Pub Date : 2023-06-23DOI: 10.1353/sfs.2023.a900293
G. Wolfe
Critical Theory and Critical Posthumanism in Contemporary German Science Fiction,” Reinhard Jirgl’s Nichts von Euch auf Erden [Nothing from you on earth, 2012] takes a more pessimistic view: the past remains forever present and attached to the idea of the “eternal return of the same.” “Optimizing the Human: A Posthuman Taxonomy in the Works of Theresa Hannig” by Lars Schmeink examines two sf novels by Theresa Hannig that appeared in a popular sf series: Die Optimierer [The Optimizers, 2017] and Die Unvollkommenen [The Imperfect Ones, 2019]. Both discuss the possibilities of enhancing human beings and their interaction with machines, the problem of intelligent robots, and evaluating different positions toward posthumanism and various possibilities of our becoming posthuman. “New Boundaries” collects pieces that do not fall easily into the previous groups: “Marc-Uwe Kling’s QualityLand:: Funny Dystopia as Social and Political Commentary” by Joscha Klüppel, “Beyond the ‘Last Man’ Narrative: Notes on Thomas Glavinic’s Night Work (2008)” by Kristina Mateescu, “A Utopianism That Transcends Books: Dirk C. Fleck’s Ecological Science Fiction” by Peter Seyferth, and a conclusion by Ingo Cornils, “Dark Mirrors? German Science Fiction in the Twenty-First Century.” The essays, all by established or aspiring literary scholars, present sound analyses of the books and stories discussed, but most of them seem not to be familiar with sf in a broader sense, and unaware that the texts discussed are hardly representative of German sf as a whole but rather are forays by literary writers into the sf field; only the two novels by Theresa Hannig have been published as sf. If we believe the overall picture of German sf given in this collection, “German SF in the twenty-first century, as the essays in this volume demonstrate, tends to see the dystopian form as the ideal vehicle to explore the social and psychological consequences of scientific and technological progress” (286-87). Only Cornil’s conclusion suggests the possibility that there might be other forms of sf at all, such as the space operas that dominate much of Anglophone sf, and mentions, more in passing, Andreas Eschbach and Andreas Brandhorst, the two most popular German genre writers, the former noted especially for his many futuristic thrillers, the second for his space operas à la Alastair Reynolds or Peter F. Hamilton. The Perry Rhodan series still continues (now over 3200 booklets; there even is a book length “biography” of Perry Rhodan by Andreas Eschbach). The volume gives the impression that German sf consists only of high-brow literary works that discuss deep philosophical and urgent social issues in a very sophisticated manner, both intellectually and artistically, which, alas, is not characteristic of most of German sf. This volume, which certainly has its merits of scholarly interpretation, is comparable to a book on English language sf which considers only such writers as William Golding, Margaret
{"title":"Disputing the Deluge: Collected 21st Century Writings on Utopia, Narration, and Survival by Darko Suvin (review)","authors":"G. Wolfe","doi":"10.1353/sfs.2023.a900293","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/sfs.2023.a900293","url":null,"abstract":"Critical Theory and Critical Posthumanism in Contemporary German Science Fiction,” Reinhard Jirgl’s Nichts von Euch auf Erden [Nothing from you on earth, 2012] takes a more pessimistic view: the past remains forever present and attached to the idea of the “eternal return of the same.” “Optimizing the Human: A Posthuman Taxonomy in the Works of Theresa Hannig” by Lars Schmeink examines two sf novels by Theresa Hannig that appeared in a popular sf series: Die Optimierer [The Optimizers, 2017] and Die Unvollkommenen [The Imperfect Ones, 2019]. Both discuss the possibilities of enhancing human beings and their interaction with machines, the problem of intelligent robots, and evaluating different positions toward posthumanism and various possibilities of our becoming posthuman. “New Boundaries” collects