驶向卡列班之岛——论《伽拉忒亚2.2》中的主体与世界

Sailing to the Isle of the Caliban On the Subject and the World in Galatea 2.2

理查德·鲍尔斯小说《伽拉忒亚2.2》再现了后人类时代受技术理性支配主体与自身、主体与他者、主体与世界的分裂。小说中,人工智能海伦从出生到自杀的成长与覆灭的过程,与小说作者同名主人公理查德对个人失败情感经历的回顾交替出现,表征了后人类带给世界的冲击以及后人类时代新一轮的分裂与矛盾,发人深思。这篇小说某种程度上是一种寓言,是鲍尔斯借人工智能的成长和覆灭对现代社会理性重建的一种文学想象、一种预警,那就是打破僵化的边界。

The novel Galatea 2.2 by Richard Powers(1957-)reproduces the division of the subject from itself,the other,and the world under the dominance of technological rationality in the post-human era.In this novel,AI Helen’s growth and final suicide as well as the review on the protagonist Richard’s terrible personal emotional experiences alternately appear,representing the impact brought by post-human on this world and the new round of divisions and contradictions in the post-human era.To some degree,this novel is an allegory.Through the growth and destruction of Helen,Powers offers a literary imagination and a warning for the rational reconstruction of modern society,that is,to break the rigid boundaries.