{"title":"Getting all of it","authors":"I. Lavender","doi":"10.3828/sfftv.2022.16","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3828/sfftv.2022.16","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":276686,"journal":{"name":"Science Fiction Film & Television","volume":"38 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116664253","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Drawing on David Mitchell and Sharon Snyder’s concept of narrative prosthesis and Kathryn Allan’s Disability in Science Fiction, this article examines the role of the prosthesis in Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), arguing that the cyborg limbs of prosthecized superheroes enable narratives of identity, rebirth, degeneration, and transcendence, serving as overdetermined - yet open - signifiers while also remaining stubbornly material in their techno-capitalist cycle of production, obsolescence, destruction, and endless upgrading. Specifically, the paper interprets the MCU’s use of the superheroic prosthesis as an attempt to reach closure regarding the threat to the ideology of ability posed by the figure of the disabled superhero, an attempt that inevitably ends in failure that results in the graphic destruction and eventual replacement of the prosthesis. Analysis of the prosthesis in the MCU reveals a seemingly inevitable cycle in which the superheroic prosthesis acts as a lightning rod for this failure of resolution, with its destruction serving as both the titillation and vicarious horror that often accompanies depictions of disablement as well as a plot device through which narrative tension is generated as the disabled character must be re-prosthecized to begin the cycle anew.
{"title":"The pretense of prosthesis","authors":"Liam Drislane","doi":"10.3828/sfftv.2022.14","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3828/sfftv.2022.14","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000Drawing on David Mitchell and Sharon Snyder’s concept of narrative prosthesis and Kathryn Allan’s Disability in Science Fiction, this article examines the role of the prosthesis in Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), arguing that the cyborg limbs of prosthecized superheroes enable narratives of identity, rebirth, degeneration, and transcendence, serving as overdetermined - yet open - signifiers while also remaining stubbornly material in their techno-capitalist cycle of production, obsolescence, destruction, and endless upgrading. Specifically, the paper interprets the MCU’s use of the superheroic prosthesis as an attempt to reach closure regarding the threat to the ideology of ability posed by the figure of the disabled superhero, an attempt that inevitably ends in failure that results in the graphic destruction and eventual replacement of the prosthesis. Analysis of the prosthesis in the MCU reveals a seemingly inevitable cycle in which the superheroic prosthesis acts as a lightning rod for this failure of resolution, with its destruction serving as both the titillation and vicarious horror that often accompanies depictions of disablement as well as a plot device through which narrative tension is generated as the disabled character must be re-prosthecized to begin the cycle anew.","PeriodicalId":276686,"journal":{"name":"Science Fiction Film & Television","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129242997","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This article proposes the notion of “new media quixotism” and illustrates it with Black Mirror’s episode “USS Callister,” which is interpreted as a metamedial rewriting of the literary myth of Don Quixote. Specifically, I examine how the myth’s core semantic components are rewritten within the context of an sf narrative that is thematically concerned with the effects of the capitalist system of 24/7 audio-visual consumption. My argument is that Black Mirror, together with other recent sf narratives, seems to suggest that so-called “new media” technologies can generate a form of technologically enabled quixotism in human individuals, developing character traits profoundly akin to Don Quixote’s. Thus, as illustration, I focus on how “USS Callister” updates the myth for a satire of the male gamer/geek/nerd stereotype, who is reimagined as a quixotic embodiment of neoliberal, patriarchal individualism in the digital realm. Nonetheless, my underlying assumption is that the sf notion of “new media quixotism” merits further development and study and that, despite its satirical bleakness and its seeming techno-determinism, it also opens subversive, transformative hopes. Overall, the underlying ambivalence of the critical dystopia productively parallels the ambivalence of Don Quixote, who is both an object of satire and a subject of utopianism.
