Shibasambhu Nandi
Research Scholar, Dept. of English, Central University of Rajasthan
Abstract
Science fiction, which is sometimes regarded as a microcosm of all fictional writing, aims to convey fiction both impossibly and realistically. It makes an effort to describe new and forthcoming events in an approachable manner while also explaining existing things in a defamiliarized fashion. To comprehend the world, it consciously employs metaphoric mapping. Its main objective is to link people to the impending social changes that will occur in the future. It uses to present the themes like planned city formation, urban social changes, religious systems, scientific discoveries, and artificial intelligence. Dystopia is a genre of writing through which science fiction uses to represent itself. It is type of writing through which the negative sides of scientific advances and technological advances are shown. The present paper will attempt to explore the theme of science fiction and its presentation in dystopia. It will also analyze few selected texts from the point of view of dystopian characteristics. It will also explore the relationship between science fiction and dystopia.
Keywords: science fiction, dystopia, artificial intelligence, defamiliarisation.
Science Fiction: A Short Introduction
Science fiction is a genre of writing that combines two things simultaneously- science and fiction. Science refers to the knowledge derived from observation, study and experimentation, whereas fiction is something imaginative, unreal and fictional. Science fiction is a type that takes scientific knowledge as its base. It suggests something that may happen in future. It is a form of literature that promotes the concepts like time travel, space exploration, unreal characters, parallel universe, presence of aliens, extraterrestrial life, mutants, cyborgs, robots, artificial life and interplanetary warfare. Science fiction is called literature of ideas as it provides multiple unexplored imagined ideas in a scientific way. It deals with the impact of imagined innovations in science and technology on society and human life.
“Science fiction is the only area of literature outside poetry that is symbolistic in its basic conception. Its stated aim is to represent the world without reproducing it. That is what dealing with world of possibilities and probabilities means” (Delany 197). What Delany argues is that science fiction is that area of literature that deals with the possibilities of the world; the probabilities that may happen in the world. It is a genre that tries to cover the issues like planned city formation, transport system, present political mode, and contemporary view of the world. And thereby, it has become the part of the popular culture. Through its presentation of different themes, it tries to cater the different tastes of the people. Peter Stockwell writes about science fiction:
The genre itself invites an intellectual synthesis of rigorous scientific knowledge and practice with the analysis of art. It offers to cloistered minds a reconnection with the wider community amongst whom they live and whose taxes they depend. It can provide an example that popular art is not simple nor brainless. It supplies another context against which to evaluate and understand the rest of the literature that was being written around science fiction. It makes new connections and offers new perspective on every period of literature. (111)
Science fiction can be called as the microcosm of all fictional writings as it covers all the areas, and tries to present fictionality not only in an impossible way but also in a realist way. It uses to depict the familiar things in an unfamiliar way and new discovered things in pleasant way so that the readers of science fiction can expand their knowledge area through new and novel things. Science fiction tries to present the future changes that may happen. But it not only uses the future changes, but also tries to hint the upcoming turning of future society. Future society will be the combination of both the present and the future. It will be the combination of both the two. Through the combination of present and future scenario, it is going to present a new world involving new words, new structures, and new methods of understanding.
In this new world, human comes in contact with the issues like immortality, superhuman and apotheosis. These issues lead to cross the existing traditional boundary of humans. Technology is an important tool in crossing the boundary as it helps to expand their version of human. With the help of technology, humans try to remove their weak portion of body and replace those body parts with the artificial limbs. Therefore, humans will be the combination of both human and machines. In that sense, a new cyborg species emerge due to the merging humans and machines. Cyborg is neither fully a human nor fully a machine, but rather it is the combination of both human and machine. A cyborg is partly human and partly machine. It is the beta human. In the body of the cyborg, human mixes with machine. Apart from this mixture, humans create many technological beings like robots, mutants, clones and artificial intelligence. With these beings, humans envision a new world where there will be the cohabitation and coexistence of humans and other non-human beings. These creatures like human will put hands in the progress of the world. The world will be more furnished and decorated when these beings and humans will work jointly.
Concept of Utopia and Dystopia
Therefore, science fiction presents two types of world- world of utopia and dystopia. Utopia, which stands for ‘good place’, derives from the Greek word ‘Utopos’. Thomas More was the first to discover the word utopia. He used this term in his famous book Utopia, published in 1516. It imagines a society where everyone will get equal opportunity and equal right. In that society, people will not face any conflict among them and thrive on the basis of rules and regulations. Utopia presents a society that is highly desirable by people. To create such kind of desirable society, people need to be heterogeneous. This is a place where there will be no war, suffering, disease and destruction. That society will be free from crime and punishment. Harmony and stability will be there. People will be conscious of their health. There will be no pressure of jobs. Everyone will have enough money. Humans will engage them in the exploration of different things. They will create artificial things which will help them in humans’ need. Both humans and machines will try to develop the world. Artificial beings will follow the order of humans. There will be harmony among them.
