Mike Ashley
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- May 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780853237693
- eISBN:
- 9781781380840
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/liverpool/9780853237693.003.0002
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
This chapter examines the boom years of science fiction magazines that began in 1952, which saw the publication of seven new science fiction and fantasy magazines in the United States. It was in 1952 ...
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This chapter examines the boom years of science fiction magazines that began in 1952, which saw the publication of seven new science fiction and fantasy magazines in the United States. It was in 1952 that three new digest magazines appeared within three months of each other: If: Worlds of Science Fiction, Fantastic, and Space Science Fiction. The end of the science fiction boom came with the demise of the pulp magazines that hit the field in 1954. During the 1940s the pulp magazine faced stiff competition not only from the comic books, but also from paperback pocketbooks. The pocketbook emerged as a significant part of publishing with the success of Penguin Books in Britain and Pocket Books in the United States. Pocket Books were soon joined by Avon Books and other publishers, few of which published science fiction as a recognised genre.Less
This chapter examines the boom years of science fiction magazines that began in 1952, which saw the publication of seven new science fiction and fantasy magazines in the United States. It was in 1952 that three new digest magazines appeared within three months of each other: If: Worlds of Science Fiction, Fantastic, and Space Science Fiction. The end of the science fiction boom came with the demise of the pulp magazines that hit the field in 1954. During the 1940s the pulp magazine faced stiff competition not only from the comic books, but also from paperback pocketbooks. The pocketbook emerged as a significant part of publishing with the success of Penguin Books in Britain and Pocket Books in the United States. Pocket Books were soon joined by Avon Books and other publishers, few of which published science fiction as a recognised genre.
Mike Ashley
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- May 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780853237693
- eISBN:
- 9781781380840
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/liverpool/9780853237693.003.0005
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
From 1955 to the end of the 1950s, science fiction experienced its most turbulent period. All of the pulp magazines had almost disappeared by the middle of the decade, as their readers began to ...
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From 1955 to the end of the 1950s, science fiction experienced its most turbulent period. All of the pulp magazines had almost disappeared by the middle of the decade, as their readers began to explore other avenues. Competition for science fiction magazines came from everywhere: comics, digest magazines, paperbacks, men's magazines, cinema, radio, and television. At the same time, science fiction was becoming more topical and relevant every day due to advances in science, especially with the dawn of the space age in October 1957. These factors provided science fiction a wider and more appreciative readership, to which the magazines had to respond while facing the challenge of their opposition. This chapter examines the consequences of all these factors for the turbulent science fiction magazine market from 1956 to 1960. Among the magazines that existed during the period were Astounding Science, Galaxy, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Amazing Stories, Science Fiction Stories, Science Fiction Quarterly, Satellite SF, Michael Shayne Mystery Magazine, and Science Fiction Adventures.Less
From 1955 to the end of the 1950s, science fiction experienced its most turbulent period. All of the pulp magazines had almost disappeared by the middle of the decade, as their readers began to explore other avenues. Competition for science fiction magazines came from everywhere: comics, digest magazines, paperbacks, men's magazines, cinema, radio, and television. At the same time, science fiction was becoming more topical and relevant every day due to advances in science, especially with the dawn of the space age in October 1957. These factors provided science fiction a wider and more appreciative readership, to which the magazines had to respond while facing the challenge of their opposition. This chapter examines the consequences of all these factors for the turbulent science fiction magazine market from 1956 to 1960. Among the magazines that existed during the period were Astounding Science, Galaxy, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Amazing Stories, Science Fiction Stories, Science Fiction Quarterly, Satellite SF, Michael Shayne Mystery Magazine, and Science Fiction Adventures.
Joseph W. Campbell
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- May 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781496824721
- eISBN:
- 9781496824776
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496824721.003.0003
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century and Contemporary Literature
Chapter 2 shows in a compressed, somewhat truncated way, the unique history of science fiction (sometimes called speculative fiction). This chapter also shows some of the myriad theoretical ...
