Review: William O. Gardner, ‘The Metabolist Imagination’
Published in The Journal of Japanese Studies, Volume 47, Number 2, Summer 2021
Abstract
As the title suggests, this book examines the intersection of the modern Japanese architecture movement of Metabolism and science fiction in the postwar period. For William Gardner, architecture and science fiction are "forms of artistic simulation" (p.1). He explains that an architectural design is planned to propose a change in the existing natural/constructed environment. Works of science fiction are also seen as imaginative simulation which often illustrates shifts, changes, and transformations in future society and considers their consequences for human lives. Gardner examines the series of mutual interchanges between avant-garde architectural concepts and science fiction narratives. In doing so, he considers the relationship between advanced science and technology, the evolving physical and social environment, and "the very capacity of the human species to survive our own interventions"(p.2).