THE LITERARY EVALUATION OF SCIENCE FICTION : WILLIAM GIBSON AND BRUCE STERLING

Abstract

This thesis aims to explore the presentation of the human subject in the cyberpunk science fiction of William Gibson and Bruce Sterling. The works forming the basis of this study are Gibson's 'Sprawl' trilogy, Neuromancer, Count Zero and Mona Lisa Overdrive, and Sterling's Shaper/ Mechanist fiction from his collection of short stories, Crystal Express as well as his novel Schisrnatrix. The cyberpunk movement in science fiction claims to present a post-humanist narrative of the human subject, that is intended to liberate nrnn from the decentralization and erasure he faces as the humanist narratives which give him centrality and control over his reality, weaken under the impact of the electronic and information revolution. This has been regarded as a move away from the traditional aesthetics of science fiction to rescue the humanist narratives of man, into a postmodern sensibility that favours the fragmentation and dissolution of human subjectivity. However, this thesis aims to show that Gibson's and Sterling's cyberpunk fiction is by no means simply postmortem. In order to do this, the thesis will first contextualize cyberpunk in contrast to the traditional impulses and strategies of science fiction. This will be followed by the contextualizing of cyberpunk within the idea of paradigm revolutions. The erasure of the humanist narratives will be presented as an inevitable part of paradigm revolution, necessitated as cultural narratives lose their explanatory powers. This is precisely the process that the paradigm of modernity is undergoing under the impact of the electronic and information age~ that undermines existing narratives. It will be argued that the motivation for paradigm revolution therefore comes from the fundamental human narrative that defines human subjectivity, that is, the desire for meaning, to locate the self significantly in reality. That is, it is the desire for meaning and order that triggers the impulse towards chaos so that new orders that can restore meaning may arise. Postmodernity will therefore be presented not so much as a paradigm but the transition phase of paradigm shift, specifically, the deconstructive phase. Within this context of paradigm revolution, the thesis will demonstrate that cyberpunk science fiction is located at the point in which deconstruction phases into re-construction. Therefore while reflecting the postmodern sensibility which celebrates the dissolution of human subjectivity, cyberpunk simultaneously constructs new human subjectivities enabling the continuity of the human even as humanist narratives are given up. In exploring Gibson's work, this thesis will show the nature of human subjectivity as inscribed within Gibson's new existential space, cyberspace. The particular aim of this exploration is to show that the new post-humanist subjectivity in Gibson's fiction is found not in the attempts at purely human transcendence but in the symbiotic relationship, the new balance, reached between the human and electronic subjects. The thesis will also show that it is through Gibson's discourse that this symbiosis is most potently reflected. The exploration of Sterling's Shaper/ Mechanist science fiction aims to show that while Sterling has extremely strong depictions of not just post-humanist modes of existence but also totally post-human ones, his fiction also works on the dual impulse of deconstruction and reconstruction. The analysis aims to show that while the plots take the human form on a trajectory that transforms it completely even to the point where the fundamental human narrative is erased, the discourse uses myth to re-assert the forni of the basic human impulse to inscribe meaning and significance on reality. The thesis will therefore lead to the conclusion that in the cyberpunk science fiction of William Gibson and Bruce Sterling, the impulse to rescue the human subject is shared with traditional science fiction even as it recognizes the inevitable erasure of the humanist narratives. The human subject therefore finds continuity in change.