Postmodernism and Science Fiction: a Confluence
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Load more
Recommended publications
-
I V Anthropomorphic Attachments in U.S. Literature, Robotics, And
Anthropomorphic Attachments in U.S. Literature, Robotics, and Artificial Intelligence by Jennifer S. Rhee Program in Literature Duke University Date:_______________________ Approved: ___________________________ Kenneth Surin, Supervisor ___________________________ Mark Hansen ___________________________ Michael Hardt ___________________________ Katherine Hayles ___________________________ Timothy Lenoir Dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Literature in the Graduate School of Duke University 2010 i v ABSTRACT Anthropomorphic Attachments in U.S. Literature, Robotics, and Artificial Intelligence by Jennifer S. Rhee Program in Literature Duke University Date:_______________________ Approved: ___________________________ Kenneth Surin, Supervisor ___________________________ Mark Hansen ___________________________ Michael Hardt ___________________________ Katherine Hayles ___________________________ Timothy Lenoir An abstract of a dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Literature in the Graduate School of Duke University 2010 Copyright by Jennifer S. Rhee 2010 Abstract “Anthropomorphic Attachments” undertakes an examination of the human as a highly nebulous, fluid, multiple, and often contradictory concept, one that cannot be approached directly or in isolation, but only in its constitutive relationality with the world. Rather than trying to find a way outside of the dualism between human and not- human, -
The Mutual Influence of Science Fiction and Innovation
Nesta Working Paper No. 13/07 Better Made Up: The Mutual Influence of Science fiction and Innovation Caroline Bassett Ed Steinmueller George Voss Better Made Up: The Mutual Influence of Science fiction and Innovation Caroline Bassett Ed Steinmueller George Voss Reader in Digital Media, Professor of Information and Research Fellow, Faculty of Arts, Research Centre for Material Technology, SPRU, University University of Brighton, Visiting Digital Culture, School of of Communication Sussex Fellow at SPRU, University of Media, Film and Music, Sussex University of Sussex Nesta Working Paper 13/07 March 2013 www.nesta.org.uk/wp13-07 Abstract This report examines the relationship between SF and innovation, defined as one of mutual engagement and even co-constitution. It develops a framework for tracing the relationships between real world science and technology and innovation and science fiction/speculative fiction involving processes of transformation, central to which are questions of influence, persuasion, and desire. This is contrasted with the more commonplace assumption of direct linear transmission, SF providing the inventive seed for innovation– instances of which are the exception rather than the rule. The model of influence is developed through an investigation of the nature and evolution of genre, the various effects/appeals of different forms of expression, and the ways in which SF may be appropriated by its various audiences. This is undertaken (i) via an inter- disciplinary survey of work on SF, and a consideration the historical construction of genre and its on-going importance, (ii) through the development of a prototype database exploring transformational paths, and via more elaborated loops extracted from the database, and (iii) via experiments with the development of a web crawl tool, to understand at a different scale, using tools of digital humanities, how fictional ideas travel. -
Book Review: Imaginary Numbers: an Anthology of Marvelous
rev-kasman.qxp 6/13/00 4:16 PM Page 775 Book Review Imaginary Numbers: An Anthology of Marvelous Mathematical Stories, Diversions, Poems, and Musings Reviewed by Alex Kasman Imaginary Numbers: An Anthology of examples of “mathe- Marvelous Mathematical Stories, Diversions, matical fiction”. Since Poems, and Musings the review appeared I William Frucht, editor have received several John Wiley & Sons new suggestions each ISBN 0-471-33244-5 week, and the list 1999, $27.95 cloth (http://math. cofc. edu/faculty/kasman/ In 1958 a collection of short stories and book MATHFICT/) has grown excerpts was published under the name Fantasia larger in a few months Mathematica. What tied these previously published than I ever thought it works of fiction together was that they all had would become. Many of something to do with mathematics. The editor of the works on this list, that book, Clifton Fadiman, later remarked, “I had like the movie Pi, were been storing away these wisps of mathematical so successful that it is thistledown in the untidy nest of my files, with hard to imagine that hardly any expectation that others might take plea- anyone with an interest in mathematics would not have noticed them. Oth- sure in them. But, to my surprise, and I believe also ers are so rare, like the books The Sinister Researches to the publisher’s, the little book assembled entirely of C. P. Ransom and The Curve of the Snowflake, that as a labor of love attracted not a vast audience, of it is difficult now to find any trace of them. -
