Notes on the Underground, New Edition: An Essay on Technology, Society, and the Imagination (review)

First published in 1990, Rosalind Williams's book has from the very beginning been a classic study in the history of technology. A deeply humanist examination of the mutual shaping of science and culture in (mainly) the 19th century, it has owed part of its rapid but lasting success to the strong environmental chord that resonated throughout its pages (although the author's position is that of a strongly engaged academic, not that of a political activist).

The questions raised in this book are threefold.

The first question is historical: How to describe humanity's attempt to move beneath the earth's surface and how to analyze its two sides, the technological and the cultural, for the gradual discovery of the underground has never ceased to be interpretatively framed, whereas the basic landmarks of culture have also been displaced by technical inventions and scientific progress. Williams's impressive survey charts the evolution of both the gradual penetration of the underground and its permanently shifting interpretations.

In this regard, a crucial element has been the shift—initiated in the 17th century and dramatically accelerated two centuries later—of the religious meaning of the underground as hell to a geophysical interpretation linking space and time. Digging into the earth was the same as going back in time, and the space underground thus became "deep time." Speculations on time were, however, one of the many factors that had fostered the exploration of the underground. Very soon, economic, philosophical, political and ethical issues were intertwined with "pure" scientific factors: The underground became also a place where truth as well as resources and wealth were to be found, just as it became the place upon which to project utopian and dystopian representations (the underground became a metaphor for underclass life and degeneration but also for dreams of beauty and a classless society).

The second question is methodological. Although Williams does not neglect other historical sources and resources, it is literature—French and British literature of the 19th century—that occupies the foreground of her analyses. Given that culture and science so strongly interact, what can be the role given one specific aspect of cultural life, namely storytelling, more specifically storytelling in literary texts? Williams follows here the ideas developed by Jameson on storytelling as "world-reduction": the literary text is a scale model of the world, in which hypotheses are tested in order to see what may be the consequences of this or that premise. Literature is thus a special kind of "experimenting," and in this regard its role is not so different from that of other types of science. This analogy enables Williams to prioritize literature over other cultural materials, and the reader can only feel grateful for the "unearthing" of so many fascinating but now often forgotten novels. Moreover, Williams's reading is always very astute and clear, and she is not afraid of tackling issues raised by politically incorrect texts. A great historian, Williams is perfectly able to discern the difference between the form and the content of these books and show what can be learnt from them today.

The third question is philosophical. What does it mean for humankind to live "outside nature," in a built or manmade environment? Despite the vanishing of the religious meaning of the underworld, fear has never left the humans who attempted to leave the earth's surface. In this respect, the underworld itself, Williams argues, is nothing more than a tool revealing an even more hidden fear, that of the human destruction of nature. Underworld and millenarian catastrophism often go hand in hand. Despite the clear environmental consciousness and commitment of the book, Williams refuses to follow the dystopian voices that are now so dominant in public debate. She strongly emphasizes the ambivalence of our "destruction" of nature (for we fear this destruction as much as we enjoy its effects), the illusion...