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The use of the familiar made alien only to be revealed as Other, is perhaps an even more powerful way of ‘throwing the alien into relief.’ The familiar is thrown into relief, estranged, shown to be illusory and questionable. The alien, then is the self made other, and reality rendered un-real, it becomes pervasive and inescapable inextricably linked to the previously familiar.
Difference in The Invasion Of The Body Snatchers and The Matrix is not striking because it unfamiliar, its power comes from its very familiarity, from the estrangement of the known. Science fiction by ‘…exploring questions of diversity and difference…opens up new possibilities…makes us think.’ (Roberts 2000: 183)
As Neo suggests ‘there is something wrong with the world.’ and that half-perceived, vague something is the point that science fiction plays upon. Familiar subjectivity unravels into unfamiliar objectivity and difference is made tangible, identifiable through its relationship to the familiar.
Bibliography:
Attebery, B. (1992) Strategies Of Fantasy Indiana University Press: Bloomington
Evan, J.A. (1998) Celluloid Mushroom Clouds: Hollywood And The Atomic Bomb Bolder: Westview Press
Fitzsimmons, J. & O’Brien, W. (2002) Science Fiction And Film: Study Guide Central Queensland University: Rockhampton.
Leblanc, L. “ Razor Girls: Genre & Gender in Cyberpunk Fiction” in Women & Language Spring 1997 20.1.p.6.
Morris, G. (1997) “Sci-fi Nationalist Narratives” Bright Lights Film Journal 20 http://www.brightlightsfilm.com/20/20_scifi1.html
Roberts, A. (2000) Science Fiction Routledge: London & NY
Siegel, D. (1956) Invasion Of The Body Snatchers
Wachowski, L. & A. (1999) The Matrix Warner Bros: USA
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The Matrix uses cyberpunk conventions ‘…in that it centres upon the relationship of humanity to technology.’ (Leblanc 1997: 6) and weaves them around postmodern (and pre-millennium) concerns about the nature of the real, playing cleverly on the at times alienating quality of ‘reality’. ‘Neo: …ever have that feeling that you’re awake, but you’re really dreaming?’
The protagonist/hero of The Matrix is a computer programmer by day called Thomas Anderson, at night he becomes Neo a computer hacker who is searching for some vague and intangible ‘truth’. Which he finds, or rather it finds him in the form of Morpheus’ resistance. Neo is extricated from the matrix and has the true nature of reality revealed to him.
The Matrix is ‘…a “neural interactive simulation” constructed by the computer overlords to deny individuals an awareness…of the world.’ (Fitzsimmons & O’Brien 2002: 9-3) designed to cover the bleak brutal reality in which earth is a blighted wasteland where human beings are engineered and stored in production plants. Oblivious to their role as human batteries, energy supplies for the machines that control them.
From this point the narrative follows a fantasy style trajectory ‘The magical adventures are tied together and the story given shape by the heroes’ gradual assumption of his proper powers and his place in society.’ (Attebery 1992: 88) where Neo must come to terms with his appointed role as ‘the one’, the potential saviour of mankind.
The Matrix departs from The Invasion Of The Body Snatchers’ use of the familiar backdrop. There the reassuring surface of normality (familiarity) remained firmly in place. In The Matrix that reassuring surface is revealed as an illusion, a curtain that is whisked away to reveal another reality something that is alien and unfamiliar.
Just as reality becomes alien so too does the perception of the self. It is shown to be divided and within the context of The Matrix the self ceases to be merely the self rather it becomes a technologically mediated construction. Or like the matrix itself a “neural interactive simulation.”
The dualities between real and simulation, waking and dreaming, physical and spiritual are recurring preoccupations within the narrative foreshadowed by the dual identities of Thomas Anderson and Neo. The ‘constant slide and contradiction between the real and the fantasy, the actual and the imagined is of structural importance to the film.’ (Fitzsimmons & O’Brien 2002: 11-3)
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The fear of identity loss also reflects a broader concern over the dehumanisation of humanity in the face of modern reality, the creeping loss of individuality/humanity which Miles has noticed happening gradually to people who let go of their humanity. This fear of losing self is what aligns Invasion Of The Body Snatchers with horror, it ‘…explores both the cognitive and emotional implications of losing control of the body. In a sense, the film produces both a cognitive and emotional fear that we might lose our ability for cognition, and thus lose our individuality and humanity.’ (Fitzsimmons & O’Brien 2002: 3-9)
The fact that the novum is not the aliens, but a new form of something familiar (identity) plays a key role in the process of throwing the alien into relief. This is vividly realised in the scene where the fugitive Miles kisses his companion Becky only to recoil with horror as he realises that she isn’t Becky any more - she has become internally (where it counts apparently) one of ‘them’ while still retaining her physical identity.
The use of something familiar like identity as the novum means that the familiar functions as the object of estrangement. Identity functions as a site of colonisation (as individuals lose their individuality, becoming the same) and contest (as Miles fights to retain his individuality). Identity also functions as a metaphor for humanity under threat either from communism (which apparently attacks from within), or ‘the unknown terrors that materialise when “progress” is valued more highly than community and peace.’ (Morris 1997)
The familiar becomes not only unknown and alien, through its familiarity, but treacherous and threatening. And this happens - the familiar is made unfamiliar - without creating even a ripple on the smooth surface of the wholesome, cosy, familiar, normality of daily ‘reality’ in Santa Mira. This is what makes the alien so startling, so disturbing. Because it is so close to home.
