Intro
A pre-klingon example of how sci-fi can explore contemporary cultural issues and questions of identity is Ayn Rand's 1937 novella Anthem. Her book has lots in common with 1984, portraying a future in which individuality and free will have been stamped out. Well, almost stamped out—as in Orwell's novel, Anthem focuses on a man (here given the name Equality 7-2521—nice ring to it, ain't there?) who may not have the words to say what's troubling him, but has a hunch that this isn't the world he wants to live in.
Sci-fi works are interesting from a cultural studies viewpoint because they're not just about fantastical adventure and escapism (not that there's anything wrong with that—or anything you can't theorize about, for that matter). Instead, they use the genre to highlight real-life issues and themes relating to politics, ethics, philosophy, and human nature. Rand herself grew up in Soviet Russia and developed a hatred of collectivism, so Anthem presents Rand's ideas about the functioning of society, and the concept of society itself.
As the novel progresses, the narrator increasingly finds that any type of independent thought is wiped out. In one scene, he seems to uncover the secret of electricity and thinks that everyone will be grateful. But does his tinkering fit their collective vision of labor and toil for all?
Quote
Collective 0-0009 looked upon us, and they smiled.
"So you think that you have found a new power," said Collective 0-0009. "Do all your brothers think that?"
"No," we answered.
"What is not thought by all men cannot be true," said Collective 0-0009.
"You have worked on this alone?" asked International 1-5537.
"Many men in the Homes of the Scholars have had strange new ideas in the past," said Solidarity 8-1164, "but when the majority of their brother Scholars voted against them, they abandoned their ideas, as all men must."
"This box is useless," said Alliance 6-7349.
"Should it be what they claim of it," said Harmony 9-2642, "then it would bring ruin to the Department of Candles. The Candle is a great boon to mankind, as approved by all men. Therefore it cannot be destroyed by the whim of one."
"This would wreck the Plans of the World Council," said Unanimity 2-9913, "and without the Plans of the World Council the sun cannot rise. It took fifty years to secure the approval of all the Councils for the Candle, and to decide upon the number needed, and to re-fit the Plans so as to make candles instead of torches. This touched upon thousands and thousands of men working in scores of States. We cannot alter the Plans again so soon."
"And if this should lighten the toil of men," said Similarity 5-0306, "then it is a great evil, for men have no cause to exist save in toiling for other men."
Then Collective 0-0009 rose and pointed at our box.
"This thing," they said, " must be destroyed."
And all the others cried as one: "It must be destroyed!"
Analysis
Why are these people so good at talking in unison? Does the narrator answer a question "we" because he thinks super highly of himself? Nope, it's even weirder than that: in this fictional future, the words "me" and "I" don't even exist because individuality is so frowned upon there's not even a word for it. The narrator's invention doesn't even matter because individual achievement and creativity are banned in this collectivist, bureaucratic, candle-burning society.
This is relevant to cultural studies in that it shows us the flip side of socialism—when it's taken to extremes. Remember all those early cultural studies scholars? Total socialist junkies. Rand, however, had witnessed socialism at its most repressive.
Well that's funny…some of the earlier theorists saw capitalism and consumer culture as brainwashing and de-humanizing the masses, and socialism meant equality and an end to class conflict. But Rand depicts a socialist dystopia that demonizes individual achievement, or any form of individuality for that matter. Quite the switcheroo!
Anthem engages cultural studies' interest in questions about group identity vs. individual identity, and shows how any society, no matter how lofty its goals, has the potential to be overrun by mass ideology and repression.