pieces that do not fall easily into the previous groups: “Marc-Uwe Kling’s QualityLand:: Funny Dystopia as Social and Political Commentary” by Joscha Klüppel, “Beyond the ‘Last Man’ Narrative: Notes on Thomas Glavinic’s Night Work (2008)” by Kristina Mateescu, “A Utopianism That Transcends Books: Dirk C. Fleck’s Ecological Science Fiction” by Peter Seyferth, and a conclusion by Ingo Cornils, “Dark Mirrors? German Science Fiction in the Twenty-First Century.” The essays, all by established or aspiring literary scholars, present sound analyses of the books and stories discussed, but most of them seem not to be familiar with sf in a broader sense, and unaware that the texts discussed are hardly representative of German sf as a whole but rather are forays by literary writers into the sf field; only the two novels by Theresa Hannig have been published as sf. If we believe the overall picture of German sf given in this collection, “German SF in the twenty-first century, as the essays in this volume demonstrate, tends to see the dystopian form as the ideal vehicle to explore the social and psychological consequences of scientific and technological progress” (286-87). Only Cornil’s conclusion suggests the possibility that there might be other forms of sf at all, such as the space operas that dominate much of Anglophone sf, and mentions, more in passing, Andreas Eschbach and Andreas Brandhorst, the two most popular German genre writers, the former noted especially for his many futuristic thrillers, the second for his space operas à la Alastair Reynolds or Peter F. Hamilton. The Perry Rhodan series still continues (now over 3200 booklets; there even is a book length “biography” of Perry Rhodan by Andreas Eschbach). The volume gives the impression that German sf consists only of high-brow literary works that discuss deep philosophical and urgent social issues in a very sophisticated manner, both intellectually and artistically, which, alas, is not characteristic of most of German sf. This volume, which certainly has its merits of scholarly interpretation, is comparable to a book on English language sf which considers only such writers as William Golding, Margaret","PeriodicalId":45553,"journal":{"name":"SCIENCE-FICTION STUDIES","volume":"50 1","pages":"303 - 306"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2023-06-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48816805","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-06-23DOI: 10.1353/sfs.2023.a900278
Chiara Mengozzi, Julien Wacquez
ABSTRACT:Traditionally neglected if not despised by researchers in the humanities and social sciences, science fiction is changing status, being invested with new qualities and functions and, above all, a real epistemic value by leading scholars in the field of environmental humanities. Some of them not only turn to sf as a conceptual resource but go so far as to write counterfactual texts, told in the future or from impossible points of view, deploying sf narrative strategies to breathe new life into their academic writing. This paper considers what qualities these researchers explicitly attribute to sf, focusing on an emblematic case study—an article of speculative anthropology by Anna Tsing—to show how concretely these unconventional writing experiments can weave science and fiction into their textual fabric. Finally, we address the reading effects that these hybrid texts may stimulate by positioning Tsing's article in the field of contemporary sf, through the joint analysis of two fictions by Ted Chiang and Sylvie Lainé, which similarly ask how to account for a form of existence radically different from ours, relying on surprising comparisons between different sciences, living species, and instruments of knowledge. Our research approach contributes to grasping the current reconfiguration of knowledge and writing practices, allows us to formulate some hypotheses about today's use and relevance of sf in the field of environmental humanities, and finally points to new and unexpected areas of application for comparative literature in a time of ecological collapse.
