[Anonymous]

Essay 1

The literature of space and exploration encompasses travel writing, science fiction, and non-fiction accounts of exploration, among others.  While more mainstream literature often seeks to illuminate universal human truths, the literature of space and exploration focuses on extreme people or situations, most of which are unknown to the average reader.  Few people encounter the almost unreal extremes dealt with in exploration literature and science fiction in reality or in more conventional literature. 

            Gothic works provide some of the same shock value, and some gothic conventions appear in exploration literature. Desolate landscapes filled with mystery, wonder and horror populate both genres.  For example, the sublime which figures prominently in the gothic and in exploration literature, appeals to readers desire for something larger than themselves.  Kant defined the sublime as “what is absolutely large…large beyond all comparison,” and “unboundedness” or “a pleasure that arises only indirectly: it is produced by the feeling of a momentary inhibition of the vital forces followed immediately by an outpouring of them that is all the stronger…the mind is not just attracted by the object but is alternately repelled as well, the liking of the sublime contains not so much a positive pleasure as rather admiration and respect, and so should be called a negative pleasure.”[1]

The vast landscapes of ice and sea, along with the surreal beauty of the polar sky inspire awe and fear whether they are present in Poe’s The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym or in the journals of Apsley Cherry-Garrard.  Cherry-Garrard describes a beautiful aurora and magnificent white cliffs that filled him with “negative pleasure.” He writes: “Behind us Mount Terror on which we stood, and over all the grey limitless Barrier seemed to cast a spell of cold immensity, vague and ponderous, a breeding-place of wind and drift and darkness. God! What a place!”[2] The polar explorers, both fictional and real, experienced more extremes of nature and emotion than the average reader ever could, and wrote literature that gave readers a substitute for the experience.

The sublime can also serve the function of a greater power in a time where faith has dwindled and rational or scientific thought has triumphed.  Vastness and beauty so severe and complete that it frightens and amazes seems proof of something great.  Certain science fiction works arouse an almost religious fervor in their fans.  One science fiction writer, L. Ron Hubbard, even created a religion in Scientology.  While both exploration literature and science fiction provide a certain form escapism, science fiction also remains grounded in current problems: “over-population, mass unemployment, nuclear warfare, sexism, pollution, poverty, and, above all, some very basic questions which most fiction does not answer, such as ‘Where does humanity go from here?’ or even ‘What are we all here for anyway?’”[3]      

Robert Heinlein’s Stranger in Strange Land reflects the social problems of the 1960’s, hence the plot’s preoccupation with free love and alternative religion.  Although set in the future, like most science fiction the book’s plots revolved around concepts pertinent to its time.  Heinlein himself wrote that a science fiction text should revolve around a “human problem” not matter how many fantastic concepts it featured.[4] 

Works like Ursula LeGuin’s The Left Hand of Darkness contain imaginative conceits, but also spotlight contemporary issues, like gender roles.  LeGuin’s novel coincided with the very beginnings of the women’s movement in 1969. Although flawed in its representation of ambisexuality, the book tackles complex issues surrounding the definitions and conceptions of masculinity and femininity.  Because the non-kemmering Gethenians are essentially portrayed as male, the book, an otherwise excellent work of fiction, fails to completely and believably create a society free of gender-roles.  Another of the book’s failure’s, the latent homophobia with which Estraven and Genly Ai’s relationship is treated, reveals additional information about the author and the attitude of society at the time.  Instead of elaborating on the relationship when Estraven enters kemmer and the two are obviously sexually attracted to each other, Le Guin skirts the issue and ends the book with Estraven running away from his love and to his death.  Although plausible necessities of the plot can explain the treatment of the relationship, more likely reasons are the tradition of illicit homosexual love and the statement Le Guin seems to making about monogamous heterosexual relationships. Because Estraven would always adopt the female role to Genly’s permanent maleness, the typical Gethen gender-neutrality would be destroyed.  In rejecting this outcome, Le Guin suggests that death is better than the typical roles men and women fall into when engaged in a monogamous relationship. [5]   Had Le Guin written the book after the socially revolutionary 1970’s, perhaps her portrayal of Genthenians would have been different, reflecting a new gender awareness.

Science fiction can often reveal the way a society considers its members, though the book need not be of the caliber of Left Hand of Darkness to be useful in this regard.  Edgar Rice Burrough’s Princess of Mars relies on conventional plot and characters, but the characterization of Dejah Thoris as a sweet, aristocratic and utterly helpless woman whose only skill seems to be the mesmerizing effect she has on John Carter.  Kim Stanley Robinson’s Red Mars reflects the progress that female characters have achieved. Although Maya also possesses the unusual powers of seduction common to many fictional women, she is a modern heroine in her role as an intelligent, capable leader. . . .

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