DOCSLIB.ORG

Douglas Adams' Science Fiction Comedy

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Douglas Adams' Science Fiction Comedy Playful Parody and Philosophical Counter-Narrative: Douglas Adams’ Science Fiction Comedy by Gerd Sivertsen Prestegard Master’s Thesis Department of Foreign Languages University of Bergen May 2020 i Samandrag Denne masteroppgåva tar føre seg den parodiske science fiction-trilogien, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy av Douglas Adams, som diverre vert diskutert svært lite i akademia. Oppgåva ser på korleis forfattaren nyttar parodi sjangeren til å kommentera på dei tomme paradigma i science fiction, samstundes som han produserer ein mot-forteljing til den eksisterande dystopiske litteraturen. Oppgåva definerer difor bøkene som positiv dystopi. Grunna bøkenes post-moderne parodiske natur er dei svært vanskelege å definere, trilogien er difor også definert, i denne oppgåva, som ein komedisk science fiction-parodi med element frå den pikareske tradisjonen. Dystopisk litteratur er framleis populært i det 21. hundreåret og Douglas Adams sine bøker er difor framleis aktuelle som mot-forteljingar i dag. Gjennom bøkene sin parodiske mot-forteljing vert lesaren presentert for ei ny og frigjerande filosofisk måte å sjå og forstå verda på. Bøkene til Adams utfordrar grensene for kva me tenker science fiction skal innehalda. Dei utfordrar òg vår forståing av kva ein legg i omgrepa forteljar, plot og karakter. For å undersøka desse elementa i bøkene tar eg i bruk teoriar om science fiction, parodi, metafiksjon og narratologi. I kapittel ein utforskar eg konsepta novum, World Building og Big Dumb Objects. Dette er konsept som er direkte relatert til science fiction-sjangeren. I kapittel to vert dei narratologiske konsepta forteljar og forteljing studert med omsyn til korleis dei fungerer i ein moderne parodi og i samanheng med den pikareske tradisjonen. I kapittel tre tar eg føre meg korleis karakterane i trilogien fungerer sett i høve dei overordna parodiske elementa og i samanheng med den gjennomgåande filosofiske tankegangen i bøkene. ii Acknowledgments First of all, I would like to like to express my gratitude to my wonderful and patient supervisor, Randi Koppen. Thank you for all the guidance and thorough feedback! Thank you to my amazing group of friends at the study hall for all the motivation; all the lunches; for giving me feedback and constructive criticism; and for keeping in touch every day after coronavirus threw us out of the university grounds. Thank you to my roommate for enduring my endless complaining and for believing in me. Thank you to my parents, who have kept me on the right track. Thank you for feeding me and housing me during these last weeks; for the strict words when I procrastinated and the comfort when I needed it. And finally, thank you for getting me to where I am today. Lastly, I would like to thank Beyoncé for making me believe that I can do anything I set my mind to and for giving me the attitude I needed to finish this. If it was not for Homecoming giving me energy during those late-night sessions, I might have given up. iii Table of Contents Samandrag ............................................................................................................................ ii Acknowledgments................................................................................................................ iii Table of Contents .................................................................................................................. iv Introduction .............................................................................................................................. 1 Chapter 1: ............................................................................................................................... 13 Playing with Conventions: Novums, Big Dumb Objects, and World-Building ............... 13 The Novum .......................................................................................................................... 14 Big Dumb Objects................................................................................................................ 25 World Building .................................................................................................................... 30 Chapter Conclusion .............................................................................................................. 33 Chapter 2: ............................................................................................................................... 35 Playing with Narrative: Narrators, Narratives, and Counter-Narratives........................ 35 Narrator ................................................................................................................................ 35 The Counter-Narrative: Adams’ Philosophy in The Trilogy ............................................... 37 The Positive Dystopia .......................................................................................................... 41 The Trilogy and the Picaresque Tradition ............................................................................ 45 The Parodic Style of the Narrator ........................................................................................ 55 Narrative Digression ............................................................................................................ 57 Chapter Conclusion .............................................................................................................. 62 Chapter 3: ............................................................................................................................... 64 Playing With Character: Challenging Expectations and Empowering the Reader ........ 64 A Whale ............................................................................................................................... 