You Can't Go Home Again: The place of tradition in "Firefly's" dystopian-utopia and utopian-distopia

Abstract

Science fiction has long been a site in which utopian-dystopian visions have been articulated. This paper uses one exemplar of this genre as a springboard into a discussion of the desire for a return to origin and of flawed attempts to impose an image of that origin, with discursions into illustrations drawn from contemporary conditions. In opposition to the hegemonic and reductive tendencies inherent in such attempts, this paper proposes an alternative which engages with the everyday reality of life. Intrinsic to this proposition is that our traditions and utopias must be founded upon a continual (re)making in the everyday.