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Victor Frankenstein observing the first stirrings of his creature.

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Book of Science and Skeleton Luke Jones
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1. Victor Frankenstein observing the first stirrings of his creature.
Victor flees his creation Luke Jones
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1. Victor Frankenstein observing the first stirrings of his creature.
Creature awakens Luke Jones
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1. Victor Frankenstein observing the first stirrings of his creature.

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Colonization of Artificial Bodies in Speculative Fiction
Many speculative fiction works critique the colonization of human bodies, which is defined as exercising physical and psychological control over humans to use them as resources for some end by the perpetrator. Through novums such as clones, humanoid robots, replicas, and other forms of artificial beings, various stories describe and confront worlds that create or perpetuate the socio-political mechanisms of human control. Many speculative fiction stories reveal anxieties and provide warnings on the dangers of body exploitation and its dehumanizing effects in the real world.

Background

It has long been recognized that the origins of speculative and science fiction can be linked to the colonialism and imperialism perpetuated by the European powers throughout the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries. This period saw rapid technological advancement that fundamentally altered society. It is no coincidence that many of the first speculative fiction stories emerged from Europe during the 1800s, the apex of this era of upheaval and expansion. The increasing consumption and industrialization of European states required vast resources beyond the European continent. In a self-feeding cycle, new technology allowed colonial ventures to procure resources which in turn fueled further technological advancement. Thus, the European perception of being technologically superior bled into the science-focused works of the period, though many texts would critique such concepts even at this early stage.

Frankenstein and Revenge Born of Reason

Frankenstein, published by Mary Shelley in 1818, reflects an early critique of the imperialism of bodies. Considered one of the earliest speculative fiction narratives, the famous story involves Victor Frankenstein creating a humanoid creature, only to immediately abandon it, leading to a series of tragedies as the creature seeks revenge. In the book, Victor justifies his creation through the concept of progress, saying, “But then I thought about how things were changing in science all the time. New discoveries were being made every day. I was sure that if I had problems, I would find answers. I had to succeed. I knew I would.”[1] In his actions as a scientist, Victor attempts to reduce the complexity of human existence just to prove he can create life. The creature is thus a tool, but not in the traditional sense. In essence, the creature is meant to be an object with life rather than a true person.

But despite being a scientific achievement, the creature ruins Victor’s life. Victor’s carelessness and lack of empathy drive the creature into misanthropy, as the creature itself notes, “‘I stopped feeling sad. I began to feel angry.…Then I began to think about you, Frankenstein. It was your fault that my life was so unhappy. I decided to punish you.’”[2] Victor’s undoing comes from his unrestrained scientific endeavors, and his actions destroy numerous innocent lives rather than bring progress. Kim Hammond notes, “In Frankenstein we see that knowledge and expertise, in the wrong hands, and with no structures of social accountability, can be dangerous, and as such present a risk to society.”[3] Frankenstein is an early warning of the abuse of technology that would become a key element in future speculative fiction stories.

Defining Humanity in Tarkovsky's Solaris

Many stories written later demonstrate similar themes involving the ill-treatment of human-like beings. In Andrei Tarkovsky's Solaris (1972), Dr. Chris Kelvin goes to a space station orbiting the titular planet; there, the planet’s ocean manifests a replica of Kelvin’s late wife Hari. When first formed, Hari’s replica feels compelled to remain in Kelvin’s presence despite his unease.[4]

Like Frankenstein’s creature, Hari’s replica forms her identity in relation to the people she interacts with. Eventually, Hari’s copy becomes more independent as she takes after more of Kelvin’s memories of his late wife, and he becomes more attached to her.[5] Hari’s replica struggles to find meaning and value in her life, and she forms a consciousness based on her relationship with Kelvin.

