Dale Knickerbocker (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- January 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780252041754
- eISBN:
- 9780252050428
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5622/illinois/9780252041754.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century and Contemporary Literature
Lingua Cosmica: Science Fiction from around the World consists of eleven scholarly essays on contemporary authors (born 1950 or later) of science fiction who publish in languages other than English, ...
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Lingua Cosmica: Science Fiction from around the World consists of eleven scholarly essays on contemporary authors (born 1950 or later) of science fiction who publish in languages other than English, or who publish from the English-speaking “periphery”: i.e., outside the United States, the United Kingdom, and Anglophone Canada. Each essay examines one author, making a case for their importance internationally and contextualizing their work within the science-fictional traditions of their own culture and those of the genre globally (themes, tropes, tendencies, subgenres, etc.). Each also offers an in-depth analysis of a major work or works. The book thus identifies major contemporary authors of science fiction outside the “center” of the English-speaking world and presents them to students and scholars in the Anglophone world. The scholars respond to questions such as: Who are these authors, and why are they important? What innovative thematic material or formal elements do they offer? What unique elements from their culture do they bring to the genre? How do they dialogue with the history of the genre, and how do they fit into the contemporary SF scene?
The authors studied are Angélica Gorodischer from Argentina, Yves Meynard and Jean-Louis Trudel writing collaboratively as Laurent McAllister (Francophone Canada), Liu Cixin (China), Daína Chaviano (Cuba), Johanna Sinisalo (Finland), Jean-Claude Dunyach (France), Andreas Eschbach (Germany), Sakyo Komatsu (Japan), Olatunde Osunsanmi (Nigerian American), Jacek Dukaj (Poland), and Arkady Strugatsky and Boris Strugatsky (Russia/USSR).Less
Lingua Cosmica: Science Fiction from around the World consists of eleven scholarly essays on contemporary authors (born 1950 or later) of science fiction who publish in languages other than English, or who publish from the English-speaking “periphery”: i.e., outside the United States, the United Kingdom, and Anglophone Canada. Each essay examines one author, making a case for their importance internationally and contextualizing their work within the science-fictional traditions of their own culture and those of the genre globally (themes, tropes, tendencies, subgenres, etc.). Each also offers an in-depth analysis of a major work or works. The book thus identifies major contemporary authors of science fiction outside the “center” of the English-speaking world and presents them to students and scholars in the Anglophone world. The scholars respond to questions such as: Who are these authors, and why are they important? What innovative thematic material or formal elements do they offer? What unique elements from their culture do they bring to the genre? How do they dialogue with the history of the genre, and how do they fit into the contemporary SF scene?
The authors studied are Angélica Gorodischer from Argentina, Yves Meynard and Jean-Louis Trudel writing collaboratively as Laurent McAllister (Francophone Canada), Liu Cixin (China), Daína Chaviano (Cuba), Johanna Sinisalo (Finland), Jean-Claude Dunyach (France), Andreas Eschbach (Germany), Sakyo Komatsu (Japan), Olatunde Osunsanmi (Nigerian American), Jacek Dukaj (Poland), and Arkady Strugatsky and Boris Strugatsky (Russia/USSR).
D. Harlan Wilson
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780252041433
- eISBN:
- 9780252050039
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5622/illinois/9780252041433.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century Literature and Modernism
This biocritical study of J. G. Ballard is the first book to account for the entire life and work of the eccentric, prolific SF author. Ballard began his career publishing short stories in SF ...
