AGUSTÍN
FERNÁNDEZ MALLO and GERMÁN SIERRA: Two Points of View of
Postindustrial Society
Introduction
The
influence of technology has been fundamental in the history of
literature, as we can see from reading the major works in literature
from each period. For instance, The
Iliad, The
Divine Comedy, Don
Quixote, Bouvard
and Pecuchet or Ulyses
from James Joyce are full of references related to technology. One of
the cited books, Don
Quixote, is one of the main
references in the history of Spanish literature. However, in the case
of Spanish Peninsular literature, its relation with technology has
had a weak interaction, at least in the past. The influence of
technology in Spanish Peninsular literature is described in punctual
cases, sometimes without continuity. In order to explain this, it is
important to remember the difficult relationship between Spanish
society on the one side and science and technology on the other. As a
consequence, “La polémica de la ciencia española” (the
controversy of Spanish Science) is one of the main themes in the
historiography of science in Spain. This ideological debate, that
covers the XIX and XX centuries, is a conflict between faith and
reason and the roles they had to play in Spanish society, producing
very controversial claims such as “Que inventen ellos” (Let them
[foreign people] do the inventing), from the philosopher and writer
Miguel de Unamuno. This is proof of the lack of interest in
technological innovation in some circles of Spanish scholars and
intellectuals. In contrast, literary movements such as “la
Generación del 27” (1927 Generation) paid attention to technology
in a way similar to that of other contemporary movements of the
historic avant-gardes, like the futurist and surrealist movements.
Decades later, Juan Benet, one of the most important authors in
Spanish Peninsular literature after the Civil War, connected Spanish
Literature with the most relevant international tendencies,
presenting elements of technology in his writings, regarding them as
a perfect tool in order to describe how time goes by. The use of
technology as a resource in writing was also applied by Javier Marias
in nineteen nineties (1990), precisely one of Benet's disciples. The
influence of technology in human relationships is one of the main
points in understanding Marias' literary success.
Although
the examples shown below show the discontinuity and the problems of
introducing technology into Spanish literary speech, today - at the
beginning of the XXI century - not only is technology normally used
in Spanish Peninsular literature, it is also one of the contemporary
literatures
most interested in the study of technology’s influence on society.
Consequently, some contemporary Spanish writers have a particular
point of view on technology. This being the justification of this
communication, structured around visions of technology in our
postindustrial society of two Spanish writers: Germán Sierra (A
Coruña, 1960) and Agustín Fernández Mallo (A Coruña, 1967), both
considered “mutantes” (mutants) by critics.
Postmodern
points of view on technology: Posthumanism and Spanish Peninsular
Literature
As
Vicente Luis Mora affirms in some of his essays (La
luz nueva and El
lectoespectador), the use
of new technologies in Spanish contemporary narrative is very common
nowadays. In fact today an important group of authors exists who not
only consider technology in their works of fiction, but who also use
it in order to “compose” their pages (“pantpáginas”
pantpages in Mora's words).
Most
of these writers think of technology from a posthumanist point of
view, as defined by Katherine N. Hayles. That is, a postindustrial
society where the coexistence with machines implies the creation of
not strictly human societies. Sierra and Fernández Mallo agree with
this perspective. However, as we can read below, this common point of
view produces very different visions of the role of technology in
contemporary societies.
Germán
Sierra and the essential tension of technology
Germán
Sierra is the author of five narrative books, a compilation of short
stories: Alto
Voltaje;
and of four novels: El
espacio aparentemente perdido,
La
felicidad no da el dinero,
Efectos
secundarios and
Intente
usar otras palabras.
He is one of the writers
in Spain most interested in Anglo-Saxon Postmodernity. His quotations
of J. G. Ballard were probably the first in Spanish literature, and
the influence of Don DeLillo and cyberpunk aesthetics have been
fundamental in his writing. Clearly, the point of view of technology
of the authors just mentioned has also influenced Sierra.
