Science Fictions, Cultural Facts: a Digital Humanities Approach to a Popular Literature
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ResearchOnline@JCU This file is part of the following work: Menadue, Christopher Benjamin James (2019) Science fictions, cultural facts: a digital humanities approach to a popular literature. PhD Thesis, James Cook University. Access to this file is available from: https://doi.org/10.25903/5ef01cb4754df Copyright © 2019 Christopher Benjamin James Menadue. The author has certified to JCU that they have made a reasonable effort to gain permission and acknowledge the owners of any third party copyright material included in this document. If you believe that this is not the case, please email [email protected] SCIENCE FICTIONS, CULTURAL FACTS A Digital Humanities Approach to a Popular Literature Christopher Benjamin James Menadue MA(Cantab), MBA, PGCE College of Arts, Society and Education Adjunct Research Fellow of The Cairns Institute James Cook University This dissertation is submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy August 2019 To my father, and the musty, neglected copies of Astounding Science Fiction I found in his study long ago My first SF magazine: Astounding Science Fiction, January 1957 DECLARATION This dissertation is the result of my own work. To the best of my knowledge and belief this thesis does not contain any material previously published or written by another person, or which is the outcome of work done in collaboration, except where specifically indicated in the text. It has not been previously submitted, in part or whole, to any university of institution for any degree, diploma, or other qualification. I acknowledge that an electronic copy of my thesis must be lodged with the University Library and subject to the General Award Rules of James Cook University, immediately made available for research and study in accordance with the Copyright Act 1968(Cth). Notes on Copyright Every reasonable effort has been made to gain permission and acknowledge the owners of copyright material. I would be pleased to hear from any copyright owner who has been omitted or incorrectly acknowledged. Ethics Approval The James Cook University human research ethics committee granted approval on 19th October 2015, no. H6299 for the surveys undertaken for this thesis. The mandatory final report on the study was submitted to the ethics committee on 29th January 2019. i Acknowledgements Above all, and by a long measure, my thanks go to my wife, Susie, who has supported my efforts, and obsession, with patience and tolerance that surpass my understanding. My supervisors: Richard Lansdown, Komla Tsey, Susan Jacups and Kristi Giselsson; whose differing perspectives, skills, and tolerance for the strange and unusual, were essential in supporting my studies. Gordon Grey, collector and devoted fan of Fantasy and Science Fiction, for his generosity in providing me with rare pulp magazines. Gorgon776 and the other anonymous individuals who have put enormous, and unpaid, efforts into scanning magazines and creating online digital archives for the benefit of fans. Todd Vandemark of the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America for making my surveys available to members, and to all the people who took the time to respond to my lengthy surveys. The PhD colleagues who had the patience to listen to my ideas, and even read my drafts with apparent interest. Among these, special mention must go to Karen Cheer, for encouraging me to return to academic study. ii STATEMENT OF THE CONTRIBUTIONS OF OTHERS Nature of Contribution Names, Titles and Affiliations of Co-Contributors Assistance Intellectual Supervision, and Prof. Richard Lansdown (RL), James Cook University / support editorial contributions University of Groningen; Professor Komla Tsey (KT), James to manuscripts Cook University; Susan Jacups (SJ); Kristi Giselsson (KG), James Cook University Research Co-authorship of Karen Cheer (KC), James Cook University; KG; David Guez Collaboration Publications (DG), James Cook University; SJ. Financial Fee waiver and stipend Australian Commonwealth, Research Training Scheme Support Research Support James Cook University, College of Arts, Society and Grant Education Data Collection Distribution of surveys Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America, and various Facebook groups and Twitter accounts Chapters based on published works and works in preparation Chapter Publication Status Research Culture Menadue, C.B., Cheer, K. C. (2017). Human culture Published and SF: A review of the literature 1980 to 2016. Who reads SF? Menadue, C.B., Jacups, S.J.