Robert M. Geraci
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195393026
- eISBN:
- 9780199777136
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195393026.003.0002
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
Apocalyptic AI is transmitted to roboticists and AI researchers through science fiction and is expressed in pop science as a means of raising the cultural prestige of research and researchers and ...
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Apocalyptic AI is transmitted to roboticists and AI researchers through science fiction and is expressed in pop science as a means of raising the cultural prestige of research and researchers and justifying funding spent on robotics and AI. Science fiction often uses religious imagery and language to explore culture and several authors have engaged the idea that human beings might upload their minds into machines. The influence of science fiction is widely accepted among roboticists, who gain inspiration from it, as almost certainly happened for Hans Moravec, the pioneer of Apocalyptic AI thinking. Popular science authors in robotics and AI fuse religious and scientific work into a meaningful worldview in order to gain the benefits of both. Such role-hybridization increases the prestige of the researchers and plays a part in military, government and private investment in robotics and AI.Less
Apocalyptic AI is transmitted to roboticists and AI researchers through science fiction and is expressed in pop science as a means of raising the cultural prestige of research and researchers and justifying funding spent on robotics and AI. Science fiction often uses religious imagery and language to explore culture and several authors have engaged the idea that human beings might upload their minds into machines. The influence of science fiction is widely accepted among roboticists, who gain inspiration from it, as almost certainly happened for Hans Moravec, the pioneer of Apocalyptic AI thinking. Popular science authors in robotics and AI fuse religious and scientific work into a meaningful worldview in order to gain the benefits of both. Such role-hybridization increases the prestige of the researchers and plays a part in military, government and private investment in robotics and AI.
Terryl C. Givens
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195167115
- eISBN:
- 9780199785599
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195167115.003.0018
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
The first great Mormon literature came only with the “Lost Generation” of the 40s, with authors like Maurine Whipple and Virginia Sorensen. The novel has flourished (with Levi Peterson a major ...
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The first great Mormon literature came only with the “Lost Generation” of the 40s, with authors like Maurine Whipple and Virginia Sorensen. The novel has flourished (with Levi Peterson a major figure), as has the short story (Douglas Thayer and Donald Marshall leading the way) poetry, and even science fiction (Orson Scott Card).Less
The first great Mormon literature came only with the “Lost Generation” of the 40s, with authors like Maurine Whipple and Virginia Sorensen. The novel has flourished (with Levi Peterson a major figure), as has the short story (Douglas Thayer and Donald Marshall leading the way) poetry, and even science fiction (Orson Scott Card).
John Wilson Foster
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- May 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780199232833
- eISBN:
- 9780191716454
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199232833.003.0012
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century Literature and Modernism
This chapter analyzes science fiction and the supernatural in Irish novels. These include books such as H. G. Wells' The Time Machine and Robert Cromie's The Crack of Doom. Several ghost stories are ...
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This chapter analyzes science fiction and the supernatural in Irish novels. These include books such as H. G. Wells' The Time Machine and Robert Cromie's The Crack of Doom. Several ghost stories are also considered.Less
This chapter analyzes science fiction and the supernatural in Irish novels. These include books such as H. G. Wells' The Time Machine and Robert Cromie's The Crack of Doom. Several ghost stories are also considered.
Simon J. James
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199606597
- eISBN:
- 9780191738517
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199606597.003.0002
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century Literature and Modernism, 19th-century and Victorian Literature
The scientific discoveries of the Victorian era enlarged the scope of fantastic fiction. Wells extrapolates from evolutionary theory, geology, temporal physics, and optics to imagine alternate forms ...
