Griffin's Egg, by Michael Swanwick

Griffin's Egg, by Michael Swanwick

The concept of Utopia as being a place that cannot exist, and therefore, a space where extrapolation and speculation is possible, within the confines of reason, is emphasized upon in Swanwick's novella, in spite of almost every preoccupation of SF making an appearance. This extrapolative space, as symbolized by a utopia, is similar to conceits made use of in Fantasy, where the fantastic elements are always at one, or several removes from our reality, thus allowing them an associative power that they would otherwise not possess. However, within the realms of science fiction, this space, while still an imaginative means of testing human insecurities, as it were, is subservient. It exists because the alternative, that is, our reality, is either not viable, or has become meaningless, or is too archaic to revert to, in a future setting. For instance, science fiction that is set on other planets often utilizes the trope of Earth having become so ancient so as to fall out of popular, or scientific imagination, or belief. Earth then becomes somewhat of a goal to achieve, or a memory to avoid at all costs. Similarly, in Swanwick's story, the moon becomes, in its own perverse mirroring of Earth life, a flawed means of regimentation. It cannot eschew the ways of Earth, but neither can it avoid it, because that is still the sole reference. This is made inevitable by the fact that the moon is originally used as a space of manufacturing industrial equipment and chemicals which is ultimately misused. This misuse refuses a complete separation from the home planet. Hubris, which could be said to be one of the three major themes operating in science fiction (the other two being Otherness and 'Alternity'), becomes the umbilical that corrupts existence on the moon. Since science fiction works on both a metaphorical/allegorical level as well as a literal one, the symbolic reading of Swanwick's novella, once interpreted through the lens of Utopia, or even the utopian impulse, opens up a way of gauging the failure of a system that is rooted in control, expansion and ultimately a separatist ideology. Inasmuch as an utopian space has always been regarded as somewhat Edenic, it is doubly significant, from an ecological point of view, that the moon is devoid of any Natural life other than the bastardized versions of the trees and animals introduced by the settlers. The protagonist, however, seems to prefer the desolate landscape of the moon, and even, on one occasion, complains that the natural beauty of the moon be preserved, even though it serves no purpose. The failure to reject a utilitarian worldview even when under no obligation to adhere to it, after the destruction of Earth, results in a reality where the humans are faced with estranged, and estranging versions of themselves. Their agenda to dismiss these people as sub-human, and further, to control them, could then be interpreted as them trying to grapple with their own guilt. Ultimately, therefore, the entire novella could be interpreted on several thematic grounds, but the dominant theme is still that of Man overreaching, at the expense of his environment, and as a consequence, his mental health, which is symbolically shown to be inextricably linked with his environment. The moon then becomes a space of the ultimate extrapolation of what Earth might be approaching itself: a barren wasteland, a simulacra, as it were, of the imagined future, or even a literal manifestation of the Heideggerian being-toward-death.