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Chapter 2 shows in a compressed, somewhat truncated way, the unique history of science fiction (sometimes called speculative fiction). This chapter also shows some of the myriad theoretical approaches that have been used in the study of science fiction over time. It then demonstrates how those approaches have been used by giving close readings of science fiction texts intended for young adults. This is in an effort to show the difference between science fiction and dystopian literature. It shows that it is a literature directly concerned with the subject’s encounter with the o/Other.Less
Chapter 2 shows in a compressed, somewhat truncated way, the unique history of science fiction (sometimes called speculative fiction). This chapter also shows some of the myriad theoretical approaches that have been used in the study of science fiction over time. It then demonstrates how those approaches have been used by giving close readings of science fiction texts intended for young adults. This is in an effort to show the difference between science fiction and dystopian literature. It shows that it is a literature directly concerned with the subject’s encounter with the o/Other.
Mike Ashley
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- May 2014
- ISBN:
- 9781846310027
- eISBN:
- 9781781380536
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/liverpool/9781846310027.003.0004
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
This chapter discusses the changes in the science-fiction-magazine industry during the late 1970s, which witnessed the passing of numerous science fiction magazines, such as Galileo, Cosmos Science ...
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This chapter discusses the changes in the science-fiction-magazine industry during the late 1970s, which witnessed the passing of numerous science fiction magazines, such as Galileo, Cosmos Science Fiction and Fantasy Magazine, and Fantastic. With the decline of science fiction magazines, the period experienced a growth of science fiction and fantasy book sales, even bringing new titles. Cinema also underwent a dramatic growth after the success of the science fiction motion picture Star Wars in 1977, establishing a new generation of science fiction fans through visual imagery and special effects brought about by cinema.Less
This chapter discusses the changes in the science-fiction-magazine industry during the late 1970s, which witnessed the passing of numerous science fiction magazines, such as Galileo, Cosmos Science Fiction and Fantasy Magazine, and Fantastic. With the decline of science fiction magazines, the period experienced a growth of science fiction and fantasy book sales, even bringing new titles. Cinema also underwent a dramatic growth after the success of the science fiction motion picture Star Wars in 1977, establishing a new generation of science fiction fans through visual imagery and special effects brought about by cinema.
Joseph W. Campbell
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- May 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781496824721
- eISBN:
- 9781496824776
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496824721.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century and Contemporary Literature
The Order and the Other is a call to reexamine the relationship between dystopian literature and science fiction by thinking about the work that each genre does on and for the reader. The author ...
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The Order and the Other is a call to reexamine the relationship between dystopian literature and science fiction by thinking about the work that each genre does on and for the reader. The author believes that this is especially necessary in regards to dystopian literature intended for adolescents. Now that the cultural boom of YA Dystopian texts is over, this book attempts to understand that boom by placing dystopian works into the larger context of belonging to literary history of dystopian works. It attempts to help readers see how surveillance and power form the way that not only the characters within the films or books think about themselves, but also how it shapes the readers, as well. It also helps show that the surveillance culture and state that we see within such texts is not dependent on science fiction genre structures to exist. Finally, the book examines the most recent efforts to understand the genre and suggests ways inquiry into the genre might go forward.Less
The Order and the Other is a call to reexamine the relationship between dystopian literature and science fiction by thinking about the work that each genre does on and for the reader. The author believes that this is especially necessary in regards to dystopian literature intended for adolescents. Now that the cultural boom of YA Dystopian texts is over, this book attempts to understand that boom by placing dystopian works into the larger context of belonging to literary history of dystopian works. It attempts to help readers see how surveillance and power form the way that not only the characters within the films or books think about themselves, but also how it shapes the readers, as well. It also helps show that the surveillance culture and state that we see within such texts is not dependent on science fiction genre structures to exist. Finally, the book examines the most recent efforts to understand the genre and suggests ways inquiry into the genre might go forward.
Kieran Tranter
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781474420891
- eISBN:
- 9781474453707
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474420891.001.0001
- Subject:
- Law, Philosophy of Law
Successive transformations have resulted in the emergence of a total technological world where old separations about ‘nature’ and ‘culture’ have declined. With this, the tendency towards technicity ...
