Science Fiction, Fascism, Utopia, and X-Men | Kev in Progress #4
Kevin pivots to Literary Criticism of Science Fiction, Fascism, Utopias, and X-Men
One of my pivots after my big fall was to return to a goal I set at the beginning of the year and have had for much longer: learning how to write deep critique and analysis of books, movies, and other media that I love and enjoy. I see serious critique as a way for me to pump the brakes on consumption. A period of conscious reflection and compulsory revisits to the source media will inevitably reveal its depth, or lack thereof.
My big inspiration in the critique world for the past few years has been Brandon Taylor. A former science phd student turned tennis player, author, frequent tweeter, and occasional critic — he has been a very influential idea taste-maker for me. His writing style, more so than the content, is what I love most about reading him. I have very little interest in (most) of his tweets and critique, which cycle from tennis rackets to Emile Zola, but I read his critique as if observing a demonstration of sorts. In (re)learning how to write critique, I hope to learn from critics like Taylor, develop greater understanding of art I engage with and show my work while doing so.
critique in progress...
Naturally, I came across an article by Taylor that got me started. It was about reading, writing and being an "amateur critic". Reading it, I was reminded of JSTOR, the digital library I hadn't used since high school (I use Google Scholar primarily as a science researcher). He compares learning how to write criticism to learning how to do an immunostaining experiment (complex chemistry thing): when he had a conversation with his thesis advisor about an experiment he didn't know how to do they told him, "No one is born knowing how to do it. Go read a paper on it and do it." So he read, learned, and did it. Leading from this experience, he explains his (amateur) process for writing critique of "Cinematic Fiction":
Decide on topic: Cinematic Fiction
Search various databases for articles containing specific phrases “cinematic fiction” or “cinematic literature” or “cinematic” “literature”
Come across article by Marco Bellardi about the “Cinematic in Fiction”
Article requires me to read about narratology and various terms relating to cinema
Find article by Jost that serves as an overview of narratological terminology
Find book by Balazs, one of the great cinema theorists
Return to article by Bellardi, find new terms needing explaining
Research into Mieke Bal and Genette to get a better understanding of the field of narratology and storytelling grammar
Return to Bellardi article—finally understand Bellardi’s notion of “narrative relief”
Write craft talk
It really didn’t occur to me that it could be so straightforward to do critique, though this is really no different than the process a 17 year old does in their AP Rhetoric course.
science fiction, fascism, utopia, and x-men
As I've mentioned previously, I've been reading X-Men, a lot. My favorite of what I've read has by far been Grant Morrison's New X-Men series from the early 2000's. On a pure entertainment level, there is a ton to enjoy, but I finished reading questioning the thematic payoff of the 44 issue series. By the time I had started writing this, I had already moved onto the next interesting X-Men series, but with the feeling that there was more to excavate from Morrison's writing, beyond the surface elements.
So I began to dig, questioning why X-Men, why Science Fiction? X-Men's treatment of 'others' and their constant struggle for survival as a species stands out. As others, mutants in X-Men are most alike to aliens, dangerous and different. Aliens hold a special place in my heart, as a narrative device to mirror or enhance humanity. Science Fiction maybe because of works like The Left Hand of Darkness. Here, aliens critique gender constructs in our society and allow readers to question what a society without a gender divide might look like. Much like humans and mutants in the X-Men world, these aliens are humans, evolved divergently.
Speculative questions about humanity, about society, about class struggle, have always been a part of my appreciation for SF. Using the relocation to the future or an alternative reality to describe and question our current reality often feels revolutionary and deeply thought-provoking. Feeling modestly justified by these ideas, I began my amateur critic research:
Decide on topic: "Science Fiction", "X-Men", "Aliens", "Ursula Le Guin"
Search various databases for articles containing specific phrases: "science fiction xmen" or "ursusula le guin aliens" or "ursula le guin x-men"
Come across article by Aaron Santesso about Fascism and Science Fiction
Article makes me question the fascist tendencies of my favorite super hero group, the X-Men, requiring me to read more about X-Men, fascism, and their ideology
Find article by Darragh Greene about the Ethics of Utopianism in Grant Morrison's New X-Men. Consider the speculative question raised by mutants' perpetual struggle for Utopia
Find book by Terry Eagleton, postmodernist critic and literary critic; also make note to revisit work from Audre Lorde and other black feminists
Return to New X-Men with new thoughts
Return to articles from Santesso and Greene, find new terms needing deeper explanation
... Research in Progress...
Write critique of SF and the New X-Men
Basically, I'm learning. Part 2 coming,,, eventually. I'll share some especially revelatory quotes from these two articles before closing.
On the Ideology of SF (Santesso, Fascism and Science Fiction):
Perhaps the clearest example of fascistic utopianism, and the one that points up most clearly its sf-friendliness, is Futurism, with its idolization of technology and obsessive looking forward to a new civilization.
The question is whether even this more ambitious, liberal-minded, and critically approved sf bears traces of its fascist heritage, so to speak.
On Utopia in X-Men (Greene, Ethics of Utopianism)
Indeed, it may be that the old dialectic between Xavier’s left-wing pacifism and Magneto’s right-wing militancy has failed to produce a better world for either mutant or human.
To be uncharitable, the utopian dreamer, well meaning or no, is driven by a horror of chaos and a mania for order.
New X-Men ultimately rejects the grand authoritarian idealisms of both the political Left and Right. Indeed, the work presents a critique of a range of utopian projects, including those of Cassandra Nova, Magneto, Sublime, and finally even Charles Xavier
extras in progress
I have recently been watching Adam Curtis documentaries again. These are minimum three hour long docuseries that re-contextualize archival footage, interviews, and history, narrated by Adam Curtis. He has the canonical British voice that just makes what he says feel authoritative. There's probably a word to describe this, but once you hear his voice I'm sure you'll understand what I'm saying. The series I have paused to write this for is called The Living Dead - You Have Used Me as a Fish Long Enough. This episode is about memory and the ways that AI and Cognitive Science were used in the Cold War to the Gulf War era to (1) attempt to develop a spy and counter-spy program in which people's minds would be erased and 'programmed' at will and (2) be used directly as new tools of warfare, in the form of the unmanned, guided missiles. At one point (see youtube link below) a soldier from the Gulf War describes how people at home experienced a different reality of the war than he on the ground faced. In a piece by Jean Baudrillard titled The Gulf War will not take place, the central argument is that as the first war experienced entirely digitally, both in violence and as experienced by 'The West', it did not take place, except as propagandized simulacra. While the postmodernism of Baudrillard is a bit much for me to make sense of, it is frightening to consider the effects of digital mediums on our memory! Also in alignment, is another book I'm reading, Empire of AI, a history of OpenAI, by Karen Hao. Curtis describes the origins of AI in CIA and DARPA funded research, in which the DARPA director said they led researchers towards topics that would be beneficial for them (espionage and warfare). In Empire, Hao describes a similar phenomenon in which ideas from a narrow group of individuals propagate into research priorities and the "inevitability" of AGI, alignment, and a host of other ideas sprouting from this small set of folks.
If you made it this far, thanks! Stay tuned for Part 2 and hopefully some shorter “extras in progress” like you just read. As always, share with someone who might like this and “leave a comment” by sending me a reply.