Science-Fiction Srudies
INFORMATION TO USERS This manuscript has been repmôuced from the micrdilm master. UMI films the text difecüy from the original or copy submitted. mus, some thesis and dissertation copies are in typewnter face, while ofhen may be from any type of cornputer printer. The quality of this repfoâuction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistind print, cdored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleedttrrough, substandard margins, and imwr alignment can adversely aff&zt reprodudion. In the unlikely event tnat the author did not send UMI a cornplete manuscript and there are missing pages, these wïll be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Oversize materials (e-g., maps, drawings, charb) are reproduced by sectiming the original, beginning at the upper bft-hand corner and cantinuing from left to right in eqwl seaiocis with small overlaps. Photographs included in the original manuscript have been reproduoed xerographicaliy in mis copy. Higher quality 6" x 9" bbck and mite photographic prints are available for any photographs or illustrations appearing in this copy for an additional charge. Contact UMI direcüy to order. Be11 8 Howell Information and Leaming 300 North Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, MI 481064346 USA 800-521-0800 NOTE TO USERS The original manuscript received by UMI contains pages with indistinct andlor slanted print. Pages were microfilmed as received. # This reproduction is the best copy available The Cyborg. Cyberspace. and Nonh herican Science Fiction Salvatore Proietti Department of English iht~GiI1University. Monneal July 1998 A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements of the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Q Salvatore Proietti, 1998 National Library Bibliothèque nationale 1*1 of Canada du Canada Acquisitions and Acquisitions et Bibliographie Services services bibliographiques 395 Wellington Street 395. -
Notes for Postsingular, 5/25/2007
Rudy Rucker, Notes for Postsingular, 5/25/2007 Postsingular Writing Notes (My 17th Novel) July, 2005 - April, 2007 by Rudy Rucker Copyright © Rudy Rucker, 2007. Last update: May 25, 2007 Number of words: 143,311 (The novel itself is 89,500 words.) Log Here‘s a list of my literary activities while composing Postsingular. I‘ve indented and [bracketed] the things that don‘t have a direct connection with composing Postsingular. Notes document created July 16, 2005. Review: ―Stross‘s Accelerando,‖ Aug 1 - Sept 5, 2005. NYRSF. Part 1a: Story ―Chu and the Nants,‖ Sept 12 - 19, 2005. Asimov‟s (6/2006). Part 1b: Story ―Postsingular,‖ Sept 29 - Nov 15, 2005. Asimov‟s (9/2006). [Found story: ―Cobb Wakes Up,‖ Nov 26, 2005. Other (1/06)] [Story: ―Panpsychism Proved,‖ Nov 30 - Dec 5, 2005. Nature (1/06).] Essay, ―Panpsychism,‖ Dec 6 - 13, 2005. Edge Annual Question.(1/06). Story plans: ―Bixie and Chu‖ and ―The Big Pig Posse,‖ Dec 7 - 31, 2005. Decide to write Postsingular novel, Jan 2, 2006. Postsingular Proposal 1, Jan 17, 2006. Decide (temporarily) not to have ―Chu‖ and ―Postsingular‖ in novel, Feb 10, 2006. [Plan story anthology Mad Professor, Feb 11, 2006.] Postsingular Proposal 2 gets deal with Tor, Feb 22, 2006. Part 2: ―The Big Pig Posse‖, Dec 20, 2005 - March 9, 2006. [Story: ―Elves of the Subdimension‖ with Paul DiFilippo, Flurb, Aug 2006.] Decide to use ―Chu‖ and ―Postsingular‖ as Chapter 1. April 3, 2006. [Deal for Mad Professor anthology with Thunder‘s Mouth, April 24, 2006.] [Story: ―2+2=5‖ with Terry Bisson, April 25, 2006. -
Download Spaceland: a Novel of the Fourth Dimension, Rudy
Spaceland: A Novel of the Fourth Dimension, Rudy Rucker, Macmillan, 2003, 0765303671, 9780765303677, 304 pages. Joe Cube is a Silicon Valley hotshot--well, a would-be hotshot anyway--hoping that the 3-D TV project he's managing will lead to the big money IPO he's always dreamed of. On New Year's Eve, hoping to impress his wife, he sneaks home the prototype. It brings no new warmth to their cooling relationship, but it does attract someone else's attention.When Joe sees a set of lips talking to him (floating in midair) and feels the poke of a disembodied finger (inside him), it's not because of the champagne he's drunk. He has just met Momo, a woman from the All, a world of four spatial dimensions for whom our narrow world, which she calls Spaceland, is something like a rug, but one filled with motion and life. Momo has a business proposition for Joe, an offer she won't let him refuse. The upside potential becomes much clearer to him once she helps him grow a new eye (on a stalk) that can see in the fourth-dimensional directions, and he agrees. After that it's a wild ride through a million-dollar night in Las Vegas, a budding addiction to tasty purple 4-D food, a failing marriage, eye-popping excursions into the All, and encounters with Momo's foes, rubbery red critters who steal money, offer sage advice and sometimes messily explode. Joe is having the time of his life, until Momo's scheme turns out to have angles he couldn't have imagined. -