(2018). Who Reads Published Science Fiction & Fantasy, and What do They Think about Science. Menadue, C. B. (2016). SF and fantasy experience Published survey and survey. [Dataset]. doi: 10.4225/28/582d4f159318c dataset Defining Science Menadue, C.B., Giselsson, K., Guez, D. (2018). An In Review: SAGE Open Fiction Empirical Revision of the Definition of Science Fiction: It’s all in the Techne… Menadue, C. B. (2017). SF and fantasy: Your Published survey and opinions. [Dataset]. doi:10.4225/28/594726179755f dataset Methodology Menadue, C.B. (2019). @rts of D@rlcne55: A In preparation for Invited Pilgrim’s Progress Towards a Humane Digital resubmission to Digital Methodology. Humanities Quarterly Menadue, Christopher B. (2017) Proximal Reading: a Conference Presentation network-scaled approach to digital literature analysis. Presented at: Intersecting Fields, 30-31 October 2017, Townsville, QLD, Australia. Chapter Publication Status Hubbard Bubble, Menadue, C.B. (2018). Hubbard Bubble, Dianetics Published Dianetics Trouble Trouble: An Evaluation of the Representations of Dianetics and Scientology in SF Magazines from 1949 to 1999. The Tropics in Menadue, C.B. (2017). Trysts Tropiques: The Published Science Fiction Torrid Jungles of Science Fiction. iii Menadue, C.B. (2018). Cities in Flight: A Published Descriptive Examination of the Tropical City Imagined in Twentieth-Century Science Fiction Cover Art. Statements of Co-Authors Publication Nature and extent of the I confirm the intellectual input of each author, candidate’s including the candidate contribution to this paper and consent to the inclusion of the paper in this thesis Menadue, C.B., Cheer, K. C. CM: Design and implementation of Name: Karen Cheer (2017). Human culture and SF: literature search, filtering, tabulating, Signature A review of the literature 1980 identifying and analysing thematic to 2016. SAGE Open categories, discussion and conclusion. Cheer, K., Refining search criteria, article filtering, advice on library scholarship, and editing. Menadue, C.B., Jacups, CM: Data collection, data analysis, Name: Susan Jacups S.J.(2018). Who Reads Science describing and analysing findings, Signature Fiction & Fantasy, and What do drafting. SJ: Data interpretation, They Think about Science. editorial input. SAGE Open Menadue, C.B., Giselsson, K., CM: Data collection and analysis, Name: Kristi Giselsson Guez, D. (2018). An Empirical overview of subject topic and history, Signature Revision of the Definition of drafting, development of general Science Fiction: It’s all in the argument, describing and analysing Techne… [Manuscript in findings. KG: Justification and extension Review] of philosophical argument. DG: Name: David Guez Identification of statistical methods Signature iv ABSTRACT Human culture has a necessary influence on the content of popular literature – if only because the interests of a contemporary public determine material success or failure. Authors are products of their time, and popular writers will tend to reflect the cultural expectations and values of their readership. It follows that we should be able to find the imprint of human culture in popular literature if we employ suitable methods. Science fiction (SF) is well suited for such investigation, as it is open in scope and subject, and less restricted by content conventions than other genres. As a publishing medium, magazines, specifically, are valuable literary artefacts of popular culture. They contain fiction, editorials, advertising, reader letters, and features on matters of contemporary importance. These all contribute to build an understanding of their cultural environment. In this thesis, I begin by assessing the relevance of SF as a relevant source of popular insights by tasking SF magazine content as a lens to focus on human culture, analysing the genre and its value in contemporary research and society. I review the uses of SF in academic literature, and analyse public surveys to identify the breadth and relevance of its popular appeal. I describe the phenomenological experience of developing a hybrid digital and traditional methodology from the perspective of someone with no history of digital research in the humanities and employ a series of case studies which test the validity of the approach. The case studies provide insights into the cultural history of two topics: the foundations and subsequent development of Scientology; and the changing representations of tropical environments and peoples. An aim of this study is to devise and demonstrate methodology that respects the human experience of literature, but also integrates the value of employing technological approaches that expand the scope of investigation. The primary sources comprise more than 4,000 individual magazine issues – perhaps thirty percent of issues of magazines dedicated to SF in the twentieth century – and complete, or near complete runs of major titles. The value to the research process of having a significant number of sources is to counter the bias contained in the phenomenological bracket