Pleasures of Science Fiction - Essay Example

What are the pleasures of science fiction, and what kind of realism does it purvey? Discuss in relation to one series, either side or made in the UK on television. Science fiction as popular entertainment appeals to many ages and across many cultural boundaries. The process of writing and producing such mass entertainment is always a gamble. This essay seeks to assess the relative meanings of the type of ‘realism’ used in a science fiction series and will consider this contested term via thematic content. It will also ascertain what the ‘pleasures’ are for the audience and address how they might impact upon and shape cultural and social frameworks, using the work of Joy Leman and Mary Hammond. This work will also consider genre and generic exchange in the construction of narrative and character, using Hammond, William Boddy and Luke Hockley. Take my love. Take my land. Take me where I cannot stand. I don’t care, I’m still free. You can’t take the sky from me. (Theme from Firefly, Words and Music by Joss Whedon) This is the first verse of the theme song from Joss Whedon’s science fiction series Firefly (2002). It was broadcast on the Fox network in America but cancelled after nine episodes and not re-commissioned for a second series. It was picked up by satellite broadcasters Sky for British audiences and has recently been repeated in the UK on the Sci-Fi channel. Only fourteen episodes of the television series exist, with the follow-up film Serenity released in 2004 by Universal Pictures, which tied up and explained some of the narrative threads. Firefly came and went, a relatively low-budget series that now enjoys a vast following and receives critical and cultural recognition across the world. The tone of the opening theme song, written by Whedon himself, sets the scene. Firefly follows in the footsteps of Star Trek and Star Wars; the ‘western in space’ form which it stays with faithfully throughout the existing episodes. There is an American folk quality to the song composed by Whedon, evoking ideas of dispossession and loss with a nostalgic and poignant urge for exploration, liberty and a pioneering spirit. Whatever happens to the characters they will journey on – for whatever adventures the ‘’verse’ (as the universe/galaxy is colloquially known) will throw at them. Leman in her chapter ‘Wise Scientists and Female Androids: Class and Gender in Science Fiction’ states: ‘In television today the full dramatic potential of science fiction is rarely explored.’1 She comments that it is usually delivered as something for pre-adolescents, as a means of marketing toys and other merchandising. It can and should, she affirms, be more widely exploited for allegoric and political purposes. The distancing it provides, literally in time and space, can function very effectively in the following ways: Science fiction as a genre in literature, film and television offers the possibility of moving beyond the dominant narrative constraints of realism and naturalism in exploring political ideas, visions of an alternative reality and domains of fantasy.2 Leman proposes that the notion of ‘realism’ (and ‘naturalism’) as a form in narrative is a contested term for science fiction. Whedon’s series embraces these possibilities; it uses the genre of science fiction in a mature way – it is innovative and different. Perhaps that is why it was cancelled? Whedon departed from conventional science fiction series via his modes and motifs in theme and genre, including: the depiction of gender and sexuality (especially female), the depiction of archetypes and the series’ position on the question of social and class identity. In doing so his work fits the key definitions of ‘cult’ status and creates a convincing, plausible alternative ‘future’ world of ‘the ’verse’ via its images and references, thus contributing to the ‘pleasure’ quotient for audiences. Whedon is best known as the creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997-2003), and he spoke to audiences with that in precisely the manner they desired from a Gothic/horror/fantasy series. Mary Hammond states in ‘Monsters and Metaphors: Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the Old World’, the programme dealt with notions of identity for modern America: …the new serialized world [as opposed to the 1992 original film version] of Buffy encompasses alternate futures and a vast prehistory, explores “good” and “bad” Europeaness, and enables the creation of a vision of American teenagers in which female empowerment – though crucial – is only part of the picture…. Sunnydale, California (the “Hellmouth”), is the embodied nightmare vision of a world beset by anxieties about faith, morality, and the future and in need of a reinterpretation of its immigrant past…This new politicization is a crucial factor in the series’ success.3 There are few issues of identity connected with adolescent growth and development that are not dealt with in Buffy. Yet, it avoided being formulaic and remains popular and highly significant in cultural studies’ circles. Whedon’s fusion of the supernatural, the Gothic and horror genres and sensibilities made for continuous reinvention and intertextuality. Firefly is his expansion into science fiction – establishing a whole new sequence