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Successive transformations have resulted in the emergence of a total technological world where old separations about ‘nature’ and ‘culture’ have declined. With this, the tendency towards technicity within modern law has flourished. There has often been identified a mechanistic essence to modern law in its domination of human life. Usually this has been considered an ‘end’ and a loss, the human swallowed by the machine. However, this innovative book sets out to re-address this tendency
By examining science fiction as the culture of our total technological world, Living in Technical Legality journeys with the partially consumed human into the belly of the machine. What it finds is unexpected: rather than a cold uniformity of exchangeable productive units, there is warmth, diversity and ‘life’ for the nodes in the networks. Through its science fiction focus, it argues that this life generates a very different law of responsibility that can guide living well in technical legality.Less
Successive transformations have resulted in the emergence of a total technological world where old separations about ‘nature’ and ‘culture’ have declined. With this, the tendency towards technicity within modern law has flourished. There has often been identified a mechanistic essence to modern law in its domination of human life. Usually this has been considered an ‘end’ and a loss, the human swallowed by the machine. However, this innovative book sets out to re-address this tendency
By examining science fiction as the culture of our total technological world, Living in Technical Legality journeys with the partially consumed human into the belly of the machine. What it finds is unexpected: rather than a cold uniformity of exchangeable productive units, there is warmth, diversity and ‘life’ for the nodes in the networks. Through its science fiction focus, it argues that this life generates a very different law of responsibility that can guide living well in technical legality.
Kieran Tranter
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781474420891
- eISBN:
- 9781474453707
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474420891.003.0001
- Subject:
- Law, Philosophy of Law
This chapter introduces the book. It introduces the key concepts of the Frankenstein myth, law as technology and the role of science fiction as the site for the collective dream of technological ...
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This chapter introduces the book. It introduces the key concepts of the Frankenstein myth, law as technology and the role of science fiction as the site for the collective dream of technological culture and society in the West. This chapter also locates the book to come in the emergent field of law and humanities and the existing literature that examines law and legality of science fiction. It also introduces the concepts of the monster and the trickster.Less
This chapter introduces the book. It introduces the key concepts of the Frankenstein myth, law as technology and the role of science fiction as the site for the collective dream of technological culture and society in the West. This chapter also locates the book to come in the emergent field of law and humanities and the existing literature that examines law and legality of science fiction. It also introduces the concepts of the monster and the trickster.
Andy Sawyer
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- May 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780853238348
- eISBN:
- 9781781380741
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/liverpool/9780853238348.003.0002
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
The present volume emerged from the ‘Speaking Science Fiction’ conference held in Liverpool in July 1996. The conference, organized by the University of Liverpool with the support of the Science ...
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The present volume emerged from the ‘Speaking Science Fiction’ conference held in Liverpool in July 1996. The conference, organized by the University of Liverpool with the support of the Science Fiction Foundation, was part of an ongoing dialogue between various ‘wings’ or ‘tendencies’ of those involved in researching, studying, and writing science fiction. This chapter describes some of the themes which became apparent through the three days of the conference.Less
The present volume emerged from the ‘Speaking Science Fiction’ conference held in Liverpool in July 1996. The conference, organized by the University of Liverpool with the support of the Science Fiction Foundation, was part of an ongoing dialogue between various ‘wings’ or ‘tendencies’ of those involved in researching, studying, and writing science fiction. This chapter describes some of the themes which became apparent through the three days of the conference.
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.
Gwyneth Jones
- Published in print:
- 1998
- Published Online:
- January 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780853237839
- eISBN:
- 9781786945389
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/liverpool/9780853237839.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
Gwyneth Jones’s Deconstructing the Starships: Science Fiction and Reality is a collection of critical essays, speeches and reviews, split into three sections: ‘All Science is Description’, ‘Science, ...
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Gwyneth Jones’s Deconstructing the Starships: Science Fiction and Reality is a collection of critical essays, speeches and reviews, split into three sections: ‘All Science is Description’, ‘Science, Fiction and Reality’, and ‘The Reviews’.
The book looks at 20th century science fiction through a feminist lens and explores the evolution of science fiction and fantasy writing during an era of scientific and technological development. From a feminist point of view, Jones discusses the relationships between men and women in science fiction and unpacks the significance of the power imbalances that come out of those relationships. Jones also addresses the increasing closeness in the barriers between science fiction and reality and offers insightful predictions towards the future.Less
Gwyneth Jones’s Deconstructing the Starships: Science Fiction and Reality is a collection of critical essays, speeches and reviews, split into three sections: ‘All Science is Description’, ‘Science, Fiction and Reality’, and ‘The Reviews’.
