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Stairway to Heaven? Geographies of the Space Elevator in Science Fiction
ISSN 2624-9081 • DOI 10.26034/roadsides-202000306 Stairway to Heaven? Geographies of the Space Elevator in Science Fiction Oliver Dunnett Outer space is often presented as a kind of universal global commons – a space for all humankind, against which the hopes and dreams of humanity have been projected. Yet, since the advent of spaceflight, it has become apparent that access to outer space has been limited, shaped and procured in certain ways. Geographical approaches to the study of outer space have started to interrogate the ways in which such inequalities have emerged and sustained themselves, across environmental, cultural and political registers. For example, recent studies have understood outer space as increasingly foreclosed by certain state and commercial actors (Beery 2012), have emphasised narratives of tropical difference in understanding geosynchronous equatorial satellite orbits (Dunnett 2019) and, more broadly, have conceptualised the Solar System as part of Earth’s environment (Degroot 2017). It is clear from this and related literature that various types of infrastructure have been a significant part of the uneven geographies of outer space, whether in terms of long-established spaceports (Redfield 2000), anticipatory infrastructures (Gorman 2009) or redundant space hardware orbiting Earth as debris (Klinger 2019). collection no. 003 • Infrastructure on/off Earth Roadsides Stairway to Heaven? 43 Having been the subject of speculation in both engineering and science-fictional discourses for many decades, the space elevator has more recently been promoted as a “revolutionary and efficient way to space for all humanity” (ISEC 2017). The concept involves a tether lowered from a position in geostationary orbit to a point on Earth’s equator, along which an elevator can ascend and arrive in orbit. -
H. A. Hargreaves and Canadian Speculative Fiction © Robert Runté, 2012, 2017
H. A. Hargreaves and Canadian Speculative Fiction © Robert Runté, 2012, 2017 Adapted from Runté, Robert, “Afterword” in H.A. Hargreaves’ North by 2000+ Neustadt, Ontario: Five Rivers Publishing, 2012. ISBN 9780986642395 I first read North by 2000 nearly 40 come to Canadian-style endings. And years ago. I must have read three or four Hargreaves’ fiction was never published in thousand other short stores since: so why is the States: all his stories before 1979 were it that “Dead to the World” and “Cainn” and published in England; after that, Canada. It “Tee Vee Man” and “Protected Environment” is not my intent to discount Hargreaves’ and “More Things in Heaven and Earth” are American roots; indeed, I would argue that the stories that keep surfacing in my one common characteristic of Canadian SF memory? Why is it that when I’m trying to writers is that many of them (Fredrik Brio, J. explain what makes Canadian science Brian Clarke, Michael G. Coney, Dave fiction Canadian, these are stories that jump Duncan, Pauline Gedge, William Gibson, to mind as the exemplars? Why is it when I Matthew Hughes, Crawford Killian, Edward wrote my own first novel, I suddenly Llewellyn, Alberto Manguel, Judith Merril, recognized that the opening was a direct (if Spider Robinson, Sean Stewart, Andrew unconscious) steal from the automat scene in Weiner, Edward Willett, Robert Charles “Dead to the World”? What is it about these Wilson) came from someplace else. It’s our half dozen, quiet, unpretentious stories that immigrant backgrounds that explains half of makes them so influential, so compellingly what makes Canadian SF distinct. -
SFRA Newsletter 259/260
University of South Florida Scholar Commons Digital Collection - Science Fiction & Fantasy Digital Collection - Science Fiction & Fantasy Publications 12-1-2002 SFRA ewN sletter 259/260 Science Fiction Research Association Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/scifistud_pub Part of the Fiction Commons Scholar Commons Citation Science Fiction Research Association, "SFRA eN wsletter 259/260 " (2002). Digital Collection - Science Fiction & Fantasy Publications. Paper 76. http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/scifistud_pub/76 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Digital Collection - Science Fiction & Fantasy at Scholar Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Digital Collection - Science Fiction & Fantasy Publications by an authorized administrator of Scholar Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. #2Sfl60 SepUlec.JOOJ Coeditors: Chrlis.line "alins Shelley Rodrliao Nonfiction Reviews: Ed "eNnliah. fiction Reviews: PhliUp Snyder I .....HIS ISSUE: The SFRAReview (ISSN 1068- 395X) is published six times a year Notes from the Editors by the Science Fiction Research Christine Mains 2 Association (SFRA) and distributed to SFRA members. Individual issues are not for sale. For information about SFRA Business the SFRA and its benefits, see the New Officers 2 description at the back of this issue. President's Message 2 For a membership application, con tact SFRA Treasurer Dave Mead or Business Meeting 4 get one from the SFRA website: Secretary's Report 1 <www.sfraorg>. 2002 Award Speeches 8 SUBMISSIONS The SFRAReview editors encourage Inverviews submissions, including essays, review John Gregory Betancourt 21 essays that cover several related texts, Michael Stanton 24 and interviews. Please send submis 30 sions or queries to both coeditors. -