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The scientific discoveries of the Victorian era enlarged the scope of fantastic fiction. Wells extrapolates from evolutionary theory, geology, temporal physics, and optics to imagine alternate forms of cultural production. Wells’s use of the fantastic does not constitute escapism, however. The irruption of the fantastic into an otherwise realistically narrated fictional world is a reminder that the indefinite passing of history will repeatedly threaten or displace humanity’s misplaced faith in its imagined superior position in the hierarchy of nature. Darwin’s formulation of the theory of evolution, and Wells’s imagining of fictional possibilities, constitute both an opportunity and a warning for humankind: Wells repeatedly insists on the impermanence of the status quo. This chapter also notes the frequency of images of reading and writing in Wells’s fiction: numerous texts include images of defaced or ineffective books and other artworks.Less
The scientific discoveries of the Victorian era enlarged the scope of fantastic fiction. Wells extrapolates from evolutionary theory, geology, temporal physics, and optics to imagine alternate forms of cultural production. Wells’s use of the fantastic does not constitute escapism, however. The irruption of the fantastic into an otherwise realistically narrated fictional world is a reminder that the indefinite passing of history will repeatedly threaten or displace humanity’s misplaced faith in its imagined superior position in the hierarchy of nature. Darwin’s formulation of the theory of evolution, and Wells’s imagining of fictional possibilities, constitute both an opportunity and a warning for humankind: Wells repeatedly insists on the impermanence of the status quo. This chapter also notes the frequency of images of reading and writing in Wells’s fiction: numerous texts include images of defaced or ineffective books and other artworks.
Mike Ashley
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- May 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780853237693
- eISBN:
- 9781781380840
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/liverpool/9780853237693.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
This is the second of three volumes that chart the history of the science fiction magazine from the earliest days to the present. The first volume, Time Machines, traced the development of the ...
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This is the second of three volumes that chart the history of the science fiction magazine from the earliest days to the present. The first volume, Time Machines, traced the development of the science fiction magazine from its earliest days and the creation of the first specialist magazine, Amazing Stories. This book takes up the story to reveal a turbulent period that was to witness the extraordinary rise and fall and rise again of science. It charts the science fiction boom years in the wake of the nuclear age that was to see the ‘The Golden Age’ of Science Fiction, with the emergence of magazines such as Galaxy, Startling Stories, and Fantastic, as well as authors like Isaac Asimov, Philip K. Dick, and Frank Herbert. The book then goes on to explore the bust years of 1954–1960, followed by the renaissance in the 1960s led by the new wave of British authors such as Michael Moorcock and J. G. Ballard, and the rise in interest of fantasy fiction, encouraged by The Lord of the Rings and the Conan books of Robert E. Howard. It concludes with an examination of the newfound interest in science fiction magazines during the late 1960s and the incredibly influential roles Star Trek, the film 2001: A Space Odyssey and, above all, the first manned Moon landing played in transforming the science fiction magazine.Less
This is the second of three volumes that chart the history of the science fiction magazine from the earliest days to the present. The first volume, Time Machines, traced the development of the science fiction magazine from its earliest days and the creation of the first specialist magazine, Amazing Stories. This book takes up the story to reveal a turbulent period that was to witness the extraordinary rise and fall and rise again of science. It charts the science fiction boom years in the wake of the nuclear age that was to see the ‘The Golden Age’ of Science Fiction, with the emergence of magazines such as Galaxy, Startling Stories, and Fantastic, as well as authors like Isaac Asimov, Philip K. Dick, and Frank Herbert. The book then goes on to explore the bust years of 1954–1960, followed by the renaissance in the 1960s led by the new wave of British authors such as Michael Moorcock and J. G. Ballard, and the rise in interest of fantasy fiction, encouraged by The Lord of the Rings and the Conan books of Robert E. Howard. It concludes with an examination of the newfound interest in science fiction magazines during the late 1960s and the incredibly influential roles Star Trek, the film 2001: A Space Odyssey and, above all, the first manned Moon landing played in transforming the science fiction magazine.
Mike Ashley
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- May 2014
- ISBN:
- 9781846310027
- eISBN:
- 9781781380536
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/liverpool/9781846310027.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
This third volume in a four-volume study of science fiction magazines focuses on the turbulent years of the 1970s, when the United States emerged from the Vietnam War into an economic crisis. It saw ...