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This biocritical study of J. G. Ballard is the first book to account for the entire life and work of the eccentric, prolific SF author. Ballard began his career publishing short stories in SF magazines. Rather than explore outer space, his fiction explores “inner space,” drawing on the aesthetics of Surrealism and Freudian psychoanalysis. In the 1960s, he became associated with the New Wave movement in SF, which eschewed the principles of pulp SF in favor of literary modernism. Ballard’s oeuvre maps the unfolding of the mediapocalypse from the dawn of the Space Age into the 21st century; pathologized by the technology of electronic media, his characters are chronically harrowed by an implosion of real and cinematic landscapes as they struggle to find agency from the “death of affect” incited by the forces of late capitalism. Some scholarship has tried to remove Ballard from SF, arguing that he abandoned the genre halfway through his career, especially after publishing the fictional autobiography Empire of the Sun. As this book avows, however, Ballard began as, and always remained, a SF writer.Less
This biocritical study of J. G. Ballard is the first book to account for the entire life and work of the eccentric, prolific SF author. Ballard began his career publishing short stories in SF magazines. Rather than explore outer space, his fiction explores “inner space,” drawing on the aesthetics of Surrealism and Freudian psychoanalysis. In the 1960s, he became associated with the New Wave movement in SF, which eschewed the principles of pulp SF in favor of literary modernism. Ballard’s oeuvre maps the unfolding of the mediapocalypse from the dawn of the Space Age into the 21st century; pathologized by the technology of electronic media, his characters are chronically harrowed by an implosion of real and cinematic landscapes as they struggle to find agency from the “death of affect” incited by the forces of late capitalism. Some scholarship has tried to remove Ballard from SF, arguing that he abandoned the genre halfway through his career, especially after publishing the fictional autobiography Empire of the Sun. As this book avows, however, Ballard began as, and always remained, a SF writer.
D. Harlan Wilson
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780252041433
- eISBN:
- 9780252050039
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5622/illinois/9780252041433.003.0008
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century Literature and Modernism
A short conclusion emphasizes the uniqueness of Ballard’s oeuvre and addresses his legacy as one of the few genuine innovators in the SF genre, the conventions of which he consistently challenged and ...
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A short conclusion emphasizes the uniqueness of Ballard’s oeuvre and addresses his legacy as one of the few genuine innovators in the SF genre, the conventions of which he consistently challenged and destabilized throughout his long career. Ballard’s reach extends beyond SF into other kinds of literature and media, ranging from cinema, television and the visual arts to philosophy, cultural theory and music. There is an active fan base of Ballardians, accomplished artists and intellects who include some of his earliest reviewers and critics. Ballard will always be an icon of SF against which other authors measure themselves.Less
A short conclusion emphasizes the uniqueness of Ballard’s oeuvre and addresses his legacy as one of the few genuine innovators in the SF genre, the conventions of which he consistently challenged and destabilized throughout his long career. Ballard’s reach extends beyond SF into other kinds of literature and media, ranging from cinema, television and the visual arts to philosophy, cultural theory and music. There is an active fan base of Ballardians, accomplished artists and intellects who include some of his earliest reviewers and critics. Ballard will always be an icon of SF against which other authors measure themselves.
Mike Ashley
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781781382608
- eISBN:
- 9781786945457
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/liverpool/9781781382608.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
This is the fourth volume in a five-volume series covering the history, development and influence of science fiction magazines within the genre as a whole. This volume covers the 1980s and looks at ...
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This is the fourth volume in a five-volume series covering the history, development and influence of science fiction magazines within the genre as a whole. This volume covers the 1980s and looks at the contribution of a new generation of writers to the development of new sub-genres in science fiction such as cyberpunk, slipstream, nanotechnology and what was called the hard SF Renaissance. It shows how the small press and alternative magazines developed a science fiction underground that had a significant impact upon the genre, and the professional SF magazines, as well as such alternative forms of fiction as slipstream. The book highlights the growing international interest in science fiction with significant coverage of SF in countries including China, Japan, and those in Eastern Europe and South America, which are covered in an appendix.Less
This is the fourth volume in a five-volume series covering the history, development and influence of science fiction magazines within the genre as a whole. This volume covers the 1980s and looks at the contribution of a new generation of writers to the development of new sub-genres in science fiction such as cyberpunk, slipstream, nanotechnology and what was called the hard SF Renaissance. It shows how the small press and alternative magazines developed a science fiction underground that had a significant impact upon the genre, and the professional SF magazines, as well as such alternative forms of fiction as slipstream. The book highlights the growing international interest in science fiction with significant coverage of SF in countries including China, Japan, and those in Eastern Europe and South America, which are covered in an appendix.
Mark McKergow
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195385724
- eISBN:
- 9780199914586
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195385724.003.0134
- Subject:
- Social Work, Health and Mental Health
One feature of the spread of solution-focused (SF) approaches over the past fifteen years has been the many applications found in the area of management and organizational change. In many ways, this ...
