"Amazing Stories. On Science Fiction, Technology, and Secular Salvation" by Peter Pels (Anthropology, University of Leiden)

Abstract

Science Fiction, especially since its revival in terms of 1980s "cyberpunk", has commonly been regarded as glorifying technology and secular progress. Especially in the sub-genre that came to dominate early visual representations - the so-called "space opera" - from the emergence of pulp fiction ("Amazing Stories") until the televised and cinematic popularity of Star Trek and Star Wars, the "technological sublime" played an essential role. This presentation aims to nuance this view in two ways: first, it tries to systematically connect the manifestation of the technological sublime in SF to a secular form of religion, helped, in particular, by a rereading of certain anthropological classics, and Robert Ranulph Marrett in particular, and their view of religion as dealing with "awe" and the "sublime". Secondly, it criticizes the view of the "Golden Age" of SF (1940s, 1950s) as characterized by a modernization perspective and the sublimity of technology, and instead shows that a majority of SF can be understood as New Age religion long before the latter's secular forms of salvation were popularized in the 1970s - when "Star Wars" became the most obvious manifestation of New Age science fiction cinema. The paper concludes by interpreting - on the basis of the preceding analysis - "cyberpunk" SF as being predominantly concerned, not with cybertechnology per se, but with the subjectivities of telepathy, teleportation, and the liberation or control of "mind".

About the Author

Peter Pels is Professor in the Anthropology of Sub-Saharan Africa at the Department of Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology of the University of Leiden, a staff member of the Amsterdam School for Social Science Research, and vice-chairman of the board of the Research School for Amerindian, Asian and African studies (CNWS) in Leiden. He specialized in the study of colonial contacts in Africa, writing his PhD on a Dutch Catholic mission in the 20th century (A Politics of Presence. Contacts between Missionaries and Waluguru in Late Colonial Tanganyika, Chur/Reading, 1999) and continuing research on African politics along the same lines (Imagining Elections. Publicity, Secrecy, and Modern Politics in Late Colonial Tanganyika, in preparation). His work on the history of anthropology (Colonial Subjects [ed. with Oscar Salemink], Ann Arbor, 1999) and the anthropology of magic (Magic and Modernity [ed. with Birgit Meyer], Stanford, 2003) has led to an interest in the anthropology of modernity, individualism, and secularism in general, and in New Age religion in particular. He was the editor-in-chief of Social Anthropology/Anthropologie sociale, the journal of the European Association of Social Anthropologists, from 2003 to 2007, and currently directs a research program on religion and computer technology under the title Cyberspace Salvations: Computer Technology, Simulation and Modern Gnosis funded by the Humanities section of the Dutch Foundation for Scientific Research.

Contact and Further Links

Contact Information:  pels@fsw.leidenuniv.nl

Links:             http://leidsewetenschappers.leidenuniv.nl/show_en.php3?medewerker_id=768
http://www.cyberspacesalvations.nl/