in War and Revolution 31
Conclusion: Materialism, between Darwin and Marx 47
2. Mediation and Materiality in Graphic Fiction 51
Myth and Materiality in the Neoliberal City:
Ricardo Barreiro’s Science Fiction Comics 54
Comics, the Archive, and Cognitive Practices 68
Conclusion: (Re)materialization in Graphic Fiction 79
3. Time, Technics, and the Transmission of Culture 81
Cultural Transmission, Apocalypse, and the End of
History in Plop 84
Evolution in Reverse: Post- Darwinism and Mnemotechnics
in El año del desierto 88
Cruz diablo: Technics, Psychopower, and the
Cybernetic Gaucho 96
Conclusion: The End of (Universal) History 104