Los Angeles: A.D. 2017 Online

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Los Angeles: A.D. 2017 Online 1F2nh (Download) Los Angeles: A.D. 2017 Online [1F2nh.ebook] Los Angeles: A.D. 2017 Pdf Free Philip Wylie *Download PDF | ePub | DOC | audiobook | ebooks Download Now Free Download Here Download eBook #181861 in Audible 2015-07-27Format: UnabridgedOriginal language:EnglishRunning time: 417 minutes | File size: 24.Mb Philip Wylie : Los Angeles: A.D. 2017 before purchasing it in order to gage whether or not it would be worth my time, and all praised Los Angeles: A.D. 2017: 11 of 11 people found the following review helpful. Philip Wylie's Vision of L.A.: A Very Bleak OneBy Erik NorthScience fiction writers have been plentiful throughout history; and Philip Wylie, though not a "superstar" like, say, H.G. Wells in his day, or, more recently, Ray Bradbury or Arthur C. Clarke, was someone who always bought something to the table, whether it be in pulp form, satire, or visions of Dystopian futures. He also helped provide the basis for the 1951 George Pal sci-fi classic WHEN WORLDS COLLIDE, a film that presages by several decades such similar films as METEOR, NIGHT OF THE COMET, ARMAGEDDON, and DEEP IMAPCT.The dark Dystopian side of Wylie was revealed one final time in the screenplay he provided for an episode of the NBC-TV series "The Name Of The Game", an episode entitled L.A. 2017. In it, series regular Gene Barry (as People magazine publisher Glenn Howard) finds himself enmeshed in an ecological nightmare of the 21st century as pollution has forced the citizens of Los Angeles underground and into a society that looks like something out of George Orwell. Wylie's fascinating, sometimes darkly satirical look at this world was further enhanced by what the episode's director, a young "kid" named Steven Spielberg, did to make it feel realistic in the confines of what might otherwise have been a standard 75 minute-long TV episode. L.A. 2017 aired on January 15, 1971 and was highly acclaimed, thanks to both Wylie's intelligent and sometimes bitingly satirical dialogue and Spielberg's concise direction.The subsequent novel Wylie published shortly after the episode aired, titled "Los Angeles: A.D. 2017", is an excellent expansion on that episode. In many ways, not only does it expand on the episode itself, but it also echoes elements of Orwell's "1984" and Franz Kafka's "The Trial"; and in its view of an ecological nightmare, foretells some of the elements found in the 2006 documentary film AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH.This novelization was one of the last works published by Wylie, since he passed away at the age of 69 on October 25, 1971. It is a book that is relatively small but a very solid read, especially in light of the TV episode that spawned it, and a reminder of the kind of hard science fiction that is not easy to find much anymore these days, either in print or on celluloid.As a sidebar: it would be good for Universal Studios, whose television division produced "The Name Of The Game" (which ran from 1968 to 1971) to release L.A. 2017 on DVD. It is by far one of the single most inventive dramatic episodes ever put on television, in my opinion.3 of 5 people found the following review helpful. Detours from social relevance to overplayed sex politicsBy MiaThis was essentially an ambitious expansion of a screenplay from the 1970s tv show that dropped flat on its face. The author was a strong early proponent of the climate crisis theories and as such the book reads eerily prescient in the actual year 2017 where the budget cuts to environmental protections agencies have just been slashed. But while the book starts off promisingly and socially relevant (some paragraphs can be ripped right out of modern newspapers, the top financial magnates refusing to reign in their abuse of nature's resources citing this impediment to progress as unAmerican and son on is practically a satire), it soon remembers that it is a child of the 70s (1971 to be precise) and proceeds as such, a sort of prurient gallop through the futuristic subterranean fascist like society that has developed very specific survival strategies/sex politics including reasonably well argued for eugenics and creepy argued for, not to mention absolutely inexcusable, pedophilia. And so it goes on with a distinctly 70s vibe to its tiresome sex scenes until the inevitable and hugest cop out of all time ending....it was all a dream. Disappointing as a book, this one probably should have been left as a tv episode. At least a pretty quick read.10 of 12 people found the following review helpful. It's The End of the World (as we know it)By S. J. DelongNovelist Philip Wylie, well known for his pro-conservation stance, wrote the teleplay for the made-for-TV L.A. 2017. Publisher Glenn Howard (Gene Barry) is suddenly whisked away from his plush office in 1971. He finds himself in a world beneath the Earth's surface, circa 2017. The powers-that-be in this subterranean world refuse to answer Howard's many questions as to what has happened on the surface, but audiences familiar with Twilight Zone and Outer Limits should catch on fairly quickly. The only science-fiction installment of the otherwise straightforward TV series Name of the Game, LA 2017 originally aired January 15, 1971. