“Dear Ivan Efremov”: A Critique of Socialist Science Fiction Theory

Translator’s Preface

Long regarded as Komatsu Sakyō’s science fiction manifesto, the essay “Dear Ivan Efremov”¹ is an expression not only of the author’s theory of science fiction, but more broadly of his view of the future of literature as a field of human production. First written in 1963 and republished in Takayuki Tatsumi’s anthology NihonSF ronsōshi: Science Fiction Controversies in Japan: 1957– 1997 (2000), it is presented here for the first time in English translation.

Komatsu Sakyō is arguably one of the most significant figures of Japanese science fiction, not only as the author of several ground-breaking novels and short stories, but also as a writer of insightful theoretical essays on the genre of science fiction. Born in January 1931, he passed away in July of 2011; just before that, he was able to pen an influential essay that reflected on the value of science fiction in the wake of the Eastern Japan triple disaster of March 2011, and more broadly of the importance of science fiction in contemporary society, for the anthology 3/11 no mirai: Nihon; SF; sōzōryoku (The future of 3/11: Japan, science fiction, and the power of creation).²

But Komatsu had long been concerned with the ability of literary imagination to not only represent, but also shape, human experience. “Dear Ivan Efremov” is a fascinating example of the prophetic nature of this author’s vision. Ostensibly written as a letter in response to an essay published by Soviet science fiction writer Ivan Antonovich Efremov (1908–1972), the essay begins as a critique of Efremov’s somewhat dismal view of the current state of science fiction. It then turns into a declaration of belief in science fiction’s capacity to lead the way in a radical transformation of the relationship between scientific and humanistic disciplines in global human societies. At a time when the rise of interdisciplinary fields such as digital and medical humanities are bringing to the fore the potential of literature and science to critically illuminate each other’s path, Komatsu’s voice from over half a century ago speaks to us all the more compellingly.

Deploying an impressive range of classical and modern literary, philosophical, and scientific references, ranging from Marx to Hobbes, from the Odyssey to Godzilla, the essay itself is an exercise in the kind of “Big Literature of Tomorrow” that it wishes to see future science fiction authors compose. The term used by Komatsu to describe this project is “ashita no daibungaku.” I have chosen to translate this as “Big Literature of Tomorrow” to highlight its similarities with David Christian’s notion of Big History, a discipline that examines human history through a multidisciplinary approach drawn from both the sciences and the humanities, positioning them in a time frame that goes from the Big Bang to several billion years in the future. Komatsu’s notion of Big Literature, which spans before and beyond the Anthropocene to include the nonhuman and the posthuman, bears striking similarities with this emerging discipline. It also predates it by several decades, and most importantly, it retains a sustained focus on literature, rather than historiography, as the most productive humanistic discipline because of its ability to mobilize the power of imagination. More generally, in my translation, I have endeavored to be faithful to Komatsu’s original intent to reach future readers. I have therefore retained the dialogic structure of the essay, composed as a letter addressed to the Soviet author, but I have chosen to slightly shorten some sections that were very specifically in polemic with Efremov’s theories, and to add some brief clarification of references to literary and social phenomena that may be less familiar to the readers of Mechademia: Second Arc.

Introduction by Takayuki Tatsumi

In the history of Japanese science fiction publications, the name of Komatsu Sakyō (1931–2011) is intimately linked to the pioneering simulation novel Japan Sinks, first published in 1973, a best seller that exceeded four million copies in its first edition, and the winner of the prestigious Mystery Writers...