Inventing the Other

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses four of Clifford D. Simak's novels - "City" (written from 1944 to 1974), "Time and Again" (1951), "Way Station" (1963) and "Highway of Eternity" (1986). The paper describes the invention of the 'other' in Simak's novels and how it manifests itself in three different sub-patterns which can be regarded as the building blocks of a larger process of his writing.

Table of Contents:
Table of Abbreviations
Introduction
Chapter I: The Self and the Other
Author and Context
Imagining the Other
Chapter II: Clifford Simak's Writing Process
The Other - Some Technical Aspects
Representing the Writing Process
Chapter III: The Author Representing the Self
Reader and Writer
The Figures of the Writer
Conclusion
Appendix 1
Appendix 2

From the Paper:

"When I considered the title of the present thesis and the literary genre the following study was to be based upon, it seemed difficult not to view the whole with a certain suspicion simply because of the juxtaposition of the terms "inventing" and "Other". On the one hand, SF is predisposed to speculation about new inventions - technological, scientific, political, economic and even sociological. On the other hand, the concern about the "Other" and all the problems the notion automatically generates have for long stood at the basis of criticism in the field. The impossibility to come to terms with the plethora of creatures that authors reinvent all the time and that are frequently labelled "the Other" often results in conflicting theories about the importance of finding and preserving one's identity. Simultaneously, the traditional SF issues of alienation are often dismissed as foolproof demands for toleration on the author's part. Looking back at a genre with a history of almost a century, it seems that it has forged itself the reputation of being a medium where repetitive attempts are made to deal with all these notions more or less successfully. Taken separately, "inventing" and "other" are not very likely to stir one's attention on the account of sheer originality. Taken together, however, both notions appear to pose a different problem where the Other is considered as an invention on the same level with the rest of the SF paraphernalia. The Other becomes a personal and sociological invention and to treat it as such would mean to invest the notion with sense that might not necessarily have been there had I chosen a more descriptive approach.The definition of the Other has proved to be complex just because it is most often based on what is repeatedly called "the Self" in many works of literary criticism, philosophy and psychoanalysis. It is somewhat problematic to get out of the vicious circle that is formed when we realise that "the Self" itself is only definable when in contact with that same Other we are trying to describe. There is rarely a short story or a novel in the genre that has not described the contact between a human and alien of some sort and these stories inevitably propose their own reflection on the human condition. Apparently, humanity has desperately been trying to seem unique, no matter whether that uniqueness be negatively or positively charged and most of the SF we know is directly or indirectly, exclusively or partly concerned with corroborating that impression. An awareness of the inverse, however, started to plague humanity hundreds of years before the beginning of what we now call the Golden Age of SF. All claims to uniqueness were overthrown when Galileo first peeped through a trinket he had bought on the market and used it to study the visible sky. The fixed, immutable identity that humanity had fabricated for itself was no longer stable and reassuring. From then on, the possibility of a contact with forms of life unknown to us has never ceased to grow and to comprehend the manifestly incongruous idea, the need to imagine an otherness not only within but without our world imposed itself. The invented Other came to be and it was there, invisible and yet staring down at a world plunged in confusion, a world that would never seem the same. This study is, therefore, an attempt to direct the attention to the numerous manifestations of that fictional Other. It will be based on the Other that comes into existence only within the limited space of a Simak novel because the notion "the Other" has a definite meaning only when it is being invented by a specific author in a specific text."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Laskovski, George G. "An Interview with Clifford Simak", MINICON conference (1980). First published in Lan's Lantern. Transcript published online - IMHO Club (http://imhoclub.ru), 2004
• Simak, Clifford D. Time and Again (1951). Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin Books, 1992
• ------, Clifford D. City (1952), New York, USA: Ace Books, 1981
• ------, Clifford D. City, Astounding, May 1944
• ------, Clifford D. Huddling Place, Astounding, July 1944

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