George Saunders and the ethics of science: a close reading of “Escape from Spiderhead”

Critics agree that George Saunders’ fiction establishes a sustained critique of capitalism and techno-science. By contradistinction, this essay aims to show that there is a worldview at the basis of Saunders’ works which, when led to its logical conclusions, paradoxically affirms the foundations of both. By exploring the metaphysics of his short story “Escape from Spiderhead,” this essay shows how Saunders’ concern with capitalism is what leads him to a deeper concern with techno-science. The philosophies of Martin Heidegger and Emanuele Severino are used to demonstrate how the fundamental beliefs expressed in Saunders’ works contradict their own intentionality and thus expose a logical inconsistency that haunts their underlying metaphysics. Finally, conceptual links with other works by Saunders are established to show how the analysis can be extended to Saunders’ entire oeuvre and its worldview–a worldview which merges Tibetan Buddhism and scientific determinism.