{"title":"On the Uses of Science Fiction in Environmental Humanities and Social Sciences: Meaning and Reading Effects","authors":"Chiara Mengozzi, Julien Wacquez","doi":"10.1353/sfs.2023.a900278","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/sfs.2023.a900278","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT:Traditionally neglected if not despised by researchers in the humanities and social sciences, science fiction is changing status, being invested with new qualities and functions and, above all, a real epistemic value by leading scholars in the field of environmental humanities. Some of them not only turn to sf as a conceptual resource but go so far as to write counterfactual texts, told in the future or from impossible points of view, deploying sf narrative strategies to breathe new life into their academic writing. This paper considers what qualities these researchers explicitly attribute to sf, focusing on an emblematic case study—an article of speculative anthropology by Anna Tsing—to show how concretely these unconventional writing experiments can weave science and fiction into their textual fabric. Finally, we address the reading effects that these hybrid texts may stimulate by positioning Tsing's article in the field of contemporary sf, through the joint analysis of two fictions by Ted Chiang and Sylvie Lainé, which similarly ask how to account for a form of existence radically different from ours, relying on surprising comparisons between different sciences, living species, and instruments of knowledge. Our research approach contributes to grasping the current reconfiguration of knowledge and writing practices, allows us to formulate some hypotheses about today's use and relevance of sf in the field of environmental humanities, and finally points to new and unexpected areas of application for comparative literature in a time of ecological collapse.","PeriodicalId":45553,"journal":{"name":"SCIENCE-FICTION STUDIES","volume":"50 1","pages":"145 - 174"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2023-06-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47902782","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-06-23DOI: 10.1353/sfs.2023.a900287
Ida Yoshinaga
the human’s “adaptation of its body” (269) through a blending with something non-human strikes the reader as egregiously tone deaf. Greenham’s attempt to rewrite the “genotypic horror,” which literary scholar Mitch Frye describes as designed to elicit “genetic fear” (“The Refinement of the ‘Crude Allegory’: Eugenic Themes and Genotypic Horror in the Weird Fiction of H.P. Lovecraft” [Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts 17.3 (2006): 237-54]), falls well short of the intellectual and social expectations of the twenty-first century. For, as Alberto Alcaraz Escarcega of Brown University suggests, “Lovecraft’s race thinking cannot be separated from his body of work” (“The Racial Imaginaries” website). This oversight, along with the book’s escalating emphasis on chaos and psychosis, ultimately mark it as a difficult and unrewarding read. What is, on the surface, a meticulous work of impressive theoretical reimagining disappoints the conscientious reader, as it overlooks Lovecraft’s blatant racism while embodying its own chaotic vision of the universe as a psychotic entity. I am left asking myself, what have I have gained from reimagining Lovecraft’s universe, and those of his successors, as a “writhing, non-linear ocean of chaos” (299) whose very foundation is one of paradox and instability? Has the field of science fiction been enriched by this “philosophical extension” of cosmicism or have I, the reader, been duped? —E Mariah Spencer, Illinois State University
{"title":"Ethical Futures and Global Science Fiction ed. by Zachary Kendal et al. (review)","authors":"Ida Yoshinaga","doi":"10.1353/sfs.2023.a900287","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/sfs.2023.a900287","url":null,"abstract":"the human’s “adaptation of its body” (269) through a blending with something non-human strikes the reader as egregiously tone deaf. Greenham’s attempt to rewrite the “genotypic horror,” which literary scholar Mitch Frye describes as designed to elicit “genetic fear” (“The Refinement of the ‘Crude Allegory’: Eugenic Themes and Genotypic Horror in the Weird Fiction of H.P. Lovecraft” [Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts 17.3 (2006): 237-54]), falls well short of the intellectual and social expectations of the twenty-first century. For, as Alberto Alcaraz Escarcega of Brown University suggests, “Lovecraft’s race thinking cannot be separated from his body of work” (“The Racial Imaginaries” website). This oversight, along with the book’s escalating emphasis on chaos and psychosis, ultimately mark it as a difficult and unrewarding read. What is, on the surface, a meticulous work of impressive theoretical reimagining disappoints the conscientious reader, as it overlooks Lovecraft’s blatant racism while embodying its own chaotic vision of the universe as a psychotic entity. I am left asking myself, what have I have gained from reimagining Lovecraft’s universe, and those of his successors, as a “writhing, non-linear ocean of chaos” (299) whose very foundation is one of paradox and instability? Has the field of science fiction been enriched by this “philosophical extension” of cosmicism or have I, the reader, been duped? —E Mariah Spencer, Illinois State University","PeriodicalId":45553,"journal":{"name":"SCIENCE-FICTION STUDIES","volume":"50 1","pages":"283 - 287"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2023-06-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42361704","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-06-23DOI: 10.1353/sfs.2023.a900282
Anna McFarlane
ABSTRACT:The figure of the child is evocative of the deep time of human-as-species and has been read as a symbol of the future that forecloses political possibilities. Drawing on the work of Lee Edelman and Rebekah Sheldon, this paper argues that in the era of the climate crisis and the Anthropocene, the symbolism of reproductive loss is becoming increasingly significant, redolent as it is of futures cut short and time running out. This paper reads Paul McAuley's Austral, a text centered around the miscarriage of its main character, a woman gene-edited to survive in Antarctic conditions. While the miscarriage represents a story brought to a premature end, it also anchors the novel's narrative, which deals with the terraforming of Antarctica in conditions of global warming and the racialization of new forms of gene-edited life. The article considers the importance of reproductive loss as a metaphor for the climate crisis, while also engaging with the importance of representing and expressing experiences of reproductive loss that are often grieved in private.
