Simulacra of the hyperreal fantasy world in the novel by Clifford Simak "Out of their minds"

The current situation in verbal culture proves a rapid evolution of new literary genre forms. Science fiction is not an exception. In his work “Simulacra and Simulation” (1981), J. Baudrillard claims that “science fiction no longer exists”¹, thus outlining the “expansion of the world” of classis science fiction. Above all, he means the so called “reversal of the imaginary”, as well as restructuring of the principles of genre modelling of science fiction discourse.

It is believed that fantasy acts as an “intermediate” between the formal symbolic structure and the really existing objects that we encounter in life Baudrillard J. Symuliakry i symuliatsiia [Simulacra and simulation], Kyiv: Vyd-vo Solomii Pavlychko “Osnovy”, 2004, P. 177 [in Ukrainian]. Zizek S. Chuma fantazij [The plague of fantasies], Har'kov: Gumanitarnyj centr, 2012, P. 40 [in Ukrainian].. S. Zizek interprets fantasy as a primary form of narrative. However, in order to maintain its significance, fantasy must remain implicit, unnoticeable, that is, it should preserve a certain distance from its symbolic basis, otherwise it may turn into the phantasmagoria format Ibidem, P. 60.. T. Adorno claims, in particular, that the phantasmagoric basis of literary works makes them “irresistible”, especially in traditional prose forms (for example, in a novel), whereby “the illusion of panorama and the fictitious omnipresence of the narrator are combined with the idea of reality”. The latter aspect “technologically enhances the illusion of being-in-itself' Adorno T. Teoriia estetyky [Theory of aesthetics], Kyiv: Vydavnytstvo Solomii Pavlychko “Osnovy”, 2002, P. 143 [in Ukrainian]., as well as can be regarded as a “rival” of any romantic literary works, which are built, as we know, on an ironic implication.

The issue of genre metamorphicality of fantasy has been considered within famous scientific conceptual investigations of time-space theory by M. Bakhtin, J. Baudrillard, A. Volkov, B. Dolezal, G. Deleuze, U. Eco, S. Kripke, N. Kopystianska, A. Niamtsu, T. Todorov. Such an update of genre matrices takes place due to the insertion of intertextual images (which cause the hyperreal structure of fantastic worlds) into personosphere.

This is particularly evident in the work by the classic of American science fiction Clifford Simak (1904-1988) “Out of Their Minds” (1970). The novel eclectically combines the elements of a fairy-tale, dreams and phantasmagoric narrative, transgressing into the quasi-real space through the images of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza. Consequently, the objective of the article under discussion is to outline the specifics of modelling a hyperreal fantasy world in the novel by C. Simak “Out of Their Minds” through a number of intertextual simulative forms that carry out “reversal of the imaginary” (the term by Jean Baudrillard) in practice. The objective requires the use of the respective methodology: firstly, the application of the post-non-classical philosophy categories of the imaginary (T. Adorno, S. Zizek), archetype (C. Jung), simulacrum (J. Baudrillar), fantasm (R. Barthes, G. Deleuze), memory (J. Lacan) and trace (J. Derrida) and, secondly, the usage of the methodology of intertextuality (I. Arnold, M. Bakhtin, Ju. Kristeva, M. Riffaterre, G. Genette, I. Smirnov, N. Fateeva, V. Cherniavska. The significance of the research has been stipulated by the growing interest of Ukrainian translators and literary critics in the creative activities of C. Simak, as well as by the lack of intertextual analyses of the writer's classical texts. The novelty of the paper lies in the fact that it may be regarded as a new interpretation of genre formation of literary science fiction in Ukrainian science, whereby intertextual images-simulacra take part in modelling the hyperreal world.

Laying out of the main research material. Literary science fiction of the XX century maintains a romantic tendency for genre polymorphism by means of attaching illusory realms, grotesque, carnivalization elements and pastiches (that contain an intertextual enzyme) to the plot of the text. Consequently, a rather widespread technique of literary science fiction is the intertextuality of personosphere (for instance, the figures of Homer and Aesop perform this function in C. Simak's novel “The City”).

