Knowledge ‘has its price’: On the alienation and reconstruction of the subject in Albert Tam’s science fiction Novel Melody of the Night

Abstract

The alienation of human mental states in a capitalist city has always been an important theme in contemporary science fiction. Melody of the Night (2009, 2019), a science fiction novel written by the renowned Hong Kong writer Albert Tam, explores this theme in depth from the perspective of the commodification of knowledge. The novel depicts a society where knowledge has become a commodity and uses the Catholic concept of the ‘seven deadly sins’ metaphor for the different dysfunctional mental states of seven urban characters. In addition, the novel adopts the ‘hyperlink cinema’ narrative structure often seen in films to show the connected destinies of urbanites. The content and form of this novel reflect the writer’s deep understanding of the complexity of the structure of the modern city and the urban psyche. To further discuss the novel, this essay intends to draw reference from the theoretical concepts of psychoanalysis, supplemented by an examination of the narrative structure, to explore the underlying causes of the characters’ alienated mental state. Through a close reading of the text, the paper hopes to show that the novel reveals that commodity fetishism has become the ‘religion’ of the new era. Moreover, this ideology encourages people to consume culture and knowledge as commodities without guaranteeing satisfaction by identifying themselves as subjects. On the contrary, people’s efforts to consume are often rewarded with physical and psychological destruction. Finally, the characters’ reflections on their condition convey a desire to gain insight into the illusion created by the abovementioned ideology.