The Other in Science Fiction As a Problem for Social Theory 1
doi: 10.17323/1728-192x-2020-4-61-81 The Other in Science Fiction as a Problem for Social Theory 1 Vladimir Bystrov Doctor of Philosophical Sciences, Professor, Saint Petersburg University Address: Universitetskaya Nabereznaya, 7/9, Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation 199034 E-mail: [email protected] Vladimir Kamnev Doctor of Philosophical Sciences, Professor, Saint Petersburg University Address: Universitetskaya Nabereznaya, 7/9, Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation 199034 E-mail: [email protected] The paper discusses science fiction literature in its relation to some aspects of the socio- anthropological problem, such as the representation of the Other. Given the diversity of sci-fi genres, a researcher always deals either with the direct representation of the Other (a crea- ture different from an existing human being), or with its indirect, mediated form when the Other, in the original sense of this term, is revealed to the reader or viewer through the optics of some Other World. The article describes two modes of representing the Other by sci-fi literature, conventionally designated as scientist and anti-anthropic. Thescientist representa- tion constructs exclusively-rational premises for the relationship with the Other. Edmund Husserl’s concept of truth, which is the same for humans, non-humans, angels, and gods, can be considered as its historical and philosophical correlate. The anti-anthropic representa- tion, which is more attractive to sci-fi authors, has its origins in the experience of the “dis- enchantment” of the world characteristic of modern man, especially in the tragic feeling of incommensurability of a finite human existence and the infinity of the cosmic abysses. -
Judith Merril's Expatriate Narrative, 1968-1972 by Jolene Mccann a Thesis Submi
"The Love Token of a Token Immigrant": Judith Merril's Expatriate Narrative, 1968-1972 by Jolene McCann A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Master of Arts in The Faculty of Graduate Studies (History) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA April 2006 © Jolene McCann, 2006 Abstract Judith Merril was an internationally acclaimed science fiction (sf) writer and editor who expatriated from the United States to Canada in November 1968 with the core of what would become the Merril Collection of Science Fiction, Speculation and Fantasy in Toronto. Merril chronicled her transition from a nominal American or "token immigrant" to an authentic Canadian immigrant in personal documents and a memoir, Better to Have Loved: the Life of Judith Merril (2002). I argue that Sidonie Smith's travel writing theory, in particular, her notion of the "expatriate narrative" elucidates Merril's transition from a 'token' immigrant to a representative token of the American immigrant community residing in Toronto during the 1960s and 1970s. I further argue that Judith Merril's expatriate narrative links this personal transition to the simultaneous development of her science fiction library from its formation at Rochdale College to its donation by Merril in 1970 as a special branch of the Toronto Public Library (TPL). For twenty-seven years after Merril's expatriation from the United States, the Spaced Out Library cum Merril Collection - her love-token to the city and the universe - moored Merril politically and intellectually in Toronto. ii Acknowledgements I would like to thank my supervisor Dianne Newell for introducing me to the Merril Collection and sharing her extensive collection of primary sources on science fiction and copies of Merril's correspondence with me, as well as for making my visit to the Merril Collection at the Library and Archives of Canada, Ottawa possible. -
Catalogue 147: Science Fiction
And God said: DELETE lines One to Aleph. LOAD. RUN. And the Universe ceased to exist. Then he pondered for a few aeons, sighed, and added: ERASE. It never had existed. For David Catalogue 147: Science Fiction Bromer Booksellers 607 Boylston Street, at Copley Square Boston, MA 02116 P: 617-247-2818 F: 617-247-2975 E: [email protected] Visit our website at www.bromer.com n the Introduction to Catalogue 123, which contained the bulk of a In his fifty years as a bookman, David naturally recognized the signifi- science fiction collection he had assembled, David Bromer noted cance of the early rarities, the books that laid the groundwork for the that “science fiction is a robust genre of literature, not allowing authors of the modern era. He was pleased to discover, when cata- one to ever complete a collection.” The progressive nature of sci- loguing Cyrano de