Besides this presentation of utopian ideals, science fiction gets manifested through dystopian writing. Dystopia imagines a society that is dehumanizing and frightening. It is about a world where everything is not in perfect condition, and everything goes terribly wrong. It tries to present what might happen in future. It tries to cover the dark side of the society by portraying the themes of rebellion, oppression and revolution. Dystopian literature mainly concerns about the issues like humanity and society. It gives warning to people about their weaknesses. Dystopia is used by many writers to portray reality and to show the turning of society. It also serves as a warning to make people aware about the current state of society and the current change of power equation in society. It may sometime depict the wrong-doings happening in society in the name of development, religion and advancement. It depicts a society where citizens live in a dehumanized state. It also presents the illusion of society. People naturally accept society as a place where everything will happen in right way. But dystopia breaks that illusion of the people by bringing the grim reality. The protagonist of the dystopian society will always make questions about the current condition of society. Through the protagonist’s actions and behavior, people can understand the meaning he wants to survey.
The present paper attempts to show the nature of dystopian society through the analysis of three selected texts. These texts work as a testimonial of the dystopian nature of writing. The paper also tries to focus on the current political conditions of society. It not only points out the politics going on between people but also the politics between human and their created beings.
Analysis of Texts
George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty Four is a dystopian science fiction novel published in 1949. Though it was published in 1949, it envisions a world of 1984. It centres on a totalitarian society where the individuals are under constant surveillance of the government. The protagonist is Winston Smith who is a mid level worker in Ministry of Truth. He is frustrated due to the oppression of the party. He has purchased a diary in which he writes down his frustration. He considers O’Brien as a secret member of the Brotherhood, an opposite group of his party. Later, he develops the love relationship with Julia, and they jointly visit O’Brien. Due to his offence against the party, Winston is arrested and confined in room no 101 where he faces inhuman torture by O’Brien. Throughout the novel, Winston has had recurring dreams of rats as O’Brien puts a cage full of rats on the head of Winston.
In 1984, George Orwell presents a dystopian society where the characters are under constant fear of wars. They live under the surveillance of the government. They face the political oppression of free speech. The city is blurred having faced the food shortages, bomb explosion, and decline of the condition of social life. Everywhere in the city there are inequalities and totalitarianism. All powerful government uses force of oppression and control. The government takes fear as a tool to manipulate and control the individuals, who have no control over their own lives. The society that is described here mirrors the political condition of Orwell’s time. Though Orwell presents a different world namely Oceania, he actually presents the unstable political condition of his time and Oceania is the manifestation of his own views. It is a terrifying society reminiscent of Hitler’s world of Germany and Stalin’s Soviet Union. The character Big Brother is the combination of both the Stalin and Hitler. Through the combination of both the leaders, he despised the political leaders of that time.
Orwell presents here three different political realms- Oceania, Eastasia, and Eurasia. Each of these three states run by a totalitarian government. In these totalitarian places, it is very difficult for the individuals to escape. The individuals are forced to stay here. In a sense, they are confined invisibly. Not only that, Orwell presents two political parties in Oceania. One is the Inner Party represented by the ruling class, and the other is the Outer Party, the educated workers. Through these two parties, Orwell tries to show the class distinction of society.
Brave New World is another text that is based on the theme of dystopian genre. It was published in 1932. It is set in AF 632. It presents a dystopian state, World State. There is no lasting relationship between the individuals; everyone belongs to everyone. It is society that is scientifically advanced. The children are created out of the natural womb, rather they are created out of the artificial wombs. Therefore, the society is engaged in making clone children. It presents a world where the citizens are selected on the basis of embryos. Among the embryos, the higher class embryos are perfected with chemicals whereas the lower classes are left as imperfect. Bernard Max, one of them, shows his love interest in Lenina Crowne. They two travel to a place where they see people engaged in unfamiliar rituals. There they meet Linda and her son John. Linda has some addiction due to which she is send to the hospital whereas John is confined in “brave new world”.