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie GuideThe book expands on the premise of environmental collapse, and there was a lot of the book that was not filmed, such as the "swinging" corporate conference in the beginning , and a lot of the flashbacks of environmental disasters were also cut do to lack of tech and money, that were never filmed( gee, we may be living them now ...) and would make a excellent remake today with a large budget, heh, maybe they could even get Steven Spielberg to direct ...In "L.A. 2017," Glenn Howard is on the way back from a top-secret meeting held by a group of top scientists and industrialists discussing the very serious threats the environment (abused by polution) holds for mankind. Howard, a friend of the President of the United States (who happened to be purposefully left in the dark about the meeting), drives along a rural highway outside of L.A. after the meeting, speaking into a tape recording he is making for the President about the meeting. As he drives, Howard opens the air vent to his automobile, letting a healthy dose of L.A. smog and auto exhaust into his car and lungs, which causes him to pass out at the wheel.Time passes and Howard is now slumped over the wheel at the roadside, where his crashed auto has been found by a squad of men wearing odd uniforms and gas masks. Howard is awoken and transported across a suddenly foreign looking terrain-a desolate wasteland--to an underground facility. As he is revived, Howard finds himself in a new world, forty- six years in the future!L.A. is now a small underground outpost where survivors of the ecological catastrophe Howard and the industrialists were discussing in 1971 has come true. After being grilled by the police state (run by psychiatrists!), Howard is indoctrinated into the new society by Dane (Barry Sullivan), the leader of the L.A. branch of the U.S., which is now run by big-business.As Howard learns more about what has become of society, it becomes apparent that Dane and his cohorts are running things as a big-brother dictatorship (in an oppressive future society not unlike "1984," "THX-1138," "Brazil" (both films share 'well-meaning' terrorist bombings), or Spielberg's own "Minority Report"), where personal freedoms, life, and love are no longer a benefit of freewill... A stark and terrifying vision of an apocalyptic, environmentally ravaged near-future world from a 20th-century master of thought-provoking science fiction. In a writing career that spanned six decades, Philip Wylie created an astonishing body of work that ranged from science fiction to suspense to philosophy to social criticism while inspiring the creation of such iconic characters as Superman, Flash Gordon, Doc Savage, and Travis McGee. In Los Angeles: A.D. 2017, based on Wylie's own teleplay written for the hit 1970s TV series The Name of the Game, directed by a young Steven Spielberg, the author imagines a dystopian future in which environmental disaster has driven the remnants of humankind belowground. By the year 2017, a series of ecological catastrophes have eliminated most of the Earth's population while destroying the America we once knew. The few who have survived live in underground bunkers beneath the ruins of the nation's major cities, controlled by ruthless corporate entities that have remolded the devastated society into USA, Inc. This is the nightmare into which crusading magazine publisher Glenn Howard awakens after 40 years of sleep. As a powerful 20th-century entrepreneur, Howard is expected to join the elite. But in this dark future age, population numbers are strictly controlled by computer; the aged, infirm, and unproductive are mercilessly eliminated; and all dissent is punished by death. For an idealist like Howard, accepting the new status quo is unthinkable. But the alternative - working with a secret rebel committed to overthrowing the cruel corporate masters - could prove the most dangerous route of all, a path that leads inexorably to one unthinkable outcome: erasure. [1F2nh.ebook] Los Angeles: A.D. 2017 By Philip Wylie PDF [1F2nh.ebook] Los Angeles: A.D. 2017 By Philip Wylie Epub [1F2nh.ebook] Los Angeles: A.D.
