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Wanderlust Project to moje muzyczne alter ego – projekt, nad którym pracuję od końca 2008 roku. Zapraszam Was do przesłuchania mojej twórczości!

2.3.09

Stigmata... (Część I)

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Tym razem zamieszczam ostatni w tym semestrze esej, który powstał na potrzeby kursu o postmodernizmie. Jednak jak zwykle znalazłem sposób, by połączyć dociekania akademickie ze swoją prywatną pasją – literaturą science-fiction. Philip K. Dick jest jednym z moich ulubionych pisarzy, jednak nie czytam jego powieści zbyt często. Ponieważ są bardzo specyficzne, pozwalam sobie na jedną taką lekturę rocznie, co oznacza, że przeczytałem może z sześć jego powieści. Każda z nich jednak okazała się do pewnego stopnia ważnym przeżyciem, często estetycznym, a zawsze intelektualnym. Dick jest bowiem zarówno artystą, jak i intelektualistą. Wśród swoich narkotycznych wojaży porusza również zagadnienia ontologiczne, epistemologiczne i te najważniejsze – eschatologiczne. Można sobie z niego szydzić, że szukał Boga wśród halucynogennych grzybów, ale dopiero poznawszy jego twórczość można pojąć ogrom konstrukcji jego światów i metafor. Zapraszam do lektury mojego eseju, który rozważa podobieństwo konstrukcji narracji i świata w tekstach postmodernistycznych i science-fiction.

The Postmodern Protagonist's Inner Space Against the Backdrop of an Outer World in David Foster Wallace's My Appearance and Philip K. Dick's The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch

INTRODUCTION

In POSTMODERNISM, or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism, F. Jameson describes postmodernism as literature with a populist rhetoric;

fascinated by [...] a "degraded" landscape of schlock and kitsch; [...] of so-called paraliterature, with its airport paperback categories of the gothic and the romance [...] and the science-fiction novel: materials they no longer simply "quote" [...] but incorporate into their very substance. (1)

Indeed, because the transition from modernism to postmodernism also implies a shift of the dominant from the epistemological to the ontological (2), postmodernism has inevitably begun to share a common denominator with, among others, science-fiction, the ontological literary genre par excellence (3), in which ontological experimentation is taken to its utmost extent within a system of traditional tropes almost exclusive to this genre. Though somewhat clichéd, the tropes of time travel, multiple dimensions, virtual reality and artificial intelligence, among others, allow for extensive ontological experimentation both within the literary world and on the surface of the text itself.

Jameson's one-sided claim, however, leaves an impression of academic condescension. The relationship between postmodernism and science-fiction is not limited to the former incorporating elements of the latter. Instead, the relationship is mutual and science-fiction also incorporates elements of the postmodern. By the time of Philip K. Dick, science-fiction has long evolved past its roots of Gernsback's scientific realism and Campbell's paranormal sublime and escapism (4). Dick himself was one of the precursors of science-fiction's voyage from outer space towards inner space ─ the subjective psyche of a postmodern protagonist. In the words of M. Jędrzejczak, Dick:

himself coined the phrase "literature of inner projection", one in which interior psychological issues are projected onto the exterior world and become three-dimensional, real and tangible. (5)

The aforementioned projection is perhaps the very feature which differentiates postmodern science-fiction from postmodern mainstream literature. While both share a common denominator and tackle similar themes, in postmodern mainstream literature the subjective mental states of the protagonists affect their phenomenological perception of the exterior world, while in science-fiction such mental states may as well affect the objective ontology of the exterior world itself.

David Foster Wallace's literature is also far removed from escapism into the unintelligible, "academic" postmodern. In his own words, he wanted to write stuff about what it feels like to live. Instead of being a relief from what it feels like to live. (6)

The aim of this essay is to examine the inner space of the postmodern protagonist and their experiences of ontological and phenomenological nature both within and without science-fiction, on the basis of David Foster Wallace's My Appearance (1989) and Philip K. Dick's The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch (1965). Although coming from diverse literary traditions, both texts share a surprising number of similarities. The intention is not to contrast them, but rather to show how certain established postmodern themes are executed within texts from different genres.

(1) Jameson, F., POSTMODERNISM, or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism, Duke University Press, Durham, 1995, pp. 2-3.
(2) McHale, B., Postmodernist Fiction, New York, Methuen, 1987, p. 10.
(3) McHale, p 16.
(4) Cetnarowski, M., "Wyjście z cienia. Szare Eminencje fantastyki", Czas Fantastyki nr 4 (17) 2008, Warszawa, 2008, pp. 28-33.
(5) Translated for the needs of this essay from Jędrzejczak, M., Dick Philip Kindred. Życiotwórczość, Warszawa, 2008, p. 31: Sam uknuł termin, który brzmi: Literatura wewnętrznej projekcji, taka, w której wewnętrzna problematyka psychiczna zostaje przeniesiona na świat zewnętrzny i staje się trójwymiarowa, realna i konkretna.
(6) Lipsky, D., The Lost Years & Last Days of David Foster Wallace, Posted Oct 30, 2008 @ The Rolling Stone Magazine (http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/23638511/the_lost_years__last_days_of_david_foster_wallace).

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