In approaching this presidential race the wrong way.
It's not political science.
It's science fiction.
Something is amiss in the space-time continuum.
The candidates running now are not the same ones we started out with.
The invasion of the body snatches all over again.
We're watching the clash of the pod people.
The first hint that things were not what they seemed came when Barack Obama turned into
Hillary Clinton.
We believe this was engineered by Hillary fans who had seen that early Star Trek episode
about the woman who wanted to be a starship commander so badly that she figured out a
way to switch brains with Captain Kirk.
So how do you understand that if you don't understand science fiction?
And I'll just hit you with one more in case that was not good enough.
The science fiction critic Dave Ittskopf writing in the New York Times book review.
Have the world of science fiction and presidential politics ever been more closely aligned than
they were in 2007?
This was the year when Rudolf Giuliani told a young questioner on the campaign trail that
will be prepared if the United States is attacked by aliens from another planet.
When Dennis Kucinich blithely confessed during a democratic debate that he'd seen a UFO.
And when Mitt Romney revealed in an interview that L. Ron Herbert's Battleshield Earth was
one of his favorite novels.
But really, is that all that remarkable that Romney would identify with the story of a
virtuous hero who saves Earth from a foreign evasion force or that several candidates have
embraced science fiction when so many of them could benefit from its lessons?
So that's the end of the quotations and here's me.
David Ittskopf notes that science fiction and presidential politics are closely aligned
world.
Colin's piece, which is replete with science fiction context and references to science
fiction texts, exemplifies how science fiction parlance permeates New York Times op-ed columnist
prose.
In order to fully understand her, readers must be fluent in fantastic language and cognizant
of the science fiction canon.
They must immediately recognize such words as space-time continuum and pod people.
They must be familiar with the invasion of the body snatchers and Star Trek.
Ittskopf compliments Colin's content, which indicates that science fiction language is
a political presence by stressing its political communicative effectiveness.
He points to how Giuliani, Kucinich, and Romney use science fiction tropes to describe their
individual agendas.
My purpose is to apply Samuel R. Delaney's notion of what he calls the language of science
fiction to current political reporting parlance's pervasive use of science fiction's linguistic
presence and resonance.
I will closely read New York Times political opinion writers with an eye toward showing
that the language of science fiction has become a post-colonial, illocutionary force that
exemplifies how to do political things with science fiction words.
Ittskopf suggested reading for Hillary and Barack Obama exemplifies what I mean by the
political resonance of science fiction language as context.
For example, Ittskopf says that Frank Herbert's Dune is appropriate.
He says, quote, left adrift to wander in a desert wasteland, the scion of a deposed dynasty
retakes the family's lost throne in thrilling and violent fashion, unquote.
For Barack, Ittskopf says that Michael Moorcock's Behold the Man is Appropriate, quote, obsessed
with messianic ideas, a man with issues about his lineage travels back in time to discover
that he's actually the Messiah, unquote.
In order to get Ittskopf's joke, in order to respond to the sheer hilarity he generates
and laugh out loud, readers must instantaneously understand science fiction culture, the fact
that Herbert's and Moorcock's science fiction scenarios absolutely do describe the political
reality of the two Democratic Party presidential nomination frontrunners.
And here is a list of how Ittskopf describes political people in terms of science fiction
and also what some columnists from the New York Times says.
This is a quote from columnist David Brooks, quote, I went in the White House to hear President
Bush answer questions on the same subject, Iraq.
It was like entering a different universe, science fiction language, unquote.
Bob Herbert says, quote, I find myself speculating on what might have been if the man who got
the most votes in 2000 had actually become president.
It's like imagining an alternative universe, unquote.
Maureen Dowd, I love Maureen Dowd.
While W and Dick conjured an alternative reality about Iraq, our avaricious bankers created
an alternative reality about our financial system.
And I could go on and on, the pages are replete with language like this.
Any New York Times reader who does not understand the science fiction genre protocols of alternative
reality and alternative universe comes from another planet in relation to reading the
New York Times.
The Times political writers turned to science fiction language to comment upon a political
reality which is more unreal.
Science fiction language is the best parlance to address, for instance, Iraq's non-existent
weapons of mass destruction, the unreal reality which constituted George W. Bush's pretext
for going to war.
For example, Dennis Kucinich's science fiction language utterance aptly described Washington.
He says, quote, around Washington the truth is an unidentified flying object, unquote.
No wonder political writers use science fiction language to comment upon political truth cast
as a UFO.
Here's how Jay Leno describes the science fiction juxtaposition of the real and unreal.
Jay Leno says, Dick Cheney had an awkward moment tonight at the White House Halloween
party.
He went dressed as Darth Vader.
And at the party, he ran into the real Darth Vader who was dressed as Dick Cheney, unquote.
Well, that's Jay Leno.
He's funnier than I am.
I mean, I'm out of my league there.