At the peak of J. Tolkien's popularity, C. Simak turned to the matagenre of fantasy, integrating various types of science fiction: “Out of Their Minds” (1970), “Destiny Doll” (1971), “Shakespeare's Planet” (1976), “Cemetery World” (1973), “Enchanted Pilgrimage” (1975), “Fellowship of the Talisman” (1978), “Where the Evil Lives” (1982), etc. The writer's style differed from other representatives of the genre in experimenting with the chronotope (creation of the parallel worlds), original implementation of the contact motif, rhizomorphism of the personosphere and, consequently, in the logic of complicated narrative specificity of the text.

The presence of certain intertextual connections prove, above all, the existence of the textual means of their expression - the so called “interpretants” that “derive of contextual peculiarities” Nych R. Svit tekstu: poststrukturalizm i literaturoznavstvo [The world of the text: poststructuralism and literary criticism], Lviv: Litopys, 2007, P. 74 [in Ukrainian].. In simulative personosphere, these are allusions and reminiscences, which send the recipient to the “ideologemes” - specific functions that, “materializing” at different levels of the text structure, spread throughout its trajectory, assigning it with historical and social coordinates Kristeva Yu. Sami sobi chuzhi [They are strangers to themselves], Kyiv: Vyd-vo Solomii Pavlychko “Osnovy”, 2004, P. 135-136 [in Ukrainian].. C. Simak's peculiar intertextual strategy is characterized by anthroponymic presuppositions (Aesop, Joyce, Van Gogh), that is the use of names, which makes it possible to “design different cultural and historical sections beyond the limits of a single temporal space” Fateeva N. A. Intertekst v mire tekstov. Kontrapunkt intertekstual'nosti [Intertext in the world of texts. Counterpoint to intertextuality], Moskva: KomKniga, 2007, P. 43 [in Russian]., thereby activating a powerful associative background - the communicative charge (the term by M.Gasparov). The intertextual insertions of a reminiscent nature are considered to be such fantazoid-simulacra.

A vivid example of this is the novel by C. Simak “Out of Their Minds” (1970), where the elements of a magical fairytale, dreaming, and phantasmagoric narrative are eclectically interwoven, transgressing into a quasi-real space through the “realistically fantastic” (according to G. Lucacs) images of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza. Since the understanding of intertextual insertions is based on the combination of contexts and the proto-text, the reader is required to recognize and recollect. At the same time, as I. Arnold points out, the effectiveness of “contrasting all the relevant contexts” depends on the recipient's awareness: “If the “other voice” cannot be recognized, the text either appears to be illegible or is perceived only superficially” Arnold I. V. Semantika. Stilistika. Intertekstual'nost' [Semantics. Stylistics. Intertextuality], Sankt-Peterburg: Izd-vo Sankt- Peterburgskogo un-ta, 1999, P. 376 [in Russian]..

“The energy of intertext” is accumulated due to the fact that a literary work relies on a really existing pre-intertext, which traditionally functions as a “reference to a reference” Smirnov I. P. Porozhdenie interteksta. Jelementy intertekstual'nogo analiza [Generation of intertext. Elements of intertextual analysis], Sankt-Peterburg: Sankt-Peterburgskij gosudarstvennyj universitet, 1995, P. 19 [in Russian].. In our case, it is the “knightly” context of M. de Cervantes' “Don Quixote”, which in the early XVII century, became” a cheerful, yet unclear exploration of the boundary between delirium and common sense, between fascination and disappointment” Ovrei-Asseia K., Baladie Sh. “Bezumstvo” [Madness], “Yevropeiskyi slovnyk filosofii: Leksykon neperekladnostei” [European Dictionary of Philosophy: A Lexicon of Intranslatability], Vol. 1, Kyiv: DUKh I LITERA, 2009. P. 541 [in Ukrainian].. An easily recognized classical pair, devised by M. de Cervantes, originates from the previous “wandering plot”, the latter (being duly interpreted by the classics) subsequently penetrating into other literary texts, including the fantastic ones. In C. Simak's novel, the couple acquires its own suggestive focus. The Cervantes' images are perceived as exceptional, for they are extracted by the author from an interdiscursive context.

