scholarly journals Przyszłość nauki, przyszłość uniwersytetu. Fantastycznonaukowe prognozy zaniku wiedzy naukowej

2017 ◽  
pp. 13-33
Author(s):  
Dariusz Brzostek
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
Science Fiction ◽  
Cultural Landscape ◽  
Graphic Novels ◽  
Scientific Institution ◽  
Societal Collapse ◽  
The Future ◽  
Stanislaw Lem ◽  
John Brunner ◽  
Shed Light

The predictions of science fiction play an important part in the cultural landscape of contemporary western culture, being integral to the popular culture (novels, movies, TV series, graphic novels). Science fiction narratives predict the future of society, technology, culture but also – the science itself and a university as a scientific institution. The aim of this work is to shed light on the depiction of the future of science, knowledge, and university in the science fiction works, predicting the ineluctable societal collapse. The essay focuses on the use of the scientific discourse and scientific knowledge in the chosen science fiction narratives by Stanisław Lem, Walter M. Miller jr., John Brunner, and Paolo Bacigalupi.

Excavating the Future

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shawn Malley
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
Science Fiction ◽  
Cultural Study ◽  
Homeland Security ◽  
War On Terror ◽  
Adaptive Responses ◽  
Film And Television ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Future ◽  
The U.S

Well-known in popular culture for tomb-raiding and mummy-wrangling, the archaeologist is also a rich though often unacknowledged figure for constructing ‘strange new worlds’ from ‘strange old worlds’ in science fiction. But more than a well-spring for scenarios, SF’s archaeological imaginary is also a hermeneutic tool for excavating the ideological motivations of digging up the past buried in the future. A cultural study of an array of popular though critically neglected North American SF film and television texts–spanning the gamut of telefilms, pseudo-documentaries, teen serial drama and Hollywood blockbusters–Excavating the Future treats archaeology as a trope for exploring the popular archaeological imagination and the uses to which it is being put by the U.S. state and its adversaries. By treating SF texts as documents of archaeological experience circulating within and between scientific and popular culture communities and media, Excavating the Future develops critical strategies for analyzing SF film and television’s critical and adaptive responses to contemporary geopolitical concerns about the war on terror, homeland security, the invasion and reconstruction of Iraq, and the ongoing fight against ISIS.

The Future of Epic in Cinema

2018 ◽  
pp. 119-132
Author(s):  
Pantelis Michelakis
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
Science Fiction ◽  
Biological Evolution ◽  
First Century ◽  
Genre Criticism ◽  
Early Twenty ◽  
The Future ◽  
Twenty First Century

This chapter explores the ways in which the generic label of ‘epic’ might be deemed relevant for Ridley Scott’s film Prometheus (2012), and more broadly for the ways in which a discussion about the meanings of epic in early twenty-first-century cinema might be undertaken outside the genre of ‘historical epic’. It argues for the need to explore how ‘epic science fiction’ operates in Scott’s Prometheus in ways that both relate and transcend common definitions of the term ‘epic’ in contemporary popular culture. It also focuses on the unorthodox models of biological evolution of the film’s narrative, suggesting ways in which they can help with genre criticism. When it comes to cinematic intertextuality, a discussion about generic taxonomies and transformations cannot be conducted at the beginning of the twenty-first century without reflecting on the tropes that cinema animates and the fears it enacts at the heart of our genetic imaginary.

scholarly journals CULTURAL AND HISTORICAL CONTEXT OF THE MYTHMAKING OF H.P. LOVECRAFT

2019 ◽  
pp. 137-142
Author(s):  
Denis D. Pyzikov ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
Science Fiction ◽  
New England ◽  
Cultural Landscape ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Religious Movements ◽  
New Religious Movements ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
Horror Genre ◽  
Western Esotericism

H.P. Lovecraft created an original mythology that has not only become science fiction and fantasy classics, but also determined horror genre development in general. In his literary works, Lovecraft used images derived from both ancient religious traditions and contemporary western esotericism, filling his imaginary worlds with mysterious cosmic creatures. The writer’s cultural and historic environment played a very important role as the cultural landscape of New England and theosophical concepts widespread at that time had a great impact on the author’s work and writing. The original “mythology” invented by Lovecraft later played a key role in development of some new religious movements. Besides, Lovecraft’s mythology and images are reflected in the modern popular culture. The paper analyzes Lovecraft’s works and religious motives that are used or reflected in them, cultural factors that influenced the writer and Lovecraft’s heritage place in occult concepts, practices and subcultures of today.