Dowd, who has also characterized Dick as Darth, stands correctly by a stellar science fiction
computer practitioner, quote, George Lucas had told me that I had gotten Dick Cheney
completely wrong, that Cheney was no Darth Vader.
Lucas explained Anakin Skywalker as the promising young man who was turned to the dark side
by an older politician and becomes Darth Vader.
George Bush is Darth Vader, he said.
Cheney is the emperor.
I was relieved.
In Star Trek terms, Dick Cheney was more evil than Darth Vader.
That's Maureen Dowd, and she's also funnier than me.
In the days of mundane, this is me.
In the days of mundane political oath speak in that 1988 galaxy far, far away when political
reality and unreality were distinct genres, Lloyd Benson famously told Dan Quayle that
he was no Jack Kennedy.
In today's real slash unreal political universe, Lucas explains that the new science fiction
language political lexicon when he authoritatively states that Cheney was no Darth Vader, quote,
Star Wars terms and all science fiction terms of its ilk are the definite political descriptors
of our time.
Science fiction language has drastically morphed in that it has gone from marginalized, colonized
language to post-colonial, post-modern political parlance par excellence.
Dan Quayle never became a John F. Kennedy clone, but Dick Cheney as Darth Vader White
House denizen has been superseded by a political force who is not part of the dark side.
The young man who has fulfilled his promise, the new American leader who makes Mr. President
synonymous with Mr. Spock, Washington political truth is an unidentified flying object.
The old vice president and president as Vader has given way to the new president as Vulcan.
Science fiction language has become politically important to the extent that Barack Obama,
during his inauguration speech, could have lifted his hand from the Bible, spread his
fingers and told the nation to live long and prosper.
That's me.
This science fiction language scenario did not happen.
Obama is not really a Balkan.
Doubt explains that he merely plays one on TV.
But the frightening fact is that Sarah Palin really does speak a science fictional version
of standard English.
This is a quote from Sarah Palin.
Sometimes her sentences have a Yoda-like, and this is what she says, when 900 years
old reach look as good, you will not splendor.
Then she added yet another sentence that defies diagramming, quotes quoting from Palin, it
is from Alaska that we send those out to make sure that an eye is being kept on this very
powerful nation, Russia, because they are not right there.
I'm very tired, but that makes no, that is not English.
Unquote from Sarah.
Sarah uses language that is fantastic to the extent that comprehending its protocols
are beyond the powers and abilities of science fiction scholars.
I don't know what she's talking about.
Her sentences are linguistically science fictional to the extent that, like the unearthly language
invented for James Cameron's Nabi, the humans who encounter it need to resort to subtitles.
Science and abilities beyond the normal are attributed to other politicians as well.
Gail Collins opines that quote, maybe Rudy Giuliani has a secret grip like the Vulcan
mind meld, unquote.
Dick Cheney, who Maureen Dowd often calls Dr. No, could take on the fictitious 007 even
as he still has the power to cast aspersions as president, even though he no longer holds
elective office.
Dowd imagines that he is evil and powerful to the extent that even science fiction accoutrements
cannot prevail against him.
Immersing Cheney within J.K.
Rowling's world, she imagines that he could whack Harry Potter, quote from Dowd.
It's hard to imagine how Dick Cheney could get more dastardly unless J.K.
Rowling has him knock off Harry Potter.
Harry's cloak of invisibility would be no match for Vice's culture of invisibility,
unquote.
Paul Krugman believes that the entire Republican Party is dastardly to the extent that he too
must turn to science fiction to describe it.
He asks if Vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin can really portray herself as running
against the Washington elite if Republicans, quote, Borg-like assimilated much of the D.C.
lobbying industry into itself, unquote.
As for Palin herself, well, she is beyond the range of a discussion of politics and
science fiction language.
Her discourse cannot be assimilated into standard English.
Dowd says that she speaks in the manner of Cameron's alien language.
John McCain inhabits the reality community to the extent that science fiction imagery
can be fruitfully applied to him.
Nevertheless, Collins notes that when the economy began to consist of things falling
apart, quote, McCain appeared to be a loopy visitor from the planet of the over-roet,
unquote.
When she is not describing McCain as John in orbit, Collins speculates that, quote,
he's an android, unquote, who is opposite to Mitt Romney to the extent that you always
worry that when they appear in the same place, there'll be a rift in the space-time continuum,
unquote from Collins.
Obama as android?
Is he or isn't he?
Only the political writers know for sure and they are aligning themselves with the superhero
option.
Dowd, when she calls her piece less spocky, more rocky, announces that Obama should eschew
the extraterrestrial emotion law professor guys in favor of an earthly hero's boxing
wing prowess.
Leonard Nimoy famously contemplated whether or not he is Spock.
Dowd says that Obama should be less spocky.
Whether or not Obama chooses to adopt a rocky-esque persona, he is not immune to the implications
of geology.