However, Solaris also raises the question of the status of Hari’s copy as a human being. Snaut and Sartorius, the other two scientists, disparage the replica’s existence, with Sartorius stating, “There’s no Hari. She is dead. You’re only a reproduction. A mechanical repetition of the form! A copy! A matrix!"[6]

Sartorius dismisses the idea of Hari’s replica as a human being. By using industrial terms and equating her with machinery, he dehumanizes Hari’s recreation, despite her possessing intelligence and emotion. Like Victor Frankenstein’s creature, Hari’s replica is seen as a mistake, dismissed as an obstacle to the study of Solaris, or even as a physical and psychological threat to the people on board the station. As colonizers, Snaut and Sartorius seek to destroy what they cannot control.

Despite being designated as nonhuman, Hari’s replica expressed human emotions and decisions. Her annihilation comes about due to qualities the scientists refused to acknowledge to justify their actions. Alice Buckman refers to this process of constructed dehumanization as “imaging,” which involves creating and reinforcing beliefs of the “colonized as deserving of their lower status.”[7] Snaut and Sartorius engage in imaging to denigrate the Hari duplicate’s personhood, no matter what the duplicate says or does. As colonizers like Victor Frankenstein, the scientists Snaut and Sartorius seek to destroy what they cannot control.

Additionally, Hari’s copy is reliant on Kelvin to maintain her existence. She states that she cannot leave his side, saying, “I’ve such a feeling I need to see you all the time.”[8] Even death cannot free her from her predicament until she is subject to the scientists’ annihilator. Hari’s replica, through no fault of her own, is deprived of the ability to make meaningful choices about her life, locking her to an imprisoned life.

Dark Acceptance: Never Let Me Go

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro showcases a society that raises clones to provide organs for non-clone people, depriving the clones of any other future. As explained to the protagonists, “You were brought into this world for a purpose, and your futures, all of them, have been decided.”[9] Everything the clones see and do is carefully regulated to prime them for organ harvesting, in turn preventing them from making meaningful choices. For instance, the students of Hailsham cannot smoke, leave the grounds, or procreate. Their bodies are industrialized resources, and they are limited in making decisions that interfere with their intended purpose.
Never Let Me Go reinvents slavery in a speculative reality, intertwining it with concerns over the dehumanizing effects of technology. Ishiguro shows that clones like Kathy are human in their mannerisms, beliefs, and goals, such as wanting to play with toys or start a family. Yet they are condemned to exploitation and early death. The sentiments of the protagonists contrast with the cold and distant science and medicine of the unseen leaders of the world, who enforce the status quo.

Never Let Me Go also warns of how exploitation can become an unquestioned part of society. Brought up in a controlled and isolated environment, the clones never question the injustice of their predetermined lives to the point of rebellion. Kathy has a resigned acceptance of her fate; she even reminisces on “just how lucky [she’d] been” growing up in Hailsham.[10]

This normalization makes it easier for society to ignore its collective guilt to extract medical benefits from the clones. Karl Shaddox writes, “Avoiding the fact of their individuality made slaughtering the clones for their organs ethically palatable for the normals. Reading Kathy H's memoir, an account of the affective reality of herself and the other clones, reveals what this collective evasion has wrought: institutionalized genocide.”[11]

Due to the systemic nature of its body colonization, Never Let Me Go is frightening in its realism. Ishiguro sets his story not in the far future but in an alternate 1990s.[12] The setting resembles the real world except for the advanced cloning. Shaddox argues that this date is“to show that the challenges of a post human future are already upon us.”[13] Never Let Me Go warns of the human cost of technological advancement as the body becomes a resource to exploit.

Brazen Defiance: Blade Runner

Blade Runner, a cult classic cyberpunk fiction directed by Ridley Scott, analyzes the other side of body colonization by showcasing the humanity of its artificial beings.