Recommended publications
  • ORIGIN 37 March 2021
    ORIGIN 37 March 2021 Publication of the National Fantasy Fan Federation History and Research Bureau Published by the National Fantasy Fan Federation (N3F). To join or renew, use the membership form at http://n3f.org/join/membership-form/ to provide your name and whichever address you use to receive zines. Memberships with The National Fantasy Fan (TNFF) via paper mail are $18; memberships with TNFF via email are $6. Zines other than TNFF are email only. Additional memberships at the address of a current dues-paying member are $4. Public memberships are free. Send payments to Kevin Trainor, PO Box 143, Tonopah, Nevada 89049. Pay online at N3F.org . Our PayPal contact is [email protected] . Editor of Origin and Bureau Head of the History and Research Bureau is John Thiel. STAFF Judy Carroll, 975 East 120 S, Spanish Fork, Utah 84660, [email protected] Jeffrey Redmond, 1335 Beechwood NE, Grand Rapids, MI 49505-3830, [email protected] Jon Swartz, 12115 Missel Thrush Court, Austin, Texas 78750, [email protected] Origin is published monthly at the midmonth and is circulated to all members with email addresses. Cover by Alan White Contents: Editorial, “Why Feud? What’s the Matter?” by John Thiel, page three. Genre Paperbacks in the Armed Services editions, by Jon Swartz, page five. The Gunn Center for the Study of Science Fiction, by Jeffrey Redmond, page eleven. Getting Along by Judy Carroll, page seventeen. Personal Considerations on SF and Fantasy by Will Mayo, page nineteen. EDITORIAL Why Feud? What’s the Matter?—The Modern Fight Culture There’s a lot of reason to see an upturn in the science fiction culture, but there remains a lot of feuding going on here and there in fandom, now becoming more and more visible on Facebook.
    [Show full text]
  • 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.
    [Show full text]
  • Kiss Me Deadly: Communism, Motherhood, and Cold War Movies Author(S): Michael Rogin Source: Representations, No
    Kiss Me Deadly: Communism, Motherhood, and Cold War Movies Author(s): Michael Rogin Source: Representations, No. 6 (Spring, 1984), pp. 1-36 Published by: University of California Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2928536 Accessed: 04-03-2015 22:18 UTC Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. University of California Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Representations. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 169.234.53.127 on Wed, 04 Mar 2015 22:18:06 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions MICHAEL ROGIN Kiss Me Deadly: Communism,Motherhood, and Cold War Movies* I THE HISTORY of demonologyin Americanpolitics comprises three major moments.The firstis racial. "Historybegins for us withmurder and enslavement,not with discovery," wrote William Carlos Williams.' He wascalling attentionto thehistorical origins of theUnited States in violenceagainst peoples of color.The expropriationof Indianland and exploitationof blacklabor lie at theroot not only of America's economic development, but of its political conflicts and culturalidentity as well.A distinctiveAmerican political tradition, fearful of primitivism,disorder, and conspiracy,developed in responseto peoplesof color. That traditiondraws its energy from alien threatsto the Americanway of life, and sanctionsviolent and exclusionaryresponses to them.2 Classand ethnicconflict define the second demonological moment.
    [Show full text]
  • The M.B.O.A. Log
    THE M.B.O.A. LOG MATTHEWS BOAT OWNERS ASSOCIATION * FOUNDED 1977 Vol. MMXXI No. 121 3053 Nationwide Parkway, Brunswick, OH 44212 SPRING 2021 www.matthewsboatownersassoc.com Editor: Becky McWilliam 330-273-5756 [email protected] Trustees You Asked... We Answered Check out the New MBOA Online Store Deb Schoman Executive Director In the results of the recent MBOA but MBOA will not be required to Northeast member survey, many individuals purchase the stock up front and will indicated that they would like more receive a 15% commission back on Randy Hart variety of merchandise to be available. all orders. Select items will still be Treasurer After researching this topic, we were available directly from the MBOA Great Lakes able to establish a new online store office, including burgees, calendars that will feature more styles and colors and DVDs. RD Galeota, Jr. of shirts and other clothing items. Lake St. Clair & St. Clair River Customization with your boat name Please take a moment to visit the new is also an option, and youth sizes are store, order some new apparel for this Fred Lemerand available! season, and let us know your feedback! Great Lakes You can access the store from the Not only will this new store allow MBOA website, or directly at many more options for purchase, matthewsboats.logosoftwear.com/ Randy Mueller Pacific NW Phil Dress Great Lakes The MATTHEWS BOAT OWNERS ASSOCIATION (MBOA, a non-profit corporation) is for past and present MATTHEWS owners and for those who simply love and appreciate the Matthews marque. The Association is devoted to perpetuating MATTHEWS history, respect for a classic boat, and to serve as a clearing house for MATTHEWS BOATS, and club news devoted to the history of the MATTHEWS COMPANY.