A specific science fiction rock, which acts as the hero president's Achilles heel, unquote,
a quote from the New York Times magazine.
The legislative process is like kryptonite to its existential hero.
It is designed somewhat ingeniously to expose even the most powerful president for the mortal
that he is, unquote.
Even though Obama is not channeling his inner stevestus alone, and we know that he is mortal,
his base elevates him to superhero status.
In a piece called Can He Unleash the Force, the more re-endowed states, quote, that in
mythic tales from Superman to Star Wars to Spider-Man, there comes a moment when the
young superhero has to learn to harness his powers.
That's the challenge Barack Obama faces now.
Obama proclaims that the science fiction illocutionary force is with himself.
In a revelation that should cause the birth of his heads to explode, Obama in truth stated
that he was born on another planet.
Quoting from Charles Blow, Obama joked that he was not the Messiah but Superman, and Obama
said contrary to the rumors you've heard, I was not born in a manger.
I've actually born on Krypton, unquote.
Charles M. Blow responds to this news by concurring with Dowd's less spocky, more rocky point.
He says, our mild-mannered president is in desperate need of a telephone booth.
He needs to summon his inner Superman who knows how to pair optimism with force when
we respond to a crisis, a man of steel who's more than a silver tongue with a tin ear, unquote.
Blow tells us that Obama needs less linguistic force and more science fiction superhero mode.
Obama's illocutionary force, his spocky ability to do legislative things with his silver tongue,
is rendered impotent in the presence of the literally rocky, the red, green, blue or gold
legislative kryptonite the Republican Party uses against him.
Red together, Dowd Blow and political humorist Andy Burrowitz describe Obama's legislative
effectiveness quandaries by positioning him in terms of two science fiction creators.
Reluctant to act in terms of Stan Lee's Man of Steel, Obama, according to Burrowitz,
steals himself against Republicans who gleefully enact an H.G. Wells pot or, according to Burrowitz's
title, GOP launched time travel machine to disagree with Obama in the future.
Burrowitz's time travel scenario would do Wells proud, quote, key congressional Republicans
launched themselves in a state-of-the-art time machine today to complete an important
mission, traveling to the future to disagree with President Barack Obama.
My colleagues and I have traveled four days into the future and listened to everything
the president will say.
He has Majority Leader John Boner told reporters at the Capitol, and it will suck, unquote
from Burrowitz.
No matter that the Great Recession precludes financing time machine construction and available
funds would be more fruitfully directed toward tackling present American infrastructure
problems, Burrowitz here epitomizes a bulking mind mill between political commentary and
classic science fiction scenario.
His text is science fiction.
He when creating it is a science fiction writer.
His turn toward science fiction provides the perfect point to move from noting the presence
of science fiction terms within political commentary to discussing the implications
of how science fiction scenarios resonate when the commentators incorporate them as
stylistic component.
In terms of the blurring between science fiction and reality, we can read Frank Rich in a matter
that indicates that Obama's relation to science fiction is not pie in the sky.
In Rich's It's a Bird, It's a Plane, It's Obama, effusive piece.
Rich uses science fiction language to explain that the change in Obama after his health
care victory is very real indeed, Rich says, quote, but in the immediate aftermath of his
health care victory, there does seem to be real, not imagined change in Obama's modus
operandi.
The pace has picked up, if not faster than a speeding bullet superman velocity than at
least as much as the inherent scoliosis of Washington will allow.
This is my conclusion, unquote from Rich.
Rich is finally saying that there is finally something real and not imagined emanating
from the Oval Office.
If Obama's pace is not really comparable to Superman's, he is working as fast as any
mortal president possibly can.
This new Obama working mode reality will allow us ultimately to think well of him in light
of how Rich thinks he should be judged, quote from Frank Rich.
If the speed with which Obama navigates America out of the recession will be the moment of
clarity that allows us at last to judge him as we should all presidents on what he's actually
done rather than who we imagine he is, unquote from Rich.
Like another tall, thin man with big ears, Leonard Nimoy, who we imagine warming down
Spocky Obama to be, is open to interpretation.
Nimoy wrote, I am Spock, the book's I am Spock and I am not Spock.
Nimoy is unsure as to whether or not he really is science fictional.
The same holds true in relation to our judgment of Obama.
Is he science fictional?
Is he not science fictional?
How do we answer these questions in relation to what Frank Rich and New Yorker editor David
Remick in his biography about Obama called The Bridge view as our propensity to judge
and imagine him in terms of what Rich calls the inanimate worst test, unquote.
There is no clarity when we use political science fiction language when we judge Obama
and try to imagine who he is.
Like all the other boundaries he blurs, he blurs the boundaries between science fiction
and reality too.
On the other hand, yes, he can't work faster than Superman.
On the other hand, he is the first black American president and he successfully enacted health
care reform.
In light of these very real accomplishments, according to the logic of which Mr. Spock
would approve, the following assessment is true.
Barack Obama is Superman.