When enrolling in this course before the commencement of the semester, I remember asking myself “how do science fiction and the Cold War have anything to do with each other?” This was a genuine question that I had, and after taking this course, I confidently understand why this course exists in the first place. I’ve always enjoyed Science Fiction (SF), but never personally even read a Science Fiction book before this course. That’s why I enrolled, to challenge myself in answering this question, along with expanding my knowledge and understanding of SF literature. One of the largest aspects of this course that has opened my eyes is how tense, scary, and even dreadful the Cold War truly was at its peak. Throughout the semester, we’ve been introduced to SF literature from both Americans and Soviets; sharing similar patterns of uncertainty, new dangerous technologies, and parallels to current events at the time that were prevalent on the minds of authors despite being on polar opposite sides of the Cold War. To my surprise, however, was how this course grasped my interest in Soviet culture, and in particular, Socialist Realism. When you’re born, raised, and educated in the United States, a former superpowered rival/threat like the Soviet Union and its history lacks attention in an educational setting. As a result, this class was truly educational in expanding my knowledge on not just science fiction, but also Soviet literature in its entirety, with policies under the communist nation restricting and changing how authors at the time transcribed their literature.
Beginning with defining and explaining Socialist Realism (SR), the term ‘Socialist Realism’ refers to a “particular cultural policy, a particular style, and a particular collection of artworks” (Gelderloos 2020). With the objective of SR to aid in the creation of a socialist society, the ‘particular’ in essence, means to propagate socialist construction, the process of socializing the institutions of society in a way that is a directed transition toward a society run by the associated producers. In essence, socialist construction can be conceived as a reversal of capitalist society, a reclaiming of commons (capitalism seeks to privatize these commons to profit from them), and a socializing of these resources that are useful to human development. Furthermore, with Soviet literature being a prime option in conveying Socialist Realism, we see it throughout Soviet science fiction novels. Examples include common themes of questioning the future, of utopia and construction, along with an emphasis on science, what can be known, materialism, collective protagonists, and most importantly, in my opinion, didacticism (Gelderloos 2020). Defining didacticism as a philosophy that emphasizes instructional and informative qualities in literature, art, and design, (Merriam-Webster) Soviet SF was in essence restricted by this philosophy. During a 1965 debate on Science Fiction in Moscow, a Soviet writer states “Everything can’t be strictly within the limits of Primer of Marxist Philosophy. Polish Science Fiction writers have things better. They can create a planet covered with a solid ocean of thinking plasma. And no one demands of them that they explain how this ability was attained.” (Toman 171) Moreover, the control that the USSR had over published literature drastically restricted opportunities for Soviet SF authors as they had to follow Socialist Realism and the policies/restrictions that it entailed.
When looking at my reading response post for September 28th, we see that Socialist Realism directly impacted and affected Eastern Bloc science fiction writers such as Ernst Bloch. Due to the USSR taking over Eastern Germany after World War Two, writers of the newly formed German Democratic Republic had to adjust their work to conform with the standards set into place by the Soviet Union. These standards, as mentioned in the texts, were based on the adoption of Soviet Socialist Realism (Fritzsche) (Major). With SR using literature functions as an educative tool, the ideal socialist reality is supposed to set an example for the reader within the text. However, surprisingly enough, even the most loyal writers of SR were still subject to criticism. Ernst Bloch, a German Marxist writer who voluntarily moved into East Germany from the United States after fleeing his Nazi-controlled nation, was eventually deemed in 1955 as an “ideological enemy” and was subject to criticism and attacks by the USSR. Despite being a Jewish Marxist writer that left the free nation of the United States, he was still subject to criticism and attacks from the Soviet Union despite his loyalty. For this response post, I’d like to include some of Arturo’s post as it hits similar points but adds even more context. With highlighting the sheer importance of the USSR’s goal in “creating politics that both reflected the goals of Marxist theory and would allow both nation, and eventually, the rest of the world into a utopian and classless society” (Campos), it is even more telling that Ernst Bloch was subject to such criticism and rejection from the Soviet Union.
As I look back at my August 31st reading response post, I find it fascinating how differently I now intercept Stanislaw Lem’s “On the Structural Analysis of Science Fiction” after finishing this course. Lem presents the argument that science fiction needs explanation and reason, as “there can be no inexplicable marvels, no transcendences, no devils or demons– and the pattern of occurrences must be verisimilar. He goes even further to explain that the genre can “profit from this paralysis of the reader’s critical apparatus” (Lem 31). With myself remembering that I enjoyed this reading as it introduced some of the negatives of SF to look out for at the beginning of the semester, I now interpret this piece of one that is influenced by Lem’s SR past. Regardless of Lem eventually criticizing his prior SR novels as socially simplistic, the criticism of poorly written SF that he gives within the text is very similar to the complaints from a Soviet author as mentioned prior. Not all, but many of these USSR SF writers were frustrated with being constantly bombarded to justify and explain scientifically as to why a certain event is occurring. Moreover, I can’t trust or interpret Lem’s “On the Structural Analysis of Science Fiction” as I once did due to his past affiliations with Socialist Realism.
