Post Colonial Science Fiction

The article by written Thrall examines Science Fiction or more specifically Post-colonial science fiction as a genre and looks to trace its roots and where there genre might be headed .However the most notable exertion in the article is whether or not some of the novels such as The Calcutta Chromosome are actually worthy of being characterized within the science fiction genre. The biggest argument against such a categorization is the fact that novels such as New Atlantis and the like depict voyages of individuals and also groups of people and their encounters with foreign creatures that may be comparable to the voyages of the colonial and their encounters with the colonized .As is clearly pointed out by the following quote: “‘the thesis that colonialisms a significant historical context for early science fiction’ has a ‘strong foundation in the obvious.” Furthermore a lot of the post colonial stories written are similar in nature to these “imaginative voyage stories in nature as they do the are constructed in the same way that “they are depicted expeditions to exotic worlds and encounters with strange inhabitants.” Much in the same way that stories that are worthy are assuming the mold of the prototype for post-colonial science fiction stories .The simple mold of these stories was the European expeditions on the world map and their continuous conquering of the various parts of the globe. This is a historical fact thus one begs to question whether in fact these are stories ?The argument is that while they do incorporate the various fairytale creatures and magic and so forth the main pillar ,that is the central theme of colonization which is a brutal fact and is grossly and completely non-fictional in nature means that these are arguably not fictional ,rather they are simply true events that have fictional improvisations added to them. Nalo Hopkinson exemplifies this in her so called science fiction short stories book titled Long Been Dreaming, as is pointed out by ‘one of the most familiar memes of science fictions that of going to foreign countries and colonizing the natives, and . . . For many of us, that’s not a thrilling story; it’s non-fiction, and we are on the wrong side of the strange-looking ship that appears out of nowhere.’ The Calcutta Chromosome adopts this mold of depicting a non-fictitious past and incorporating elements of the science fiction. The book draws on the binaries of ‘native/alien, technologist/pastoralist, colonizer/colonized’ ,and in this way Ghosh is able to shift the so-called perspective in this way and expose the vices of the colonial .The plot is an interbred mix of Western rationality and Eastern tradition and the ultimate goal that is to cure malaria or rather to achieve immortality shows this sort of mix as the story develops in the rational as well as esoteric/mystical manner. The ultimate argument though is that these are clearly not fiction rather they are inclusive of fiction.