Final Paper

Literary Text and Films:

Nova, Samuel R. Delaney

Lathe of Heaven, Ursula K. Leguin

Articles:

Morely, David

TECHNO-ORIENTALISM: JAPAN PANIC IN: Spaces Of Identity, 1995, p.147-173

Question:

How is the portrayal of the other in science fiction an aid to understanding otherness in reality, particularly on a global scale?

Thesis:

In both Nova and Lathe of Heaven, treatment of the other is dependent almost completely on the extent to which the other is controllable, its behaviour in line with society’s expectations. This is reminiscent of the “Japan Panic” described in David Morely’s work on techno-orientalism. My argument is that science fiction’s portrayal of the other is closely linked to reality, and that beyond that, it has much to offer, even to the extent of breaking down the barrier between sameness and the other.

Quotes:

“However , their unaggressiveness having been accepted by the WPC, and the modesty of their numbers and aims being apparent, they had been received with a certain eagerness into Terran society. It was pleasant to have somebody different to look at. They seemed to intend to stay, if allowed; some of them had already settled down to running small businesses, for they seemed to be good at salesmanship and organization, as well as space flight, their superior knowledge of which they had at once shared with Terran scientists” - (Le Guin 133)

“Some of the newer academics question the institute’s preoccupation with the twentieth century. Nearly one out of four of our galleries is devoted to it...Perhaps they resent that it has been the traditional concern of scholars for eight hundred years; they refuse to see the obvious. At the beginning of that amazing century, mankind was many societies living on one world; at its end, it was basically what we are now: an informatively unified society that lives on several worlds...Until humanity becomes something much, much more different, that time must be the focus of scholarly interest: that was the century in which we became.” (Delaney 156)

and

“That’s just gypsies. We never had them. We never wanted them. I took them because I was by myself, and - well, I guess it was easier.”... “But that was still no reason for them to come and run us out of town whenever we got settled. Once, I remember, they got two gypsies, and killed them. They beat them up till they were half dead, and then cut their arms off and hung them head down from trees to bleed to death -” (Delaney 125)

“It is this complexity and ambiguity in the image of Japan that has given it a particular resonance in Western fantasies. But, if it has been complex, it has always been possible symbolically to control this image of Japan...But no more. That integrity is now being assaulted by a Japan that is no longer content only to provide the West with spectacle.” (Morely 148)