Zone Theory: Science Fiction and Utopia in the Space of Possible Worlds (Ralahine Utopian Studies, 28)

«This book elaborates a structure for the general family of utopian genres with marvelous clarity, and with it established, Popov can pursue all kinds of further insights about the relationships between these texts. As the world's situation becomes more desperate, and the need for a new political economy more obvious, this complicated canon is becoming increasingly important: no longer just a minor literary genre, but rather a crucial aid to thinking about our social systems. The better we understand utopian narrative strategies, the more fully we can put them to use, so Popov's excellent study is timely and interesting.» (Kim Stanley Robinson, author of the Mars Trilogy and The Ministry for the Future) «Alexander Popov's Zone Theory deftly guides us through the thickets of utopian theory and shows us why we should care, with fresh and convincing readings of a variety of science fictional texts. The writers explored here range from the usual suspects—Le Guin, Delany, Kim Stanley Robinson—to some not usually classed as utopian or dystopian, such as John Crowley and Brooke Bolander. Popov builds on the work of Tom Moylan and Fredric Jameson while adding important perspectives such as considering utopia as a hyperobject and using utopian theory to read the incongruous, unresolvable Zones of science fiction such as the Strugatskys'Roadside Picnic and Jeff VanderMeer's Southern Reach trilogy. I am happy to do as Popov suggests: to read utopias not only as ongoing processes rather than finished blueprints, as Moylan has taught us, but also to see them as a way of learning about the world. Utopia, says Popov, is'an apparatus for registering difference at the level of societal organization'and thus is always open to new discoveries and new antinomies: anti-utopias lead to anti-anti-utopias and so on without end.» (Brian Attebery, Emeritus Professor of English and Philosophy at Idaho State University, author of Stories about Stories: Fantasy & the Remaking of Myth) Zone Theory reinterprets utopia as an unceasing dialectic between totality and novelty which keeps on discovering new subjectivities and genres. Through close readings within a wide corpus of SF works, it meditates on utopian forms such as critical utopia, critical dystopia, heterotopia, atopia and ecotopia, ultimately tying them to the notion of anti-anti-utopia: a form of forms capacious enough to house a permanently open multiplicity of beings. Cover HalfTitle Series Page Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Contents Preface Acknowledgements Figures Permissions part i Maps Chapter 1 Between Model and Monster Science Fiction, Utopia, Genre SF and Totality A Survey of Instruments Chapter 2 Modalizing Utopia The Semiotic Square I Anti-anti-utopia as a Site of Emergence Utopia as a Verbal Construction Ideogenesis and the Modal Structure of Becoming The Semiotic Square II: Modal Definitions, Vectors, Force Fields Chapter 3 Six Excursuses on Modal Science Fiction Modal Conflict 1: ‘Bloodchild’ by Octavia Butler Modal Conflict 2: ‘Sundance’ by Robert Silverberg Transmodal Conflict 1: ‘The Electric Ant’ by Philip K. Dick Transmodal Conflict 2: ‘Solitude’ by Ursula Le Guin Modal Founding: ‘Angouleme’ by Thomas M. Disch29 Transmodal Founding: ‘Love Is the Plan the Plan Is Death’ by James Tiptree Jr. SF as a Mode for Making Worldviews Chapter 4 The Utopian Diagram The Perpetual Battle Folding as Subjectivation Complex: Critical Utopia/Dystopia Neutral: Heterotopia Deictic I: Atopia Deictic II: Ecotopia Paradoxical I: Salvage Paradoxical II: Liberal Communism Unfolding towards Infinity Refolding as a Return to the Finite part ii Fold Chapter 5 Topologies of Revolutionary Time: Critical Utopia, Critical Dystopia, Heterotopia The Utopian Hyperobject OOO or P(OO)? Literary Utopia/Literary Image Modelling Utopian Topologies The Dispossessed: Revolution as Permanent and Necessary Return Trouble on Triton: The Impossibility of Totality Iron Council: Networks of Resistance and Remaking The Mars Trilogy: Towards an Ontology of the Possible Chapter 6 Non/Inhuman Spaces and Economies of the Self Always Coming Home: Ecotopia and the Proliferation of Place The City & the City: A Nationalistic Atopia Neuromancer and Pattern Recognition: Mapping Globalization The Water Knife: Patchiness and Atopian Capture Chapter 7 Anti-Anti-Utopia