A competent recipient of the novel “Out of Their Minds” has been feeling the presence of the above example in the personophere of a fantastic work since the introductory fragment with the help of thus generated the term by C. Pierce and M. Riffaterre “interpretants”: “Behind the crowd came two men riding horses, but as I watched the procession, I saw after a little time that the one who rode behind the other rode a donkey, not a horse, with his feet almost dragging on the ground. But it was the man who rode in front who attracted my attention and very well he might. He loomed tall and gaunt and was dressed in armor, with a shield upon one arm and a long lance carried on one shoulder. The horse was as gaunt as he was and it walked with a stumbling gait and with its head held low. As the procession approached closer I saw, in the light cast by the torches, that the horse was little better than a bag of bones”¹¹.

Like in the original text, the intertextual strategy of “Out of Their Minds” is based on the conversations of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza. Their dialogues (which M. Bakhtin drew particular attention to) appear to be “a two-tone word at the stage of its incomplete decay”. They (dialogues) can be considered as a communication “between the top and the bottom, between birth and death” Simak C. Out of Their Minds.

URL: https://books.google.com.ua/books?id=0Q_GCQAAQBAJ&pg=PT4&lpg=PT4&dq=Out+ of+Their+Minds&source=bl&ots=R4YrR1j11w&sig=ACfU3U2GKleGraIpekW1Q04KeGd_ftijcQ&hl=uk&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi5roeR mZHhAhVL_CoKHYF'JDrM4ChDoATAEegQIBxAB#v=onepage&q=Out%20of%20Their%20Minds&f=false. Bakhtin M. M. Sobranie sochinenij v 7 t. [Collected works in 7 volumes], Vol. 4(1), Moskva: Jazyki slavjanskih kul'tur, 2008, P. 303 [in Russian]..

The dichotomous nature of their tandem is also accentuated by H. Bloom: “What unites the Don and his squire is both their mutual participation in what has been called “the order of play” and their equally mutual if not rather grumpy affection for each other. I cannot think of a fully comparable friendship anywhere else in Western literature, certainly not one that relies so exquisitely upon hilarious conversation” Blum H. Zakhidnyi kanon [The Western canon], Kyiv: Fakt, 2007, P. 131 [in Ukrainian].. H. Bloom described quite well the role of Don Quixote's image for M. de Cervantes': “My characters have read all of the stories about one another, and much of the novels second part concerns itself with their reactions to having read the first” Ibidem..

Likewise, M. Foucault emphasizes that Don Quixote acquires his own reality when he ” meets characters who have read the first part of his story and recognize him, the real man, as the hero of the book. Cervantes's text turns back upon itself, thrusts itself back into its own density, and becomes the object of its own narrative. The first part of the hero's adventures plays in the second part the role originally assumed by the chivalric romances” Foucault M. Slova i veshhi. Arheologija gumanitarnyh nauk [Words and things. Archeology of the Humanities], Sankt-Peterburg: A-cad, 1994, P. 83 . [in Russian].. It is also worth mentioning the idea of J. Ortega y Gasset of M. de Cervantes “endowing us with the true presence of his characters” Orteha-i-Haset Kh. Dumky pro roman [Thoughts about the novel], Kyiv: Osnovy, 1994, P. 273-305. URL: http://shron1.chtyvo.org.ua/ Ortega_y_Gasset_JoseZDumky_pro_roman.htm [in Ukrainian].. The penetration of the M. de Cervantes' images into the fantastic worlds of C. Simak indicates the transgressiveness of this personospheric nucleus that turns, eventually, into a con-intertextual center.

In identifying the intertextual parallels, much depends on the “communication channel”. In C. Simak's novel “Out of Their Minds”, M. de Cervantes' characters appear to have an existential connection in the protagonist's thoughts, fantasies, and memories. What is more, they may be perceived as a simulative horizon of the retrospectively presented events: “I think we are haunted by all the fantasies, all the make-believe, all the ogres that we have ever dreamed, dating from that day when the caveman squatted in the dark beside his fire” Simak C. Out of Their Minds, op. cit..

Here, we have to deal with the phenomenon of collective memory, which is an important narrateme for many works of science fiction, including those by C.Simak. In this respect, an important receptive marker appears to be the “imaginary” (according to J. Lacan's terminology), which is distinguished along with the real and symbolic. Such phantasmagoria in modern literary practice are interpreted as fantastic visual allegories.