{"title":"Reproductive Loss in the Anthropocene: Paul McAuley's Austral","authors":"Anna McFarlane","doi":"10.1353/sfs.2023.a900282","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/sfs.2023.a900282","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT:The figure of the child is evocative of the deep time of human-as-species and has been read as a symbol of the future that forecloses political possibilities. Drawing on the work of Lee Edelman and Rebekah Sheldon, this paper argues that in the era of the climate crisis and the Anthropocene, the symbolism of reproductive loss is becoming increasingly significant, redolent as it is of futures cut short and time running out. This paper reads Paul McAuley's Austral, a text centered around the miscarriage of its main character, a woman gene-edited to survive in Antarctic conditions. While the miscarriage represents a story brought to a premature end, it also anchors the novel's narrative, which deals with the terraforming of Antarctica in conditions of global warming and the racialization of new forms of gene-edited life. The article considers the importance of reproductive loss as a metaphor for the climate crisis, while also engaging with the importance of representing and expressing experiences of reproductive loss that are often grieved in private.","PeriodicalId":45553,"journal":{"name":"SCIENCE-FICTION STUDIES","volume":"50 1","pages":"233 - 250"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2023-06-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48185210","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-06-23DOI: 10.1353/sfs.2023.a900286
E. Spencer
ASF’s perspective. Second, Odumboni’s article is USA-centric. He appears to locate the “European incursion” (59) in Africa in 1619, a date commonly used to designate the possible start of slavery in the USA. Yet the Portuguese had entered the African slave trade over a century earlier. USA-centrism also inflects his argument when he writes that “the geographical rootedness of Black Panther aligns it with Okorafor’s conceptualization of Africanfuturism” (65). While Okorafor emphasizes the importance of Africa as a setting for Africanfuturism, Black Panther is her main example of what is not Africanbut rather Afrofuturism. Of course, one is free to redefine Africanfuturism to include Black Panther. Yet bending Okorafor’s concept without engaging the arguments does a disservice to ASF authors’ attempts to be considered on African terms as peoples with a distinct history, lived experience, and literature and film. Third, Osuji’s attempt to read Achebe’s work as speculative fiction is potentially provocative because some have understood ASF as a challenge to Achebe’s realism, which to their understandable dissatisfaction continues to set the “standard for contemporary African writing” (16). If Achebe’s work were shown to be speculative, it would necessitate a revision of ASF’s status in the African literary canon and of African realism as such. An obvious way of doing so is to see Things Fall Apart as an “‘alien’ invasion” novel, as Rodriques does in her essay (30). Osuji, however, follows the template of MR articles (which Ezeiyoke criticizes), but now understands the supernatural not as magical but as speculative. This makes the two synonymous and raises the question of what we gain by calling works ASF at all. Nevertheless, even these weak points are important because they highlight what questions must be asked, including the question of what we gain by rereading certain works as speculative fiction. It makes ALT 39 a beneficial intervention and informative reading for those who are new to ASF and for those who have been engaged in these debates for longer.—Peter J. Maurits, University of Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany
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Pub Date : 2023-06-23DOI: 10.1353/sfs.2023.a900283
M. Booker, Isra Daraiseh
