Daily Times

Science fiction and magic realism almost play the same game with the human imagination that these make the human imagination undergo a suspension of disbelief and so the fictional becomes temporarily acceptable as reality. But science fiction turns into magic realism as soon as it comes into the hands of a postcolonial writer in the sense that science fiction by a western writer remains a signal and symbol of imperialistic desire to be portrayed as a scientifically advanced mind playing games of science fiction.

The same does not hold good in the case of postcolonial writings because of the intervention of magical realism that what cannot be accomplished scientifically could be achieved through some mysterious, supernatural, or magical treatment. On the one hand, this treatment of magical realism in postcolonial literature does not allow postcolonial literature to stand on equal footing with western literature, and on the other hand, it becomes the very technique of resistance in the hands of a postcolonial writer. For example, Ngugi in his ‘Matigari’, Walcott in his ‘Fire on the Mountain’, and Morrison in her ‘Beloved’ narrate the unnarratable reality of the postcolonial people because they have employed mythical characters and circumstances in their narratives. Bhabha terms this situation magical realism because it has become the literary language of the emergent postcolonial world.

Science fiction by the western writer is very less of magical realism and tends to divert toward rational and reasonable narratives. The writers narrate a possible reality to be achieved through reason and experimentation and learning. For example, the movie ‘Moon Fall’ portrays the discovery of the moon by man as a megastructure. For this purpose, the spaceship attempts twice and is destroyed because of computerized robots beyond the control of human beings. But the third mission to the same place makes the scientists learn more about the robots that they attack electronic environments and smell human beings as enemies. This learning takes the astronauts again inside the moon to denote a nuclear bomb for the destruction of a massive body of robots and succeed in achieving control. Not only do they find a possible reality but also save human beings on earth from total destruction because of a change in the gravitational force.

Western science fiction receives a subverting treatment at the hands of the postcolonial writer when he employs it as a tool of resistance.

The movie projects the imaginative leaps by western science and associates it with the scientific progress that only western science fiction can deem of. The female protagonist is portrayed as the sole saviour of humanity because she puts her son and family at risk to save humanity in her attempt to save humanity at large. This discourse is suggestive of the postcolonial binary that divides the world between the highly scientific advanced societies dealing all with the possible reasoning and portraying the western science progress and the world which is still looking at the universe with ancient magical tools and hence is less developed scientifically.

On the other hand, ‘Exit West’ by Mohsin Hamid deals with the migration of human beings through magic doors apparently attempting a slippage in providing a reasonable explanation for the working of magic doors. Simply narrating an unreality that magic doors provide new destinations and hence escaping the reality of massive journeys and their equally massive emotional pains and difficulties. ‘Exit West’ by Hamid does have a reality of migration and the associated issues as its main narrative but the way through which the possibility of traversing longer geographical tracts in time and space has been covered in a mythical mode by using magic doors. Historically speaking, the magic doors and their functioning in this way relate it to the stories of mythologies where the heavy doors would open to new fascinating worlds just by uttering a few words.

There is no relevance quoted by the writer to justify the possibility of such a travelling mode relevant to modern scientific development. The writer in fact attempts to strike a balance between reality and fiction simultaneously relating it to magical traditions and reminding us that the possibility of crossing borders illegally existed because of the liquid and porous geographical boundaries. The same is the case with the short story ‘Runaway Cyclone’ by Chandra Bose, wherein the whole fury and destruction of a sea cyclone are mitigated to zero by pouring a bottle of hair oil into it.

These examples suggest that western science fiction receives a subverting treatment at the hands of the postcolonial writer when he employs it as a tool of resistance and makes it reflect as an imperialistic tool of control and hegemony. So, western science fiction loses its imperialistic hegemony and becomes magical realism in postcolonial literature because of the nature of resistance to the western narratives.

The writer is a professor of English at Government Emerson College, Multan. He can be reached at zeadogar@hotmail.com and Tweets at @Profzee