of archetypes and generic modes – that takes the idea of a world embodied in one particular zone (the space transport ship ‘Serenity’) and renders it capable of almost unlimited reinvention in the domain of ‘the ‘verse’. It occupies a state of ‘realism’ on one level, but manouveres towards more possibilities as it crosses generic boundaries. It is when the programme exploits the conventions of the Western genre that it remains close to ‘realism’ and when it expands across and through that genre it exposes the potential of science fiction. Firefly centres upon Malcolm ‘Mal’ Reynolds, captain of the Firefly class transport: Serenity. The show is set five hundred years in the future, from Earth of the twenty-first century – known as ‘Earth that was’ by the characters. The human race has colonised the galaxy and Serenity travels between the planets of the outer rim, away from the more civilised central planets. On board is the first mate Zoe, Mal’s comrade-in-arms from when they fought together in the independence wars against the villainous Alliance that now controls the galaxy. Zoe’s husband ‘Wash’ is the pilot and along with them are Kaylee the ship’s engineer and Jayne, an amoral mercenary. Inara is a trained and registered ‘companion’, a high-class courtesan in the style of a Japanese Geisha. In the first episode (‘Serenity’) the crew is joined by some passengers who will also make the ship their home. Shepherd Book is a missionary (with a past) he carries with him a version of the Bible and preaches a form of Christianity, five hundred years on. Simon Tam is a brilliant young doctor, a trauma surgeon, from the central planets. It transpires that he has smuggled his sister, River, on board Serenity. River Tam is a mysterious teenage girl, deeply troubled, who is pursued in deadly earnest by the Alliance. She has psychic gifts and as the narrative works out is an unstoppable warrior, conditioned and trained by the Alliance’s experimental scientists. A slight, delicate figure she can suddenly be galvanized into action, in the right circumstances. She is unpredictable and poses a threat to the crew. She can just as easily attack them as she can the Alliance forces on their tail, or the dreaded cannibalistic ‘Reavers’ whom they regularly encounter on the outer rim. River can be seen as an unstable, unpredictable female teenage ‘slayer’ figure. Mal (Nathan Fillion) inherits the archetypal role of the brooding male ‘loner’ hero, similar to Bogart’s role as Rick in Casablanca (1942). He has even more in common with Han Solo from the first Star Wars trilogy, however. This goes as far as the costume Nathan Fillion wears resembling that worn by Harrison Ford – and there is some physical similarity between the actors also. Whedon also makes reference in interview to Serenity being based upon the Millenium Falcon.4 But it would be unjust to Whedon to represent Firefly as wholly derivative of George Lucas’s work. The use of the archetypal roguish space pirate captain is the extent of his debt. Firefly is a human-centred drama; there are no alien races in this galaxy, another indicator of its ‘realism’. Everyone, even the ‘Reavers’, is descended from Earth inhabitants who have moved out into the wider systems to ‘terraform’ the planets for colonisation. This strong theme of colonialism takes up where Buffy the series left off. If that programme was useful for arguing the case for the maturation of America’s immigrants into coherent sociocultural groups who can consolidate ‘Old’ and ‘New’ world values then Firefly looks at things in a more global, if not universal, fashion. ‘Earth that was’ is a mythic concept and the global power struggles crystallized over the years into a power share between America and China. The settlers, the crew of Serenity and members of the Alliance have inherited ‘the ‘verse’ and its fusion of Sino-American cultural and linguistic signifiers. As well as lapsing into Mandarin Chinese every so often, particularly when wishing to emphasise something, the characters have Chinese symbols pasted on their walls, adopt forms of dress derived from Chinese culture and use chopsticks. This suits the genre of the Western and the multi-cultural, frontier perspectives that are often depicted on screen. Firefly appropriates the hubbub and bustle of new, expansionist town (and planet) building. It shows worlds inhabited by a mix of races and cultures, dependent upon what filters through to the outer frontiers from the central planets. Comradeship amongst the crew of Serenity is valued, but human life can come cheap in the rugged, raw world of Firefly. Danger is always apparent and commodities are treasured and kept close to the owners. Kaylee is usually attired in her engineer’s overalls but intersperses her outfits with dashes of colour and embellishments to try and engage with her femininity and show off her meagre possessions. In this she imitates Inara, who has a much more expensive wardrobe due to her profession, and Kaylee spends time with her in the shuttle which doubles as Inara’s boudoir for entertaining her clients. They do each other’s hair and Kaylee smells the rich perfumes and admires Inara’s jewels whilst asking her about her life as a companion. Another interesting feature is the value placed upon fruit and vegetables – a