The book looks at 20th century science fiction through a feminist lens and explores the evolution of science fiction and fantasy writing during an era of scientific and technological development. From a feminist point of view, Jones discusses the relationships between men and women in science fiction and unpacks the significance of the power imbalances that come out of those relationships. Jones also addresses the increasing closeness in the barriers between science fiction and reality and offers insightful predictions towards the future.
Rebecca Onion
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9781469629476
- eISBN:
- 9781469629490
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/northcarolina/9781469629476.003.0005
- Subject:
- Education, History of Education
After World War II, science-fiction authors found lucrative side gigs in writing fiction for young people. Before “young adult” books were a fixed category, authors like Robert Heinlein wrote stories ...
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After World War II, science-fiction authors found lucrative side gigs in writing fiction for young people. Before “young adult” books were a fixed category, authors like Robert Heinlein wrote stories about space for middle-grade readers, most of whom were male. This chapter looks at Heinlein’s juvenile fiction published by Scribner’s, and shows how his work reinforced a vision of scientific masculinity.Less
After World War II, science-fiction authors found lucrative side gigs in writing fiction for young people. Before “young adult” books were a fixed category, authors like Robert Heinlein wrote stories about space for middle-grade readers, most of whom were male. This chapter looks at Heinlein’s juvenile fiction published by Scribner’s, and shows how his work reinforced a vision of scientific masculinity.
Curtis D. Carbonell
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- May 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781789620573
- eISBN:
- 9781789629644
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3828/liverpool/9781789620573.001.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Cultural Studies
Dread Trident examines the rise of imaginary worlds in tabletop role-playing games (TRPGs), such as Dungeons and Dragons. With the combination of analog and digital mechanisms, from traditional books ...
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Dread Trident examines the rise of imaginary worlds in tabletop role-playing games (TRPGs), such as Dungeons and Dragons. With the combination of analog and digital mechanisms, from traditional books to the internet, new ways of engaging the fantastic have become increasingly realized in recent years, and this book seeks an understanding of this phenomenon within the discourses of trans- and posthumanism, as well as within a gameist mode.
The book explores a number of case studies of foundational TRPGs. Dungeons and Dragons provides an illustration of pulp-driven fantasy, particularly in the way it harmonizes its many campaign settings into a functional multiverse. It also acts as a supreme example of depth within its archive of official and unofficial published material, stretching back four decades. Warhammer 40k and the Worlds of Darkness present an interesting dialogue between Gothic and science-fantasy elements. The Mythos of HP Lovecraft also features prominently in the book as an example of a realized world that spans the literary and gameist modes.
Realized fantasy worlds are becoming ever more popular as a way of experiencing a touch of the magical within modern life. Following Northrop Frye’s definition of irony, Dread Trident theorizes an ironic understanding of this process and in particular of its embodied forms.Less
Dread Trident examines the rise of imaginary worlds in tabletop role-playing games (TRPGs), such as Dungeons and Dragons. With the combination of analog and digital mechanisms, from traditional books to the internet, new ways of engaging the fantastic have become increasingly realized in recent years, and this book seeks an understanding of this phenomenon within the discourses of trans- and posthumanism, as well as within a gameist mode.
The book explores a number of case studies of foundational TRPGs. Dungeons and Dragons provides an illustration of pulp-driven fantasy, particularly in the way it harmonizes its many campaign settings into a functional multiverse. It also acts as a supreme example of depth within its archive of official and unofficial published material, stretching back four decades. Warhammer 40k and the Worlds of Darkness present an interesting dialogue between Gothic and science-fantasy elements. The Mythos of HP Lovecraft also features prominently in the book as an example of a realized world that spans the literary and gameist modes.
Realized fantasy worlds are becoming ever more popular as a way of experiencing a touch of the magical within modern life. Following Northrop Frye’s definition of irony, Dread Trident theorizes an ironic understanding of this process and in particular of its embodied forms.
