Left In Space

Abstract

LEFT IN SPACE Mark Bould and China Mieville (eds), Red Planets: Marxism and Science Fiction, London, Pluto Press, 2009, 304 pp; £14.50 paperback. The publication of Red Planets was complemented by a panel at the recent Historical Materialism conference in November 2009, chaired by co-editor China Mieville and featuring papers from contributors (and fellow co-editor) Mark Bould, Carl Freedman and Matthew Beaumont, at which the affinity between science fiction and Marxism was forcefully and often eloquently rearticulated. Published as part of the Marxism and Culture series at Pluto Press, series editors Mike Wayne and Esther Leslie comment that science fiction (SF) has generated much interest from Marxists, naturally 'drawn to a genre in which the dynamics between technology, social relations under capital, and the human body are explored and experimented with' (px). Such an affinity runs the risk of being overstated, but there is undoubtedly empathy between SF and the left in general. Whatever the definition of SF or cognate fantastic genres, historically, socialist and anarchist authors have frequently been drawn to SF as means of social critique and commentary. From H. G. Wells and Olaf Stapledon, through to New Wave authors like Michael Moorcock to the New Weird of Mieville himself, the default position for a great many writers in the field has often been on the left. The growth of SF academic criticism itself was initially concurrent with, and arguably owes a debt to, the rise of New Left from the 1960s onward. Red Planets is a timely compendium that looks back to the important work of Fredric Jameson, Raymond Williams and, especially, Darko Suvin, while also seeking to move, unsteadily and with mixed results, beyond what might now be termed classical Marxist positions on SF. This is particularly evident in the choice of contributors, a nicely balanced mixture of widely published and established academics such as Freedman, Andrew Milner and the late William J. Burling, alongside younger scholars such as Bould and Sherryl Vint, who together co-edit the journal Science Fiction Film and Television, which, as the title indicates, marks something of a shift away from the predominately literary focus of much Marxist SF criticism. There is also something of a tension throughout the contributions, all of which share a tendency in attempting to negotiate with the legacy of Suvin' s pioneering if at times restricting critical work, starting with Bould's opening introduction, 'Rough Guide to a Lonely Planet, from Nemo to Neo' and finding its most critical articulation in the persuasive concluding afterword by Mieville. In fact, so pervasive is Suvin's presence that an alternative title for the collection could easily have been After Suvin. Given the enduring status of Suvin's thought within Marxist criticism of SF, a factor freely acknowledged by the editors, his writing in this instance is uncircumventable as all the contributions are positioned in relation to him in one way or another. Suvin co-founded the academic journal Science Fiction Studies [SFS) in 1973, devoted to serious scholarly study of the genre and overtly influenced by the New Left and critical theory. Unsurprisingly, writing from a Marxist perspective, Suvin himself emphasised the radical transformative and Utopian elements in SF, themes taken up by regular SFS contributors Jameson and Freedman among others. SFS remains an important touchstone, even as its remit has expanded to deal with non-literary media and engage with non-Marxist approaches such as postmodernism and feminism. Suvin's other major role, in fact some might argue his primary contribution, has been to proselytise for a global SF, particularly with regards to his promotion of literatures from the former socialist countries of Eastern Europe. Suvin famously defined SF as the 'literature of cognitive estrangement',1 a genre whose necessary and sufficient conditions are the existence and intersection of cognition and estrangement achieved by the 'narrative dominance or hegemony of a fictional novum [. …