The Future of Cyberpunk Criticism: Introduction to Transpacific Cyberpunk
arts Editorial The Future of Cyberpunk Criticism: Introduction to Transpacific Cyberpunk Takayuki Tatsumi Department of English, Keio University, Tokyo 108-8345, Japan; [email protected] Received: 19 March 2019; Accepted: 21 March 2019; Published: 25 March 2019 The genesis of cyberpunk criticism could well be dated to March 1987, when Stephen P. Brown inaugurated the first cyberpunk journal Science Fiction Eye together with his friend Daniel J. Steffan, with Paul DiFilippo, Elizabeth Hand, and myself as contributing editors. Of course, it is the impact of William Gibson’s multiple-award-winning Neuromancer in 1984, featuring the anti-hero Case’s adventures in what Gibson himself called “cyberspace,” that aroused popular interest in the new style of speculative fiction. This surge of interest led Gibson’s friend, writer Bruce Sterling, the editor of the legendary critical fanzine Cheap Truth, to serve as unofficial chairman of the brand-new movement. Thus, on 31 August 1985, the first cyberpunk panel took place at NASFiC (The North American Science Fiction Convention) in Austin, Texas, featuring writers in Sterling’s circle: John Shirley, Lewis Shiner, Pat Cadigan, Greg Bear, and Rudy Rucker. As I was studying American literature at the graduate school of Cornell University during the mid-1980s, I was fortunate enough to witness this historical moment. After the panel, Sterling said, “Our time has come!” Thus, from the spring of 1986, I decided to conduct a series of interviews with cyberpunk writers, part of which are now easily available in Patrick A. Smith’s edited Conversations with William Gibson (University Press of Mississippi 2014). -
Spaceland Notes
Rudy Rucker, Notes for Spaceland Spaceland Notes Notes written by Rudy Rucker for Spaceland (Tor Books, 2002). Copyright Rudy Rucker © 2002. I started writing Spaceland on August 24, 2000. These Spaceland Notes were last revised on July 16, 2001, when the final edit of Spaceland was mailed in. Document was put into PDF format on November 22, 2005. The Spaceland Notes are 37,000 words long. Writing Journal ....................................................................................................... 4 January 7, 2000. Preliminary Plans for my Next Novel. .................................... 4 June 22, 2000. Brussels, Hypercube on TV........................................................ 5 June 28, 2000. Joe’s view of Spazz. Joe’s Redemption. ................................... 5 June 30, 2000. Joe’s Astral Body. ..................................................................... 5 July 5, 2000. The cliff at the end of Sheepshead peninsula............................... 6 July 8, 2000. The two plots................................................................................. 7 July 18, 2000. T-shirts. ...................................................................................... 7 August 8, 2000. Hypervision. ............................................................................ 7 August 25, 2000. Started Writing. ..................................................................... 7 September 12, 2000. Underway. Calvino quotes.............................................. 7 September 15, 2000. Four Chapters, -
Heuristic Futures: Reading the Digital Humanities Through Science Fiction
Heuristic Futures: Reading the Digital Humanities through Science Fiction A dissertation submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Cincinnati in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of English and Comparative Literature of the College of Arts and Sciences by Joseph William Dargue 2015 B.A. (Hons.), Lancaster University, 2006 M.A., Royal Holloway, University of London, 2008 Committee Chair: Laura Micciche, Ph.D. Abstract This dissertation attempts to highlight the cultural relationship between the digital humanities and science fiction as fields of inquiry both engaged in the development of humanistic perspectives in increasingly global digital contexts. Through analysis of four American science fiction novels, the work is concerned with locating the genre’s pedagogical value as a media form that helps us adapt to the digital present and orient us toward a digital future. Each novel presents a different facet of digital humanities practices and/or discourses that, I argue, effectively re-evaluate the humanities (particularly traditional literary studies and pedagogy) as a set of hybrid disciplines that leverage digital technologies and the sciences. In Pat Cadigan’s Synners (1993), I explore issues of production, consumption, and collaboration, as well as the nature of embodied subjectivity, in a reality codified by the virtual. The chapters on Richard Powers’ Galatea 2.2 (1995) and Vernor Vinge’s Rainbows End (2006) are concerned with the passing of traditional humanities practices and the evolution of the institutions they are predicated on (such as the library and the composition classroom) in the wake of the digital turn. -
Eighties Cyberpunk