S. Freud stated the following, regarding these outcomes of fantasy or “dreams of reality”: “such fantasies are very common phenomena, they are common for the healthy and the sick, they are very easy to study, especially in the course of fantastic delirium” Freud Z. Vstup do psykhoanalizu [Introduction to psychoanalysis], Kyiv: Osnovy, 1998, P. 91 [in Ukrainian].. Nevertheless, in the novel “Out of Their Minds”, the emergence in Horton's imagination of “carnival” pair Don Quixote-Sancho Panza is the most indicative. The intertextual dialogue in both C. Simak's and M. de Cervantes' works is performed mainly due to the allusive intertextual characters, through functioning of the borrowed elements of the pretext, which enable their “identification in the recipient text”.

Don Quixote's “Intertextual Footprints” (M. Riffaterre) in C. Simak's novel are stipulated by the fact that he “leaves his village to seek his spirits home in exile, because only exiled can he be free” Blum H. Zakhidnyi kanon [The Western canon], Kyiv: Fakt, 2007, P. 133 [in Ukrainian].. His character acts similarly to his intertextual simulacrum: a writer Horton Smith, returning to the provincial surroundings of his childhood, encounters ”dinosaurs” that cause a car accident. This episode proves an irreconcilable collision between machines, humans and other fantasies: “Here in this land resided all the fantasies that mankind had developed through the centuries. Here, somewhere Huckleberry Finn floated on his raft down a never-ending river. Somewhere in this world Red Riding Hood went tripping down a woodland path. Somewhere Mr. Magoo blundered along on his near-blind course through a series of illogical circumstances” Simak C. Out of Their Minds, op. cit..

The traces of children's memory, presented by C. Simak in the dreams of the protagonist, capture, above all, the connection with the key associative images. The latter, in the receptive aspect, are perceived as intertextual references to the iconic images of classical children's literature, presented in the simulative “books”. They appear in the novel “Out of Their Minds” in the form of a specific palimpsest and a genre embodiment of hyperreality. In this case, the non-attributive allusions that imply the discovery of the “new in the old” and at the same time require the discovery on the part of the recipient, coincide with intense processes in the memory of C. Simak's character (recognition, recollection, nostalgia), which are activated through the prism of temporal epistemological modes.

А.Losev, in this connection, speaks of such a peculiarity of recollection as the creative reproduction Losev A.F. Ocherki antichnogo simvolizma i mifologii [Essays on Ancient Symbolism and Mythology], Moskva : Mysl', 1993. URL: http://psylib.org.ua/books/lose000/txt050.htm [in Russian]., which becomes a functionally significant aspect of simulation within science fiction.

The transitivity of Don Quixote's image in the context of the discourse of madness is substantiated by M. Foucault. The philosopher emphasizes that “Don Quixote” is one of the first works of modern times, where the insane person is interpreted as“a madman, not as one who is sick but as an established and maintained deviant, as an indispensable cultural function, has become, in Western experience, the man of primitive resemblances” Foucault M. Slova i veshhi. Arheologija gumanitarnyh nauk [Words and things. Archeology of the Humanities], Sankt-Peterburg: A-cad, 1994, P. 84 [in Russian].. The state of such conventional insanity is inherent in the behavior of Simak's Horton.

Of course, intertextuality is a specific double game: a phantasmagoria in C. Simak's version, where one deals with the world of fantasies created by him and pursues the witch Meg, then the devil, calls Don Quixote an insane man from Spain, as well as an inappropriate knight: “That Quixote is a fool. He never does things right. The beating of Don Quixote is no facing of a danger and...” Simak C. Out of Their Minds, op. cit.. C. Simak ironically overruns the behavior of friends: “Sancho had dismounted from the donkey and was trying manfully, but with small success, to roll Don Quixote over on his back” Ibidem.. Simak's narrator captures the public's ambiguous reaction to the appearance of a frantic Don Quixote-Sancho Panza couple. The onlookers laugh openly at the “scarecrow knight” (“Some of them were doubled over, laughing, with their arms wrapped about their middles, while others of them were rolling on the ground, helpless with their guffaws”) Ibidem.. The author's attention also focuses on the colorful image of Sancho and his lop-eared donkey, which is actively featured in the pretext: “Shambling down the road came the lop -eared little donkey, still carrying the tattered man whose feet almost dragged upon the ground-poor, patient Sancho Panza coming once again to the relief of his master, Don Quixote de la Mancha” Ibidem..