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One feature of the spread of solution-focused (SF) approaches over the past fifteen years has been the many applications found in the area of management and organizational change. In many ways, this is not a surprising development; the pragmatic and effective nature of the approach matches the desire for efficient ways to make progress found in most organizations. From the time of early experiments in the mid-1990s, the SF approach has become increasingly influential. While controlled studies are possible in the field of therapy, applications in the organizational sphere are much more often carried out on an ad hoc basis; the main concern is to make progress, and whatever helps to do this is welcomed. There is far less emphasis on recording, writing up, and publishing accounts of the work. This chapter outlines some of the ways in which SF ideas have been used in management thus far.Less
One feature of the spread of solution-focused (SF) approaches over the past fifteen years has been the many applications found in the area of management and organizational change. In many ways, this is not a surprising development; the pragmatic and effective nature of the approach matches the desire for efficient ways to make progress found in most organizations. From the time of early experiments in the mid-1990s, the SF approach has become increasingly influential. While controlled studies are possible in the field of therapy, applications in the organizational sphere are much more often carried out on an ad hoc basis; the main concern is to make progress, and whatever helps to do this is welcomed. There is far less emphasis on recording, writing up, and publishing accounts of the work. This chapter outlines some of the ways in which SF ideas have been used in management thus far.
Veronica Hollinger
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781496811523
- eISBN:
- 9781496811561
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496811523.003.0002
- Subject:
- Literature, Film, Media, and Cultural Studies
In “‘Great Wall Planet’: Estrangements of Chinese Science Fiction,” Veronica Hollinger offers a few observations about Chinese SF, specifically in terms of its potential to defamiliarize what ...
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In “‘Great Wall Planet’: Estrangements of Chinese Science Fiction,” Veronica Hollinger offers a few observations about Chinese SF, specifically in terms of its potential to defamiliarize what scholars have begun to refer to as “global science fiction.” She suggests five ways in which Chinese SF can estrange a taken-for-granted Anglo-American mainstream: 1) as an “alien” cultural product; 2) as a product of China’s “rise” as a global superpower; 3) as the product of an “alternate” cultural history; 4) as representative of something called “global science fiction”; and 5) as a kind of “second-language” version of the discourse of Anglo-American globalization. She uses fictional works by Liu Cixin and Han Song to emphasize her points.Less
In “‘Great Wall Planet’: Estrangements of Chinese Science Fiction,” Veronica Hollinger offers a few observations about Chinese SF, specifically in terms of its potential to defamiliarize what scholars have begun to refer to as “global science fiction.” She suggests five ways in which Chinese SF can estrange a taken-for-granted Anglo-American mainstream: 1) as an “alien” cultural product; 2) as a product of China’s “rise” as a global superpower; 3) as the product of an “alternate” cultural history; 4) as representative of something called “global science fiction”; and 5) as a kind of “second-language” version of the discourse of Anglo-American globalization. She uses fictional works by Liu Cixin and Han Song to emphasize her points.
Takayuki Tatsumi
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781496811523
- eISBN:
- 9781496811561
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496811523.003.0003
- Subject:
- Literature, Film, Media, and Cultural Studies
Takayuki Tatsumi, in “Race and Black Humor: From a Planetary Perspective,” uses the literary concept of black humor to frame his discussion of race and humanity on a global scale. Starting with a ...
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Takayuki Tatsumi, in “Race and Black Humor: From a Planetary Perspective,” uses the literary concept of black humor to frame his discussion of race and humanity on a global scale. Starting with a racist joke concerning Hurricane Katrina, Tatsumi traces a conspiracy theory that blames this weather event on the Japanese Yakuza to develop his multi-ethnic literary analysis. From this point, Tatsumi focuses on Brian Aldiss’s short story “Another Little Boy” (1966) and how the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki transmute debates on white supremacy, counter-racism, nationalism, technology, and global racial metaphors. In his closing argument, black humor is brought to bear on Japanese-American relations as Tatsumi considers transpacific writers and transpacific imagination.Less
Takayuki Tatsumi, in “Race and Black Humor: From a Planetary Perspective,” uses the literary concept of black humor to frame his discussion of race and humanity on a global scale. Starting with a racist joke concerning Hurricane Katrina, Tatsumi traces a conspiracy theory that blames this weather event on the Japanese Yakuza to develop his multi-ethnic literary analysis. From this point, Tatsumi focuses on Brian Aldiss’s short story “Another Little Boy” (1966) and how the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki transmute debates on white supremacy, counter-racism, nationalism, technology, and global racial metaphors. In his closing argument, black humor is brought to bear on Japanese-American relations as Tatsumi considers transpacific writers and transpacific imagination.