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This third volume in a four-volume study of science fiction magazines focuses on the turbulent years of the 1970s, when the United States emerged from the Vietnam War into an economic crisis. It saw the end of the Apollo moon programme and the start of the ecology movement. This proved to be one of the most complicated periods for the science fiction magazines. Not only were they struggling to survive within the economic climate, they also had to cope with the death of the father of modern science fiction, John W. Campbell, Jr., while facing new and potentially threatening opposition. The market for science fiction diversified as never before, with the growth in new anthologies, the emergence of semi-professional magazines, the explosion of science fiction in college, the start of role-playing gaming magazines, underground and adult comics, and, with the success of Star Wars, media magazines. The book explores how the traditional science fiction magazines coped with this, from the death of Campbell to the start of the major popular science magazine Omni and the first dreams of the Internet.Less
This third volume in a four-volume study of science fiction magazines focuses on the turbulent years of the 1970s, when the United States emerged from the Vietnam War into an economic crisis. It saw the end of the Apollo moon programme and the start of the ecology movement. This proved to be one of the most complicated periods for the science fiction magazines. Not only were they struggling to survive within the economic climate, they also had to cope with the death of the father of modern science fiction, John W. Campbell, Jr., while facing new and potentially threatening opposition. The market for science fiction diversified as never before, with the growth in new anthologies, the emergence of semi-professional magazines, the explosion of science fiction in college, the start of role-playing gaming magazines, underground and adult comics, and, with the success of Star Wars, media magazines. The book explores how the traditional science fiction magazines coped with this, from the death of Campbell to the start of the major popular science magazine Omni and the first dreams of the Internet.
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/9781846310027.003.0002
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
This chapter discusses the emergence of the factors that threatened science fiction magazine readership in the 1970s. Besides the growing patronage for television, radio, and cinema, comic books also ...
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This chapter discusses the emergence of the factors that threatened science fiction magazine readership in the 1970s. Besides the growing patronage for television, radio, and cinema, comic books also emerged as one of the major rivals of science fiction magazines. The chapter furthermore points out that the chief rival of the science fiction magazines was the pocketbook, which sported top-quality science fiction novels that pulled reader away from depending on science fiction magazines.Less
This chapter discusses the emergence of the factors that threatened science fiction magazine readership in the 1970s. Besides the growing patronage for television, radio, and cinema, comic books also emerged as one of the major rivals of science fiction magazines. The chapter furthermore points out that the chief rival of the science fiction magazines was the pocketbook, which sported top-quality science fiction novels that pulled reader away from depending on science fiction magazines.
James H. Murphy
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199596997
- eISBN:
- 9780191723520
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199596997.003.0010
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century and Victorian Literature
The last decades of the century saw great changes in the writing of fiction. In Britain, where George Moore, Oscar Wilde, and Bram Stoker were among the most prominent novelists, high-culture ...
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The last decades of the century saw great changes in the writing of fiction. In Britain, where George Moore, Oscar Wilde, and Bram Stoker were among the most prominent novelists, high-culture movements such as naturalism, decadence, and early modernism, vied with popular forms such as detective fiction, the imperial adventure, and science fiction. Authors like B. M. Croker wrote novels of life in India, while Robert Cromie was prominent in science-fiction and future-war fantasies. In Ireland groupings of writers wrote for differing audiences. Ulster fiction began to emerge in the north with Shan F. Bullock and others. Meanwhile, in the south, Anglo-Irish novelists like Somerville and Ross took to comedy and satire, while Catholic-intelligentsia writers began to scrutinize a changed society. Some novels explored the possibilities of the renewal of society while others interrogated the newer sets of relationships that were possible across traditional class lines and the great landlord–tenant divide, now that the latter was in the process of dissolving.Less
The last decades of the century saw great changes in the writing of fiction. In Britain, where George Moore, Oscar Wilde, and Bram Stoker were among the most prominent novelists, high-culture movements such as naturalism, decadence, and early modernism, vied with popular forms such as detective fiction, the imperial adventure, and science fiction. Authors like B. M. Croker wrote novels of life in India, while Robert Cromie was prominent in science-fiction and future-war fantasies. In Ireland groupings of writers wrote for differing audiences. Ulster fiction began to emerge in the north with Shan F. Bullock and others. Meanwhile, in the south, Anglo-Irish novelists like Somerville and Ross took to comedy and satire, while Catholic-intelligentsia writers began to scrutinize a changed society. Some novels explored the possibilities of the renewal of society while others interrogated the newer sets of relationships that were possible across traditional class lines and the great landlord–tenant divide, now that the latter was in the process of dissolving.