67 The Philosophical Pairs........................................................................................................ 69 Arthur Dent: Anti-Hero, Picaro and Quintessential Englishman......................................... 74 Ford Prefect .......................................................................................................................... 77 Zaphod Beeblebrox the First ................................................................................................ 77 iv Marvin the Paranoid Android .............................................................................................. 79 Technological Characters..................................................................................................... 81 Chapter conclusion............................................................................................................... 82 Conclusion .............................................................................................................................. 83 v Introduction ‘Don’t Panic!’ In this thesis, I will discuss Douglas Adams’ five-part trilogy The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy as a science fiction parody that presents a counter-narrative to the bleak dystopias so often associated with the science fiction genre. I shall argue that Adams’ playful approach to science fiction provides a timely critique of the genre while also offering readers a more liberating and imaginative approach both to literature and to life itself. The trilogy consists of the novels The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (1979), The Restaurant at the End of the Universe (1980), Life, the Universe and Everything (1982), So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish (1984) and Mostly Harmless (1992), hereafter referred to by their individual titles, or collectively as The Trilogy. Several books aimed at the fans have been written about The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and Douglas Adams; such as Neil Gaiman’s Don't Panic: Douglas Adams & The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and You and 42: The Hitchhiker's Guide to Douglas Adams, edited by Jessica Burke and Anthony Burdge. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is also clearly a popular book among academics, given the number of papers published with some version of the heading “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to X.” Some BA and MA theses have also been dedicated to the novels. However, The Trilogy does not seem to be receiving the same attention at higher levels of academia. A few scholarly works can be found, such as a collection of essays, edited by Nicholas Joll, called Philosophy and The 1 Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. In Joll’s book, the different philosophical aspects of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy are discussed, it also touches upon the literary conventions of science fiction (SF) in relation to the philosophy. While the collection has many useful discussions on philosophy and The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, it is written by philosophers and not by literary critics. Literary analysis is, therefore, not given much attention. The Trilogy, when mentioned in literary discussions, is usually done so in passing. The novels are usually mentioned in relation to parody or comedy; they are, unfortunately, rarely the focus. Brooks Landon, in his book Science Fiction After 1900, mentions The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy as an example of successful SF parody, while George Watson takes a slightly different approach in his book Heresies and Heretics, as he claims that Adams’ ‘big idea’ was ‘[t]urning the science fiction of H. G. Wells and his disciples into farce’ (Landon 2002, 4; Watson 2013, 191). Carl Kropf’s article “Douglas Adams’s ‘Hitchhiker’ Novels as Mock Science Fiction” is one of the few articles dedicated
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Myth, Metatext, Continuity and Cataclysm in Dc Comics’ Crisis on Infinite Earths
    WORLDS WILL LIVE, WORLDS WILL DIE: MYTH, METATEXT, CONTINUITY AND CATACLYSM IN DC COMICS’ CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS Adam C. Murdough A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate College of Bowling Green State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS August 2006 Committee: Angela Nelson, Advisor Marilyn Motz Jeremy Wallach ii ABSTRACT Angela Nelson, Advisor In 1985-86, DC Comics launched an extensive campaign to revamp and revise its most important superhero characters for a new era. In many cases, this involved streamlining, retouching, or completely overhauling the characters’ fictional back-stories, while similarly renovating the shared fictional context in which their adventures take place, “the DC Universe.” To accomplish this act of revisionist history, DC resorted to a text-based performative gesture, Crisis on Infinite Earths. This thesis analyzes the impact of this singular text and the phenomena it inspired on the comic-book industry and the DC Comics fan community. The first chapter explains the nature and importance of the convention of “continuity” (i.e., intertextual diegetic storytelling, unfolding progressively over time) in superhero comics, identifying superhero fans’ attachment to continuity as a source of reading pleasure and cultural expressivity as the key factor informing the creation of the Crisis on Infinite Earths text. The second chapter consists of an eschatological reading of the text itself, in which it is argued that Crisis on Infinite Earths combines self-reflexive metafiction with the ideologically inflected symbolic language of apocalypse myth to provide DC Comics fans with a textual "rite of transition," to win their acceptance for DC’s mid-1980s project of self- rehistoricization and renewal.