Stephen Hong Sohn
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781496811523
- eISBN:
- 9781496811561
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496811523.003.0005
- Subject:
- Literature, Film, Media, and Cultural Studies
Stephen Hong Sohn, in “‘Perpetual War”: Korean American Speculative Fiction, Militarized Technogeometries, and Yoon Ha Lee’s ‘Wine,’” investigates the look and feel of Korean American SF in its ...
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Stephen Hong Sohn, in “‘Perpetual War”: Korean American Speculative Fiction, Militarized Technogeometries, and Yoon Ha Lee’s ‘Wine,’” investigates the look and feel of Korean American SF in its present shape. Sohn identifies how militarized tehcnogeometries, defined as the presence of and reference to soldiers, armies, battles, skirmishes, casualties, bombings, and other elements of war, become fundamental to the ways that a science fictional Korea overlays the historical and social contexts in which South and North Korea actually exist—ever under the peril of territorial dissolution. Sohn then shifts focus by analyzing Yoon Ha Lee’s “Wine” (2014) through the lens of militarized technogeometries to demonstrate how Korea materializes through its relationships to perpetual war.Less
Stephen Hong Sohn, in “‘Perpetual War”: Korean American Speculative Fiction, Militarized Technogeometries, and Yoon Ha Lee’s ‘Wine,’” investigates the look and feel of Korean American SF in its present shape. Sohn identifies how militarized tehcnogeometries, defined as the presence of and reference to soldiers, armies, battles, skirmishes, casualties, bombings, and other elements of war, become fundamental to the ways that a science fictional Korea overlays the historical and social contexts in which South and North Korea actually exist—ever under the peril of territorial dissolution. Sohn then shifts focus by analyzing Yoon Ha Lee’s “Wine” (2014) through the lens of militarized technogeometries to demonstrate how Korea materializes through its relationships to perpetual war.
Bradford Lyau
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781496811523
- eISBN:
- 9781496811561
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496811523.003.0012
- Subject:
- Literature, Film, Media, and Cultural Studies
Bradford Lyau, in “Many Paths, One Journey: Cixin Liu’s Three Body Problem Novels,” carefully places Cixin Liu’s Three Body trilogy within both Chinese and Western literary traditions before offering ...
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Bradford Lyau, in “Many Paths, One Journey: Cixin Liu’s Three Body Problem Novels,” carefully places Cixin Liu’s Three Body trilogy within both Chinese and Western literary traditions before offering a brief critical analysis of the first two books, where humanity struggles against an impending alien invasion and how humanity also faces its destiny. These two resonances with Western literature, both popular and elite, invite the reader to consider Liu’s novel’s different literary roots: 1) American genre science fiction, 2) the philosophical tale as it emerged in the West, 3) the role of philosophy in Chinese literature, and 4) Chinese science fiction.Less
Bradford Lyau, in “Many Paths, One Journey: Cixin Liu’s Three Body Problem Novels,” carefully places Cixin Liu’s Three Body trilogy within both Chinese and Western literary traditions before offering a brief critical analysis of the first two books, where humanity struggles against an impending alien invasion and how humanity also faces its destiny. These two resonances with Western literature, both popular and elite, invite the reader to consider Liu’s novel’s different literary roots: 1) American genre science fiction, 2) the philosophical tale as it emerged in the West, 3) the role of philosophy in Chinese literature, and 4) Chinese science fiction.
Cait Coker
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781496811523
- eISBN:
- 9781496811561
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496811523.003.0015
- Subject:
- Literature, Film, Media, and Cultural Studies
Through her essay “The Mako Mori Fan Club,” Cait Coker examines the subversive nature of Guillermo del Toro’s Pacific Rim (2013) by utilizing fan works as sources of viable criticism to decenter the ...