J. P. Telotte and Gerald Duchovnay (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9781781381830
- eISBN:
- 9781781382363
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/liverpool/9781781381830.001.0001
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
Critical discussion of cult cinema has often noted its tendency to straddle or ignore boundaries, to pull together different sets of conventions, narrative formulas, or character types for the almost ...
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Critical discussion of cult cinema has often noted its tendency to straddle or ignore boundaries, to pull together different sets of conventions, narrative formulas, or character types for the almost surreal pleasure to be found in their sudden juxtapositions or narrative combination. With its own boundary-blurring nature — as both science and fiction, reality and fantasy — science fiction (sf) has played a key role in such cinematic cult formation. This volume examines that largely unexplored relationship, looking at how the sf film's own double nature neatly matches up with a persistent double vision common to the cult film. It does so by addressing key questions about the intersections of sf and cult cinema: how different genre elements, directors, and stars contribute to cult formation; what role fan activities, including ‘con’ participation, play in cult development; and how the occulted or ‘bad’ sf cult film works. The volume pursues these questions by addressing a variety of such sf cult works, including Robot Monster (1953), Zardoz (1974), A Boy and His Dog (1975), Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1989), Space Truckers (1996), Ghost in the Shell 2 (2004), and Iron Sky (2012). What these chapters afford is a revealing vision of both the sf aspects of much cult film activity and the cultish aspects of the whole sf genre.Less
Critical discussion of cult cinema has often noted its tendency to straddle or ignore boundaries, to pull together different sets of conventions, narrative formulas, or character types for the almost surreal pleasure to be found in their sudden juxtapositions or narrative combination. With its own boundary-blurring nature — as both science and fiction, reality and fantasy — science fiction (sf) has played a key role in such cinematic cult formation. This volume examines that largely unexplored relationship, looking at how the sf film's own double nature neatly matches up with a persistent double vision common to the cult film. It does so by addressing key questions about the intersections of sf and cult cinema: how different genre elements, directors, and stars contribute to cult formation; what role fan activities, including ‘con’ participation, play in cult development; and how the occulted or ‘bad’ sf cult film works. The volume pursues these questions by addressing a variety of such sf cult works, including Robot Monster (1953), Zardoz (1974), A Boy and His Dog (1975), Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1989), Space Truckers (1996), Ghost in the Shell 2 (2004), and Iron Sky (2012). What these chapters afford is a revealing vision of both the sf aspects of much cult film activity and the cultish aspects of the whole sf genre.
Rob Latham
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9781781381830
- eISBN:
- 9781781382363
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/liverpool/9781781381830.003.0014
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
The New Wave movement involved a rising science fiction (sf) avant-garde that sought to remake a genre traditionally inclined towards technocratic scientism and conservative narrative style into a ...