Besides SR, one of the largest aspects that I’ve learned from this course was the sheer amount of tension that the world faced at the time especially within the United States and the Soviet Union. What is fascinating to me, however, is how I learned this adversity of the Cold War through both Soviet and American science fiction literature. When looking at my September 14th reading response to “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep” by American writer Phillip K. Dick, I mention how the entire story is based on a catastrophic post-war world regarding human civilization as we know it. “World War Terminus”, a conflict that occurred years before 1992/2021, resulted in the devastation of much of our planet. As a result, radioactive dust was left stuck in the atmosphere, necessitating extraterrestrial colonization. The concept of ‘kipple’ in my interpretation, is that it’s an inevitable doom of just how unlivable Earth has become. It’s almost as if ‘kipple’, a term also heard on the radio, is a more friendly term that suppresses the sheer grimness of the reality surrounding the planet. When looking at our class timeline, with this novel being published in 1968, just six years after the Cuban Missile Crisis and still during the midst of the Cold War, it comes as no surprise as to how dark this entire SF novel is.
When looking at my September 21st response to Stephen Whitfield’s “Culture of the Cold War”, I mention how there were utter concern and angst regarding domestic communism around the nation. Even Helen Keller, who was both deaf and blind, was on the verge of being investigated due to her support of the Soviet Union (Whitfield 258). With this post being just a week after our response on “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep”, I noticed numerous parallels in Whitfield’s piece and Dick’s novel. In “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep”, we see a feeling of uncertainty and paranoia as to who is who. In other words, is she/he authentic or an android? This contrasts perfectly with the uncertainty that we see Whitfield describing in his writing. During the Cold War, instead of asking if she/he was an android, it was asking if she/he was a Soviet spy or communist.
Moving on to “The Dispossessed” by Ursula K. Le Guin, my reading response post on November second reflects an emphasis on paralleling similarities between the rivaled planets of Annares and Urras and the Soviet Union and the United States. Early on in the Novel, we see that individuals from each of the planets have vast differences from each other that are quite hard to understand if one is not from another’s planet. Annares and Urras are essentially the complete opposite of each other. We can translate this into a Soviet trying to understand Capitalism, or an American attempting to understand Communism during the Cold War. I’d like to introduce a small excerpt from Justin’s September 21st reading response, as he states that the Cold War could be “characterized by two opposite concepts, much like the concept itself.”(Huczko) This characterization of these two concepts shares similarities in the polarities seen between these two planets. Furthermore, with this novel being published in 1974, I’m confident that Le Guin was heavily inspired by the current polarity of two superpowered rival nations during the Cold War in composing one of her most popular novels.
Moving on to my October 26th reading response to “Roadside Picnic” by the Soviet Strugatsky brothers, I selected my response to the quote of “In short, we got out of the Zone, and we were sent into the delouser — the scientists call it the medical hanger — along with the boot. They washed us in three different boiling vats and their alkaline solutions, smeared us with some gunk, sprinkled us with some powder, and washed us again, then dried us off and said, OK, friends, you’re free!” (Strugatsky) reminds me eerily of the Chernobyl nuclear meltdown accident. Despite the novel being published in 1972, nearly fourteen years before the Chernobyl disaster, the way that the Strugatksy brothers describe leaving the Zone and getting cleaned is in my interpretation, alluding that the zone has some form of radioactive material within the area. Also, the concept of ‘hell slime’ that is described throughout the book that burns through both flesh and bone, sounds very similar to toxic radioactive waste. Moreover, despite being published by Soviet authors thousands of miles away from the United States, we see influence from current events occurring during the Cold War concerning radiation and nuclear material.
With “Roadside Picnic” being written by Soviet Writers, I would also like to include part of a response that Max made during the October 26th response post. He makes parallels that describe that the Aliens in the novel are similar to the colonization of America. With millions of Native Americans being slaughtered during the settling of Europeans in North America, it’s similar in the way that the Aliens visited the Earth with zero regard for harming Humans (Amran). I include this as it’s important to recognize that it’s extremely rare if not nearly non-existent for American SF literature to include such a possible parallel due to our nation’s troubled history. Furthermore, it’s not surprising that the talented Soviet Strugatsky brothers during the Cold War among heightened American tensions included such a parallel.
In Conclusion, when enrolling in this course before the commencement of the semester, I remember asking myself “how do science fiction and the Cold War have anything to do with each other?” However, after taking this course, reading the required literature, participating in the weekly blog posts, and participating in class discussions, I’m confident that I now understand the Cold War and its science fiction literature. The harsh adversity faced by both Soviets and Americans during the time was felt across everyone, as the possibility of an end of all life was possibly imminent. Despite SF being a fictional genre, much of the science fiction literature that we’ve read, written, and discussed still shares non-fictional elements of the possible doom that was facing the world during the time of these writings’ publication.