    [Show full text]
  • Holiday Reading 2001
    Holiday reading A selection of children’s and young adults’ books 10/01 G CH-128-B This list is only a small selection of the many books added to Christchurch City Libraries during 2001. We hope you will find some to interest you. Previous Holiday Reading lists can be found on the library’s web site at: http://library.christchurch.org.nz/Childrens/HolidayReading/index.asp Some recent award winning books are listed at the end of this publication while more award winners can be found on the library’s web site at: http://library.christchurch.org.nz/Guides/ LiteraryPrizes/Childrens/index.asp In Memoriam: Christchurch writers & illustrators Elsie Locke Gwenda Turner Douglas Adams Betty Cavanna Mirra Ginsberg Adrian Henri Tove Jannson Eloise McGraw Fred Marcellino Robert Kraus Catherine Storr This edition of Holiday Reading is dedicated to Alf Baker, a long-time supporter of children’s literature, literacy and libraries, who died during the year. Holiday reading page 1 Picture books Agee, Jon Milo’s hat trick In the busy city there are lots of people with hats, but only Milo the magician has a bear in his hat. Ahlberg, Allan The adventures of Bert Three very short stories, illustrated by Raymond Briggs. Ahlberg, Allan The snail house Grandma tells Michael, Hannah and their baby brother the story of three children who shrink to such a small size they move into a snail’s shell. Alborough, Jez Fix-It Duck Duck’s attempts to deal with various minor disasters only lead to more problems. Observant readers will notice in the initial pictures the clue to the first cause of the trouble.
    [Show full text]
  • Teaching Speculative Fiction in College: a Pedagogy for Making English Studies Relevant
    Georgia State University ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University English Dissertations Department of English Summer 8-7-2012 Teaching Speculative Fiction in College: A Pedagogy for Making English Studies Relevant James H. Shimkus Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/english_diss Recommended Citation Shimkus, James H., "Teaching Speculative Fiction in College: A Pedagogy for Making English Studies Relevant." Dissertation, Georgia State University, 2012. https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/english_diss/95 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Department of English at ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. It has been accepted for inclusion in English Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. TEACHING SPECULATIVE FICTION IN COLLEGE: A PEDAGOGY FOR MAKING ENGLISH STUDIES RELEVANT by JAMES HAMMOND SHIMKUS Under the Direction of Dr. Elizabeth Burmester ABSTRACT Speculative fiction (science fiction, fantasy, and horror) has steadily gained popularity both in culture and as a subject for study in college. While many helpful resources on teaching a particular genre or teaching particular texts within a genre exist, college teachers who have not previously taught science fiction, fantasy, or horror will benefit from a broader pedagogical overview of speculative fiction, and that is what this resource provides. Teachers who have previously taught speculative fiction may also benefit from the selection of alternative texts presented here. This resource includes an argument for the consideration of more speculative fiction in college English classes, whether in composition, literature, or creative writing, as well as overviews of the main theoretical discussions and definitions of each genre.