Sierra's
perspective is that technology has an aggressive effect on the
natural environment, in the same way that Ballard's write crashes,
DeLillo discusses industrial accidents and Gibson talks of the
destruction caused by big corporations. As a consequence, this
creates a dangerous environment. This fact can be contrasted in
Sierra's short story “Alto Voltaje” (High Voltage), which is
included in the compilation of short stories with the same title. In
this tale, Sierra tells the story of a scientist that, due to
economic problems, works as sensationalist journalist in the media,
specializing in the popularization of science. He has to visit a
village in which it seems that some High Voltage towers are provoking
cancer in its inhabitants. At no time the short story solves the
relationship between the High Voltage towers and the disease. The
tale, however, refers to human vulnerability in our contemporary
‘Techno Scientific’ society. That is exactly Sierra's perspective
of technology that we can find in all his writings: a complex
postindustrial world with oppressive environments in which technology
never provides the progress of past ages, on the contrary, it
contributes to a major vulnerability in humans. In addition,
technology helps the centers of power manipulate individuals.
This
skeptical stance presented by someone who I consider to be a
conceptual postmodern writer, who considers the knowledge provided by
Technoscience as relative, can easily be found in his books. For
instance, in La felicidad no
da el dinero, the
information relating science and technology is abusive and obsessive.
And in Efectos secundarios,
according to the author, technology is an aggressive tool that
confronts the natural environment with dramatic consequences, as we
can read in the first sentence of the novel:
“La vibración
telúrica de las excavadoras y martillos neumáticos se difunde –como
se extiende el líquido inyectado en el músculo glúteo- por las
anfractuosidades de la corteza, aprovecha la elasticidad de las rocas
pulverizadas y los apelmazados residuos orgánicos que componen la
capa más externa de la Tierra para viajar hasta las puertas del
infierno y rebotar contra las rocas silicoaluminosas, más densas y
compactas, regresando a la superficie deformada en seísmo casi
imperceptible, silencioso y continuo como el crecimiento del cabello”
This
point of view can be observed in other passages of the book, like
when Sierra says that the city “se construyó imitando el orden
dictado por los dioses, obedeciendo a la matemática celeste plagada
de triángulos y obediente a los círculos”. This
is a metaphor that describes the city as a living organism that eats
everything surrounding it, including the citizens that live there.
This negative point of view includes mythological elements to state
the human desire to become godlike with the use of science and
technology, even though it also implies “militares medidas de
seguridad”, “códigos digitales”, “videocámaras” and
“pistolas automáticas”.
In Intente usar otras
palabras, a novel that
treats our egocentric society and its desires of panopticism (the
desire to be watched, described by the author as “el deseo de que
alguien observe cada instante de nuestra vida”) with the help of
the Internet. In this book, the role of technology is the alienation
of individuals. The computerized environment in which the characters
live is one of the reasons of their lack of action. This
metaphor is complemented with the description of a working atmosphere
full of technology but that is cold and barren: “Carlos Prats
pierde el tiempo escuchando el casi imperceptible zumbido del aire
acondicionado, las voces vecinas amortiguadas por los tabiques de
Pladur, el chirrido del fax cada vez que evacua sus planas
deyecciones blancas y negras”. In
the sense of alienation we can understand the concept of panopticism
proposed in the novel or wiretapping that we can find in the pages of
the book. Precisely, the telephone is described as “la máquina de
las mentiras” (the machine of lies).
However,
all of Sierra's writings are structured around opposed ideas and, in
the case of technology, the aggressiveness of technology against the
natural environment is complemented with the interesting interaction
between technology and arts. In all Sierra's fictions we can find a
character that represents this interaction: the cyber artist. This
character can be represented by a writer, such as Arturo in Efectos
secundarios; a graphic
artist such as the photographer Pablo Melchor in Intente
usar otras palabras; or a
performer that uses biology to perform art in the same way that
Eduardo Kac, such as Álex in La
felicidad no da el dinero,
who proposes the concept of “transgénesis”, an idea inspired by
molecular genetics that tries to synthesize the arts and sciences.
In
connection with the last paragraph and with the second section of
this communication, Sierra is one of the Spanish writers who tend to
use new technologies and their possibilities in order to complement
their writings. La felicidad
no da el dinero is
organized around Internet addresses. One important part of the plot
of Efectos secundarios is
revealed through e-mails. And we mentioned above the influence of
computers in Intente usar
otras palabras, in which
Google appears everywhere, including in the title of the novel and
translations by Google Translator.
