Science Fiction: A Literary Analysis

Science Fiction as a literary genre has historically fused the mythology of the past with the scientific advancements of the future, creating a world that is both comfortable and frightening. The love affair of the hybridity of myth and science is elegantly displayed in Nnedi Okorafor’s “The Book of the Phoenix” as a young woman struggles to reconcile her veiled past with the uncertain future created by her technologically enhanced birth. The elements of the story are purposefully selected to highlight the interconnectivity of technological advances and evolving cultures, as the protagonist struggles to discover her origins and destiny. Okorafor expertly utilizes science fiction as a genre, Africa as a setting, and Phoenix as a female character

to lure the reader into a state of quasi-comfortability and cognitive estrangement. In “The Book of the Phoenix” Okorafor uses the elements of genre, setting, and character selection to create a world that embraces the mythology of her African heritage while also examining how revolutionary scientific advancements effect not only the future of all humanity but also the women who become the mothers of the future.

Science fiction audiences are comfortable with the concepts of hybridity and transformation, as the genre often serves to normalize the fantasy and add plausibility to an otherwise impossible scenario.

Science fiction is also deliberately anachronistic in the sense that it asks its readers to accept the relation between the time they inhabit and the future, and by doing so opens the reader to a plethora of possibilities. Literary critic Carol Brown writes that science fiction is a perfect vehicle of describing “the interplay of science [namely, the ‘real’] and myth” (Brown,158). As a genre science fiction continues to express the transformation of socio-economic realities in the wake of rapid change. Science fiction, then, presents a vehicle for articulating the social conscience because it maps potential consequences and attempts to resolve them (Carstens, 83). “The Book of the Phoenix” examines the repercussions that genetically modified reproduction has on not only the offspring of such experiments, but also the mother who carries this experiment without knowledge of the long term effects. Science fiction can be read not merely as a critical commentary on biotechnoscience, but as a mode of thinking with science about the future of (human) life (Idema, 38). A continuing theme of the story is the struggle of Phoenix to discover her true origins and the difficulty of unraveling the truth when science has distorted it beyond recognition. The true purpose of science fiction

is ultimately not about our quasi-scientific interest in the world, but rather about the lives and social relations set in a technoscientific future. It is because of this that Okorafor choses to not focus on the scientific aspects of Phoenix’s existence, but choses instead to develop a story that highlights her humanity and her struggle to find her place in the world.

As a genre science fiction offers a platform from which to examine the conflict between the past, present and future as well as the clash between modernization and cultural identity. Situated within a historically marginalized literary genre, the readers of Science Fiction are secure with concepts of hybridity, transformation and non-linear time. These characteristics align science fiction with African orality and liberate its authors from the restrictions of centralized and critically recognized discursive practices. “Africa is rich in migratory mythology that ties in with contemporary cyborg narratives, drawing strongly on motifs of transformation, hybridity, gender-blending and extra-sensory perception. In addition, it abounds with mysterious mythology, redolent in warped time-frames and twisted metaphors that are essentially science-fictional (Carstens, 79)”. As modernity has sweeps through Africa, it has uprooted indigenous cultures and nations from their previously established lives. According to African theologian John Mbiti, despite embracing conversion to monotheistic religions, education and socioeconomic upheaval, African people have committed themselves to preserving deeply held traditional beliefs and practices. This clash of modernity and traditionalism creates inspirational states of cultural coexistence (1971: 3). Science fiction creates a way of expressing the African oral mythology while reworking the continent’s marginalized oral histories in the mythopoeic mode that characterizes, according to Quayson, indigenous oral narratives (1997: 121). Africa’s history has been marred by political strife, poverty, colonialization, industrialization and urbanization but its strong culture of rituals, myths and orality continue to remain vital across the African continent. Nnedi Okorafor pays homage to African culture in her novel by portraying technological possibilities for the future while also examining how technology interacts with a population who are raised with mythology.
Okorafor depicts an easier acceptance of Phoenix Okore’s hybridity by Ghana natives who are accustomed to mysticism. Kofi Annan describes Phoenix as “Gods Creature” instead of as a monster, and that because she divinely created she is magically beautiful (Okorafor, 80). In her novel Okorafor highlights how the cultural norms of a society can greatly influence their acceptance of hybridity. These concepts beautifully align African orality and mysticism, allowing authors such as Okorafor to blend the future with the past in a way that can be universally palatable. Modern African primitivism, a contemporary subcultures of science fiction blends mythic and scientific themes in a way that allows the reader to appreciate both the cultural and scientific elements while providing an ideal canvas for Okorafor’s coming of age tale.

The female body’s engagement with technology is a topic that offers limitless possibilities of rethinking concepts of the self. When choosing a character for her novel Okoroafor creates a post-human female character that has both genetically engineered fortitude and inherent humanistic emotionality and empathy. A post-human character allows for a construction of identity that is simultaneously fractured, multifaceted, and fluid without the constrictions of current gender stereotypes. “Post-humanism is particularly relevant to women and girls, whose bodies have generally functioned as a sign of their ‘otherness’ (Flanagan, 41).” By looking at how the human body can be technologically transformed either through biological interventions such as genetic engineering and cloning, cybernetic or surgical modifications, or simply by being interfaced with a machine such as a computer, post-humanism examines ways of understanding and conceptualizing the body (Flanagan, 41). Okorafor shows the relationship between technology and human subjectivity as hazardous, debilitating and prone to unethical or irresponsible outcomes. Phoenix struggles with the significance of her female body and the idea of self within a technologically advanced society. Her genetically experimental creation and early confinement limits her understanding of her own sexuality and reproductive abilities. Her involuntary combustion leads her to fear her own sexuality and hesitant to accept the physical affection of her male friend, Kofi (Okorafor, 81). Being an Accelerated Biological Organism (ABO) causes her to believe that at three years of age she is too old to produce a child. Her readiness to accept this unsubstantiated belief as truth may stem from her internal guilt at the death of her surrogate mother from cancer caused by radiation exposure while carrying Phoenix (Okorafor, 207). Phoenix mourns the loss of her surrogate mother and channels it into hatred for The Big Eye as an evil organization that preys on the African people. The tragedy of Phoenix’s mother prevents her from being able to consider becoming a mother herself.

This internal struggle of Phoenix’s female character adds an additional dimension of humanity that could not be found otherwise. Phoenix comes to symbolize both the mother and reaper of humanity by scorching the earth to save it from the corruption of technology and release the proletariat masses from its bondage, while also establishing herself as a post-apocalyptic goddess (Okorafor, 221-232).

The body and identity are not only radically transformed by everyday interactions
with technology, but are projected into futures without histories.

(Toffoletti, 15). In “The Book of the Phoenix” Okorafor critiques the use of technology without a clear understanding of its effects on our humanity and culture. By using science fiction as the chosen genre Okorafor enables the reader to comfortably examine the effects of technology on human civilization by encouraging a feeling of cognitive estrangement: the feeling that a radically different fictional world is somehow akin to one’s own (Idema, 35). The use of Modern African Primitivism as a sub-genre allows the reader to see Phoenix thru the eyes of a culture permeated with mysticism, allowing us to examine the past and the future in a non-linear construct. Phoenix shows that even an Accelerated Biological Organism will seek its origins at the juncture of technology and culture, and that the internal struggle to find its roots will cause an inner turmoil that can prove deadly. Okorafor’s novel is a warning that unrestricted biotechnoscience research can lead to an uncertain future, and that our existence as a species may be threatened by the fruits of our

labor.