    [Show full text]
  • Exploring the Referral and Usage of Science Fiction in HCI Literature
    Exploring the Referral and Usage of Science-Fiction in HCI Literature? Philipp Jordan1, Omar Mubin2, Mohammad Obaid3, and Paula Alexandra Silva4 1 University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, USA [email protected] 2 SCEM, Western Sydney University, Sydney, Australia [email protected] 3 Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden [email protected] 4 DigiMedia Research Center, University of Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal [email protected] Abstract. Research on science fiction (sci-fi) in scientific publications has indicated the usage of sci-fi stories, movies or shows to inspire novel Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) research. Yet no studies have anal- ysed sci-fi in a top-ranked computer science conference at present. For that reason, we examine the CHI main track for the presence and nature of sci-fi referrals in relationship to HCI research. We search for six sci-fi terms in a dataset of 5812 CHI main proceedings and code the context of 175 sci-fi referrals in 83 papers indexed in the CHI main track. In our results, we categorize these papers into five contemporary HCI research themes wherein sci-fi and HCI interconnect: 1) Theoretical Design Re- search; 2) New Interactions; 3) Human-Body Modification or Extension; 4) Human-Robot Interaction and Artificial Intelligence; and 5) Visions of Computing and HCI. In conclusion, we discuss results and implications located in the promising arena of sci-fi and HCI research. Keywords: Design fiction, Future visions, HCI inspiraton, Popular cul- ture in science, Science fiction 1 Introduction Sci-fi has inspired many technological innovations. Its influence is present in the invention, conceptualization, design and application of interfaces and technology.
    [Show full text]
  • Parody, Popular Culture, and the Narrative of Javier Tomeo
    PARODY, POPULAR CULTURE, AND THE NARRATIVE OF JAVIER TOMEO by MARK W. PLEISS B.A., Simpson College, 2007 M.A., University of Colorado at Boulder, 2009 A thesis submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Colorado in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Spanish and Portuguese 2015 This thesis entitled: Parody, Popular Culture, and the Narrative of Javier Tomeo written by Mark W. Pleiss has been approved for the Department of Spanish and Portuguese __________________________________________________ Dr. Nina L. Molinaro __________________________________________________ Dr. Juan Herrero-Senés __________________________________________________ Dr. Tania Martuscelli __________________________________________________ Dr. Andrés Prieto __________________________________________________ Dr. Robert Buffington Date __________________________________ The final copy of this thesis has been examined by the signatories, and We find that both the content and the form meet acceptable presentation standards of scholarly work in the abovementioned discipline. iii Pleiss, Mark W. (Ph.D. Spanish Literature, Department of Spanish and Portuguese) Parody, Popular Culture, and the Narrative of Javier Tomeo Dissertation Director: Professor Nina L. Molinaro My thesis sketches a constellation of parodic Works Within the contemporary Spanish author Javier Tomeo's (1932-2013) immense literary universe. These novels include El discutido testamento de Gastón de Puyparlier (1990), Preparativos de viaje (1996), La noche del lobo (2006), Constructores de monstruos (2013), El cazador de leones (1987), and Los amantes de silicona (2008). It is my contention that the Aragonese author repeatedly incorporates and reconfigures the conventions of genres and sub-genres of popular literature and film in order to critique the proliferation of mass culture in Spain during his career as a writer.
    [Show full text]
  • Copyright by Jason Todd Craft 2004 the Dissertation Committee for Jason Todd Craft Certifies That This Is the Approved Version of the Following Dissertation
    Copyright by Jason Todd Craft 2004 The Dissertation Committee for Jason Todd Craft Certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: Fiction Networks: The Emergence of Proprietary, Persistent, Large- Scale Popular Fictions Committee: Adam Z. Newton, Co-Supervisor John M. Slatin, Co-Supervisor Brian A. Bremen David J. Phillips Clay Spinuzzi Margaret A. Syverson Fiction Networks: The Emergence of Proprietary, Persistent, Large- Scale Popular Fictions by Jason Todd Craft, B.A., M.A. Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin December, 2004 Dedication For my family Acknowledgements Many thanks to my dissertation supervisors, Dr. Adam Zachary Newton and Dr. John Slatin; to Dr. Margaret Syverson, who has supported this work from its earliest stages; and, to Dr. Brian Bremen, Dr. David Phillips, and Dr. Clay Spinuzzi, all of whom have actively engaged with this dissertation in progress, and have given me immensely helpful feedback. This dissertation has benefited from the attention and feedback of many generous readers, including David Barndollar, Victoria Davis, Aimee Kendall, Eric Lupfer, and Doug Norman. Thanks also to Ben Armintor, Kari Banta, Sarah Paetsch, Michael Smith, Kevin Thomas, Matthew Tucker and many others for productive conversations about branding and marketing, comics universes, popular entertainment, and persistent world gaming. Some of my most useful, and most entertaining, discussions about the subject matter in this dissertation have been with my brother, Adam Craft. I also want to thank my parents, Donna Cox and John Craft, and my partner, Michael Craigue, for their help and support.