Finally,
the synthesis of the confrontation between technology and the natural
environment can be observed in the contrast between a extremely
technified world and the return to a natural and idealized past. Even
though Sierra's fictions normally develop in a technological
environment, in each narration there is a passage in which the action
goes back to a past related with nature. For example, in El
espacio aparentemente perdido,
and the reminiscences of the narrator about his scientific vocation
as a biologist:
“La naturaleza estaba
llena de una poesía que se podía observar, experimentar, y de esa
sensación provenía probablemente la afición por la biología que
se desarrollaría hasta llevarme a los estudios universitarios, y esa
necesidad de observar y de experimentar me llevaría también a una
honda decepción en la universidad y, sobre todo, la inquietud, el
deseo de novedades que jamás me abandona.”
In
La felicidad no da el
dinero, in the final
passage that takes place in a small village there is a sexual scene
written with natural concepts, contrasting with the continuous techno
scientific advertising that appears in the novel. In Efectos
secundarios, this can be seen in the character of Valcárcel who
lives in a village, and in the short tale “Alto voltaje”, with
the differences between old technology, represented by the train, and
new technology, represented by the high voltage towers and energy
that changes the life of the inhabitants of the village. However,
this is a false perception because the natural environment is
manipulated (for instance, with the fish farms in La felicidad no da
el dinero) that intensifies the confrontation between natural and
technified and shows it as a contradiction: the dream to come back to
an idealized natural environment versus the fascination for
cybernetics. A contradiction that in my opinion remains in all the
humans and shows complex thinking in the posthuman aesthetics of
Sierra.
To
conclude the analysis of Sierra's point of view, in my opinion the
issue between “bad technology” and “good technology” is
solved in his writings by discussing the use that technology gives,
technology being initially neutral. It is its interaction with men
that gives a moral content. The ethics of technology in Sierra's
books belongs to the humans and their decisions.
Agustín
Fernández Mallo and timeless and amoral technology
On
the contrary, in Fernández Mallo's narrative, technology and nature
are never pure. They are in continuous interaction and cannot be
dissociated or confronted. To understand the theoretical background
of this position, it is important to mention that the author is
deeply influenced by late postmodernism, especially European
postmodern philosophy and American postmodern poetry.
Although
this point of view can be found in all Fernández Mallo's narrative
works, as we can see below, the book in which this perspective is
most prominent is Nocilla
Lab, the third part of his
trilogy, Proyecto Nocilla.
This novel is also divided into three parts. The first part is
written in a conventional way, with a continuous paragraph, as Thomas
Bernhard used to write. In this paragraph, the biography and the
influences of the author are explained. In the passage, references to
Particle Physics alternate with criticizing arguments of radical
environmentalism. This confrontation against environmentalism
continues into the second part of the novel. This section is written
in the common style used by Fernández Mallo: micro passages
fragmented and ordered numerically. In this part, the criticism
against conservationism is contrasted with the artificial reality of
our environment, and with a series of manufactured and technological
elements: computers, plastic gardens, pictures of sounds and smoke
from tobacco. The last part, constructed in pieces, is focused in a
clear posthuman atmosphere. Within it plastic trees grow up and the
narrator is surrounded by common and technological elements not
always pleasant: credit cards, computers and trash. Finally, after
pages and pages fighting against himself, the narrator escapes. The
book finishes as a graphic novel in an oil rig. In this place, the
graphic version of Enrique Vila-Matas tells stories about clocks and
cells of concrete. The only natural elements in this part are the sea
and a threatening storm.
As
we have read, in this book Fernández Mallo denies the image of the
environment as a reality. From his point of view, nature is in
continuous interaction with technology. This perspective is connected
with the idea of timelessness, the position of Fernández Mallo faced
with the techno science products. For example, in paragraph 22nd
of Nocilla Dream,
Niels (a Danish zoologist) is carrying out research with dwarf dogs
in order to defuse landmines. The sinister project shows that
Fernández Mallo does not ignore the less ethical science projects.
