Nuclear Weapons, Dystopian Deserts, and Science Fiction Cinema

Vulcan ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 70-85 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey Womack
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
Nuclear Weapons ◽  
Commercial Success ◽  
Science Fiction Films ◽  
Nuclear Warfare ◽  
The Relationship

The article explores the relationship between science fiction cinema and nuclear weapons. It argues that the genre’s commercial success directly resulted from its appropriation of nuclear warfare themes and imagery, such as desert landscapes and nuclear blasts. The influence of nuclear weapons eventually permeated the genre as a whole, leading to the widespread appearance of such imagery in science fiction films that do not purport to deal with nuclear weapons or nuclear themes.

scholarly journals China Whispers: The Symbolic, Economic, and Political Presence of China in Contemporary American Science Fiction Film

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 151-161
Author(s):  
Kenneth Longden
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
Soft Power ◽  
Western Science ◽  
The West ◽  
Yellow Peril ◽  
American Science ◽  
Contemporary Science ◽  
Science Fiction Films ◽  
Contemporary Film ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract China has long been present in Western science fiction, but largely through notions of Orientalism and depictions as the 'Yellow Peril'. However, with China's new ascendancy and modernization over the last 15 years, along with its investment and collaboration with Hollywood in particular, contemporary film in general, and contemporary science fiction in particular, has embraced this new China in ways hitherto unseen before. This essay examines three contemporary western/American science fiction films which each represent and construct China in slightly different ways, and in ways which reveal the West, and Hollywood's reappraisal of the relationship with China and its emerging 'Soft Power.'.

The Legacy of RoboCop

Robocop ◽  
2018 ◽  
pp. 97-106
Author(s):  
Omar Ahmed
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
Science Fiction ◽  
Summer Season ◽  
The Political ◽  
Total Recall ◽  
Pure Science ◽  
Interest In Science ◽  
Commercial Success ◽  
Science Fiction Films ◽  
The Creation

This chapter explores the legacy of Paul Verhoeven's RoboCop in terms of the original critical reception, the film's relationship with its two sequels, and the marketing of the film. Released in the summer season of 1987, RoboCop was an unexpected commercial success, leading to the creation of the RoboCop universe, extending into television, video games, animation, and numerous sequels. The chapter then considers Verhoeven's work in the Hollywood science-fiction genre. The success of RoboCop led to an interest in science-fiction cinema that would lead Verhoeven to direct three more science-fiction films: Total Recall (1990), Starship Troopers (1997), and Hollow Man (2000). None of the films are pure science fiction but hybrids, fusing conventions from a broad range of genres including war movie, horror, and the political thriller.

scholarly journals Afraid of the Dark and the Light: Visceralizing Ecocide in The Road and Hell

2012 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 42-56
Author(s):  
Alexa Weik von Mossner
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Pulitzer Prize ◽  
The Road ◽  
Ecological Changes ◽  
Contemporary Science ◽  
Science Fiction Films ◽  
The One ◽  
Human Actors ◽  
The Relationship

The essay is concerned with the ways in which contemporary science fiction films explore the future subjectivities and societies that may result from radical ecological changes, looking at two pertinent examples from two different national traditions: John Hillcoat’s 2009 film adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s Pulitzer Prize-win­ning novel The Road (2006), and one of the very few German-Swiss science fiction films with an environmental theme, Tim Fehlbaum’s Hell (2011). It is particularly interested in the relationship between the films’ imagined ecological spaces and the actions of the protagonists of each film on the one hand, and in the relationship between these futuristic diegetic spaces and the contemporary real-life ecological spaces that “play” them on the other hand. Together with the performances of the human actors and the tension and suspense built by the narratives, it argues, the spectacle and insinuated agency of these ecological spaces are centrally responsible for the films’ emotional force and for their ability to engage viewers in stories of global ecocide and human survival.   Resumen               El ensayo analiza cómo las películas de ciencia ficción exploran las sociedades y subjetividades futuras que pueden surgir de cambios ecológicos radicales, atendiendo a dos ejemplos relevantes de dos tradiciones nacionales diferentes: la adaptación cinematográfica de 2009 de la novela de Cormac McCarthy The Road (2006), ganadora del premio Pulitzer, dirigida por John Hillcoat; y una de las muy escasas películas de ciencia ficción germano-suizas de  temática medioambiental, Hell (2011) de Tim Fehlbaum. Se presta especial interés a dos aspectos: por un lado,  la relación entre los espacios ecológicos imaginados en las películas y las acciones de los protagonistas de cada película; y por otro lado,  la relación entre estos espacios diegéticos futuristas y los espacios ecológicos reales que los representan. Junto con la interpretación de los actores humanos y la tensión y el suspense que construyen las narraciones, el espectáculo y la agencia insinuada de estos espacios ecológicos son en gran medida responsables de la fuerza emocional de las películas y de su habilidad  para implicar a la audiencia en historias de ecocidio global y supervivencia humana.