    [Show full text]
  • Emotion Management and the Standardization of Democracy in Cold War Literature and Film
    ABSTRACT Title of Dissertation: THE FEELING AMERICAN: EMOTION MANAGEMENT AND THE STANDARDIZATION OF DEMOCRACY IN COLD WAR LITERATURE AND FILM Kelly A. Singleton, Doctor of Philosophy, 2017 Dissertation directed by: Professor Jonathan Auerbach, Department of English This project examines how strategies of emotion management influenced the development of American literature and film during the Cold War period. Focusing primarily on the High Cold War Period of 1949 to 1962, it argues that a government- funded postwar boom in the psychological and social sciences resulted in a “psychological turn” in American culture that sought to solve social problems by teaching Americans to manage their emotions in keeping with scientifically- established standards for democratic behavior. Proponents of emotion management believed it could accomplish the Soviet goal of creating a harmonious, classless society without requiring radical social revolution or totalitarian forms of control that would violate American principles of freedom and democracy. To that end, American policymakers used the findings of social scientists to develop narratives that: 1) modeled how to behave in the event of a nuclear attack, 2) equated happiness with the American standard of living, 3) made emotional malleability the foundation for a democratic personality, and 4) linked racism to deviation from the norms of liberal white psychology. The works of several mid-century American authors and filmmakers provide an important counterpoint to the optimism of this official emotion management narrative as they: 1) challenge the government’s sanitized representation of nuclear war, 2) document the unhappy effects of middle-class organization culture, 3) express anxiety over the alienating effects of emotional labor, and 4) reject the equation of mental health and American identity with specifically white cultural standards and forms.
    [Show full text]
  • The Cultural Ambivalences of Family in the Cinema of Steven Spielberg
    ‘Steven Phone Home’ The Cultural Ambivalences of Family in the Cinema of Steven Spielberg Suzanne Stuart PhD Thesis University of New South Wales 2011 Contents Preface and Acknowledgements iii Introduction: Family Consumption 1 • Spielberg’s Families in the Twilight Zone • Minority Report? Spielberg and the Family in Critical Literature • Close Encounters of the Familial Kind Part One: The Private Sphere of Hearth and Home 1. The Hook within the (Impossible) Family: Standing on the Outside, Looking In – Ideology, Fantasy and Desire 51 • ‘I Fought the Law, and the Law Won’: Catch Me if You Can • ‘Freud’s Robots’: Artificial Intelligence: A.I. • Conclusion: Artificial Resolution 2. The Lost World of ‘Home’: Suburbia, Family Ghosts, and Alienation in Domesticity 106 • Domestic Off-Screen Space in Duel: ‘not the boss in my house’ • Alienation in E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial – The Suburbs Become Home • ‘The grass grows greener on every side’: Avoiding Binaries in the Fantasy Suburb of Poltergeist • ‘They’re here’: The Penetration of the Public/Private Home in Poltergeist • The Gendered Home - ‘Ask Dad’ • Implosion: The Death Drive of the Suburban Home • Conclusion: Not Quite Home Yet Part Two: Rhetorical Families in the Public Sphere 3. A Leap of Faith: What Lies Beneath the Word of the Father? Representing God, Religion and the Family 162 • Close Encounters of the Third Kind: Melodramatic Masculinity in (Domestic) Space – Mashed Potatoes and Spirituality • The Color Purple and the Shadow of Incest – Obscene Fathers and Father-Gods • A Radio to God? Raiders of the Lost Ark and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: Postmodernism, Religious Nostalgia and the (Impossible) Father- God • Conclusion: Chasms and Symbols 4.
