Disputing the Deluge: Collected 21st Century Writings on Utopia, Narration, and Survival by Darko Suvin (review)

Abstract

Critical Theory and Critical Posthumanism in Contemporary German Science Fiction,” Reinhard Jirgl’s Nichts von Euch auf Erden [Nothing from you on earth, 2012] takes a more pessimistic view: the past remains forever present and attached to the idea of the “eternal return of the same.” “Optimizing the Human: A Posthuman Taxonomy in the Works of Theresa Hannig” by Lars Schmeink examines two sf novels by Theresa Hannig that appeared in a popular sf series: Die Optimierer [The Optimizers, 2017] and Die Unvollkommenen [The Imperfect Ones, 2019]. Both discuss the possibilities of enhancing human beings and their interaction with machines, the problem of intelligent robots, and evaluating different positions toward posthumanism and various possibilities of our becoming posthuman. “New Boundaries” collects pieces that do not fall easily into the previous groups: “Marc-Uwe Kling’s QualityLand:: Funny Dystopia as Social and Political Commentary” by Joscha Klüppel, “Beyond the ‘Last Man’ Narrative: Notes on Thomas Glavinic’s Night Work (2008)” by Kristina Mateescu, “A Utopianism That Transcends Books: Dirk C. Fleck’s Ecological Science Fiction” by Peter Seyferth, and a conclusion by Ingo Cornils, “Dark Mirrors? German Science Fiction in the Twenty-First Century.” The essays, all by established or aspiring literary scholars, present sound analyses of the books and stories discussed, but most of them seem not to be familiar with sf in a broader sense, and unaware that the texts discussed are hardly representative of German sf as a whole but rather are forays by literary writers into the sf field; only the two novels by Theresa Hannig have been published as sf. If we believe the overall picture of German sf given in this collection, “German SF in the twenty-first century, as the essays in this volume demonstrate, tends to see the dystopian form as the ideal vehicle to explore the social and psychological consequences of scientific and technological progress” (286-87). Only Cornil’s conclusion suggests the possibility that there might be other forms of sf at all, such as the space operas that dominate much of Anglophone sf, and mentions, more in passing, Andreas Eschbach and Andreas Brandhorst, the two most popular German genre writers, the former noted especially for his many futuristic thrillers, the second for his space operas à la Alastair Reynolds or Peter F. Hamilton. The Perry Rhodan series still continues (now over 3200 booklets; there even is a book length “biography” of Perry Rhodan by Andreas Eschbach). The volume gives the impression that German sf consists only of high-brow literary works that discuss deep philosophical and urgent social issues in a very sophisticated manner, both intellectually and artistically, which, alas, is not characteristic of most of German sf. This volume, which certainly has its merits of scholarly interpretation, is comparable to a book on English language sf which considers only such writers as William Golding, Margaret Atwood, Kazuo Ishiguro, David Mitchell, and Ian McEwan. —Franz Rottensteiner