The opening crawl states that replicants are “superior in strength and agility, and at least equal in intelligence” to regular humans, and that they are used as slave labor on other planets.[14] Like Never Let Me Go, an entire group of beings is created to be subservient, but the replicants in Blade Runner recognize their terrible conditions and find the will to resist. Many replicants in the film are like Frankenstein’s creature, lashing out at their cruel creators. Roy Batty, the leader of the rebel replicants, seeks to find and kill his creator, Tyrell, and he eventually succeeds in doing so.[15] Society’s cruelty and apathy push the replicants into becoming murderers seeking to survive. The replicants act in open defiance of their programming to assert their humanity.

In Blade Runner, the replicants embrace vivid imagery and spectacle to display their humanity, often appearing more emotional and relatable than normal humans. With their artificially reduced lifespans, the replicants seek to make the most of their limited time. They are vibrant, emotive, and unashamed, contrasting with the protagonist's cold persona. Shaddox argues that stories with artificial humans show a path to individuality through “the accumulation of life's emotional experiences” that come to form a “permanent identity.”[16] The replicants were designed mostly for manual labor, but through their camaraderie and colorful activities, they find new meaning and value.

These moments of being are most exemplified by Roy Batty’s final monologue to protagonist Rick Deckard, where he describes his experiences throughout the universe, lamenting, “All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die.”[17] In his short life, Roy can find some meaning and independence. His time is brazen and bright, cut short due to his programming. In his final moments, Roy demonstrates his humanity even as he suffers his fate as an artificial construct. This stands in contrast to Deckard, who had been cold and indifferent up until that point. Only with Roy’s death does he begin to live his own life, finding that humans and replicants are not so different and avoiding the trap of body colonialism for his own sake.

Conclusion

Through artificial humans, speculative fiction stories explore the complexities of identity and oppression. Replicated beings become metaphors for the treatment of marginalized groups in the real world. Deemed inferior, they are forced into predetermined roles to suit the needs of the dominant elites. However, some find freedom through their emerging humanity, even if that freedom is fleeting. When such beings are abused, subjugated, and dehumanized, it reflects on the potential cruelty of humanity and its capacity to damage and destroy itself. Whether the stories are ones of hope or despair, they warn of how humanity’s flaws are not destined to disappear as science advances. Technology can easily become a tool of oppression, and only by embracing humanity can its excesses be averted.

References:
[1] Mary Shelley, Frankenstein, ed. T. Ernesto Bethancourt (Belmont: David S. Lake Publishers, 1986), 20-21.
[2] Shelley, Frankenstein, 45-46.
[3] Kim Hammond, “Monsters of Modernity: Frankenstein and Modern Environmentalism,” Cultural Geographies 11, no. 2 (2004): 192. http://www.jstor.org/stable/44250971.
[4] Solaris, directed by Andrei Tarkovsky (1972; Moscow: Mosfilm, 2022), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8ZhQPaw4rE.
[5] Solaris, Tarkovsky, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8ZhQPaw4rE.
[6] Solaris, Tarkovsky, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8ZhQPaw4rE.
[7] Alyson R. Buckman, “The Body as a Site of Colonization: Alice Walker’s Possessing the Secret of Joy,” Journal of American Culture (01911813) 18, no. 2 (June 1, 1995): 89. doi:10.1111/j.1542-734x.1995.00089.x.
[8] Solaris, Tarkovsky, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8ZhQPaw4rE.
[9] Kazuo Ishiguro, Never Let Me Go (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2005), 61.
[10] Ishiguro, Never Let Me Go, 3.
[11] Karl Shaddox, “Generic Considerations in Ishiguro’s ‘Never Let Me Go,’” Human Rights Quarterly 35, no. 2 (2013): 466. http://www.jstor.org/stable/24518023.
[12] Ishiguro, Never Let Me Go, 1.
[13] Shaddox, “Generic Considerations,’” 468. http://www.jstor.org/stable/24518023.
[14] Blade Runner, directed by Ridley Scott (1982; USA: Warner Bros., 1982), Plex.
[15] Blade Runner, Scott, Plex.
[16] Shaddox, “Generic Considerations,’” 456-457. http://www.jstor.org/stable/24518023.
[17] Blade Runner, Scott, Plex