    [Show full text]
  • 8Th Lichtspielklub Short Film Festival Sputnik Kino # Badehaus Szimpla # Acudkino # Filmkunst 66
    8th Lichtspielklub Short Film Festival Sputnik Kino # Badehaus Szimpla # Acudkino # Filmkunst 66 15.–19.1.2015 # The Programme “British Shorts” präsentiert zum 8. Mal die aufregendsten Kurzfilme Thu 15.1. 20:00 / Badehaus Szimpla aus Großbritannien und Irland. Von Drama, Comedy, Animation, Festival Opening & Festival Screening & Concert: Snøffeltøffs & Party Thriller, Experimentalfilm, Musikvideo bis Doku ist alles vertreten. Drama / Comedy / Animation / Music Video / Documentary (Concert details: page 20) Parties, Konzerte, Talks, ein Workshop mit 48-Stunden-Filmprojekt, ein Open Screening und eine Ausstellung ergänzen das Programm und wie immer werden ein Jury- und ein Publikumspreis vergeben. Dieses Jahr neu: Erstmals wird es eine Stand-Up-Comedy-Live- Show geben, wir setzen mit einem zusätzlichen Screening einen Schwerpunkt auf Animationen und die Retrospektive präsentiert ein Film konzert mit den ersten britischen Kurzfilmen der Filmge- schichte – inklusive zeitgemäßem Live-Soundtrack von Dirk Markham! British Shorts presents, for the 8th time, the most exciting short films from Great Britain and Ireland. From drama, comedy, animation, thriller, horror, experimental film and music videos to documentary films all gen- res are present. Concerts, parties, a free film workshop (including a 48- hour film project), the Open Screening, talks and an exhibition will create Light Half still: Film a great festival atmosphere and as always there will be jury and audience Die Trilogie “A United Howl” wird das Festival eröffnen: Drei Filme über Un- awards. New this year is a live stand-up comedy show and an additional angepasste, Außenseiter und Einzelgänger. The festival opens with Karan screening with animation films only. And our retrospective is all about Kandhari’s A United Howl – a trilogy of shorts about misfits, outsiders & loners.
    [Show full text]
  • Fafnir – Nordic Journal of Science Fiction and Fantasy Research Journal.Finfar.Org
    ISSN: 2342-2009 Fafnir vol 3, iss 4, pages 7–227–23 Fafnir – Nordic Journal of Science Fiction and Fantasy Research journal.finfar.org Speculative Architectures in Comics Francesco-Alessio Ursini Abstract: The present article offers an analysis on how comics authors can employ architecture as a narrative trope, by focusing on the works of Tsutomu Nihei (Blame!, Sidonia no Kishi), and the duo of Francois Schuiten and Benoit Peeters (Le cités obscures). The article investigates how these authors use architectural tropes to create speculative fictions that develop renditions of cities as complex narrative environments, and “places” with a distinctive role and profile in stories. It is argued that these authors exploit the multimodal nature of comics and the potential of architecture to construct complex worlds and narrative structures. Keywords: architectural tropes, comics, narrative structure, speculative fiction, world-building, multimodality Biography and contact info: Francesco-Alessio Ursini is currently a lecturer in English linguistics and literature at Jönköping University. His works on comics include a special issue on Grant Morrison for the journal ImageTexT, and the forthcoming Visions of the Future in Comics (McFarland Press), both co-edited with Frank Bramlett and Adnan Mahmutović. Speculative fiction and comics have always been tightly connected across different cultural traditions. It has been argued that the “golden era” of manga (Japanese comics) in the 70’s and 80’s is based on the preponderance of works using science/speculative fiction settings (e.g. Akira, Ohsawa 9–26). Similarly, classic works in the “Latin” comic traditions (i.e. Latin American historietas, Italian fumetti, and French/Belgian bande desineés) have long represented an ideal nexus between the speculative fiction genre and the Comics medium, one example being El Eternauta (Page 46–50).
