Fin-de-Siècle Fictions, 1890s/1990s
Also by Aris Mousoutzanis THE SCIENCE FICTION HANDBOOK (co-edited with Nick Hubble, 2013) CYBERCULTURES: Mediations of Community, Culture, Politics (co-edited with Harris Breslow, 2012) NEW MEDIA AND THE POLITICS OF ONLINE COMMUNITIES (co-edited with Daniel Riha, 2010)
Fin-de-Siècle Fictions, 1890s/1990s Apocalypse, Technoscience, Empire Aris Mousoutzanis Lecturer in Film and Screen Studies, University of Brighton, UK
Aris Mousoutzanis 2014 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2014 978-1-137-26365-0 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 6 10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2014 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave and Macmillan are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN 978-1-349-44267-6 ISBN 978-1-137-43014-4 (ebook) DOI 10.1057/9781137430144 This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. Typeset by MPS Limited, Chennai, India.
In memory of my father Spyros
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Contents List of Illustrations Acknowledgments viii ix Introduction 1 Apocalypse, technoscience, empire 1 Apocalypse: modernity, fin de siècle, postmodernism 19 Technoscience and empire 30 Part I Technoscience 1 When Time Shall Be No More: Entropy, Degeneration, History 47 Energy watersheds and phase changes: Jeremy Rifkin/Henry Adams 51 The death of the sun 59 Degeneration, entropy and technocultural shock 71 After the end : entropy, radioactivity, information 82 2 The Eternal Return of Chaos 91 Period 1: the history of chaos and the chaos of history 96 Bifurcation 1: two branches, two apocalypses 109 Period 2: information overload 118 Bifurcation 2: two simulacra 128 Period 3: back to the end chaos theory and empire 137 Part II Empire 3 Dusk of the Nations: Century s End and Imperial Crisis 147 Invisible bacteria : technoscience and biopower 147 Empire over matter : apocalypse and reverse colonisation 154 Cyber-trauma : alien abduction and technocultural shock 162 The ultimate cybernetic disease : AIDS, bodies, machines 172 4 Terminal Bodies: New Men and Women for the 00s 185 From outer space to inner space : eugenics and biogenetics 185 Lilith s children : mothering the future 206 Conclusion: Post-Millennial Apocalypse 222 Bibliography 228 Index 252 vii
List of Illustrations 2.1 Lorenz attractor (http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/ File:Lorenz_attractor2.svg) p. 99 99 2.2 Bifurcation diagram (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ File:LogisticMap_BifurcationDiagram.png) p. 100 101 2.3 Mandelbrot fractal (http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/ File:Mandel_zoom_03_to_04.png) p. 106 106 2.4 Cantor dust (http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/ File:Generalized_cantor_set.png) p. 107 108 2.5 Koch curve (http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/file: Von_Kochs_sn%C3%B6flinga_stor.jpg) p. 116 117 viii
Acknowledgments First of all, I need to thank the following people at Palgrave Macmillan for their help and patience during the writing of this book: Sophie Ainscough, Benjamin Doyle, Paula Kennedy and Christine Ranft. I would also like to express my gratitude to Rod Dickinson for providing copyright permissions for the cover image of this book. The people below have all been very helpful and supportive, each in their own way, while working on this project: Simon Avery, Steven Bastow, Mark Bould, Harris Breslow, Andrew M. Butler, Fan Carter, Christopher Daley, Robert Eaglestone, Evgenia Fotiou, Monica Germanà, Emily Horton, Nick Hubble, Ewan Kirkland, Victor Ladrón de Guevara, Karen Lipsedge, Andrew Maunder, Justin Sausman, Sara Upstone, Sherryl Vint, Alex Warwick, Sara Wasson, Pat Wheeler and Aybige Yilmaz. A separate acknowledgment needs to be made to Fred Botting, Roger Luckhurst and Adam C. Roberts for their very resourceful feedback to this research. Roger s support has been invaluable and his own work a major source of inspiration for the current book. My deepest gratitude, however, has to go to my family for their support, patience and understanding. ix