{"title":"Don Quixote as gamer?","authors":"Miguel Sebastián-Martín","doi":"10.3828/sfftv.2022.15","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3828/sfftv.2022.15","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000This article proposes the notion of “new media quixotism” and illustrates it with Black Mirror’s episode “USS Callister,” which is interpreted as a metamedial rewriting of the literary myth of Don Quixote. Specifically, I examine how the myth’s core semantic components are rewritten within the context of an sf narrative that is thematically concerned with the effects of the capitalist system of 24/7 audio-visual consumption. My argument is that Black Mirror, together with other recent sf narratives, seems to suggest that so-called “new media” technologies can generate a form of technologically enabled quixotism in human individuals, developing character traits profoundly akin to Don Quixote’s. Thus, as illustration, I focus on how “USS Callister” updates the myth for a satire of the male gamer/geek/nerd stereotype, who is reimagined as a quixotic embodiment of neoliberal, patriarchal individualism in the digital realm. Nonetheless, my underlying assumption is that the sf notion of “new media quixotism” merits further development and study and that, despite its satirical bleakness and its seeming techno-determinism, it also opens subversive, transformative hopes. Overall, the underlying ambivalence of the critical dystopia productively parallels the ambivalence of Don Quixote, who is both an object of satire and a subject of utopianism.","PeriodicalId":276686,"journal":{"name":"Science Fiction Film & Television","volume":"4 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126583144","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This paper examines the links and influences between the videogames of Eugene Jarvis and sf. Using Edwards’ “closed world” theoretical framework, this paper establishes the link between the cinematic and textual sf of the 1980s which queried and critiqued the position of the human in relation to new cybernetic technologies and Eugene Jarvis’s videogames, many of which are viewed as some of the most influential in the history of the medium. It is found that themes common to 1980s sf of improbable odds, hostile environments, and media and consumer saturation also run through Jarvis’s titles. The net result is the “gunning man,” a character borne of Cold War, closed-world discourses who fights to defend the vestiges of humanity in a world of out-of-control technology.
{"title":"The gunning man","authors":"Alex Wade","doi":"10.3828/sfftv.2022.5","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3828/sfftv.2022.5","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000This paper examines the links and influences between the videogames of Eugene Jarvis and sf. Using Edwards’ “closed world” theoretical framework, this paper establishes the link between the cinematic and textual sf of the 1980s which queried and critiqued the position of the human in relation to new cybernetic technologies and Eugene Jarvis’s videogames, many of which are viewed as some of the most influential in the history of the medium. It is found that themes common to 1980s sf of improbable odds, hostile environments, and media and consumer saturation also run through Jarvis’s titles. The net result is the “gunning man,” a character borne of Cold War, closed-world discourses who fights to defend the vestiges of humanity in a world of out-of-control technology.","PeriodicalId":276686,"journal":{"name":"Science Fiction Film & Television","volume":"441 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115613961","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Timo Vuorensola’s Finnish-German sf satire Iron Sky (2012) tells the story of a Nazi invasion from the Moon. At the time, a Nazi return seemed to be far-fetched, even ridiculous. The pointed critique of a Sarah Palin-like president who wins a second term using fascist propaganda techniques was overshadowed by the film’s space opera setting. Although certainly not unique in its critique of the US, this Naziploitation parody was eerily prescient with regards to what Umberto Eco has termed an eternal fascism that will return again and again. Thus, the film invites further questions regarding what is a shift away from the one-sided representation of Nazis in popular sf film. Through a discussion of German scholar Katrin Sieg’s term “ethnic drag,” this article analyzes the intersections of the representation of race and fascism in the film. It posits the term “fascist drag” to refer to Nazi representation as well as a linguistic break in which discussions of fascism in the West became taboo during the Cold War. These movements have until recently remained buried in postwar memory and rehearsed in the popular imagination.
{"title":"Fascist drag","authors":"Sonja Fritzsche","doi":"10.3828/sfftv.2022.3","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3828/sfftv.2022.3","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000Timo Vuorensola’s Finnish-German sf satire Iron Sky (2012) tells the story of a Nazi invasion from the Moon. At the time, a Nazi return seemed to be far-fetched, even ridiculous. The pointed critique of a Sarah Palin-like president who wins a second term using fascist propaganda techniques was overshadowed by the film’s space opera setting. Although certainly not unique in its critique of the US, this Naziploitation parody was eerily prescient with regards to what Umberto Eco has termed an eternal fascism that will return again and again. Thus, the film invites further questions regarding what is a shift away from the one-sided representation of Nazis in popular sf film. Through a discussion of German scholar Katrin Sieg’s term “ethnic drag,” this article analyzes the intersections of the representation of race and fascism in the film. It posits the term “fascist drag” to refer to Nazi representation as well as a linguistic break in which discussions of fascism in the West became taboo during the Cold War. These movements have until recently remained buried in postwar memory and rehearsed in the popular imagination.","PeriodicalId":276686,"journal":{"name":"Science Fiction Film & Television","volume":"101 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122543798","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Familiarizing the future","authors":"Anastasia Klimchynskaya","doi":"10.3828/sfftv.2022.6","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3828/sfftv.2022.6","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":276686,"journal":{"name":"Science Fiction Film & Television","volume":"202 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115731868","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This article traces the manifestation of the antihuman attitude in twenty-first century sf cinema, particularly in the cyborg film. The antihuman attitude is most clearly recognizable in apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic cinema, where it provides spectacular images of humanity’s destruction. However, it also finds a much subtler visualization in films featuring technologically augmented characters. While presenting narratives which ultimately reinstate a privileged Enlightenment humanism, the visual economy of these films continues to represent its protagonists as dehumanized commodities. Engaging with Fredric Jameson’s political unconscious and film genre theory, the article explores how the antihuman attitude manifests in 2014’s RoboCop through visuals which undermine the autonomy of its human protagonist and contradict the film’s humanist narrative.