Bergerac’s The Comical History of the States and enceI and the social fabric that it impacts means that the genre itself Empires of the Worlds of the Moon and the Sun, that its author de- has to be fluid, never quite getting pinned down like a specimen under scribed a personal music player–anticipating in the year 1687 the cre- glass. ation of the Walkman and iPod three centuries later. In this regard, it is entirely fitting that David has been drawn to science Ultimately, science fiction primed the human imagination to accom- fiction as a reader, and as a collector. He is a scientist by training, hav- plish what is perhaps its greatest achievement: the exploration of ing earned a PhD in Metallurgy from MIT and worked in research fields space and the mission to the moon in 1969. -
JUDITH MERRIL-PDF-Sep23-07.Pdf (368.7Kb)
JUDITH MERRIL: AN ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY AND GUIDE Compiled by Elizabeth Cummins Department of English and Technical Communication University of Missouri-Rolla Rolla, MO 65409-0560 College Station, TX The Center for the Bibliography of Science Fiction and Fantasy December 2006 Table of Contents Preface Judith Merril Chronology A. Books B. Short Fiction C. Nonfiction D. Poetry E. Other Media F. Editorial Credits G. Secondary Sources About Elizabeth Cummins PREFACE Scope and Purpose This Judith Merril bibliography includes both primary and secondary works, arranged in categories that are suitable for her career and that are, generally, common to the other bibliographies in the Center for Bibliographic Studies in Science Fiction. Works by Merril include a variety of types and modes—pieces she wrote at Morris High School in the Bronx, newsletters and fanzines she edited; sports, westerns, and detective fiction and non-fiction published in pulp magazines up to 1950; science fiction stories, novellas, and novels; book reviews; critical essays; edited anthologies; and both audio and video recordings of her fiction and non-fiction. Works about Merill cover over six decades, beginning shortly after her first science fiction story appeared (1948) and continuing after her death (1997), and in several modes— biography, news, critical commentary, tribute, visual and audio records. This new online bibliography updates and expands the primary bibliography I published in 2001 (Elizabeth Cummins, “Bibliography of Works by Judith Merril,” Extrapolation, vol. 42, 2001). It also adds a secondary bibliography. However, the reasons for producing a research- based Merril bibliography have been the same for both publications. Published bibliographies of Merril’s work have been incomplete and often inaccurate. -
Generic Affinities, Posthumanisms and Science-Fictional Imaginings
GENERIC AFFINITIES, POSTHUMANISMS, SCIENCE-FICTIONAL IMAGININGS SPECULATIVE MATTER: GENERIC AFFINITIES, POSTHUMANISMS AND SCIENCE-FICTIONAL IMAGININGS By LAURA M. WIEBE, B.A., M.A. A Thesis Submitted to the School of Graduate Studies in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy McMaster University © Copyright by Laura Wiebe, October 2012 McMaster University DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (2012) Hamilton, Ontario (English and Cultural Studies) TITLE: Speculative Matter: Generic Affinities, Posthumanisms and Science-Fictional Imaginings AUTHOR: Laura Wiebe, B.A. (University of Waterloo), M.A. (Brock University) SUPERVISOR: Professor Anne Savage NUMBER OF PAGES: vi, 277 ii ABSTRACT Amidst the technoscientific ubiquity of the contemporary West (or global North), science fiction has come to seem the most current of genres, the narrative form best equipped to comment on and work through the social, political and ethical quandaries of rapid technoscientific development and the ways in which this development challenges conventional understandings of human identity and rationality. By this framing, the continuing popularity of stories about paranormal phenomena and supernatural entities – on mainstream television, or in print genres such as urban fantasy and paranormal romance – may seem to be a regressive reaction against the authority of and experience of living in technoscientific modernity. Nevertheless, the boundaries of science fiction, as with any genre, are relational rather than fixed, and critical engagements with Western/Northern technoscientific knowledge and practice and modern human identity and being may be found not just in science fiction “proper,” or in the scholarly field of science and technology studies, but also in the related genres of fantasy and paranormal romance. -
Auroran Lights