logical consequence of a pioneer existence – so that characters savour and treasure them as delicacies. The series corresponds with the generic format of the TV Western in two key ways.5 Firstly, it contains the archetypal ‘unattached nomadic hero’ in Mal Reynolds.6 He resists the undeniable attraction he has for Inara, sarcastically and sometimes cruelly criticizing her lifestyle, and prefers instead to remain taciturn and emotionless in most encounters with his crew. Until, that is, circumstances dictate he reinforce the camaraderie and come to their defence.7 He is certainly a paternal figure to the younger members of the crew (as Inara is something of a maternal figure), especially with Kaylee and eventually River. In the opening episode he even dismisses the unruly Jayne from the dinner table for his bad manners and jokes at Kaylee’s expense. Everything he does is in the name of the best interests of the crew and the ship. Inara in particular accuses him of not caring, but as audience we all know he does. He has had to hide his sympathetic side due to the hardships and excesses of the war with the Alliance. To create increased tension over Mal’s status as the loner hero Whedon introduced a ‘wife’ for him (‘Our Mrs. Reynolds’) played by Christina Hendricks. Saffron is a con artist who manages to convince Mal she is his wife, thus causing intense jealousy from Inara and throwing Mal into confusion. All his energies have gone into resisting such a state of interdependence with a woman and then he finds himself caught between his sense of duty and honour towards a woman and his fierce loyalty to the ship and crew. This episode is an indicator of the other key corresponding feature with the traditional TV Western. In the United States in the 1950s and 60s Westerns moved ‘towards the increasingly family and domestic-centred narratives’ of shows like Bonanza.8 The crew of Serenity is often together in a domestic setting, indicated by the casual cosiness of the galley and dining room of the ship where they gather for meals. Zoe and Wash are a married couple, Simon and River are brother and sister and allegiances are drawn together between unlikely soul mates, such as Jayne and River who prove to be the most determined warriors on the crew. This conflation of generic features: nomadic lifestyle and loner captain versus domesticity and familial bonding make for some of the interesting dramatic tension in the series. The family ties that are created and reinforced during the series also confound class and social boundaries. Mal, Jayne, Zoe, Wash and Kaylee are all of a similar class. They are natives of the outer rim planets and their speech patterns and language are indicative of their social status, with perhaps Mal and Zoe showing a certain amount of officer ‘class’ due to their role in the war with the Alliance. These characters have slang and lapses into Chinese in common. They use the corruption ‘Gorram’ [sic] in place of ‘Goddam’ – the traditional notion of god having changed over the centuries. Kaylee especially has a folksy and casual way of talking. By contrast Simon and River Tam, Shepherd Book and Inara are of a higher social status and have more education and refinement in their speech. Simon Tam finds it especially hard to adjust to the ways of the other characters and comes into conflict with Mal, until they find mutual respect and trust. The final resolution for the characters of different classes is when Simon and Kaylee find true love in the film Serenity, and their relationship creates a further surrogate bond between Kaylee and River. Firefly also fits into the classic definition of television science fiction, confounding realism and exploiting the narrative functions of almost limitless travel at incredible speed, imaginative technology and reconfigured society within a framework that also acknowledges and reflects ‘contemporary social and political concerns’.9 Hockley and Leman both describe and favourably critique the examples of ‘adult’ science fiction, such as Quatermass, that emerged in the 1950s on the BBC. Firefly is part of this kind of intelligent, socially aware, issue-based branch of the genre. Importantly Whedon was exposed to British television of this kind, including of course Doctor Who and Blake’s Seven, during his schooldays spent in the UK. Of all the variations and possibilities for thematic devices that Whedon’s use of the genres: science fiction and the Western, might offer the ones he regularly returns to are the depiction of female gender and sexuality. This he does in an overt and deliberate fashion. Most clearly with Inara he exploits the ritualistic conventions that surround her sexuality as ‘companion’ for which she must be disciplined, accommodating and, ironically, quite repressed. Her situation corresponds to professional courtesan roles from Indian, Chinese and Japanese society through the ages. On one occasion her client is a powerful woman, a now familiar inclusion of lesbian subplot as seen in Buffy, but the outlook of men five hundred years in the future is no more enlightened than now – Jayne must depart to his quarters for a private moment on witnessing Inara kiss her client. The insinuation that Inara would find her true sexual self if she and Mal consummated their passion for one another is