    [Show full text]
  • James Phelan, Peter J. Rabinowitz, and Robyn Warhol, Series Editors
    THEORY AND INTERPRETATION OF NARRATIVE James Phelan, Peter J. Rabinowitz, and Robyn Warhol, Series Editors Narrative Theory Core Concepts and Critical Debates DAVID HERMAN JAMES PHELAN PETER J. RABINOWITZ BRIAN RICHARDSON ROBYN WARHOL THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY PRESS | COLUMBUS Copyright © 2012 by The Ohio State University. All rights reserved. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Narrative theory : core concepts and critical debates / David Herman ... [et al.]. p. cm. — (Theory and interpretation of narrative) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-8142-5184-3 (pbk. : alk. paper) — ISBN 0-8142-5184-6 (pbk. : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-8142-1186-1 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 0-8142-1186-0 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 978- 0-8142-9285-3 (cd-rom) 1. Narration (Rhetoric) I. Herman, David, 1962– II. Series: Theory and interpretation of nar- rative series. PN212.N379 2012 808.036—dc23 2011049224 Cover design by James Baumann Text design by Juliet Williams Type set in Adobe Minion Pro Printed by Thomson-Shore, Inc. The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materi- als. ANSI Z39.48–1992. 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 CONTENTS Preface ix Acknowledgments xiii Part One Perspectives: Rhetorical, Feminist, Mind-Oriented, Antimimetic 1. Introduction: The Approaches Narrative as Rhetoric JAMES PHElan and PETER J. Rabinowitz 3 A Feminist Approach to Narrative RobYN Warhol 9 Exploring the Nexus of Narrative and Mind DAVID HErman 14 Antimimetic, Unnatural, and Postmodern Narrative Theory Brian Richardson 20 2. Authors, Narrators, Narration JAMES PHElan and PETER J.
    [Show full text]
  • Transhumanity's Fate
    ECLIPSE PHASE: TRANSHUMANITY’S FATE The Fate Conversion Guide for Eclipse Phase RYAN JACK MACKLIN GRAHAM ECLIPSE PHASE: TRANSHUMANITY’S FATE Transhumanity’s Fate: ■ Brings technothriller espionage and horror in a world of upgraded humans to Fate Core. ■ Join Firewall, and defend transhumanity in the aftermath of near annihilation by arti cial intelligence. ■ Requires Fate Core to play. Eclipse Phase created by Posthuman Studios Eclipse Phase is a trademark of Posthuman Studios LLC. Transhumanity’s Fate is © 2016. Some content licensed under a Creative Commons License. Fate™ is a trademark of Evil Hat Productions, LLC. The Powered by Fate logo is © Evil Hat Productions, LLC and is used with permission. eclipsephase.com TRANSHUMANITY'S FATE WRITING DEDICATION Jack Graham, Ryan Macklin The Posthumans dedicate this book to Jef Smith, our ADDITIONAL MATERIAL companion of many days & nights around the table. Jef was a tireless organizer in Chicago's science-fiction/ Rob Boyle, Caleb Stokes fantasy fandom, including the Think Galactic reading EDITING group and spin-off convention, Think Galacticon. In Rob Boyle, Jack Graham 2015, he co-published the Sisters of the Revolution: A GRAPHIC DESIGN Feminist Speculative Fiction Anthology with PM Press. Adam Jury We will miss Jef's encouragement, wit, and bottomless COVER ART generosity. The person who lives large in the lives of their friends is not soon forgotten. Stephan Martiniere A portion of profits from Transhumanity's Fate will be INTERIOR ART donated to Jef's family. Rich Anderson, Nic Boone, Leanne Buckley, Anna Christenson, Daniel Clarke, Paul Davies, SPECIAL THANKS Alex Drummond, Danijel Firak, Nathan Geppert, Ryan thanks his wife, Lillian, for her support and Zachary Graves, Tariq Hassan, Josu Hernaiz, octomorph shenanigans, and blackcoat for being a font Jason Juta, Sergey Kondratovich, Ian Llanas, of feedback.