and Totality The Ministry for the Future: ‘One of the Blackest Utopias Ever Written’ New York 2140: The Comedy of the Commons part iii Unfold Chapter 8 Rewriting Myth and Genre: Narrative Modalities and Possible Worlds Chapter 9 A Cartography of Zones: Inhuman Spaces and Ontological Ruination Roadside Picnic: The Original Zone The Snail on the Slope: ‘Big deal, machines! We’re all machines’ The Southern Reach Trilogy: ‘Because we’re these incredibly blunt instruments’ part iv Refold Chapter 10 Staying with the Singularity: Nonhuman Narrators and More-Than-Human Mythologies Lifeboats Out of Stories Ka: From the Birth of Stories to the End of the World The Only Harmless Great Thing: Suffering-With and Making Peace The Overstory: Another Kind of Singularity Coda: Possible Worlds Chapter 11 Anti-Anti-Utopia Redux: Utopia as Virus Xenogenesis: Life as Trade Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand: Utopia as Difference/Desire 2312: ‘Is the totality simply praxis?’ Bibliography This book elaborates a structure for the general family of utopian genres with marvelous clarity, and with it established, Popov can pursue all kinds of further insights about the relationships between these texts. As the worlds situation becomes more desperate, and the need for a new political economy more obvious, this complicated canon is becoming increasingly no longer just a minor literary genre, but rather a crucial aid to thinking about our social systems. The better we understand utopian narrative strategies, the more fully we can put them to use, so Popovs excellent study is timely and interesting. (Kim Stanley Robinson, author of the Mars Trilogy and The Ministry for the Future ) Alexander Popovs Zone Theory deftly guides us through the thickets of utopian theory and shows us why we should care, with fresh and convincing readings of a variety of science fictional texts. The writers explored here range from the usual suspectsLe Guin, Delany, Kim Stanley Robinsonto some not usually classed as utopian or dystopian, such as John Crowley and Brooke Bolander. Popov builds on the work of Tom Moylan and Fredric Jameson while adding important perspectives such as considering utopia as a hyperobject and using utopian theory to read the incongruous, unresolvable Zones of science fiction such as the Strugatskys Roadside Picnic and Jeff VanderMeers Southern Reach trilogy. I am happy to do as Popov to read utopias not only as ongoing processes rather than finished blueprints, as Moylan has taught us, but also to see them as a way of learning about the world. Utopia, says Popov, is "an apparatus for registering difference at the level of societal organization" and thus is always open to new discoveries and new anti-utopias lead to anti-anti-utopias and so on without end. (Brian Attebery, Emeritus Professor of English and Philosophy at Idaho State University, author of Stories about Fantasy & the Remaking of Myth ) Zone Theory reinterprets utopia as an unceasing dialectic between totality and novelty which keeps on discovering new subjectivities and genres. Through close readings within a wide corpus of SF works, it meditates on utopian forms such as critical utopia, critical dystopia, heterotopia, atopia and ecotopia, ultimately tying them to the notion of anti-anti-utopia : a form of forms capacious enough to house a permanently open multiplicity of beings. "Zone Theory develops an approach to the study of utopia that expands its definition and its application in the field of science fiction studies. It rephrases utopia as an unceasing dialectic between totality and novelty which keeps on shaping and discovering new subjectivities and instrumentalities, as it adapts to the exigencies of the present. The author argues that the climate crisis in particular has made the utopian operation especially relevant to the present, in the way it makes possible surprising combinations and permutations of generic forms. The book explores many novels by major SF writers, thinking through them about utopian forms like critical utopia and dystopia, heterotopia, atopia, ecotopia and others. It ultimately ties all of these to the notion of anti-anti-utopia: a form of forms that is capacious enough to house an irreducible and permanently open multiplicity of beings, and to radicalize this more-than-human collectivity into a revolutionary project against dystopian and anti-utopian forces"-- Provided by publisher