Where The Invasion Of The Body Snatchers uses identity to create an effect of estrangement, The Matrix takes the concept of reality and turns perceptions of it on their head. Reality is revealed as unreal, a constructed virtual reality, a prison for the consciousness, that cloaks a dark and dismal ‘reality’ - a post-apocalyptic wasteland. Here the familiar is not just thrown into relief, it becomes unfamiliar and alien. Alienating and disorientating because it is so familiar.
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The foregrounding of the nova in a recognisable setting adds to the science fiction quality ‘…where the novum acts as symbolic manifestation of something, that connects it specifically with the world we live in.’ (Roberts 2000: 16) Essentially it is the familiarity of the background that makes the estrangement - ‘the alienation caused by the novum and its consequences’ (Fitzsimmons & O’Brien 2002: 1-8) - work.
Invasion Of The Body Snatchers is set in a small sleepy 1950s American town called Santa Mira. Santa Mira is the kind of place where everyone knows everyone else by name and in theory by identity. It is the kind of place where nothing - let alone anything bad - ever happens. It is also a place where there is nowhere for ‘enemies’ or others to hide. Nowhere eternal that is.
When the protagonist Dr. Miles Bennell returns home from a medical convention he is faced with a bizarre and apparently contagious hysterical outbreak. People are convinced that those that they know and love have been ‘changed’ into unemotional others. Miles and his girlfriend Becky struggle to hold onto their individual identities and each other (and by default their humanity) as one by on the people around them change, losing their individuality while still, unnervingly retaining their external physical identities
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Adam Roberts defines one of the important aspects of science fiction as the ability ‘to throw the alien into relief against a backdrop of familiarity, and therefore make the Otherness all the more striking, all the more powerful.’ (p44).
Both Invasion Of The Body Snatchers (1956) and The Matrix (1999) are very much products of and reflections of their particular times but within the context of both texts a backdrop that is familiar and recognisable is used, in part to ‘throw the alien into relief’ (Roberts 2000: 44), but also, disorientingly to make the familiar alien. Because this backdrop is so familiar, so implicitly acceptable it makes the otherness all the more visible and disturbing. In both texts a familiar concept (identity and reality) is made alien – other. Although the foregrounding of the estrangement of something previously conceived as familiar, knowable, may be even more important and disturbing than the use of a backdrop of familiarity
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In his monster, Frankenstein creates his ideal male lover which society must make him destroy.
Frankenstein’s monster is certainly a rather perverse ideal lover. Composed of stitched together pieces of dead bodies. Too ugly to be alluring, even Frankenstein himself recoils with horror at the sight of his creation
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The narrative of The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy appears to be governed by a principle similar to the concept of the butterfly effect (where the movement of a butterfly’s wings has repercussions felt halfway around the world) - only on a galactic scale.
The entire narrative is linked together by a chain of cause and numerous effects. The destruction of the earth is just a part of this chain. This narrative chain is also governed by its satiric nature, and an inherent sense of absurdity.
So it seems that anything is possible, every thing happens for a reason – or at least has a cause, and yet nothing seems to actually mean anything. Therefore earth is ruled by mice (who do not actually seem all that intelligent), humans are self absorbed guinea pigs and earth is destroyed to clear the way for a bypass. The key thing in the narrative does not seem to be what happens but that everything that happens is interconnected and inherently meaningless
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A nova is apparently a new thing, that is an unknown, previously unexperienced thing. According to Robert’s definition, ‘An SF text may be based on one novum…More usually it will be predicated on a number of interrelated nova…This ‘novum’ must not be supernatural, but need not necessarily be a piece of technology…The emphasis is on difference and the systematic working out of the consequence or consequences of a difference or differences…’ (Roberts: 2000: 6)
War Of The Worlds is based on a series of closely connected nova, some of which however play a more active role in the course of the narrative than others.
The first nova is space travel (its exact dynamics and principles are not fully examined) which is what enables the Martians to land on earth. But once the Martians have landed and a few questions asked by the more curious the nova ceases to be of much interest. It functions really as a means to an end
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In essence Vathek is a study of transgression. Its characters surrender themselves literally to pursuing the treasures offered to them by the forces of darkness. While the forces of ‘light/good’ are reduced to a vague thread of moralising. There is a near total abandonment of anything resembling moral order until the end where a ‘moral’ ending is imposed.
If the ending of Vathek feels like a token nod to the conventional moral order it is because of the vividness of what has gone before. And even the ‘morality’ of the ending is questionable, marking as it does the punishment of evil via the ultimate victory for the forces of darkness. ‘…this warning against excess comes at the end of a story that has flagrantly indulged in imaginative and descriptive excess.’ (Botting 1996: 60)
Not only does the narrative of Vathek ‘flagrantly’ indulge in excess, it positively embraces it as Vathek, Carathis and Nouronihar rush headlong and wholeheartedly into transgression motivated by greed and self interest
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On the one hand it is possible to read The Monk as adhering to a Christian moral framework in that ‘goodness’ is rewarded and evil is punished severely (by ultimate damnation no less). But at the same time the narrative is underlaid with a strong critique of Catholicism where Christian virtue becomes merely a facade for vice and transgression.
The innocent or good characters either go to heaven - Elvira and Antonia who ‘sparkled with celestial brightness’ (Lewis 1952: 376) at her death - or like Agnes, Raymond and Lorenzo overcome their tribulation and live happily ever after or as ‘happy as can be those allotted to mortals, born to the prey of grief, and sport of Disappointment.’ (Lewis 1952: 400)
On the other side of the scale evil is punished by particularly harsh retribution. The vindictive prioress is torn to pieces by an angry mob while Ambrosio is tortured and condemned by both the Inquisition and the devil
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