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Spring 2011 Editors 296 Spring 2011 Editors Doug Davis SFRA Gordon College 419 College Drive A publicationRe of the Scienceview Fiction Research Association Barnesville, GA 30204 [email protected] Jason Embry In this issue Georgia Gwinnett College 100 University Center Lane SFRA Review Business Lawrenceville, GA 30043 Poland, Here We Come!........................................................................................................2 [email protected] SFRA Business Managing Editor Interesting Times, Indeed.....................................................................................................2 2010 Awards..............................................................................................................................3 Janice M. Bogstad University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire April 2011 Meeting Minutes................................................................................................3 105 Garfield Avenue What is Our Public Relationship?.......................................................................................5 Eau Claire, WI 54702-5010 SFRA 2011 Conference Update: [email protected] Polish Science Fiction - A Highly Subjective Top 9.....................................................6 Nonfiction Editor Feature 101 Michael Klein Choosing a Science Fiction Anthology, or, James Madison University MSC 2103 Finding My Way Through an Alien Wood......................................................................7 Harrisonburg, VA 22807 Nonfiction Reviews [email protected] On Joanna Russ........................................................................................................................9 Fiction Editor The Life of Forry: Forrest J Akerman.................................................................................10 Jim Davis Sublime Dreams of Living Machines: Troy University The Automaton in the European Imagination...............................................................11 Smith 274 I Think I Am: Philip K. Dick..................................................................................................12 Troy, AL 36082 Imagining Mars: A Literary History...................................................................................14 [email protected] Fiction Reviews Media Editor Nebula Awards Showcase 2011.........................................................................................16 Ritch Calvin This Shared Dream.................................................................................................................18 SUNY Stony Brook After Hours: Tales from the Ur-Bar....................................................................................19 W0515 Melville Library Late Eclipses.............................................................................................................................20 Stony Brook, NY 11794-3360 Media Reviews [email protected] Sunshine...................................................................................................................................22 TRON: Legacy..........................................................................................................................23 Let the Right One In and Let Me In....................................................................................26 The SFRA Review (ISSN 1068-395X) The Walking Dead.................................................................................................................27 is published four times a year by the Sucker Punch...........................................................................................................................29 Science Ficiton Research Associa- The Tempest.............................................................................................................................30 tion (SFRA), and distributed to SFRA members. Individual issues are not The Adjustment Bureau and Source Code......................................................................32 for sale; however, all issues after 256 Announcements are published to SFRA’s Website Calls for Papers.......................................................................................................................33 (http://www.sfra.org/) no fewer than 10 weeks after paper publication. For information about SFRA and mem- Submissions bership, see the back cover. SFRA The SFRA Review encourages submissions of reviews, review essays that cover several related texts, inter- thanks the University of Wisconsin- views, and feature articles. Submission guidelines are available at http://www.sfra.org/ or by inquiry to the Eau Claire for its assistance in produc- appropriate editor. All submitters must be current SFRA members. Contact the Editors for other submis- ing the SFRA Review. sions or for correspondence. SFRA Review Business SFRA Business EDITORS’ MESSAGE PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE Poland, Here We Come! Interesting Times, Indeed Doug Davis and Jason Embry Ritch Calvin THIS ISSUE features two new items and one new vari- IN THE LAST ISSUE (#295), the new editors, Doug ation on a theme. As the SFRA membership is finaliz- Davis and Jason Embry, titled their column “Continu- ing its plans for the organization’s first ever meeting in ity of Leadership in Interesting Times.” Many of you Poland, we thought it would be helpful to give the orga- have heard the (apocryphal) old curse: “may you live nization’s members some advance knowledge about the in interesting times.” The expression is generally meant Polish science fiction scene and, for those fluent in lan- that a period of turmoil and instability would be “inter- guages other than English, perhaps some ideas of what esting” while a period of tranquility and stability would to read whilst making the trip. Conference organizer be, perhaps ironically, uninteresting. Well, by my reck- Pawel Frelik produced an impressive top-9 list of Polish oning, we live in interesting times, indeed. SF that covers the past 100 years of our host country’s But, of course, another way to respond to that ex- speculative literary output. We are likewise pleased to pression—to quote Blade Runner’s Eldon Tyrell in a offer in this issue a new column from our publicity di- somewhat different context—is to “revel in it.” Larg- rector, R. Nicole Smith. In this column, Nicole discuss- er socio-political issues aside (and, yes, that’s a large es what publicity means to our organization and gives aside!), within our field of study the number of areas of us some ideas for how to publicize the work that we do. study, the number of “texts,” and the number of people So, read on and get to know our host country and our engaged in the study of them all are rapidly expanding. new publicity director a little better. At a dizzying rate. Whether or not we reach the tech- In the previous issue (#295), we printed a review nological singularity, one productive effect of the ac- authored by Catherine Croker of The Wesleyan Anthol- celerated rate of change is that we get to watch and read ogy of Science Fiction. Croker noted that the Wesley- some amazing stuff! So, it is with great pleasure that I an anthology was especially noteworthy “by virtue of announce this year’s SFRA award winners (see below). being one of the only texts actively created to act as a The Executive Committee held a meeting on April thorough textbook of the science fiction genre” (13). In 8, 2011 via Skype. It was quite amazing to see everyone this issue, we are pleased to print a companion “Feature (and their cats) on screen. More than that, it proved to 101” piece authored by Kathleen Ann Goonan on how be a very productive means to hold a meeting. One of she used the Wesleyan anthology in an SF survey class the basic themes of the meeting was how to use technol- she recently taught at the Georgia Institute of Technol- ogy (like Skype) to facilitate member participation. Of ogy. If you teach SF—and even if you don’t—we hope course, we continue to work with Matthew Holtmeier you will find Kathy’s experience with organizing a class on the primary SFRA website and to add features. We around an anthology instructive. do hope that you will visit and use the teaching and We look forward in future issues of the Review to research resources there. We also hope that you will printing more new features and columns on pedagogy, contribute to those resources by sending in your syl- publicity, library science, ecology and other areas of in- labi and notifying us all of your publications. Jason El- terest to the field of science fiction studies. lis and Nicole Smith continue to develop the Facebook Finally, as many of you know, the Review is going site and other social media. We hope that you’ll visit through other changes, as well. Jan Bogstad, our Man- and “like” the new SFRA organization on Facebook. aging Editor, is stepping down and the Executive Com- But more importantly, we hope that you’ll actively con- mittee and the Editors have seen this change as an op- tribute there. portunity to rethink the distrubution of the Review to The EC also discussed some changes in the member- the members of SFRA. We welcome input from all of ship and dues structures. However, instead of making a you about these changes. n decision about these changes we will be contacting the membership for input. Jason Ellis is currently compil- 2 SFRA Review 296 Spring 2011 ing some information, and we will post a SurveyMon- So, thanks once again to all the committee members: key link (or something very like it) to the website
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