"Freedom Is Slavery: The socio-political implications of world building in speculative fiction

TY - CHAP

T1 - "Freedom Is Slavery

T2 - The socio-political implications of world building in speculative fiction

AU - Doubinsky, Sebastien

PY - 2021/7

Y1 - 2021/7

N2 - World building is, if we consider myths a part of literature, as old as the written word. Imagining other worlds, or ages, strange creatures and supernatural heroes is the very fabric of what we call “fiction”. From King Arthur’s Avalon to the West visited by Sun Wukong and his allies, many worlds have been built and destroyed. Some of these world also reflect religious, philosophical or political concerns: Plato’s “Atlantis”, Thomas More’ “Utopia”, Rabelais’s “Thélème” or Jonathan Swift’s “Liliput” are classic examples. Since then, Aldous Huxley, George Orwell, Evegueni Zamyatin, Le Guin, Abouramane Waberi, J. S. Breukelaar, Eugen Bacon and myself have explored and built worlds that are not only a background for a fictional narrative, but also serve as a political commentary. With this specificity, “world building” appears through another angle, in which the political becomes a meaningful and essential element. The constructed world’s “politics” thus becomes the blueprint of the fiction, instead of the reverse. Using examples in classics of speculative fiction and contemporary writers, I will try to reflect upon the implications of such consciously orientated world-building and its implications for what we call our everyday “reality” and for the reader, not as a passive agent of culture, but as a fully conscious citizen.

AB - World building is, if we consider myths a part of literature, as old as the written word. Imagining other worlds, or ages, strange creatures and supernatural heroes is the very fabric of what we call “fiction”. From King Arthur’s Avalon to the West visited by Sun Wukong and his allies, many worlds have been built and destroyed. Some of these world also reflect religious, philosophical or political concerns: Plato’s “Atlantis”, Thomas More’ “Utopia”, Rabelais’s “Thélème” or Jonathan Swift’s “Liliput” are classic examples. Since then, Aldous Huxley, George Orwell, Evegueni Zamyatin, Le Guin, Abouramane Waberi, J. S. Breukelaar, Eugen Bacon and myself have explored and built worlds that are not only a background for a fictional narrative, but also serve as a political commentary. With this specificity, “world building” appears through another angle, in which the political becomes a meaningful and essential element. The constructed world’s “politics” thus becomes the blueprint of the fiction, instead of the reverse. Using examples in classics of speculative fiction and contemporary writers, I will try to reflect upon the implications of such consciously orientated world-building and its implications for what we call our everyday “reality” and for the reader, not as a passive agent of culture, but as a fully conscious citizen.

KW - dystopia; world building, politics

M3 - Book chapter

SN - 9781913387747

SP - 59

EP - 74

BT - Worlds Apart

A2 - Barbini, Francesca T.

PB - Luna Press Publishing

CY - Edinburgh

ER -