ABSTRACT:The Ministry for the Future (2020) is Kim Stanley Robinson's latest and most complex in a series of science-fiction novels that engage with the issue of climate change. It adds to Robinson's long engagement with the theoretical work of Fredric Jameson, though its polyphonic nature also rewards reading it through the work of Mikhail Bakhtin. The utopian dimension that is so important in Robinson's work has often led Jameson to see Robinson precisely as an exception to the cultural hegemony of postmodernism. That utopian dimension is also strong in The Ministry for the Future. Many characteristics, however, of this long, complex, highly polyphonic novel make it more appropriate to characterize it as an example of the "political form of postmodernism" that Jameson has suggested might someday come to be, challenging the death grip of the "cultural logic of late capitalism" on contemporary cultural production. While The Ministry for the Future has many of the formal characteristics typically associated with postmodernism, it uses these characteristics not just to outline the problems posed by climate change and economic injustice but also to suggest ways in which ordinary people—working together on a global scale—can confront these problems and make a better world.
{"title":"The Political Form of Postmodernism: Bakhtin, Jameson, and Kim Stanley Robinson's The Ministry for the Future","authors":"M. Booker, Isra Daraiseh","doi":"10.1353/sfs.2023.a900283","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/sfs.2023.a900283","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT:The Ministry for the Future (2020) is Kim Stanley Robinson's latest and most complex in a series of science-fiction novels that engage with the issue of climate change. It adds to Robinson's long engagement with the theoretical work of Fredric Jameson, though its polyphonic nature also rewards reading it through the work of Mikhail Bakhtin. The utopian dimension that is so important in Robinson's work has often led Jameson to see Robinson precisely as an exception to the cultural hegemony of postmodernism. That utopian dimension is also strong in The Ministry for the Future. Many characteristics, however, of this long, complex, highly polyphonic novel make it more appropriate to characterize it as an example of the \"political form of postmodernism\" that Jameson has suggested might someday come to be, challenging the death grip of the \"cultural logic of late capitalism\" on contemporary cultural production. While The Ministry for the Future has many of the formal characteristics typically associated with postmodernism, it uses these characteristics not just to outline the problems posed by climate change and economic injustice but also to suggest ways in which ordinary people—working together on a global scale—can confront these problems and make a better world.","PeriodicalId":45553,"journal":{"name":"SCIENCE-FICTION STUDIES","volume":"50 1","pages":"251 - 270"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2023-06-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46025053","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-06-23DOI: 10.1353/sfs.2023.a900280
Guangzhao Lyu
ABSTRACT:M. John Harrison is often considered one of the most commercially underestimated writers of science fiction and fantasy in the UK since the mid-1960s. This article aims to focus on Harrison's under-recognized contributions to science fiction while focusing on his later work—the Kefahuchi Tract trilogy (2002-2012). Drawing upon Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, I will argue that Harrison's trilogy provides a line of flight escaping the binary dichotomies between self and other, one and multiple, and subject and object, guiding us toward our eventual deterritorialization and liberating us from the competitive nature of capitalist realism. This process is certainly not just a celebration of deterritorialization for its own sake, but rather a refusal to allow the complexity of reality to be reduced to a mere reflection of the economic norms of capitalist realism.