Glyn Morgan and Charul Palmer-Patel (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- May 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781789620139
- eISBN:
- 9781789623765
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3828/liverpool/9781789620139.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century and Contemporary Literature
This book is the first collection of scholarly essays on alternate history in over a decade and features contributions from a mixture of major figures and rising stars in the field of science fiction ...
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This book is the first collection of scholarly essays on alternate history in over a decade and features contributions from a mixture of major figures and rising stars in the field of science fiction studies. Alternate history is a genre of fiction which, although connected to the genres of utopian, dystopian and science fiction, has its own rich history and lineage. With roots in the writings of ancient Rome, alternate history matured into something close to its current form in the essays and novels of the nineteenth century. In more recent years a number of highly acclaimed novels have been published as alternate histories, by authors ranging from science fiction bestsellers to Pulitzer Prize-winning literary icons. The success and popularity of the genre is reflected in its success on television with original concepts being developed alongside adaptations of iconic texts. This important collection of essays seeks to redress an imbalance between the importance and quality of alternate history texts and the available scholarship and critical readings of texts, providing chapters by both leading scholars in the field and rising stars. The chapters in this book acknowledge the long and distinctive history of the genre whilst also revelling in its vitality, adaptability, and contemporary relevance, with many of the chapters discussing late-twentieth and early-twenty-first century contemporary fiction texts which have received little or no sustained critical analysis elsewhere in print.Less
This book is the first collection of scholarly essays on alternate history in over a decade and features contributions from a mixture of major figures and rising stars in the field of science fiction studies. Alternate history is a genre of fiction which, although connected to the genres of utopian, dystopian and science fiction, has its own rich history and lineage. With roots in the writings of ancient Rome, alternate history matured into something close to its current form in the essays and novels of the nineteenth century. In more recent years a number of highly acclaimed novels have been published as alternate histories, by authors ranging from science fiction bestsellers to Pulitzer Prize-winning literary icons. The success and popularity of the genre is reflected in its success on television with original concepts being developed alongside adaptations of iconic texts. This important collection of essays seeks to redress an imbalance between the importance and quality of alternate history texts and the available scholarship and critical readings of texts, providing chapters by both leading scholars in the field and rising stars. The chapters in this book acknowledge the long and distinctive history of the genre whilst also revelling in its vitality, adaptability, and contemporary relevance, with many of the chapters discussing late-twentieth and early-twenty-first century contemporary fiction texts which have received little or no sustained critical analysis elsewhere in print.
Joseph W. Campbell
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- May 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781496824721
- eISBN:
- 9781496824776
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496824721.003.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century and Contemporary Literature
The introduction of the book sets up the idea that genres are like tools, and they can be used to do certain work on and for the reader. It sets up the argument that dystopian works have different ...
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The introduction of the book sets up the idea that genres are like tools, and they can be used to do certain work on and for the reader. It sets up the argument that dystopian works have different use values than science fiction works.Less
The introduction of the book sets up the idea that genres are like tools, and they can be used to do certain work on and for the reader. It sets up the argument that dystopian works have different use values than science fiction works.
Curtis D. Carbonell
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- May 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781789620573
- eISBN:
- 9781789629644
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3828/liverpool/9781789620573.003.0007
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Cultural Studies
This chapter examines a final case study, the TRPG Numenera. It finds in writers such as China Miéville and Gene Wolfe precursors of how literary studies can inform and understanding of the imaginary ...