AURORAN LIGHTS The Official E-zine of the Canadian Science Fiction & Fantasy Association Dedicated to Promoting the Prix Aurora Awards and the Canadian SF&F Genre (Issue # 14 –December/January 2014/2015) 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS 03 – EDITORIAL CSFFA SECTION 04 – 2015 Aurora Award Eligibility List open. 04 – 2015 Aurora Award Nominations open. 04 – CSFFA AGM. 04 – 2015 Aurora Award Voting start date. PRODOM SECTION 05 – MILESTONES – Matthew Hughes & Jack Vance 05 – AWARDS – Sunburst Awards, Rhysling Poetry Awards. 09 – CONTESTS – Friends of the Merril Short Story Contest, Roswell Short Story Contest, Subterrain Magazine Fiction, Poetry & Non-Fiction Contest, Pulp Literature Magazine Swallows Sequential Graphic Arts Short Story Contest. 15 – EVENTS – ChiZine readings – Christi Charish & Jennifer Lott 10 – POETS & POEMS – Brains, Brains, Brains by Puneet Dutt, A Portrait of the Monster as an Artist by Dominik Parisien, 16 – PRO DOINGS – Condolences to Spider Robinson and how you can help him. 16 – CURRENT BOOKS – To Make a Witch by Heather Hamilton-Senter, Titanium Black by Michael J. Lee, An Inconvenient Corpse by Jason E. Rolfe, The Scrambled Man by Michael J. Bertrand, 17 – UPCOMING BOOKS & STORIES – The Occasional Diamond Thief by J.A. McLachlan, When Things Go Wobbly by Gregg Chamberlain, Ten Little Zombies by Gregg Chamberlain, Mirrors Heart by Justine Alley Dowsett and Murandy Damodred, 20 – MAGAZINES – Apex Magazine, Uncanny Magazine, Canadian Science Fiction Review, Sci Phi Journal, Galaxy’s Edge Magazine. 27 – MARKETS – Ideomancer Magazine, Uncanny Magazine, Canadian Science Fiction Review, Bundoran Press, SCIFI Journal, Clockwork Anthology, Mythic Derlium Magazine, Tartarus Press, Terraform Online Magazine, Third Person Press, Mirror World Publishing. -
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. -
Pseudoscience and Science Fiction Science and Fiction
Andrew May Pseudoscience and Science Fiction Science and Fiction Editorial Board Mark Alpert Philip Ball Gregory Benford Michael Brotherton Victor Callaghan Amnon H Eden Nick Kanas Geoffrey Landis Rudi Rucker Dirk Schulze-Makuch Ru€diger Vaas Ulrich Walter Stephen Webb Science and Fiction – A Springer Series This collection of entertaining and thought-provoking books will appeal equally to science buffs, scientists and science-fiction fans. It was born out of the recognition that scientific discovery and the creation of plausible fictional scenarios are often two sides of the same coin. Each relies on an understanding of the way the world works, coupled with the imaginative ability to invent new or alternative explanations—and even other worlds. Authored by practicing scientists as well as writers of hard science fiction, these books explore and exploit the borderlands between accepted science and its fictional counterpart. Uncovering mutual influences, promoting fruitful interaction, narrating and analyzing fictional scenarios, together they serve as a reaction vessel for inspired new ideas in science, technology, and beyond. Whether fiction, fact, or forever undecidable: the Springer Series “Science and Fiction” intends to go where no one has gone before! Its largely non-technical books take several different approaches. Journey with their authors as they • Indulge in science speculation—describing intriguing, plausible yet unproven ideas; • Exploit science fiction for educational purposes and as a means of promoting critical thinking; • Explore the interplay of science and science fiction—throughout the history of the genre and looking ahead; • Delve into related topics including, but not limited to: science as a creative process, the limits of science, interplay of literature and knowledge; • Tell fictional short stories built around well-defined scientific ideas, with a supplement summarizing the science underlying the plot. -
Research Journal of English Language and Literature (RJELAL
(RJELAL) Research Journal of English Language and Literature Vol.3.Issue 4.2015 A Peer Reviewed (Refereed) International Journal (Oct-Dec) http://www.rjelal.com RESEARCH ARTICLE REALISTIC SPECULATION ABOUT THE THEORY OF ORIGIN OF UNIVERSE IN R. J. SAWYER'S FOSSIL HUNTER (1993) SALAMA ISAK MANER Research scholar, Department of English, Shivaji University, Kolhapur ABSTRACT Science fiction is the sub genre of popular fiction. Speculation of scientific theories is the base of science fiction. Critic Robert Heinlein used ‘realistic speculation’ as one of the features of science fiction. The present paper aims at disclosing the realistic speculation of theory of origin of universe used by R. J. Sawyer, a Canadian Science Fiction writer in his book Fossil Hunter (1993) as Musing of Watcher. It depicts an Earth like world on a moon which orbits a gas giant inhabited by a species of highly evolved sentient Tyrannosaurs called Quintanglio among various other creatures from the late cretaceous period imported to this SALAMA ISAK moon by aliens 65 million years prior to the story. Musing of the Watcher is the sub MANER plot of Fossil Hunter. Musing of the Watcher is God like entity which explorers realistic speculation of scientific theory of origin of universe. The paper is divided into three parts. The first part deals with the use of realistic speculation in science fiction and theory of origin of universe. The second includes the brief introduction of the author and the analysis of Fossil Hunter. The third part of paper concludes the perfection of the author in the use of realistic speculation about the theory of origin of universe in his novel Fossil Hunter.