When Niels solves his problem with desert rats, with the help of
another character Frank, the tragicomic version of science is showed
to us. However, we cannot find evidence in the text that landmines
did not exist 200 years ago. Fernández Mallo's perspective is
timeless, without the influence of the history of technology. His
characters interact with objects that exist in the world. More
evidence of this point of view can be read in the 67th
paragraph in the same book. In it, Fernández Mallo describes the
picture of a Japanese man that saw the nuclear explosion of Hiroshima
covered only by one umbrella. Facing the three possibilities of man’s
destiny (one positive, the other negative, the last neutral), the
author chooses the positive: an aesthetic fascination in front of the
mushroom cloud and its performance. In other words, Fernández Mallo
never denies the existence of the bomb, he never denies the nuclear
drama (negative possibility), or the relation between power,
technology and weapons (neutral possibility), but chooses the third
possibility. He assumes the existence of nuclear weapons to be
something real and inevitable. However, his election is aesthetic.
This artistic decision perfectly defines his poetics with an
enthusiastic perspective that is sinister at the same time. This
election is obvious at the beginning of Nocilla
Lab, when the author begins
the narration with something common place in contemporary Spanish
Peninsular literature: Chernobil. In this case, instead of going into
the dramatic consequences of the nuclear disaster that took place in
1986 with the victim who comes back to find his home destroyed in
Pripiat, Fernández Mallo identifies himself with the story of the
lonely man. And later, he states that there would be other
possibilities: a more realistic literature, a literature compromised
against the dangers of techno science. But he prefers to use his
particular style in order to demonstrate comparisons between science
and society. Also his aesthetic decision is the reason to choose a
ruined Parcheesi Palace in the ex Soviet Union, where he could choose
between lots of technoscientific industries that were built there,
but which, today, are in ruins.
In
other words, Fernández Mallo’s relationship with technology is
determined by the aesthetic fascination and the fact that techno
science is a reality even though its products can be dangerous. The
influence of timelessness and the positions of late postmodernism is
fundamental to this point of view. With these poetics, the author
affirms that sciences’ statements are poetic and immutable,
surpassing the human statements, as he mentions by saying “el peso
y la masa son cosas tan importantes que ni la muerte las anula”, or
in “la paradoja del aumento de entropía que genera vida en vez de
muerte”. Statements that will survive in a posthuman world.
Consequently,
Fernadez Mallo's position on technology is not only uninterested in
ethics, its only interest is aesthetics. The individual cannot decide
on a positive or negative use of technology, especially in issues
related with natural environment. This vision is commonly accepted in
countries in which technology has only been developed recently. This
is the case for Spain nowadays, and was the case of the USA in the
nineteen fifties. But Fernández Mallo uses a particular and sinister
tone for the influence of late postmodernity, because the point of
view of Fernández Mallo is not ingenuous.
Conclusion
The
intellectual background of Germán Sierra and Agustín Fernández
Mallo in the case of technology is very similar. Their philosophical
and aesthetic principles, as posthumanism, postindustrial society,
and the fact that interaction with technology is a main theme in our
lifes, is present in the writings of both authors. They also share
the idea that technology could be a complement to writing. However,
their point of view on technology differs.
Both
consider technology products as ethically neutral. But from Sierra's
perspective, the use of technology by humans is fundamental in order
to define the ethical practices that interact with technology, from
Fernández Mallo's perspective the lack of morality of technology
includes its use.
This
main difference is determined by the cultural and biographical
influences of both authors. While Sierra is notably influenced by
Anglo-Saxon postmodern narrative, especially by authors such as Don
DeLillo, J. G. Ballard and William Gibson, in whose writings the
criticism against bad uses of technology is very powerful, Fernández
Mallo is influenced by late postmodern philosophers and poets, whose
perspective of technology is aesthetic and timeless. Or in other
words, while in Sierra’s work there is evidence of criticism
against technology derived from criticism against the Cold War,
Fernández Mallo grows up in an atmosphere fascinated with technology
in which fears related to a nuclear war decrease in favor of global
capitalism.
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