"Why not?" you may ask. "Superman's an alien being! He's from another planet! He visits an Earth that is clearly analogous to our own!" Yes, all valid points. But none of these things make the film true science fiction.
First, examine the setting in which Superman takes place. It is indeed an Earth very much like our own; it's got a Grand Canyon and a San Andreas Fault and a United States and all sorts of other Earth-y things. But it's also got a Metropolis. Not only is "Metropolis" not an actual city, but it's a city that was designed specifically to be an allegory for every major... metropolis in the United States (hence the name; they may as well have called it "Big City"). Furthermore, while Metropolis is located somewhere in the US, it isn't explicitly or implicitly located in any particular state. Metropolis is not an alternate reality, rather it's a mere metaphor for reality, lacking the depth and specificity of a fully fleshed-out world. The characters follow this same pattern: Lex Luthor is a villain, Superman is a hero, Lois Lane is a love interest. These are not actual people populating an actual reality; these are symbols of good and evil populating a fable.
The deficient setting in and of itself doesn't disqualify Superman as science fiction, though. More importantly, Superman doesn't use its setting to ask questions about the nature of humanity or reality or even morality. Instead, it preaches: This is good, it says, this is evil. It never bothers to ask why Superman feels a connection with humanity despite not being human. It never bothers to ask what it is that fundamentally distinguishes Superman from a generic human being. It never even bothers to ask what effect power has on one's being. (If anyone's reading this and can think of a question that Superman DOES ask, please let me know. As far as I can tell, it's a story and nothing more.)
To give some contrast to this, think of Watchmen as a counterpoint. Watchmen takes place in New York City, not the one that we know, but a New York City with electric cars and airships, in a 1980s United States that's considerably more conservative than the one from history. It is a fully illustrated world populated by deep and flawed characters. But more importantly, it uses this setting to ask all the questions that Superman failed to ask. Dr. Manhattan's power has disconnected him from the rest of humanity, implicitly asking the questions, "What makes us human? What does power do to our humanity? Why do we bother empathizing with other members of our species?" The contrast between the "hero" Rorschach's torturous ways and the "villain" Ozymandias's desire to bring world peace asks, "What is good? What is evil?" And most importantly, Watchmen never purports to answer these questions. Rather, it tells a story and asks us to answer these questions for ourselves.
So what would a science fiction version of Superman look like? (Pay attention, Christopher Nolan; I hear that you're helping to produce the upcoming reboot.) A science fiction Superman would remember his time on Krypton, and how sophisticated and peaceful it was. He would arrive on Earth, and be disgusted by our comparative barbarity. He would look down on us as if we were chimpanzees, and would feel no natural desire to rescue us from our natural state. He would be aloof and distant and have difficulty socializing because he lacks empathy for the people surrounding him. And finally, when the time comes when one of the few humans who knows his origin (read: Lois Lane) comes to him and asks him for assistance, he will pause and say, "What is it that makes humanity worthy to be saved?" It'll be a valid question.
But he won't truly feel a connection with humanity until after he's exposed to Kryptonite. In the science fiction version of Superman, Kryptonite doesn't kill Superman; rather, it strips him of his powers, makes him weak and vulnerable (to bullets and fire and whatever else)--it humanizes him. Only then does he begin to consider that perhaps the only thing that makes him different from the humans surrounding him is that he is away from his home; when he's close to home (or a piece of his home, in the case of Kryptonite), he is fearful and panicky and weak, no better than the people who are looking to him for deliverance. A Superman like this would be the driving force behind a Superman that asks, "What makes us human? Are we fundamentally good or evil? How should we use the power available to us?"
That would be science fiction.
No comments:
Post a Comment