{"title":"Past the Point of No Return: Deterritorialization and Haecceities in M. John Harrison's Kefahuchi Tract Trilogy","authors":"Guangzhao Lyu","doi":"10.1353/sfs.2023.a900280","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/sfs.2023.a900280","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT:M. John Harrison is often considered one of the most commercially underestimated writers of science fiction and fantasy in the UK since the mid-1960s. This article aims to focus on Harrison's under-recognized contributions to science fiction while focusing on his later work—the Kefahuchi Tract trilogy (2002-2012). Drawing upon Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, I will argue that Harrison's trilogy provides a line of flight escaping the binary dichotomies between self and other, one and multiple, and subject and object, guiding us toward our eventual deterritorialization and liberating us from the competitive nature of capitalist realism. This process is certainly not just a celebration of deterritorialization for its own sake, but rather a refusal to allow the complexity of reality to be reduced to a mere reflection of the economic norms of capitalist realism.","PeriodicalId":45553,"journal":{"name":"SCIENCE-FICTION STUDIES","volume":"50 1","pages":"197 - 215"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2023-06-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46262998","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-06-23DOI: 10.1353/sfs.2023.a900290
B. Bellamy
developed perspectives come from the Bene Gesserit, Mentats, Fremen, and Great Houses, and he offers a study of each group in relation to its view of humans. Weyant then concludes that Paul’s character represents the most complex perspective, since he is a synthesis of these four groups and can thus take a broader view of humanity. In “Belief is the Mind-Killer: The Bene Gesserit’s Transcendental Pragmatism,” Kevin Williams argues that the Bene Gesserit attempt to avoid assumptions in language and to see beliefs as maps for action, demonstrating a transcendental pragmatism in their outlook and operations. Williams focuses on examples of Bene Gesserit trying to educate or indoctrinate others across the series, showing that their rigorous approach to thinking means that they have no fixed philosophy and rely on being masterful and adaptable communicators. This essay collection offers a welcome addition to the field of scholarship on the DUNE series as it matures in the twenty-first century. Within the space constraints of an edited collection, it manages to cover a broad range of perspectives and includes analyses of the entire series rather than just the first novel. By relying on close reading approaches and providing explanations of key theoretical approaches, it makes itself accessible to a wide audience, and it can be dipped into and out of depending on a reader’s areas of interest. Released during a time of increasing interest in sf classics that are being adapted for the screen, this collection should satisfy seasoned sf scholars as well as new entrants to the study of this bestselling series.—Kara Kennedy, Independent Scholar
{"title":"Un-American Dreams: Apocalyptic Science Fiction, Disimagined Community, and Bad Hope in the American Century by J. Jesse Ramírez (review)","authors":"B. Bellamy","doi":"10.1353/sfs.2023.a900290","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/sfs.2023.a900290","url":null,"abstract":"developed perspectives come from the Bene Gesserit, Mentats, Fremen, and Great Houses, and he offers a study of each group in relation to its view of humans. Weyant then concludes that Paul’s character represents the most complex perspective, since he is a synthesis of these four groups and can thus take a broader view of humanity. In “Belief is the Mind-Killer: The Bene Gesserit’s Transcendental Pragmatism,” Kevin Williams argues that the Bene Gesserit attempt to avoid assumptions in language and to see beliefs as maps for action, demonstrating a transcendental pragmatism in their outlook and operations. Williams focuses on examples of Bene Gesserit trying to educate or indoctrinate others across the series, showing that their rigorous approach to thinking means that they have no fixed philosophy and rely on being masterful and adaptable communicators. This essay collection offers a welcome addition to the field of scholarship on the DUNE series as it matures in the twenty-first century. Within the space constraints of an edited collection, it manages to cover a broad range of perspectives and includes analyses of the entire series rather than just the first novel. By relying on close reading approaches and providing explanations of key theoretical approaches, it makes itself accessible to a wide audience, and it can be dipped into and out of depending on a reader’s areas of interest. Released during a time of increasing interest in sf classics that are being adapted for the screen, this collection should satisfy seasoned sf scholars as well as new entrants to the study of this bestselling series.—Kara Kennedy, Independent Scholar","PeriodicalId":45553,"journal":{"name":"SCIENCE-FICTION STUDIES","volume":"50 1","pages":"294 - 297"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2023-06-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46720752","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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