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This chapter examines a final case study, the TRPG Numenera. It finds in writers such as China Miéville and Gene Wolfe precursors of how literary studies can inform and understanding of the imaginary worlds found in a game like Numenera. Miéville, for example, finds roots for his Bas Lag trilogy in elements from TRPGs like Dungeons and Dragons, articulating a granular style of textured detail like that found in the best of Lovecraft. With Wolfe, this chapter reads his blending of science fiction and fantasy elements, especially how he embraces a magical impulse. Numenera incorporates these elements into a post-anthropocene setting that imagines a post-human far future. Its cosmicism, though, lacks the pessimism of Lovecraft or a writer like Thomas Ligotto, who this chapter sees as moving beyond Lovecraft, yet retaining much of his insistence in resisting drawing the ultimate horror. This chapter ends by arguing that realized worlds such as those inspired by Lovecraft, e.g. Numenera, can also be seen in the first season of the HBO series True Detective, a series that valorized a pulp fantasism, yet refused to acknowledge it in the end.Less
This chapter examines a final case study, the TRPG Numenera. It finds in writers such as China Miéville and Gene Wolfe precursors of how literary studies can inform and understanding of the imaginary worlds found in a game like Numenera. Miéville, for example, finds roots for his Bas Lag trilogy in elements from TRPGs like Dungeons and Dragons, articulating a granular style of textured detail like that found in the best of Lovecraft. With Wolfe, this chapter reads his blending of science fiction and fantasy elements, especially how he embraces a magical impulse. Numenera incorporates these elements into a post-anthropocene setting that imagines a post-human far future. Its cosmicism, though, lacks the pessimism of Lovecraft or a writer like Thomas Ligotto, who this chapter sees as moving beyond Lovecraft, yet retaining much of his insistence in resisting drawing the ultimate horror. This chapter ends by arguing that realized worlds such as those inspired by Lovecraft, e.g. Numenera, can also be seen in the first season of the HBO series True Detective, a series that valorized a pulp fantasism, yet refused to acknowledge it in the end.
Brian Willems
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- January 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781474422697
- eISBN:
- 9781474438629
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474422697.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Metaphysics/Epistemology
A human-centred approach to the environment is leading to ecological collapse. One of the ways that speculative realism challenges anthropomorphism is by taking non-human things to be as valid ...
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A human-centred approach to the environment is leading to ecological collapse. One of the ways that speculative realism challenges anthropomorphism is by taking non-human things to be as valid objects of investivation as humans, allowing a more responsible and truthful view of the world to take place. Brian Willems uses a range of science fiction literature that questions anthropomorphism both to develop and challenge this philosophical position. He looks at how nonsense and sense exist together in science fiction, the way in which language is not a guarantee of personhood, the role of vision in relation to identity formation, the difference between metamorphosis and modulation, representations of non-human deaths and the function of plasticity within the Anthropocene. Willems considers the works of Cormac McCarthy, Paolo Bacigalupi, Neil Gaiman, China Miéville, Doris Lessing and Kim Stanley Robinson are considered alongside some of the main figures of speculative materialism including Graham Harman, Quentin Meillassoux and Jane Bennett.Less
A human-centred approach to the environment is leading to ecological collapse. One of the ways that speculative realism challenges anthropomorphism is by taking non-human things to be as valid objects of investivation as humans, allowing a more responsible and truthful view of the world to take place. Brian Willems uses a range of science fiction literature that questions anthropomorphism both to develop and challenge this philosophical position. He looks at how nonsense and sense exist together in science fiction, the way in which language is not a guarantee of personhood, the role of vision in relation to identity formation, the difference between metamorphosis and modulation, representations of non-human deaths and the function of plasticity within the Anthropocene. Willems considers the works of Cormac McCarthy, Paolo Bacigalupi, Neil Gaiman, China Miéville, Doris Lessing and Kim Stanley Robinson are considered alongside some of the main figures of speculative materialism including Graham Harman, Quentin Meillassoux and Jane Bennett.
Chris Pak
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781781382844
- eISBN:
- 9781786945426
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/liverpool/9781781382844.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
This book explores the emergence and development of terraforming in science fiction from H.G. Wells’s The War of the Worlds (1898) to James Cameron’s blockbuster Avatar (2009). Terraforming is the ...