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The New Wave movement involved a rising science fiction (sf) avant-garde that sought to remake a genre traditionally inclined towards technocratic scientism and conservative narrative style into a more experimental, counterculturally savvy mode of writing whose perspectives on technological modernity had a subversive critical edge. This chapter examines the imbrication of the New Wave with contemporaneous sf cinema, highlighted by Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), but with a special focus on two low-budget films of the 1970s that have developed a cult reputation and had clear links, textually or tonally, with the movement: Dark Star (1974) and A Boy and His Dog (1975). These two works share not only ideological terrain but also a certain mode of cult reception with New Wave fiction, coming to constitute — along with Kubrick's sf films of the period, 2001 and A Clockwork Orange (1971) — a kind of New Wave cinematic canon.Less
The New Wave movement involved a rising science fiction (sf) avant-garde that sought to remake a genre traditionally inclined towards technocratic scientism and conservative narrative style into a more experimental, counterculturally savvy mode of writing whose perspectives on technological modernity had a subversive critical edge. This chapter examines the imbrication of the New Wave with contemporaneous sf cinema, highlighted by Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), but with a special focus on two low-budget films of the 1970s that have developed a cult reputation and had clear links, textually or tonally, with the movement: Dark Star (1974) and A Boy and His Dog (1975). These two works share not only ideological terrain but also a certain mode of cult reception with New Wave fiction, coming to constitute — along with Kubrick's sf films of the period, 2001 and A Clockwork Orange (1971) — a kind of New Wave cinematic canon.
Alexis Lothian
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781479811748
- eISBN:
- 9781479854585
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9781479811748.003.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Cultural Studies
This chapter unpacks what is at stake in Old Futures’ identification of a queer cultural politics for speculative fiction, in terms of both of queer studies’ approaches to time and scholarship on ...
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This chapter unpacks what is at stake in Old Futures’ identification of a queer cultural politics for speculative fiction, in terms of both of queer studies’ approaches to time and scholarship on futuristic cultural production. It offers a brief history of intersections between queerness and speculative temporality and their entanglement with gender and race, before describing the book’s archive and its framing of speculative fiction as a cultural logic that exceeds literary and media genre studies. The chapter also articulates the centrality of reproduction to the project, which crafts an alternative discourse around the dominant heteronormative temporalities that Lee Edelman influentially critiqued in his 2004 book, No Future. In queer studies, reproductive futurism has primarily been an object of critique. In contrast, Old Futures argue that there are many reproductive futurisms, often in conflict and contradiction with one another, whose complexities are unpacked throughout the book.Less
This chapter unpacks what is at stake in Old Futures’ identification of a queer cultural politics for speculative fiction, in terms of both of queer studies’ approaches to time and scholarship on futuristic cultural production. It offers a brief history of intersections between queerness and speculative temporality and their entanglement with gender and race, before describing the book’s archive and its framing of speculative fiction as a cultural logic that exceeds literary and media genre studies. The chapter also articulates the centrality of reproduction to the project, which crafts an alternative discourse around the dominant heteronormative temporalities that Lee Edelman influentially critiqued in his 2004 book, No Future. In queer studies, reproductive futurism has primarily been an object of critique. In contrast, Old Futures argue that there are many reproductive futurisms, often in conflict and contradiction with one another, whose complexities are unpacked throughout the book.
Christine Cornea
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748624652
- eISBN:
- 9780748671106
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748624652.003.0001
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
The science fiction film genre is separate from the irrational or unconscious meanderings of the human mind. In line with this, this book regularly pertains to examples of the genre that can found on ...
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The science fiction film genre is separate from the irrational or unconscious meanderings of the human mind. In line with this, this book regularly pertains to examples of the genre that can found on television, in books, comics, video games and even fine art, as part of the project to locate the films within a wider cultural context. Science fiction has surely adopted material from both the musical and horror film. The genre of science fiction film allows the kind of debate witnessed among critics, writers and aficionados of the written novels. The chapter then looks at what might be called proto-science fiction films. These films came before the science fiction film which boom in the 1950s. It is shown that Metropolis had a huge impact on science fiction. The interwar films evidently address the political and social unrest of their times. Until the 1950s, the science fiction feature film genre actually started in America.Less
The science fiction film genre is separate from the irrational or unconscious meanderings of the human mind. In line with this, this book regularly pertains to examples of the genre that can found on television, in books, comics, video games and even fine art, as part of the project to locate the films within a wider cultural context. Science fiction has surely adopted material from both the musical and horror film. The genre of science fiction film allows the kind of debate witnessed among critics, writers and aficionados of the written novels. The chapter then looks at what might be called proto-science fiction films. These films came before the science fiction film which boom in the 1950s. It is shown that Metropolis had a huge impact on science fiction. The interwar films evidently address the political and social unrest of their times. Until the 1950s, the science fiction feature film genre actually started in America.