scholarly journals Reading the Simultaneous Motion and Reality Bending Concepts through Doctor Strange

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-38
Author(s):  
Gülşah Uner ◽  
Ebru Erdogan
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
Main Character ◽  
Time And Space ◽  
Special Effects ◽  
The Future ◽  
Computer Environment ◽  
Science Fiction Films ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Real Places

In order to exemplify the interaction between architecture and science fiction films, Doctor Strange (2016), one of today's cinema examples, was chosen because of that the special effects created in computer environment by transferring the dreams to the film have a surrealist effect on the film; of the fantastic spaces that arise with the deformation of real places become the main character of the film; of foreseeing a different future in terms of architecture. Within the scope of the study, the film was read through the changes of time and space of the concepts of “reality bending” and “simultaneous motion”. As a result of the readings on these concepts, the relationship of cinema with architecture has gained a different dimension, and it has been seen that this film can create a fantastic perspective and inspiration to the designers about the future deconstructivist buildings.  

New ''Cold War''

2020 ◽  
pp. 27-34
Author(s):  
Vladimir Batiuk
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Nuclear Weapons ◽  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Arms Race ◽  
Ideological Struggle ◽  
Nuclear Arms Race ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Nuclear Arms

In this article, the ''Cold War'' is understood as a situation where the relationship between the leading States is determined by ideological confrontation and, at the same time, the presence of nuclear weapons precludes the development of this confrontation into a large-scale armed conflict. Such a situation has developed in the years 1945–1989, during the first Cold War. We see that something similar is repeated in our time-with all the new nuances in the ideological struggle and in the nuclear arms race.

Pitchfork’s authenticity problem: the critical reception of Vampire Weekend and Lil Wayne

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margaret Murray
Keyword(s):  
Popular Music ◽  
Critical Reception ◽  
Commercial Success ◽  
And Performance ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract This article turns a critical eye on the arguments deployed by Pitchfork, one of the most popular music websites, when reviewing two artists: Vampire Weekend and Lil Wayne. Rhetorically analyzing the reception of these two artists is illuminating because both had indie breakouts in 2008, both release genre-spanning music, and both have had over a decade of commercial success. However, Vampire Weekend’s whiteness enables them to benefit from authenticity tropes that are unavailable to Lil Wayne. The analysis will show how Lil Wayne is essentialized as a rapper who is unauthorized to move beyond that genre. Overall, this article examines authenticity as the rhetorical move by which exclusion is constructed and highlights how assumptions about the relationship between race and performance are key to arguments about artistry.

scholarly journals Me, My Bot and His Other (Robot) Woman? Keeping Your Robot Satisfied in the Age of Artificial Emotion

Robotics ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 44 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebekah Rousi
Keyword(s):  
Artificial Intelligence ◽  
Information Technology ◽  
Science Fiction ◽  
Sexual Partners ◽  
Sex Robots ◽  
Artificial Emotions ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
And Robotics

With a backdrop of action and science fiction movie horrors of the dystopian relationship between humans and robots, surprisingly to date-with the exception of ethical discussions-the relationship aspect of humans and sex robots has seemed relatively unproblematic. The attraction to sex robots perhaps is the promise of unproblematic affectionate and sexual interactions, without the need to consider the other’s (the robot’s) emotions and indeed preference of sexual partners. Yet, with rapid advancements in information technology and robotics, particularly in relation to artificial intelligence and indeed, artificial emotions, there almost seems the likelihood, that sometime in the future, robots too, may love others in return. Who those others are-whether human or robot-is to be speculated. As with the laws of emotion, and particularly that of the cognitive-emotional theory on Appraisal, a reality in which robots experience their own emotions, may not be as rosy as would be expected.

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