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Through her essay “The Mako Mori Fan Club,” Cait Coker examines the subversive nature of Guillermo del Toro’s Pacific Rim (2013) by utilizing fan works as sources of viable criticism to decenter the white American male action hero with a Japanese heroine. To this end, Coker delves into the major motifs of Pacific Rim fandom online and considers its relationship with a film that seemingly “failed” in the American market but exploded internationally, even prompting a sequel slated for 2017. She also reflects on how the depictions of close, but not necessarily romantic, relationships are celebrated in both the film and in fandom as illustrating a cooperative ideal generally not seen in popular, mainstream media.Less
Through her essay “The Mako Mori Fan Club,” Cait Coker examines the subversive nature of Guillermo del Toro’s Pacific Rim (2013) by utilizing fan works as sources of viable criticism to decenter the white American male action hero with a Japanese heroine. To this end, Coker delves into the major motifs of Pacific Rim fandom online and considers its relationship with a film that seemingly “failed” in the American market but exploded internationally, even prompting a sequel slated for 2017. She also reflects on how the depictions of close, but not necessarily romantic, relationships are celebrated in both the film and in fandom as illustrating a cooperative ideal generally not seen in popular, mainstream media.
Jad Smith
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780252040634
- eISBN:
- 9780252099076
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5406/illinois/9780252040634.003.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century Literature and Modernism
The introduction examines how Bester’s unique approach challenged the paradigm of Golden Age science fiction. After a stint scripting comics and radio, Bester returned to the SF field in search of ...
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The introduction examines how Bester’s unique approach challenged the paradigm of Golden Age science fiction. After a stint scripting comics and radio, Bester returned to the SF field in search of creative freedom; however, a conflict with legendary editor John W. Campbell over the story “Oddy and Id,” among other circumstances, prompted Bester to assume the stance of an outsider and write against the grain of the Astounding ethos, which he came to regard as escapist and scientistic. Bester wanted to write “arrest” fiction “full of romantic curiosity” that left ample opportunity for the reader to cogenerate meaning and experience the euphoria of raw imagination. Bester’s approach is discussed in terms of Roland Barthes’s distinction between “readable” and “writable” fiction.Less
The introduction examines how Bester’s unique approach challenged the paradigm of Golden Age science fiction. After a stint scripting comics and radio, Bester returned to the SF field in search of creative freedom; however, a conflict with legendary editor John W. Campbell over the story “Oddy and Id,” among other circumstances, prompted Bester to assume the stance of an outsider and write against the grain of the Astounding ethos, which he came to regard as escapist and scientistic. Bester wanted to write “arrest” fiction “full of romantic curiosity” that left ample opportunity for the reader to cogenerate meaning and experience the euphoria of raw imagination. Bester’s approach is discussed in terms of Roland Barthes’s distinction between “readable” and “writable” fiction.
D. Harlan Wilson
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780252041433
- eISBN:
- 9780252050039
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5622/illinois/9780252041433.003.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century Literature and Modernism
The introduction situates Ballard in a historical context and draws a blueprint of the book. Uninterested in worn-out Golden Age themes of space exploration and alien invasion, Ballard wanted to ...
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The introduction situates Ballard in a historical context and draws a blueprint of the book. Uninterested in worn-out Golden Age themes of space exploration and alien invasion, Ballard wanted to marshal the SF genre in a new direction; instead of pointing it at the stars, he would point it at the human psyche and our intricate, uncanny technologies of desire. The concept of inner space (and its surreal depiction) is central to his oeuvre, which does not accord with genre SF but is decidedly science fictional, consistently employing rational novums that defamiliarize and alienate readers in the context of conceivable, technologically advanced dystopias. Harnessing the machinery of late capitalism, Ballard attempts to de-fuse and remake the SF apparatus while commenting on the postmodern human condition.Less
The introduction situates Ballard in a historical context and draws a blueprint of the book. Uninterested in worn-out Golden Age themes of space exploration and alien invasion, Ballard wanted to marshal the SF genre in a new direction; instead of pointing it at the stars, he would point it at the human psyche and our intricate, uncanny technologies of desire. The concept of inner space (and its surreal depiction) is central to his oeuvre, which does not accord with genre SF but is decidedly science fictional, consistently employing rational novums that defamiliarize and alienate readers in the context of conceivable, technologically advanced dystopias. Harnessing the machinery of late capitalism, Ballard attempts to de-fuse and remake the SF apparatus while commenting on the postmodern human condition.