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This book explores the emergence and development of terraforming in science fiction from H.G. Wells’s The War of the Worlds (1898) to James Cameron’s blockbuster Avatar (2009). Terraforming is the process of making other worlds habitable for human life. Its counterpart on Earth—geoengineering—has been positioned as a possible means of addressing the effects of climate change. This book asks how science fiction has imagined the ways we shape both our world and other planets and how stories of terraforming reflect on science, society and environmentalism. It traces the growth of the motif of terraforming in stories by such writers as H.G. Wells and Olaf Stapledon in the UK, American pulp science fiction by Ray Bradbury, Robert Heinlein and Arthur C. Clarke, the counter cultural novels of Frank Herbert, Ursula K. Le Guin and Ernest Callenbach, and Pamela Sargent’s Venus trilogy, Frederick Turner’s epic poem of terraforming, Genesis, and Kim Stanley Robinson’s acclaimed Mars trilogy. It explores terraforming as a nexus for environmental philosophy, the pastoral, ecology, the Gaia hypothesis, the politics of colonisation and habitation, tradition and memory. This book shows how contemporary environmental awareness and our understanding of climate change is influenced by science fiction, and how terraforming in particular has offered scientists, philosophers, and many other readers a motif to think in complex ways about the human impact on planetary environments. Amidst contemporary anxieties about climate change, terraforming offers an important vantage from which to consider the ways humankind shapes and is shaped by their world.Less
This book explores the emergence and development of terraforming in science fiction from H.G. Wells’s The War of the Worlds (1898) to James Cameron’s blockbuster Avatar (2009). Terraforming is the process of making other worlds habitable for human life. Its counterpart on Earth—geoengineering—has been positioned as a possible means of addressing the effects of climate change. This book asks how science fiction has imagined the ways we shape both our world and other planets and how stories of terraforming reflect on science, society and environmentalism. It traces the growth of the motif of terraforming in stories by such writers as H.G. Wells and Olaf Stapledon in the UK, American pulp science fiction by Ray Bradbury, Robert Heinlein and Arthur C. Clarke, the counter cultural novels of Frank Herbert, Ursula K. Le Guin and Ernest Callenbach, and Pamela Sargent’s Venus trilogy, Frederick Turner’s epic poem of terraforming, Genesis, and Kim Stanley Robinson’s acclaimed Mars trilogy. It explores terraforming as a nexus for environmental philosophy, the pastoral, ecology, the Gaia hypothesis, the politics of colonisation and habitation, tradition and memory. This book shows how contemporary environmental awareness and our understanding of climate change is influenced by science fiction, and how terraforming in particular has offered scientists, philosophers, and many other readers a motif to think in complex ways about the human impact on planetary environments. Amidst contemporary anxieties about climate change, terraforming offers an important vantage from which to consider the ways humankind shapes and is shaped by their world.
Peter Wright
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780853238188
- eISBN:
- 9781846312618
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/liverpool/9780853238188.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
Attending Daedalus is the first book-length study of Gene Wolfe's four-volume The Book of the New Sun and its sequel, The Urth of the New Sun, known collectively as ‘The Urth Cycle’. Rejecting the ...
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Attending Daedalus is the first book-length study of Gene Wolfe's four-volume The Book of the New Sun and its sequel, The Urth of the New Sun, known collectively as ‘The Urth Cycle’. Rejecting the conventional spiritual reading of the text, the book employs evolutionary theory to argue for a controversial secular reception of a narrative in which Wolfe plays an elaborate game with his reader. After exposing the concealed story at the heart of Wolfe's novels, it adopts a variety of approaches to establish Wolfe as the designer of an intricate textual labyrinth intended to extend into the reading experience his thematic preoccupations with subjectivity, the unreliability of memory, the manipulation of individuals by social and political systems, and the psychological potency of myth, faith and symbolism. Drawing evidence not only from the first thirty years of Wolfe's career but from sources as diverse as reception theory, palaeontology, the Renaissance Hermetic tradition, mythology and science fiction's subgenre of dying sun literature, the book provides a comprehensive and closely argued analysis of one of the key works of twentieth-century science fiction.Less
Attending Daedalus is the first book-length study of Gene Wolfe's four-volume The Book of the New Sun and its sequel, The Urth of the New Sun, known collectively as ‘The Urth Cycle’. Rejecting the conventional spiritual reading of the text, the book employs evolutionary theory to argue for a controversial secular reception of a narrative in which Wolfe plays an elaborate game with his reader. After exposing the concealed story at the heart of Wolfe's novels, it adopts a variety of approaches to establish Wolfe as the designer of an intricate textual labyrinth intended to extend into the reading experience his thematic preoccupations with subjectivity, the unreliability of memory, the manipulation of individuals by social and political systems, and the psychological potency of myth, faith and symbolism. Drawing evidence not only from the first thirty years of Wolfe's career but from sources as diverse as reception theory, palaeontology, the Renaissance Hermetic tradition, mythology and science fiction's subgenre of dying sun literature, the book provides a comprehensive and closely argued analysis of one of the key works of twentieth-century science fiction.