It looks quite reasonable that C.Simak appeals to the novel by M. de Cervantes. Therefore, it is expedient to dwell on a specific intertextual labyrinth, for a new semantic perspective arises in a rather distant (at first sight), connection of “one's own and someone else's words”. In this case, there is a variational interpretation of the classical text, whose axiological nucleus is decentralized (according to J. Derrida) in the novel “Out of Their Minds”, thus producing a new ”image code”. Don Quixote's behavioral logic stipulates all the actions of C. Simak's protagonist Horton Smith, yet Don Quixote's fictional character, activated in his memory, is getting more and more grotesque.

It is essential that a special intertextual line in C. Simak's novel is a simulative “pastiching” of M. de Cervantes' text through the so-called “intertextual anamnesis”. This peculiar ”ironic modus” is marked, first of all, with the negative pathos, directed in this case against the powerful cybernetization of space, emphasized by C. Simak. Certainly, within the designated thematic line of pastiche, the process of mystifying and parodying the images of classical literature emerges as derivative. It indicates “hypertextuality”, that is, the layering and transformation of texts along with imitation, parody and continuation Genette G. Figury [The figures], Moskva: Izd.-vo im. Sabashnikovyh, Vol. 2, 1998, 472 p., P. 18 [in Russian].. Such hybrid forms, according to T. Basniak, “are marked with fragmentary nature, intertextuality, contamination of literary genres, as well as with the combination of different types of art and means of multimedia (intermediality)” Basniak T. “Pastish yak svoieridna zhanrova model postmodernistskoho romanu” [Pastish as a kind of genre model of the postmodernist novel], “Naukovyi visnyk Chernivetskoho natsionalnoho universytetu. Slovianska filolohiia” [Scientific Bulletin of Chernivtsi National University. Slavic philology], 2012, Vyp. 648-649, P. 51 [in Ukrainian]. The dynamics of the tantological motives in the consciousness of Simak's protagonist (his speculations about his friend's death) clearly indicates the strategy of hypertextuality through the intertext. At first, death is associated with the image of a sparrow, and then - with a popular comics book hero Superman. In this way, it passes to the grotesque “quasi-diachronic intertext” (I. Smirnov).

A competent reader can associate Horton Smith (as a character of a fantastic text) with the figure of Don Quixote himself. Numerous books are gradually activated in the memory of the Simak's character (those about King Arthur, Robin Hood, Mickey Mouse, Charlie Brown, Twins Bobs, Mister Tinkerbell, Howdy-Doody, Brother Fox, Bear, Wolf, Witch Meg and others). Simulative hypertextuality is complemented by a children's song, recalled by Horton. It ensures an active involvement of a competent reader in the text. In addition, this song must have been author's favorite children's memory, since we find an allusion to it in his novel “The City”:

“who killed Cock Robin?

I, said the Sparrow,

With my bow and arrow,

I killed Cock Robin. ” Simak C. Out of Their Minds, op. cit.

In our case, the “stranger's” word of M. de Cervantes is interpreted through the hyperreal fantastic world of Horton's dreams. Here, Don Quixote becomes similar to the signs he copied, hence we may regard him as the Horton Smith simulacrum. However, Simak's main character is not only associated with, but also struggles against Don Quixote, as if embodying Cervantes' windmill: “Horton Smith, who has a wound from Gettysburg, who jousted barehanded with Quixote ...” Ibidem.. Subsequently, Horton Smith returns to the “real” anthropological world again, tired of “the weird world of Devil and Don Quixote” Ibidem.. Thus, Simak's complicated intertextual reconstruction ensures a peculiar fragmentary integrity of the literary text.