D. Harlan Wilson
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780252041433
- eISBN:
- 9780252050039
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5622/illinois/9780252041433.003.0003
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century Literature and Modernism
This chapter provides a concerted overview of Ballard’s short story production and publication, foregrounding key collections, among them The Voices of Time,The Terminal Beach, Vermillion Sands, ...
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This chapter provides a concerted overview of Ballard’s short story production and publication, foregrounding key collections, among them The Voices of Time,The Terminal Beach, Vermillion Sands, Myths of the Near Future andWar Fever. It also accounts for articles, essays, reviews, introductions and other nonfiction texts written throughout his life to subsidize his income from fiction. While Ballard’s novels contain the real meat of his legacy, his stories are crucial building blocks, test sites for his craft and the emergent flows of inner space as well as seedlings for book-length works. Before appearing in the aforementioned iconic collections, they were printed mainly in British SF magazines such as New Worlds, Science Fantasy, Ambit andInterzone.Less
This chapter provides a concerted overview of Ballard’s short story production and publication, foregrounding key collections, among them The Voices of Time,The Terminal Beach, Vermillion Sands, Myths of the Near Future andWar Fever. It also accounts for articles, essays, reviews, introductions and other nonfiction texts written throughout his life to subsidize his income from fiction. While Ballard’s novels contain the real meat of his legacy, his stories are crucial building blocks, test sites for his craft and the emergent flows of inner space as well as seedlings for book-length works. Before appearing in the aforementioned iconic collections, they were printed mainly in British SF magazines such as New Worlds, Science Fantasy, Ambit andInterzone.
D. Harlan Wilson
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780252041433
- eISBN:
- 9780252050039
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5622/illinois/9780252041433.003.0004
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century Literature and Modernism
The texts under consideration in this chapter include Ballard’s first four novels, all of which involve different types of global cataclysms and fall into the apocalyptic subgenre of SF: The Wind ...
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The texts under consideration in this chapter include Ballard’s first four novels, all of which involve different types of global cataclysms and fall into the apocalyptic subgenre of SF: The Wind from Nowhere, The Drowned World, The Drought and The Crystal World. The latter three are inner-spatial narratives that center on one man’s terrestrial and psychological journey through a dystopian “landscape of decline and desire”; all three protagonists are “becoming-Adams” who seek transcendence by navigating their respective new Edens, “gardens of ruin” that hold the promise of demolition and re-birth. Wind, on the other hand, is a “cozy catastrophe” full of clichés that Ballard wrote to jumpstart his career, although it is much better than some critics (and Ballard himself) have given it credit for.Less
The texts under consideration in this chapter include Ballard’s first four novels, all of which involve different types of global cataclysms and fall into the apocalyptic subgenre of SF: The Wind from Nowhere, The Drowned World, The Drought and The Crystal World. The latter three are inner-spatial narratives that center on one man’s terrestrial and psychological journey through a dystopian “landscape of decline and desire”; all three protagonists are “becoming-Adams” who seek transcendence by navigating their respective new Edens, “gardens of ruin” that hold the promise of demolition and re-birth. Wind, on the other hand, is a “cozy catastrophe” full of clichés that Ballard wrote to jumpstart his career, although it is much better than some critics (and Ballard himself) have given it credit for.
D. Harlan Wilson
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780252041433
- eISBN:
- 9780252050039
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5622/illinois/9780252041433.003.0005
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century Literature and Modernism
Ballard’s most well-known novels are unpacked in this chapter. It is divided into two sections: the first regarding the experimental, postmodern The Atrocity Exhibition, the second regarding Crash, ...
