David Desser�s Race, Space, and Class: The Politics of
Cityscapes in Science Fiction Films
In Race, Space, and Class: The Politics of Cityscapes in Science Fiction Films, David Desser observes that since Fritz Langs film Metropolis, many science fiction films have made use of the physical space of the diegesis, usually cities, to underscore differences or binaries related to issues of race, space, and social class in the fictional world and in the societies in which the film-makers live. Desser argues that spatial binaries like high/low, inside/outside underscore thematic binaries like bourgeois/working class, dominant race/non-dominant, male/female, self/other, and human/non-human.
For instance, he finds the spatial binary of high/low in Metropolis (1927), The Time Machine (1960), The Cloud Minders (a 1961 episode of Star Trek), and Blade Runner (1982). In all these examples, the difference between social classes is emphasized by the fact that those classes live on different physical levels of the city or landscape both groups inhabit. Two of these examples also show that the spatial difference can underscore more than one social binary. In both The Time Machine and Blade Runner different spaces are inhabited by different races and even by groups that vary in their degree of humanity.
The other major spatial binary that arises in Dessers examples is that of inside/outside, which characterizes the science-fiction worlds of Alphaville (1965), Fahrenheit 451 (1966), ZPG (1971), Soylent Green (1973), A Clockwork Orange (1971), THX-1138 (1970), and Blade Runner. Desser emphasizes the binary of human/non-human (or inhuman) as corresponding to outside/inside. Here, the dystopias rob humanity of their dignity by various means (e.g. mind-control, the prohibition of the irrational, population control) and in most of these films, the protagonists escape from the inside to the outside of society to preserve their humanity.
It is surprising that Desser indiscriminately mixes his description and discussion of these two groups of films and spatial binaries together (simply moving from film to film chronologically) instead of discussing them separately and exploring the important differences between them. Both groups do use spatial differences to underscore other binaries. But while the high/low set of films uses space to emphasize social difference that leads to conflict among social groups, the inside/outside set uses space to emphasize social conformity that leads to a conflict within the individual and between the individual and the society as a whole. Thus the high/low set sees the basis of dystopias as difference, while the inside/outside set sees it as uniformity.
Questions:
1) Desser notes, While much science-fiction or fantasy literature of the precinematic age was concerned with utopias, cinema would carry forward the dystopic tradition inaugurated by Metropolis. Other than the possible influence of Metropolis, why might the cinema or the cinematic age show more of a preference for exploring dystopias?
2) Are there any social binaries in Alphaville? Are they reflected in the physical space of the film? What other types of thematic binaries might spatial differences in Alphaville (e.g. inside/outside) reflect?