Ruth Cruickshank
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- September 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780199571758
- eISBN:
- 9780191721793
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199571758.003.0004
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century Literature and Modernism, European Literature
This chapter turns to Houellebecq, France's most famous — and controversial — living writer; the affaire Houellebecq; Extension du domaine de la lutte; and Les Particules élémentaires. It discusses ...
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This chapter turns to Houellebecq, France's most famous — and controversial — living writer; the affaire Houellebecq; Extension du domaine de la lutte; and Les Particules élémentaires. It discusses Houellebecq's representations of an extension of American‐style neoliberal competition from the material to the sexual economy, attributed to the generation of May 1968 and legitimized by French thinkers, psychoanalysis, and the media. Literary commitment is identified in representations of the struggle of the writer and narrative strategies are assessed, including ‘factual’ injections, autobiographical detail, and tropes from science fiction and marketing. The texts' provocative elements are discussed as both ideological challenges to dominant discourses, and as sleights of hand perpetuating misogynist, sexual, and racial prejudices. Houellebecq's fictions are described as seeking to expose, harness, and question both their own sense‐making narratives and contradictory fin de millénaire crisis discourses, simultaneously foregrounding the notion of the potential, and the need for change.Less
This chapter turns to Houellebecq, France's most famous — and controversial — living writer; the affaire Houellebecq; Extension du domaine de la lutte; and Les Particules élémentaires. It discusses Houellebecq's representations of an extension of American‐style neoliberal competition from the material to the sexual economy, attributed to the generation of May 1968 and legitimized by French thinkers, psychoanalysis, and the media. Literary commitment is identified in representations of the struggle of the writer and narrative strategies are assessed, including ‘factual’ injections, autobiographical detail, and tropes from science fiction and marketing. The texts' provocative elements are discussed as both ideological challenges to dominant discourses, and as sleights of hand perpetuating misogynist, sexual, and racial prejudices. Houellebecq's fictions are described as seeking to expose, harness, and question both their own sense‐making narratives and contradictory fin de millénaire crisis discourses, simultaneously foregrounding the notion of the potential, and the need for change.
J. P. Telotte
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9781781381830
- eISBN:
- 9781781382363
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/liverpool/9781781381830.003.0001
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This introductory chapter sets out the book's purpose, namely to track the relationship between the cult film and the science fiction (sf) genre, exploring a connection that has always seemed closer, ...
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This introductory chapter sets out the book's purpose, namely to track the relationship between the cult film and the science fiction (sf) genre, exploring a connection that has always seemed closer, somehow even more natural than in the case of most other film genres. In fact, sf has typically enjoyed a special version of the relationship between audience and text that critics often cite as one of the defining features of the cult film experience. The chapter then discusses the reasons why is it especially useful or important to focus attention specifically on sf texts for this investigation. This is followed by an overview of the subsequent chapters.Less
This introductory chapter sets out the book's purpose, namely to track the relationship between the cult film and the science fiction (sf) genre, exploring a connection that has always seemed closer, somehow even more natural than in the case of most other film genres. In fact, sf has typically enjoyed a special version of the relationship between audience and text that critics often cite as one of the defining features of the cult film experience. The chapter then discusses the reasons why is it especially useful or important to focus attention specifically on sf texts for this investigation. This is followed by an overview of the subsequent chapters.
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 ...
More
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.
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/9781846310027.003.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
This chapter explores the changes in science fiction magazines during the 1970s. It notes that when the Astounding editor John W. Campbell died in 1971, he was replaced by Ben Bova, who gave free ...