Eighties Cyberpunk Barbara Lisele Zavala In the early 1980's, cyberpunk was used as a label to describe a new form of science fiction written by a group of five writers, which challenged the traditional genres associated with science fiction (Shiner, 7). SF used highly imaginative ideas to project scientific phenomenas, resulting in dreamy, stylized stories of space colonies and flying space crafts. This new science fiction was different, because it incorporated present global, social and technological situations to help induce the future of the world. It generated new outcomes for the future's high technological, society and global environment that would help categorize it into a specific form of writing known as cyberpunk. William Gibson, one of the five writers associated with the cyberpunk genre, is credited by critics and peers for typifying the cyberpunk writing form in his popular novel Neuromancer. Bruce Sterling, Rudy Rucker, John Shirley and Lewis Shiner, the other four writers who helped launch the movement, agree that Gibson's Neuromancer influenced the categorization of the new science fiction as cyberpunk. Therefore, Gibson's novel can be used as a reliable source for defining the cyberpunk genre. With this in mind, we can analyze the high-technology used in Neuromancer and its importance to the cyberpunk form of writing. Gibson creates an advanced technological machine called Flatline's construct, which is a "hardwired ROM cassette replicating a dead man's skills, obsessions, knee jerk responses" (Gibson, 20). This futuristic device that brings back human personalities from the dead, can be viewed as a result of the present fascination with bringing dead people back to life. -
Science Fiction: the Evolutionary Mythology of the Future Tom Lombardo, Ph.D
Science Fiction: The Evolutionary Mythology of the Future Tom Lombardo, Ph.D. Center for Future Consciousness Abstract Science fiction generates holistic future consciousness. As futurist narrative, it resonates with the natural psychological disposition of giving meaning to life through stories. Science fiction encompasses the future of everything, and stimulates cosmic consciousness. Science fiction can be traced to multiple origins, one of which is ancient myth, with which, though grounded in the scientific vision of reality, it shares many features. Science fiction is mythic holistic future consciousness. Science fiction is evolutionary in that continually builds upon past ideas. The scientific theory of cosmic evolution provides the fundamental narrative framework for modern science fiction. As the evolutionary mythology of the future, science fiction facilitates the purposeful evolution of holistic future consciousness. Science Fiction as a Way of Life As a young boy growing up in the 1950s, I was drawn into the wondrous, strange, and at times frightening world of the future through the movies. At my neighborhood theatre, I watched—totally mesmerized—the classic science fiction movies, The War of the Worlds, When Worlds Collide, The Time Machine, and the best of the best, Forbidden Planet. I specifically remember, after watching The War of the Worlds, that the movie tremendously excited me; my total conscious being came alive in the cinematic experience. I was inspired to write a short story of aliens invading the Earth; I created illustrations for the story and designed costumes as well. I recruited some of my friends to play the different roles in the story. We were going to “live the future,” a future of space ships, aliens, and great battles to defend the earth. -
Nice Distinctions 9
In the department of literalized metaphors, a Nice Distinctions Nine “media whore” turned out to be a whore. Jeff Arthur D. Hlavaty, 206 Valentine Street, Yonkers, NY Gannon/James Guckert’s oral skills include 10704-1814. 914-965-4861. [email protected] the presentation of set-up lines taken from <http://www.livejournal.com/users/supergee/>. right-wing propaganda. Published four times (or so) per year. The print version is available for $1 ($2 outside the USA), arranged trade, or M. Scott Peck, who used to offer inspiring letter of comment (e-mail counts). If there is an X after advice on what to do when life gives it to you your name on the envelope, send at least one of the up the road less traveled, has now decided it’s above if you wish to receive the next issue. The e-mail Satan’s fault and is doing exorcisms. Lest you version is available on request. Copyright © 2005 by think he has gone mad, a prime example of Arthur D. Hlavaty. Staff: Bernadette Bosky, Kevin J. Maroney, Peter Celeron, and the Valentine’s Castle Rat such influence is the Supreme Court decision Pack. Permission to reprint in any nonprofit publication is in Gore v. Bush. hereby granted, on condition that I am credited and sent a copy. This is Discordian Regimentation #109, a Church A conference on preventing suicide among of the SuperGenius publication. In Wile E. we trust. gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and transsexuals was not allowed to mention the groups it was Hello again. Another three months, another talking about.