Tevun-Krus #34 - GothPunk

Paying Homage to Our Roots - An Article by @torontojim

Goth Punk: Paying homage to our roots

This issue of Tevun Krus gives the contributors a chance to pay homage to the roots of science fiction: Gothic literature.

In the genre of science fiction, our term Goth Punk (aka: Gothic Science Fiction or Space Goth) harkens images of lightning storms and mad scientists. After all, science-fiction arguably had its birth in the gothic masterpiece Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. Brian Aldiss asserts that science fiction essentially evolved from Gothic fiction:

"Science fiction is the search for a definition of man and his status in the universe which will stand in our advanced but confused state of knowledge (science), and is characteristically cast in the Gothic or post-Gothic mould."

You will find the common characteristics of Gothic fiction in many science-fiction offerings: mystery, the supernatural, haunted houses, castles, darkness, death and decay, romance madness, and monsters, though that list is not exhaustive. Be it the written word, the big screen, or the boob tube, you will be hard pressed to not find the gothic influence.

In her thesis on Gothic and Science Fiction writing, Sarah Phillips said of Frankenstein (1818), Sphere (1987), Congo (1980), Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886) and The Island of Dr. Moreau (1896) that:

"The stories do not express a fear of technology as much as use technology to provide an avenue to analyze those aspects of human nature that are terrifying and disturbing."

If we look at some classics such as Asimov's I, Robot (literary), Bladerunner (movies), or Battlestar Galactica (television), we can see that what she say's is validated These exceptional examples all provide the revelation that it's not the technology that is bad, it's the embodiment of the perception of the technology which makes us look closer at the reflection we see in the mirror.

A common theme in those three examples is the appeal for acceptance. The robot in I, Robot has awareness, and though it is 'different' in appearance, do we not develop pathos for it? Is there a single teenage boy, anywhere, that in 1982 did not fall madly in lust with Bladerunner's Pris? And did it matter that she was an android? That she was different? What about Caprica Six, did she not set some young (and old) hearts nearly into tachycardia? Did we care that any of these were machines? While I'll not ask if they were any less real because of it, because after all, we are talking about fiction, however, was their effect on us any less real because these characters were not human – they were not like us – they were different?

So now I'll beg your indulgence with the follow on question that to me seems most obvious. Why should we care if they were black? Should we care if they have narrow eyes? If they worship God differently, does it really make any difference to who they are and their inherent value? If they happened to be born on the far side of a geo-political boundary, does that auto-magically turn bad to good, or good to bad?

I consider all of these to have Gothic themes of good vs. demons, be they externalized or internalized, but we have even more gothically altruistic peeks into the human psyche. I would be hard pressed amongst my friends of the day to find one that didn't have nightmares invoked by Ripley's confrontations with the embodiment of slimy evil (Alien franchise). Does the thought of encountering Cthulhu not leave you with a certain breathless alarm (H. P. Lovecraft's The call of Cthulhu)? And what about Dan Simmons' Shrike (Hyperion)? Did Richard Matheson not leave you with a breathless and forlorn dread for the future in I Am Legend?

The Gothic overtones of these stories surround the fiction that has an anchor in science, be it hard science or fantasy. However, as with all good science fiction, it not only makes us look closer at ourselves, it also draws us to look closer at the world around us. Science fiction authors often take the opportunity to challenge the culture of the day or more importantly, the feared trajectory of the current cultural mindset. Is this not exactly what Robert A. Heinlein's Starship Troopers was about? I'm referring to the book, not the campy movie that hardly bares any resemblance to the awesome book. Heinlein's story was a powerful look at the future while giving a scathing condemnation of liberalism that has, unfortunately, become all too real in so many lamentable ways.