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Ballard’s most well-known novels are unpacked in this chapter. It is divided into two sections: the first regarding the experimental, postmodern The Atrocity Exhibition, the second regarding Crash, Concrete Island and High-Rise, which formulate a “cultural disaster trilogy.” Crash has been called the first “pornographic SF novel” and derives from the “condensed novels” that comprise Atrocity. They sparked controversy and have received more critical attention than anything else in his canon, which, for years, was wrongly totalized via their designs and themes. Whereas the books in chapter 3 concern the effects of nature on the psyche, the books discussed here concern the effects of culture on the psyche, exploring how electronic media, consumer-capitalism and urbanity construct and pathologize subjectivity.Less
Ballard’s most well-known novels are unpacked in this chapter. It is divided into two sections: the first regarding the experimental, postmodern The Atrocity Exhibition, the second regarding Crash, Concrete Island and High-Rise, which formulate a “cultural disaster trilogy.” Crash has been called the first “pornographic SF novel” and derives from the “condensed novels” that comprise Atrocity. They sparked controversy and have received more critical attention than anything else in his canon, which, for years, was wrongly totalized via their designs and themes. Whereas the books in chapter 3 concern the effects of nature on the psyche, the books discussed here concern the effects of culture on the psyche, exploring how electronic media, consumer-capitalism and urbanity construct and pathologize subjectivity.
Isiah Lavender III
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- May 2015
- ISBN:
- 9781628461237
- eISBN:
- 9781626740686
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781628461237.003.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century and Contemporary Literature
With his introduction, “Coloring Race in Science Fiction,” Isiah Lavender, III provides answers to why he and others study race and racism in SF, that invoking race and racism in an outwardly white ...
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With his introduction, “Coloring Race in Science Fiction,” Isiah Lavender, III provides answers to why he and others study race and racism in SF, that invoking race and racism in an outwardly white genre is necessary. Coloring science fiction is an absolute and radical commitment because skin color matters in visions of the future. SF has charted a few of the alternatives for this unknown territory, and the change presents both opportunities and challenges for society to establish new values.Less
With his introduction, “Coloring Race in Science Fiction,” Isiah Lavender, III provides answers to why he and others study race and racism in SF, that invoking race and racism in an outwardly white genre is necessary. Coloring science fiction is an absolute and radical commitment because skin color matters in visions of the future. SF has charted a few of the alternatives for this unknown territory, and the change presents both opportunities and challenges for society to establish new values.
Patrick B. Sharp
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- May 2015
- ISBN:
- 9781628461237
- eISBN:
- 9781626740686
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781628461237.003.0008
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century and Contemporary Literature
Patrick B. Sharp, in “Questing for an Indigenous Future: Leslie Marmon Silko’s Ceremony as Indigenous SF,” critiques the colonial imagination that produced both modern science and the “grammar of ...
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Patrick B. Sharp, in “Questing for an Indigenous Future: Leslie Marmon Silko’s Ceremony as Indigenous SF,” critiques the colonial imagination that produced both modern science and the “grammar of race” that codes all non-whites as incapable of contributing to the futures promised by science fiction by focusing on Silko’s use of illness and witchery to evoke the Cold War logic of nuclear apocalypse. Sharp explores how Silko uses the traditional Laguna concept of cyclical time, how Silko imagines the interconnectedness between all races, and how Silko thwarts the narrative of apocalypse, providing the foundation for an indigenous future that can heal the damage brought about by the colonial imagination.Less
Patrick B. Sharp, in “Questing for an Indigenous Future: Leslie Marmon Silko’s Ceremony as Indigenous SF,” critiques the colonial imagination that produced both modern science and the “grammar of race” that codes all non-whites as incapable of contributing to the futures promised by science fiction by focusing on Silko’s use of illness and witchery to evoke the Cold War logic of nuclear apocalypse. Sharp explores how Silko uses the traditional Laguna concept of cyclical time, how Silko imagines the interconnectedness between all races, and how Silko thwarts the narrative of apocalypse, providing the foundation for an indigenous future that can heal the damage brought about by the colonial imagination.
Halifu Osumare
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780813056616
- eISBN:
- 9780813053530
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813056616.003.0002
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Cultural Studies
This chapter tells the author’s beginnings in dance in high school and her developing dance training as an undergraduate at San Francisco State University. She also probes the unique qualities of the ...