    [Show full text]
  • Superhero Comics: Artifacts of the U.S. Experience Dr
    Superhero Comics: Artifacts of the U.S. Experience Dr. Julian C. Chambliss Sequential SmArt: A Conference on Teaching with Comics, May 19, 2012 Julian Chambliss is Associate Professor of History at Rollins College. n the last two decades, comic books and comic book heroes have experienced increased scholarly I interest. This attention has approached comic books and characters as myth, sought context of the superhero archetype, and used comic books as cultural markers for postwar America. What all of these efforts share is an acknowledgement that comic books and superheroes offer a distinct means to understand U. S. culture.1 The place of comic books in contemporary discussion of the American experience has been seen as space linked to popular culture. The comic book genre, especially its most popular aspect, the superhero, uses visual cues to reduce individual characters into representations of cultural ideas. This process has allowed characters to become powerful representations of nationalism (Superman), or the search for societal stability (Batman), or struggles over femininity (Wonder Woman). Scholars have established the importance of heroic characterization as a means to inform societal members about collective expectations and behavioral ideas.2 In many ways, the use of comics in the classroom has become standardized over the last few years as teachers have discovered the medium’s ability to engage students. Indeed, academic conferences like this one have grown in number as scholars have rediscovered what we all know: kids who read comics tend to go on and read other material.3 Perhaps the most visible and lauded use of comics is in the History classroom, following the pattern established with the successful integration of comics focused on war and politics, found notably in Maus by Art Spiegelman and, more recently, in Alan’s War: The Memories of G.I.
    [Show full text]
  • DOUBLE:BILL Symposium
    BRIAN W. ALDISS ALLEN KIM LANG POUL ANDERSON KEITH LAUMER PIERS ANTHONY FRITZ LEIBER ISAAC ASIMOV ROBERT A. W. LOWNDES CHARLES BEAUMONT RICHARD LUPOFF GREG BENFORD KATHERINE MacLEAN ALFRED BESTER anne McCaffrey JAMES BLISH J. FRANCIS McCOMAS ROBERT BLOCH DEAN MCLAUGHLIN ANTHONY BOUCHER P. SCHUYLER MILLER LEIGH BRACKETT MICHAEL MOORCOCK RAY BRADBURY LARRY NIVEN MARION ZIMMER BRADLEY ANDRE NORTON REGINALD BRETNOR ALAN E. NOURSE JOHN BRUNNER ANDREW J. OFFUTT KENNETH BULMER ALEXEI PANSHIN ---------------------------------------------- JOHN W. CAMPBELL EMIL PETAJA s JOHN CARNELL H. BEAM PIPER ’ TERRY CARR FREDERIK POHL SYMPOSIUM JOHN CHRISTOPHER ARTHUR PORGES 3r ARTHUR C. CLARKE DANNIE PLACHTA tr HAL CLEMENT MACK REYNOLDS I MARK CLIFTON JOANNA RUSS GROFF CONKLIN ERIC FRANK RUSSELL BASIL DAVENPORT FRED SABERHAGEN AVRAM DAVIDSON JAMES H. SCHMITZ B io HANK DAVIS T. L. SHERRED CHARLES DE VET ROBERT SILVERBERG LESTER DEL REY CLIFFORD D. SIMAK AUGUST DERLETH E. E. 'DOC SMITH PHILIP K. DICK GEORGE 0. SMITH GORDON R. DICKSON JERRY SOHL jllopii HARLAN ELLISON NORMAN SPINRAD PHILIP JOSE FARMER THEODORE STURGEON DANIEL F. GALOUYE JEFF SUTTON DAVID GERROLD WILLIAM F. TEMPLE H. L. GOLD THEODORE L. THOMAS MARTIN GREENBERG WILSON TUCKER JAMES E. GUNN PIERRE VERSINS EDMOND HAMILTON KURT VONNEGUT, JR. double-.bill HARRY HARRISON TED WHITE ZENNA HENDERSON KATE WILHELM JOE HENSLEY ROBERT MOORE WILLIAMS JOHN JAKES JACK WILLIAMSON LEO P. KELLEY RICHARD WILSON DAMON KNIGHT ROBERT F. YOUNG DEAN R. KOONTZ ROGER ZELAZNY $3. the DOUBLE BILL Symposium ...being 94 replies to 'A Questionnaire for Professional Science Fiction Writers and Editors' as Created by: LLOYD BIGGLE, JR. Edited, and Published by: BILL MALLARDI & BILL BOWERS Bill BowersaBill Mallardi press 1969 Portions of this volume appeared in the amateur magazine Double:Bill.