At the end of the novel, which serves as a powerful “intertextual semantic channel”, Horton's consciousness once again runs into the mystified figure of Don Quixote, who “was astride the running bag of bones that served him as a charger. His helmet was down and the shield was up. The leveled lance was aglitter in the sun. Behind him Sancho Panza applied an enthusiastic whip to his donkey, which humped along in a stifflegged gait not unlike a startled rabbit. While he applied the whip with one hand, Sancho Panza held the other arm out stiffly to one side, clutching a bucket” Ibidem.. The phantasmagoric illusion is strengthened by the image of a unicorn (in fact, traditional for fantasy), with a young representative of the world of people Katie Adams on its back. The expansion of the intertextual field occurs when Horton Smith's subconsciousness prompts him to detain the ugly Devil: “If I could divert the Devil from taking off to some other place for no longer than a second, Don Quixote would be down upon him and if his goals were true, he'd have the Devil spitted on his lance” Ibidem.. In this way, all fictional narratives of the novel are shifted and intertwined, adopting the carnival background of the pretext.

Fighting on Horton's side, Don Quixote injures the devil, demanding that he leave the human world. However, the villain gives a somewhat mocking response: “I will yield to no busy body of a do-gooder who spends his time sniffing out crusades. And of all of them, there is nothing worse than you, Quixote. You can sense a good deed a million light years off and you are off the hell-bent to get it” Ibidem.. Sancho Panza has played a key role in the end, having poured on the Devil the holy water, blessed by St. Patrick. As a result, the Devil promises to no longer interfere in the world of humans, which is the mission of the phantasmagoric characters. Thus, the ideological and teleological guidelines of both the preliminary (“Don Quixote” by M. de Cervantes) and the derivative fantastic (“Out of Their Minds by C. Simak) texts concur. These intertextual layers arise due to metatropological relationships in the process of formation of a typical work of fantasy.

The fantastic disappearance of Don Quixote (that had previously been the personosperic nucleus) from the plot of the novel is articulated by Horton Smith's words that illustrate the elusiveness of the images, visualized by his fantasy: “I didn't see them go. There wasn't even a flicker of their going. They just suddenly were gone. There was no Devil, no Don Quixote, no Sancho Panza and no unicorn” Ibidem.. This example may be interpreted as a special genre principle of stylization.

Conclusions. The intertextual connections of C. Simak's novel, in the course of intertextual transformations, make up for its hyperreal nature. On the whole, C. Simak's idiostyle does not aim at the synthesis of science fction and fantasy only. The author also undertakes the elements of carnival and phantasmagoria, which are able to significantly extend the horizons of fictional narratives to the genealogical features of pastiche, the latter being marked with the synthesis of different codes, styles and genres. Consequently, the stratification of intertextual lines and classical simulacra that specifically converge in the narratives of C. Simak's hyperreal fictional worlds are typical of his writing style.

On the example of C. Simak's novel “Out of Their Minds”, we might determine the prevalent method of fantasy genre construction: simulacra, which are borrowed from famous texts, actively transgress into the quasi-realistic space of science fiction. In this case, we are dwelling on the simulative “realistically-fantastic” personopair of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, which became the intertextual center of the personosphere of the novel by C. Simak .

In conclusion, one of the basic aspects of the evolution of science fiction and its transition to the dimensions of hyperreality is the simulative nature of its images. The eclectic inclusion into fantastic plot of the elements of a fairy tale, dreams, traditional characters, phantasmagoria, grotesque, elements of carnivalization and pastiche lead to the creation of the so-called “fantazoid-simulacra”. Being presented as eloquent reminiscences, they enhance the intertextual significance of the text, thus creating additional fictional narratives, which is typical of fantasy.

C. Simak's text under analysis indicates that fantastic can be combined with mystical, oneiric, phantasmagoric, grotesque and even carnival elements. Their semantic essence is emphasized by the intertextual nature of the personospere samples, devised by the author. The reminiscent origin of a transitive personopair Don Quixote - Sancho Panza is very indicative in the plot of the novel “Out of Their Minds”. C. Simak offers a specific analogy-ideologeme between the character of Horton Smith and Don Quixote-simulacrum, which functions exceptionally in imaginative dimensions of his memory. Such a metagenre aspect of fantasy requires a peculiar palimpsest, filled with numerous interpretants and simulacra of the hyperreal world.