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This chapter tells the author’s beginnings in dance in high school and her developing dance training as an undergraduate at San Francisco State University. She also probes the unique qualities of the SF Bay Area in the latter 60s, specifically as it relates to the Black Arts Movement-West, the hippie counterculture movement, and black militancy leading to the formation of Oakland’s Black Panther Party and the SF State Strike for Ethnic Studies. She shows how she situated dance as her unique revolutionary statement and took this approach when leaving the US for Europe as a young woman.Less
This chapter tells the author’s beginnings in dance in high school and her developing dance training as an undergraduate at San Francisco State University. She also probes the unique qualities of the SF Bay Area in the latter 60s, specifically as it relates to the Black Arts Movement-West, the hippie counterculture movement, and black militancy leading to the formation of Oakland’s Black Panther Party and the SF State Strike for Ethnic Studies. She shows how she situated dance as her unique revolutionary statement and took this approach when leaving the US for Europe as a young woman.
Woolsey Clinton N.
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- August 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780262518420
- eISBN:
- 9780262314213
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262518420.003.0014
- Subject:
- Neuroscience, Research and Theory
This chapter shows that cortical auditory response mechanisms are organized in a much more complex way than was encompassed by the concept of a dual cortical auditory area. Within the central ...
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This chapter shows that cortical auditory response mechanisms are organized in a much more complex way than was encompassed by the concept of a dual cortical auditory area. Within the central auditory region there appear to be four complete representations for the cochlea, which correlate in some degree with the four principal cytoarchitectural divisions of Rose—the suprasylvian fringe area (SF), auditory area I (AI), auditory area II (AII), and Area Ep. These auditory areas were discovered by Woolsey and Walzl by presenting results on stimulating electrically small bundles of cochlear nerve fibers in the spiral osseous lamina, obtained by recording electrical potential changes evoked locally in the cerebral cortex.Less
This chapter shows that cortical auditory response mechanisms are organized in a much more complex way than was encompassed by the concept of a dual cortical auditory area. Within the central auditory region there appear to be four complete representations for the cochlea, which correlate in some degree with the four principal cytoarchitectural divisions of Rose—the suprasylvian fringe area (SF), auditory area I (AI), auditory area II (AII), and Area Ep. These auditory areas were discovered by Woolsey and Walzl by presenting results on stimulating electrically small bundles of cochlear nerve fibers in the spiral osseous lamina, obtained by recording electrical potential changes evoked locally in the cerebral cortex.
Peter Pels
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780823249800
- eISBN:
- 9780823252480
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823249800.003.0010
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This chapter explores the history of science fiction in relation to religious ideas about cosmology, human nature, fate, and techno-science. Documenting the evolution of the literary genre from ...
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This chapter explores the history of science fiction in relation to religious ideas about cosmology, human nature, fate, and techno-science. Documenting the evolution of the literary genre from ‘classic’ authors such as Arthur Conan Doyle, Hugo Gernsback, and Isaac Asimov, to the rise of ‘cyberpunk’ authors such as William Gibson, the chapter examines the relationship of these authors with religious movements such as Theosophy, modern occultism, and New Age spirituality. The chapter argues that science fiction (and science-fictionalized everyday life) constitutes a form of religion outside religious contexts – a secularized, commercially driven religiosity, based on a shared vocabulary of ‘wonder’, ‘awe’, ‘amazement’, ‘redemption’, and ‘salvation’.Less
This chapter explores the history of science fiction in relation to religious ideas about cosmology, human nature, fate, and techno-science. Documenting the evolution of the literary genre from ‘classic’ authors such as Arthur Conan Doyle, Hugo Gernsback, and Isaac Asimov, to the rise of ‘cyberpunk’ authors such as William Gibson, the chapter examines the relationship of these authors with religious movements such as Theosophy, modern occultism, and New Age spirituality. The chapter argues that science fiction (and science-fictionalized everyday life) constitutes a form of religion outside religious contexts – a secularized, commercially driven religiosity, based on a shared vocabulary of ‘wonder’, ‘awe’, ‘amazement’, ‘redemption’, and ‘salvation’.