    [Show full text]
  • Flash Gordon. De Los Seriales De Los Años 30 a Las Actuales Sagas De
    FL ASH GORDON: DE LOS SERIALES DE LOS AÑOS 30 A LAS ACTUALES SAGAS DE CIENCIA FICCIÓN Tomás Martín Hernández R esumen El actual auge de la relación entre cómic y cine es resultado de un proceso histórico que se inicia con personajes como Flash Gordon. Para recordarlo, comenzaremos refiriéndonos a los años 30 del siglo xx, década en la que Flash Gordon ve la luz; y dentro de este periodo, en los mundos de la literatura, el cine y el cómic de ciencia ficción. Esbozaremos aquí el perfil de uno de los más influyentes héroes de papel de todos los tiempos.A continuación pasaremos a recordar su posterior traslado a los medios audiovisuales y a otros soportes. Todo ello dentro del proceso que se origina en los seriales y culmina en las actuales sagas cinematográficas. Finalmente, analizaremos su legado e influencia definitiva, sobre todo, en algunos de los universos creados por la ciencia ficción. Palabras clave: Flash Gordon, ciencia ficción, space opera, superhéroe, serial, saga. Abstract «Flash Gordon: From Serial Films Of The Thirties To Nowadays Sci-Fi Cycles». The current surge of the relationship between cómics and movies is a result of a historical process that begins with characters such as Flash Gordon. We will start referring to the 1930s, a decade 65 in which Flash Gordon appears; and within this period in the worlds of literature, movies and science fiction cómics. Here we will outline the profile of one of the most influential paper heroes of all times. Then we will remember its later transfer to the audivisual means and the other supports.
    [Show full text]
  • Superhero Fiction
    Department of English Language and Literature Carleton University ENGL 4115B Culture and the Text I ENGL 5610S Studies in Contemporary Literature I Early Summer Time: May-June M/W 11:35-2:25 Location: 234 Paterson Hall Instructor: Prof. B. Johnson Office: 1818 Dunton Tower Office Hours: M/W 2:35-3:25 Contact: [email protected] Superhero Fiction Although costumed superheroes have been fixtures of comic books since the debut of Superman in 1938, the awarding of the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 2001 to Michael Chabon’s Superman-themed The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay seemed to register a shift in the superhero’s cultural status and domain. The main goals of this seminar will be to explore the history, contours, and concerns of superhero fiction. What are its principle generic features? When, how, and why did it emerge? What cultural work does it do? What is its relation to superhero comics? And why is it (suddenly?) so ubiquitous? With an eye to such questions, this seminar will proceed along two different but intersecting lines of inquiry. One line of inquiry will be to trace the emergence and transformation of the superhero in comic books, from the early years to the present day. The second will be to examine the examine points of connection and disjunction between the history of the superhero in comics and the appearance of superhero-like figures in other genres and media, particularly pulp fiction, science fiction, the novel, and the short story. TEXTS (tentative): Emmuska Orczy, The Scarlet Pimpernel (Modern Library) Philip Wylie, Gladiator (Wildside) Theodore Sturgeon, More Than Human (Vintage) Robert Mayer, Superfolks (St.
    [Show full text]
  • Science and 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 Rüdiger 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.
    [Show full text]
  • Suggestions for Further Reading
    Suggestions for Further Reading to accompany Michael C. C. Adams The Best War Ever Second Edition THIS ESSAY is not intended as an exhaustive discussion of every noteworthy work on World War II. Instead, it seeks to provide the reader with a guide to some of the sources I found most useful in writing the text and to give students and general readers a list of volumes for further study that are well written, informative, and provocative. At times, there are too few authorities on a subject to allow for this kind of selectivity. one No Easy Answers A good survey of the interaction of global events between the wars is Daniel R. Brower, The World in the Twentieth Century: The Age of Global War and Revolution (1988). Also valuable are Raymond J. Sontag, A Broken World, 1919–1939 (1971), and William W. MacDonald and John M. Carroll, eds., European Traditions in the Twentieth Century (1979). The importance of the right to bear arms in a civic context is explained by John Keegan in the opening sections of The Second World War (1990). I examine nineteenth-century Western male involvement with war in Michael C. C. Adams, The Great Adventure: Male Desire and the Coming of World War One (1990). The idea that monolithic dictatorships were in a worldwide conspiracy was stated clearly in a series of films called Why We Fight, made for the U.S. War Department by Frank Capra. The first episode, Prelude to War (1943), makes graphic use of the Tanaka memorandum. It is available in video format.
    [Show full text]