Brave New World presents a dystopian society as it encapsulates the fears of many ordinary people. In this society, there is loss of individuality that can lead to sad consequences. It shows a dystopian society where there are lack of individuality, governmental control, removal of emotions, and a false sense of happiness. In this society, people have no individuality of their own. The society practices the producing of humans. It is not a good way as the eggs are subjected to suffocation and are restricted of oxygen for a length of time. After the birth of the humans, they are conditioned. But that conditioning is done in a negative way through the reinforcement of stimuli. Even the individuals are placed in society based off on jobs. Individuals have no opinion of their own. They only need to serve their purpose. They are just like servants. These artificially born humans are used as laborer. The relationship of the humans with their superiors is of the relationship of master and the slave. The individuals have to only serve their masters. So, the master slave relationship is placed here in a new context. Earlier a group of humans used to serve others. The financially stable humans used to lead the other. Now, the same relationship is placed here in a new context.
Apart from the loss of individuality, there is another dystopian feature that is the total control of the World State. Such control is unlike the control of 1984. The control uses to start when a born human enters into the world of World State. From the time of birth, the World State starts to dictate the individuals. His mentality is continuously shaped by the World State. He is programmed according to the State people. If the individuals do not follow the moral code dictated to them, the superiors uses to torture those individuals. It is that a state where there is no solution to any problem. If someone has a grievance, s/he is not encouraged to solve it rather they provide some soma, recreational drug that makes all pain go away. There is also threat if someone tries to make his luck better by doing something according to his own.
S B Divya’s Machinehood is the third text that provides the glimpse of dystopian genre. It is a science fiction thriller about artificial intelligence, sentience and labor rights in a near future dominated by the gig economy. She introduces a society where humans are in constant war with the machines. The humans use deliberate pills to make them fit mentally and physically. They work almost like the machines. That creates problems for a group of artificially developed beings. They think that humans are taking their place by the using various pills which help them to work faster than the machines. The machines do not like the taking of pills. Due to this, the machines start to kill the pill funders. When the machines kill one of the neighbors of Welga Ramirez, humans start to protest against the workings of machines. Helped by Ammanuel and Connor, Welga fights back. Their main motif is to stop the workings of machinehood.
This is a novel that projects the constant war between humans and machines. In that war, humans are mercilessly killed by the artificially intelligent beings. Humans created the machines with the thought that they will help humans. They will put hands in the development of the world. But, machines are engaged in the destructions of the humans. Such kind of behavior of the machines creates an invisible fear in the minds of the people. It also questions the acceptance of the machines in the lives of the humans. If machines start to kill humans, there will not be any security left for humans. They can anytime be killed by the machines. It also raises the issue that the machines can destroy the humans if they think that humans are foil to them. This leads to the existential crisis of the humans. Not only that the machines work according to their own consciousness. There is no control of the humans. Machines can modify their parts. It can be destructive or creative. There will be the risk factor as the machines can go out of the control of the humans. The creators need to be cautious while creating the machines.
Conclusion
Science fiction presents in front of the readers various possibilities that may happen in the future. Through its presentation of the utopian ideals, it presents a positivist world where all the desires of human are fulfilled. And with the presentation of the dystopian world, it envisions a harsh world where humans may face death, destruction and suffering. Nineteen Eighty Four presents dystopist world in which every individual is under the control of the government. There is no escape from the surveillance of the government. Brave new world, on the other hand, makes the reader aware about the dominance of a class of people over another. And Machinehood depicts a different society where humans are attacked by the machines untimely. Humans have no control on the workings of the machines. They have to just face the destructive workings of the artificial beings. It also hints that the future world will be more problematic as the future world is fully a technology based world. Technology is a dominating factor in that world. With the development of technology, there is hidden the risk of using technology and technological beings.
Works Cited
Atal, Bhavya. “Difference between Utopian Fiction and Dystopian Fiction/ Utopia v/s Dystopia.” YouTube, 5 February 2021. https://youtu.be/vbsmdCYFSvg. Accessed 8 January, 2023.
Delany, S. R. The Jewel-Hinged Jaw: Notes on the Language of Science Fiction. Dragon Press, 1977.
Divya, S. B. Machinehood. Saga Press, 2021.
Huxley, Aldous. Brave New World. New York: Harper Brothers, 1932.
O’Connell, Mark. To Be a Machine: Adventures among Cyborgs, Utopians, Hackers and the Futurist Solving the Modest Problem of Death. Granta Books, 2017.
Orwell, George. 1984. New York: Signet Classic, 1950.
Stockwell, Peter. The Poetics of Science Fiction. Pearson Education Limited, 2000.
Seed, David. Science Fiction: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press, 2011.
Huntington, John. “Science Fiction and the Future.” Science Fiction: A Collection of Critical Essays, 1976.
Mr. Shibasambhu Nandi is a Research Scholar in the Department of English at Central University of Rajasthan.
[Volume 5, Number 1, 2023]