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This chapter explores the changes in science fiction magazines during the 1970s. It notes that when the Astounding editor John W. Campbell died in 1971, he was replaced by Ben Bova, who gave free rein to his writers, allowing them to be more liberated than in Campbell's tenure – this leniency gave rise to dystopian stories such as Pigeon City and Not Polluted Enough. The 1970s also bore witness to the loss of several science fiction writers, like James H. Schmitz and Clifford Simak.Less
This chapter explores the changes in science fiction magazines during the 1970s. It notes that when the Astounding editor John W. Campbell died in 1971, he was replaced by Ben Bova, who gave free rein to his writers, allowing them to be more liberated than in Campbell's tenure – this leniency gave rise to dystopian stories such as Pigeon City and Not Polluted Enough. The 1970s also bore witness to the loss of several science fiction writers, like James H. Schmitz and Clifford Simak.
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/9781846310027.003.0003
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
This chapter explores the emergence of little magazines for science fiction in the 1970s. A little magazine is defined as a literary magazine published on a nonprofit basis, but only to publish and ...
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This chapter explores the emergence of little magazines for science fiction in the 1970s. A little magazine is defined as a literary magazine published on a nonprofit basis, but only to publish and study literature as an art form. The chapter provides examples of science fiction little magazines, such as Algol, Thrust, and Riverside Quarterly, and argues that they were made for the serious analysis of science fiction literature.Less
This chapter explores the emergence of little magazines for science fiction in the 1970s. A little magazine is defined as a literary magazine published on a nonprofit basis, but only to publish and study literature as an art form. The chapter provides examples of science fiction little magazines, such as Algol, Thrust, and Riverside Quarterly, and argues that they were made for the serious analysis of science fiction literature.
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.
Alfredo Suppia
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- January 2015
- ISBN:
- 9781781380383
- eISBN:
- 9781781381557
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/liverpool/9781781380383.003.0014
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
In contrast to the US and Europe, Brazil lacks a tradition of science fiction research and criticism. The few, short-lived film studios have invested much more in comedies or realist dramas than in ...
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In contrast to the US and Europe, Brazil lacks a tradition of science fiction research and criticism. The few, short-lived film studios have invested much more in comedies or realist dramas than in monster movies or space operas. Gradually, however, this scene is changing. The Brazilian academy has directed more attention to science fiction, and Brazilian authors and artists are gaining recognition on the international stage. Moreover, the Brazilian science fiction film can be an eloquent ‘key-text’ for further readings of social, political and economic contradictions in the country, its conflicts and idiosyncrasies regarding modernization, and the particularities of the Brazilian film industry. This piece aims to provide a brief overview of Brazilian science fiction cinema, identifying its main trends, challenges, and ‘shapes of apparition’. Thus, this chapter covers a time frame, which starts in the late 1940s and ends in the late 2000s. In addition, this overview is meant to investigate some basic sources, obstacles, and influences affecting Brazilian science fiction cinema, from its beginnings to today.Less
In contrast to the US and Europe, Brazil lacks a tradition of science fiction research and criticism. The few, short-lived film studios have invested much more in comedies or realist dramas than in monster movies or space operas. Gradually, however, this scene is changing. The Brazilian academy has directed more attention to science fiction, and Brazilian authors and artists are gaining recognition on the international stage. Moreover, the Brazilian science fiction film can be an eloquent ‘key-text’ for further readings of social, political and economic contradictions in the country, its conflicts and idiosyncrasies regarding modernization, and the particularities of the Brazilian film industry. This piece aims to provide a brief overview of Brazilian science fiction cinema, identifying its main trends, challenges, and ‘shapes of apparition’. Thus, this chapter covers a time frame, which starts in the late 1940s and ends in the late 2000s. In addition, this overview is meant to investigate some basic sources, obstacles, and influences affecting Brazilian science fiction cinema, from its beginnings to today.
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.
