Science Fiction and American Culture » January 16th: More Introduction

January 16th: More Introduction

Plan for the Day

I have a feeling we might have to get to some of Tuesday’s stuff, so we might be starting there.

Vocabulary for Discussing Culture

These are important terms to know when talking about culture. Sometimes we (English professors) use different terms interchangeably, but the definitions below are good for our purposes in this class. They might not be the exact definitions your fields adhere to, but, knowing there are slight differences, allows you to (re)consider how a person from a certain discipline comes to knowledge.

  • Ideology: prevailing cultural/institutional attitudes, beliefs, norms, attributes, practices, and myths that are said to drive a society. Members of a culture (or subculture) aren’t devoid of ideology. Take a look at the OED Online’s 1st and 4th definitions.
  • Hegemony: the ways or results of a dominant group’s (the hegemon) influence over other groups in a society or region. The dominant group dictates, consciously or unconsciously, how society must be structured and how other groups must “buy into” the structure. For example, the former Soviet Union was the hegemonic power influencing the communist countries of Eastern Europe during the Cold War.
  • Systemic: (adjective) pertaining to an entire system, institution, or object; something ‘systemic’ cannot be removed from the system.
  • Rhetoric: the ability to perceive the available means of persuasion (Aristotle), or the ways in which meanings are conveyed.
  • Epistemology: “a branch of philosophy that investigates the origin, nature, methods, and limits of human knowledge.”
  • Genre: literary or other textual products “with certain conventions and patterns that, through repetition, have become so familiar that [audiences] expect similar elements in the works of the same type” (Dick, p. 112).
  • Illusion: “false or misleading representation of reality.”
  • Privilege: (as a verb) to grant something a special right or status; to value something over another. An economist privileges a worldview that believes individuals make decisions based on maximizing self interest.
  • Ambiguity: “doubtfulness or uncertainty of meaning or intention.”

The last word, ambiguity, is extremely important for this type of class. Unlike assumptions of other disciplines, we’re not searching for material to plug into an equation. Most answers will be contextual–they will depend on the situation. Not all ideas are black and white, but we often absorb information from speakers that, rhetorically, present ideas as black and white. You should be ready to leave class with more questions than answers. That doesn’t mean you leave saying, “what was that all about?” Instead, you leave being able to ask smarter questions. A more informed person and one able to deal with ambiguity, will be able to ask smarter questions.

More Introduction to Cultural Studies

Simply put, studying culture. Having a cultural studies lens means one looks at ideas, values, movements, and society in general as being mediated be prevailing characteristics of a group (often on a large scale). This approach attempts to find (or read) the meanings of artifacts (ideas, technologies, and texts—including literature, film, music, etc.) as products of the cultures from which they come. How do we think about science fiction from a cultural studies perspective? First, let’s figure out capital ‘C’ and lowercase ‘c’ “C/culture.”

  • Culture: “the behaviors and beliefs characteristic of a particular social, ethnic, or age group” (dictionary.com’s 5th definition).
    • Capital-C Culture is important to consider when identifying overarching prevailing values, beliefs, characteristics, etc. of a group. However, big groups–like nations–are often made up of a variety of cultures.
    • When you make an argument about culture (big-C or little-c), make sure you qualify it with “prevailing,” “regional,” “majority,” etc., but prove it with an example.
  • American Culture–visit this link, but the links below are just FYI. I want you to consider what comes to your mind when you hear any mention of these subcultures.
  • Business Culture–this refers to the practices and shared assumptions of members of a profession and even of a specific firm. When you think of workplace cultures, what comes to mind? Consider the following:
    • Dress code
    • Management style (hands off, micromanagement, seniority, high or low turnover)
    • Communication (formal, informal, e-mail, memo*, text)
      *Memo is short for “memorandum”. This form of communication has nearly been supplanted by e-mail…but you might see them in file cabinets.
  • Below are (long expired) job ads for Technical Writers. Can you read a difference in the firms’ cultures?

Take a look at the OED Online’s 6th and 7th definitions. (Must sign in through Atkins Library if you’re off campus.)

It’s important to repeat the definition of Ideology: prevailing attitudes, beliefs, myths, and ideas that seem collectively to guide individuals in a society. Ideology is often invisible. When you hear the word in popular media–usually on a news show–the speaker often claims something is “ideological” when they mean “biased” in general. No one is devoid of ideology because members of a culture absorb prevailing attitudes, beliefs, myths, and ideas…collectively.

Social Constructions of Technology and Science

I often use the example of culturally (or socially) constructed technologies and sciences. There’s a social demand for new science and technology. Of course, initial reasons for researching a science or developing a technology can change based on how consumers use the technologies in ways not intended by inventors. Normally, though, there’s a demand that gets fulfilled. For instance, humans like to communicate over long distances; therefore, the telegraph, telephone, and radio were invented. Humans want individual, instant communication; therefore, the cell phone was developed. This next one might seem too simplistic, but it follows the above pattern perfectly: people want to live, live longer, and live well, so medicine–vaccines, pain killers, fever reducers, etc.–is developed.

No artifact or idea is created in a vacuum—meaning, devoid of external influence. Scientists, engineers, authors and the materials they create are products of the characteristics of their culture, which includes the culture’s moment in time. Although we can’t identify universally essential features of each individual, we can argue (and support) what appear to be prevailing values of a culture. Unlike analysis that aims to “unlock” meaning based on an individual’s life (e.g. psychoanalysis), a cultural studies perspective interprets individual and group actions as primarily influenced by culture. People don’t like to hear this because it emphasizes that we’re really just herd animals. [Here’s what psychology tells us. Look familiar?]

Although there are other types of interpretations of science fiction (and fiction in general), we’ll be privileging a social science fiction approach. One thing to remember is that, in the Humanities, we don’t consider any one discipline having THE answer. Instead, we arrive at answers based on the questions we ask, which are mediated by our disciplinary epistemologies. Cultural Studies is inherently interdisciplinary because it borrows methods of interpretation from a variety of disciplines: History, Sociology, Philosophy, Anthropology, and others. In this class, when we focus on science fiction (which falls under the broad category speculative fiction), we’ll mostly it from historical and cultural perspectives—time period and society, respectively.

Celebrating Ignorance

I doubt we’ll have time for this, but it’s here if we do have time.

Let’s discuss how these texts reflect anti-intellectualism and trite, nationalistic ideology. In addition to the links below, if you have time, you can read a short piece about “American Contradiction” from a rather interesting book (opens as a PDF).

Next Week

Keep up with the syllabus. You’ll have four short stories to read for next week, and we’ll return to anything we might have missed. Don’t forget, you have a weekly discussion post on Canvas asking you to introduce yourself. You’ll also have Weekly Discussion Post #2 to respond by next Thursday, January 23, 11:00pm.