strong. In ‘Heart of Gold’ he does have a night of passion with a ‘companion’ friend of Inara and when she finds out she hides away and sobs to herself. A happier and more fulfilled woman is Zoe. She is a powerful character, the equal to Mal in many ways and fully capable in all combat scenarios. Simultaneously she is passionately and conventionally attached to Wash. Their relationship weathers a couple of storms of his jealousy towards Mal, but very early on in the series these are dispelled and they all reach mutually agreeable terms. Wash worries that he is not ‘man’ enough for Zoe from time to time, but Whedon allows him to be relieved of that misconception by Zoe’s passionate confidence in her marriage. There are a range of female identities aboard Serenity covering a variety of femininities and different stages of sexuality and sexual awareness. Through different artifacts and signifiers of self the programme encompasses the Soldier (Zoe), Engineer (Kaylee), the Courtesan (Anara) and the Mystic Warrior (River). These roles are an extension of and expansion upon the roles Whedon helped to pioneer in Buffy. He had asked the question ‘…why does the pretty girl always go into the alley and get killed by the monster…? What would happen if she went into the alley and beat the crap out of it? Now that would be interesting.’10 This appeal to women and girls, vouching for their feelings and representing a range of identities for them to associate with, is part of what Whedon seeks to purvey and therefore afford the viewers pleasure with the genre. How this is measured can be discerned from whether or not the audience feels they are part of a community. Do they buy into the commodity that the producer is purveying? Do they gain continuous and consistent pleasure from their association with the material? The answer is a resounding affirmative to these questions for Firefly. Along with the active online communities11, the success of Serenity the motion picture and the huge sales of the DVD box sets of Firefly demonstrate the mass-market appeal of Whedon’s work, particularly for a female audience. The reinforcement of how the audience gains ‘pleasure’ from Firefly is arrived at via the notion of its ‘cult’ status. This is, contrary to much criticism in popular culture which uses the term too freely, quite hard to come by. It cannot be generated artificially, for example the way in which the BBC promotes the current incarnation of Doctor Who. This example of the genre has typically had an ‘explicitly educational mission’12 and to a large extent it has continued in that vein, touching upon environmental issues, globalisation and social responsibility in the recent new series. The writers are trying to do with it what Whedon has succeeded in a much more effortless fashion with Buffy and now the cancelled Firefly. Firefly qualifies for cult status far more seamlessly than other contemporary science fiction series. This is partly due to its short-lived run, but also the perception that it is a misunderstood minority interest that ruthless editors cancelled and therefore requires championing, a little like the way the characters tackle the challenges the Alliance put in their way. A summary of what is going on with the online communities, the ‘slash’ sites, the convention audiences and the academic and scholarly treatments of Whedon’s Firefly that demonstrates his success as purveyor of an alternate and complete version of the universe: the ‘verse’, can be found in Umberto Eco’s helpful definition of ‘cult’ viewing: The [cult object] must be loved, obviously, but that is not enough. It must provide a completely furnished world so that fans can quote characters and episodes as if they were aspects of the fan’s private sectarian world, a world about which one can make up quizzes and play trivia games so that the adepts of the sect recognize through each other a shared expertise. Naturally all these elements (characters and episodes) must have some archetypal appeal… I think that in order to transform a work into a cult object one must be able to break, dislocate, unhinge it so that one can remember only parts of it, irrespective of their original relationship with the whole.13 Fans can take the ‘completely furnished world’ of Firefly and reinvent it wholly or partially for their continuing entertainment and ‘pleasure.’ They can ‘break, dislocate’ and ‘unhinge’ it and then return to it as a familiar location and methodically constructed zone of archetypes and ‘family’. BIBLIOGRAPHY Brunsdon, Charlotte; D’Acci, Julie & Spigel, Lynn (eds) Feminist Television Criticism: A Reader, Oxford Television Studies, Oxford & New York: Oxford University Press, 1997 Corner, John (ed.), Popular Television in Britain: Studies in Cultural History, London: BFI, 1991 Creeber, Glen (ed.), The Television Genre Book, London: BFI, 2001 Gwenllian-Jones, Sara & Pearson, Roberta E. (eds), Cult Television, Minneapolis & London: University of Minnesota Press, 2004 Wolfe, Susan "Space as Frontier in Joss Whedon’s Firefly." (with Lee Ann Roripaugh) University of South Dakota, October 2005. Whedon, Joss (director and writer), Firefly, Fox Television Network, 2002 ---------------------------------------- Serenity, Universal Pictures, 2004 http://www.scifispace.com/html/firefly.php Read More