ARTICLE ABSTRACTS
Jim Jose
Reflections on the Politics of Le Guin's Narrative Shifts
Abstract.--In her various representations of utopian societies, Le
Guin has over time altered her narrative strategy. Moreover, her shifts in narrative
strategy derive as much from political considerations (including a desire to repudiate
"euclidean'' thinking) as from any purely about literary technique. Indeed, it is her
conscious concern with rendering utopia inhabitable, with creating a fictive world that
people can (and would want to) live in, that explains the technical differences between
The Dispossessed and Always Coming Home.
Peter Swirski
Dystopia or Dischtopia: The Science-Fiction Paradigms of Thomas
M. Disch
Abstract.--Disch's work has often been branded as dark and pessimistic
in view of its predominant quasi-dystopian tonality. Yet a careful generic analysis of his
three most important novels to date--Camp Concentration, 334, and On
Wings of Song--reveals that Disch renounces dystopian "metaphysicality,'' with
its inherent determinism, and instead firmly embeds his vision in the realistic, neutral
world of SF. To be sure, his social SF does mirror many of the topical concerns of the
classical dystopia. But as a consideration of the features common to the social paradigms
in all three of his novels demonstrates, he uniquely fuses SF with dystopian social
preoccupations in a way that makes for what can best be termed "Dischtopian''
fiction.
Craig Thompson
Searching for Totality: Antinomy and the "Absolute'' in
Bruce Sterling's Schismatrix
Abstract.--This article argues that the protagonist of Sterling's work
is driven by a desire to achieve wholeness--a goal which cannot be reached until he
rejects technological progress and embraces an Hegelian concept of totality. The article
analyzes how Sterling employs Hegelian metaphysics as a means to acquiring this wholeness,
and explicates the book by demonstrating how the characters' decisions relate to Hegel's
philosophy. Ultimately the article claims that Sterling is able to provide only a formal
vision of the Hegelian "Absolute.''
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