{"title":"A man inside a machine","authors":"C. Parr","doi":"10.3828/sfftv.2022.2","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3828/sfftv.2022.2","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000This article traces the manifestation of the antihuman attitude in twenty-first century sf cinema, particularly in the cyborg film. The antihuman attitude is most clearly recognizable in apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic cinema, where it provides spectacular images of humanity’s destruction. However, it also finds a much subtler visualization in films featuring technologically augmented characters. While presenting narratives which ultimately reinstate a privileged Enlightenment humanism, the visual economy of these films continues to represent its protagonists as dehumanized commodities. Engaging with Fredric Jameson’s political unconscious and film genre theory, the article explores how the antihuman attitude manifests in 2014’s RoboCop through visuals which undermine the autonomy of its human protagonist and contradict the film’s humanist narrative.","PeriodicalId":276686,"journal":{"name":"Science Fiction Film & Television","volume":"22 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127533975","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Forbidden Planet (1956) was a technically and stylistically pioneering product of the boom in Hollywood sf filmmaking during the 1950s. The film is notable for its explicit invocation of Freudian psychological concepts, undergoing its own surge of popularity in US culture during this era. Equally it has been remarked upon for its distinctive soundtrack composition, drawing on contemporary sound art. Together with its influence on the later development of the genre, these features have provided fertile ground for a deep critical interpretation and analysis for such a seemingly straightforward picture. I will reference interviews conducted with sound artists Louis and Bebe Barron in popular journals during their lifetime and connect this study of their process and their work with a new textual reading of the film. My intention is to lay out a more complex interrelationship between the film’s audio-visual composition and its plot and character dynamics. Situated within the context of contemporary intellectual developments, this reading then locates Forbidden Planet as a particularly revealing site for the consideration of the ambitions and complexities of the Hollywood sf film at a significant point in the process of its generic codification and definition.
{"title":"Cybernetic soundscapes","authors":"J. Williamson","doi":"10.3828/sfftv.2022.4","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3828/sfftv.2022.4","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000Forbidden Planet (1956) was a technically and stylistically pioneering product of the boom in Hollywood sf filmmaking during the 1950s. The film is notable for its explicit invocation of Freudian psychological concepts, undergoing its own surge of popularity in US culture during this era. Equally it has been remarked upon for its distinctive soundtrack composition, drawing on contemporary sound art. Together with its influence on the later development of the genre, these features have provided fertile ground for a deep critical interpretation and analysis for such a seemingly straightforward picture. I will reference interviews conducted with sound artists Louis and Bebe Barron in popular journals during their lifetime and connect this study of their process and their work with a new textual reading of the film. My intention is to lay out a more complex interrelationship between the film’s audio-visual composition and its plot and character dynamics. Situated within the context of contemporary intellectual developments, this reading then locates Forbidden Planet as a particularly revealing site for the consideration of the ambitions and complexities of the Hollywood sf film at a significant point in the process of its generic codification and definition.","PeriodicalId":276686,"journal":{"name":"Science Fiction Film & Television","volume":"186 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121974529","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"DVD reviews","authors":"Muniyra Douglas, T. Simmons","doi":"10.3828/sfftv.2022.9","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3828/sfftv.2022.9","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":276686,"journal":{"name":"Science Fiction Film & Television","volume":"79 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124456621","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
京公网安备 11010802042870号
京ICP备2023020795号-1
扫码关注我们
求助内容：
应助结果提醒方式：