Date of Graduation
Fall 2010
Degree
Master of Arts in English
Department
English
Committee Chair
Wayne Blackmon
Abstract
Singularity Deferred is a work of original fiction. It is a science fiction novel that features Mitchel Creek, a man with a young family, who finds himself mysteriously transported onto a spacecraft centuries into the future—alone save for a strange device and a dead body. As he discovers how he was transported and why, Mitchel learns about the fascism of the ruling multi-world government. He also becomes romantically involved with a member of an underground anarcho-socialist organization who teaches him about the exploitation of labor and the cultural hegemony of those in power. Mitchel becomes the victim of kidnapping and torture by the government, a near-victim of an unknown group's act of mass murder, and is forced to lead a mutiny against a ship's captain. In the course of events, he learns the necessity of taking control of his situation instead of being victimized by it. He sees the promise of a working anarchist society in action, and comes face-to-face with the descendants of a fanatical religion that evolved from the remnants of the devastated Earth. His search for answers takes him to the edge of a black hole, where he learns the truth of his situation—and the beginning of an apocalyptic war. Prior to the novel is an analytical essay on the current and future state of the commodified form of the science fiction novel, and the Marxist cultural criticism that went into the writing of the novel.
Keywords
science fiction, time travel, space opera, Marxist criticism, utopian fiction, self discovery
Subject Categories
English Language and Literature
Copyright
© William Roger Watts
Recommended Citation
Watts, William Roger, "Singularity Deferred" (2010). MSU Graduate Theses/Dissertations. 1114.
https://bearworks.missouristate.edu/theses/1114
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