    [Show full text]
  • Theorising the Practice of Expressing a Fictional World Across Distinct Media and Environments
    Transmedia Practice: Theorising the Practice of Expressing a Fictional World across Distinct Media and Environments by Christy Dena A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) School of Letters, Art and Media Department of Media and Communications Digital Cultures Program University of Sydney Australia Supervisor: Professor Gerard Goggin Associate Supervisor: Dr. Chris Chesher Associate Supervisor: Dr. Anne Dunn 2009 Let’s study, with objectivity and curiosity, the mutation phenomenon of forms and values in the current world. Let’s be conscious of the fact that although tomorrow’s world does not have any chance to become more fair than any other, it owns a chance that is linked to the destiny of the current art [...] that of embodying, in their works some forms of new beauty, which will be able to arise only from the meet of all the techniques. (Francastel 1956, 274) Translation by Regina Célia Pinto, emailed to the empyre mailing list, Jan 2, 2004. Reprinted with permission. To the memory of my dear, dear, mum, Hilary. Thank you, for never denying yourself the right to Be. ~ Transmedia Practice ~ Abstract In the past few years there have been a number of theories emerge in media, film, television, narrative and game studies that detail the rise of what has been variously described as transmedia, cross-media and distributed phenomena. Fundamentally, the phenomenon involves the employment of multiple media platforms for expressing a fictional world. To date, theorists have focused on this phenomenon in mass entertainment, independent arts or gaming; and so, consequently the global, transartistic and transhistorical nature of the phenomenon has remained somewhat unrecognised.
    [Show full text]
  • Accion Mutante
    CORE Metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk Provided by University of Salford Institutional Repository “Esto no es un juego, es Acción mutante”: The Provocations of Álex de la Iglesia Peter Buse Núria Triana-Toribio Andrew Willis University of Salford University of Manchester University of Salford Speaking at the Manchester Spanish Film Festival in 2000, Álex de la Iglesia professed that he was not really a film director. “I’m more of a barman”, he claimed, “I just make cocktails”. His films, he implied, were simply an elaborate montage of quotations from other directors, genres, and film-styles, a self-assessment well borne out by Acción mutante (1993), the de la Iglesias team’s1 first feature film, which promiscuously mixes science fiction and comedy, film noir and western, Almodóvar and Ridley Scott. Were such a claim, and its associated renunciation of auteur status, to issue from an American independent director, or even a relatively self-conscious Hollywood director, would it even raise an eyebrow, so eloquently does it express postmodern orthodoxy? And does it make any difference when it comes from a modern Spanish director? As a bravura cut- and-paste job, a frenetic exercise in filmic intertextuality, Acción mutante is highly accomplished, but it would be a mistake to praise or criticize it on the grounds of its postmodern sensibilities alone without taking into account the intervention it made into a specifically Spanish filmic context where, in the words of the title song “Esto no es un juego, es acción mutante”. AFTER THE LEY MIRÓ Álex de la Iglesia has defined his cinema in terms of what it is not.
    [Show full text]