Brian W. Aldiss by Paul Kincaid (review)

Abstract

sf literary traditions as well as (some) unity of genre form, Milner et al. often wrap central questions of sf’s political stakes around the very modern production of the “utopia-dystopia” binary—a sociohistorical contrast that (past and presently) colonized countries and occupied regions often did not have the luxury to experience. Plainly universalizing generic structures are often heralded at the expense of a more complex unfolding of Foucauldian archaeologies of genre knowledge that might more accurately inform us about sf’s reception in parts of the world shaped by colonization, occupation, (sometimes violently) shifting governance structures, neo-(economic and cultural) colonialism, transnational migration and settlement, environmental racism, and regional resistance movements ranging from neofascism to decolonial independence to labor and poor people’s efforts to achieve Indigenous sovereignty. The collection’s more historical approaches to genre production and interpretation shine in their range and level of detail, demonstrating breathtaking cultural perceptiveness. What falters are the boldly formalist engagements that feel over-fixated on categorization. For instance, while Milner aims for a Weberian interpretive insight, for an heuristic grasp of varied pop-culture tropes regarding climate change, his actual sampling of “ideal types” of climate fiction resemble rigid box-shaped Mertonian typological tables. His recent insistence in dividing sf production, world-systems-theory style, into restrictive categories of core, periphery, and semi-periphery results in overwhelmingly favoring Global North speculative fiction for discussion and in generally ignoring the richness of postcolonial sf and Indigenous Futurist literatures (with the rare exception of The Swan Book [2013] by Australian Indigenous Waanyi author Alexis Wright). Since the 1990s, these literatures have carved out a powerful presence in sf anthologies and short-fiction collections. Writers from communities relying heavily on group and networked forms of artistic resistance tend to prefer and find themselves more publishable within multiplicitous polyvocal platforms. Still, critical questions ring out soundly and crucially from the volume’s many-layered readings of global sf: how should we engage “the other”; how might we respond to dystopian fears that extrapolate the worst possible political trends from past and present toward what is to come; how might we start to visualize as viable and executable currently unimaginable utopian alternatives? These are not just literary questions: the stories discussed in Ethical Futures represent the pragmatic dilemmas of achieving a sustainable and just futurity.—Ida Yoshinaga, Georgia Institute of Technology