Curtis D. Carbonell
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- May 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781789620573
- eISBN:
- 9781789629644
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3828/liverpool/9781789620573.003.0002
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Cultural Studies
This chapter examines exemplary texts within science fiction, Bruce Sterling’s Schismatrix stories and the TRPG, Eclipse Phase (EP). It begins by looking at SF as a mythic form of storytelling, one ...
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This chapter examines exemplary texts within science fiction, Bruce Sterling’s Schismatrix stories and the TRPG, Eclipse Phase (EP). It begins by looking at SF as a mythic form of storytelling, one rooted in modernity. It uses literary theorist Istvan Csicsery-Ronay’s ideas in The Seven Beauties of Science Fiction (2008) to argue that tropes within SF are often highly fantastic, the cyborg transforming into posthuman tropes far beyond simple human-machine interfaces. In Sterling’s stories we see this dynamic in extreme forms of posthuman imaginings. With Sterling, he represents both transhuman and posthuman possibilities, some as extreme as biological space stations. In EP, players can choose a variety of characters to play that go beyond normative human forms into the strange and exotic. This provides a template for posthuman subjectivity.Less
This chapter examines exemplary texts within science fiction, Bruce Sterling’s Schismatrix stories and the TRPG, Eclipse Phase (EP). It begins by looking at SF as a mythic form of storytelling, one rooted in modernity. It uses literary theorist Istvan Csicsery-Ronay’s ideas in The Seven Beauties of Science Fiction (2008) to argue that tropes within SF are often highly fantastic, the cyborg transforming into posthuman tropes far beyond simple human-machine interfaces. In Sterling’s stories we see this dynamic in extreme forms of posthuman imaginings. With Sterling, he represents both transhuman and posthuman possibilities, some as extreme as biological space stations. In EP, players can choose a variety of characters to play that go beyond normative human forms into the strange and exotic. This provides a template for posthuman subjectivity.
Curtis D. Carbonell
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- May 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781789620573
- eISBN:
- 9781789629644
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3828/liverpool/9781789620573.003.0005
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Cultural Studies
This central chapter examines the importance of H.P. Lovecraft in how realized worlds are conceptualized in Dread Trident, especially within the context of TRPGs. It sees in Lovecraft, not just a ...
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This central chapter examines the importance of H.P. Lovecraft in how realized worlds are conceptualized in Dread Trident, especially within the context of TRPGs. It sees in Lovecraft, not just a writer of Weird fiction, but a writer of cosmic fiction who also, inadvertently, helped create a mythos. This ‘Cthulhu’ Mythos acts as a supreme example of how a realized world works because of how it incorporates a broad canvas of elements from a variety of individuals. Also, Lovecraft’s poetics of creating a sense of dread with Weird writing hints how he often sidesteps rather than directly draws the ultimate horror. Yet, his later writing embraced a materialistic categorizing of scientific and biological forms. This chapter looks through Lovecraftian scholarship, as well as a few of his own pieces of fiction, as well as the TRPG The Call of Cthulhu, for examples of how his mythos works and examples of his granular style.Less
This central chapter examines the importance of H.P. Lovecraft in how realized worlds are conceptualized in Dread Trident, especially within the context of TRPGs. It sees in Lovecraft, not just a writer of Weird fiction, but a writer of cosmic fiction who also, inadvertently, helped create a mythos. This ‘Cthulhu’ Mythos acts as a supreme example of how a realized world works because of how it incorporates a broad canvas of elements from a variety of individuals. Also, Lovecraft’s poetics of creating a sense of dread with Weird writing hints how he often sidesteps rather than directly draws the ultimate horror. Yet, his later writing embraced a materialistic categorizing of scientific and biological forms. This chapter looks through Lovecraftian scholarship, as well as a few of his own pieces of fiction, as well as the TRPG The Call of Cthulhu, for examples of how his mythos works and examples of his granular style.