scholarly journals Powrót do (już) nie swojego domu. Analiza porównawcza „Powrotu z gwiazd” Stanisława Lema i „Cylindra Van Troffa” Janusza A. Zajdla

2021 ◽  
Vol 52 (3) ◽  
pp. 107-124
Author(s):  
Andrzej Jamiołkowski
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Science Fiction ◽  
Culture Shock ◽  
The Other ◽  
Human Society ◽  
Wrong Direction ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Creation ◽  
New Vision ◽  
Stanislaw Lem

The article is an attempt at a comparative analysis of the novels: Return from the Stars by Stanisław Lem and Van Troff’s Cylinder by Janusz A. Zajdel. Both works belonging to Polish science fiction present visions of humanity in the future. Despite obvious differences (both novels were written in different circumstances, one novel is a dystopia, the other an anti-utopia) it is possible to find areas common to both works representing the Polish science fiction genre. The novels present a pessimistic vision of humanity in the future. The greatest similarity, however, can be observed in the creation of the main characters, who experience culture shock when faced with a new vision of human society. The protagonists find themselves confused, discordant and despairing. They see that the changes have gone in the wrong direction. But it is too late for them to do anything about it, except for accepting this reality or trying to escape from it back into the stars. 

Interview with John Brunner

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jad Smith
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
Daily Pattern ◽  
The Future ◽  
John Brunner ◽  
The Way

This chapter presents the transcript of an interview with John Brunner conducted by Steven L. Goldstein. The interview covered topics such as where Brunner gets his ideas; how he goes about putting his ideas on paper; whether he believes that the future will be as bleak as he made it appear in The Sheep Look Up; whether he follows a set, daily pattern in his work; if he knew that his experimental novels such as Stand on Zanzibar and The Jagged Orbit would turn out the way they did; advice that he can give to aspiring writers; his views on the influence of mainstream writers on science fiction; and how he felt when he won the Hugo Award for Stand on Zanzibar.

scholarly journals Fikcja antropologiczna czy antropologia spekulatywna? O funkcjach poznawczych narracji fantastycznonaukowych

2019 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 41-58
Author(s):  
Dariusz Brzostek
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
The Future ◽  
Literary Images ◽  
Stanislaw Lem ◽  
Referential Function

Speculative anthropology or anthropological fiction? On the referential function of science-fiction narrativesThe article focuses on the referential function of science fiction and its relations to speculative anthropology and anthropological fiction. The methodological context for this analysis consists of Andrzej Stoff’s concept of literary images in science-fiction novels, Fredric Jameson’s archaeology of the future, and Roman Jakobson’s theory of the referential function of language. The texts analyzed herein are two novels: by Stanisław Lem Solaris and Peter Watts Blindsight. These works are analyzed as procedurals — novels emphasizing sequences of scientific anthropological procedures and discussing cultural categories such as “otherness,” “race,” and “anthropocentrism.”

scholarly journals New Spaces for Old Motifs? The Virtual Worlds of Japanese Cyberpunk

Arts ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 60 ◽  
Author(s):  
Denis Taillandier
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
Virtual Worlds ◽  
North American ◽  
High Tech ◽  
Literary Works ◽  
Japanese Science ◽  
The Future ◽  
Shed Light ◽  
Scholarly Attention ◽  
Default Setting

North-American cyberpunk’s recurrent use of high-tech Japan as “the default setting for the future,” has generated a Japonism reframed in technological terms. While the renewed representations of techno-Orientalism have received scholarly attention, little has been said about literary Japanese science fiction. This paper attempts to discuss the transnational construction of Japanese cyberpunk through Masaki Gorō’s Venus City (Vīnasu Shiti, 1992) and Tobi Hirotaka’s Angels of the Forsaken Garden series (Haien no tenshi, 2002–). Elaborating on Tatsumi’s concept of synchronicity, it focuses on the intertextual dynamics that underlie the shaping of those texts to shed light on Japanese cyberpunk’s (dis)connections to techno-Orientalism as well as on the relationships between literary works, virtual worlds and reality.

popular culture, modern

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gideon Nisbet
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
New Media ◽  
Science Fiction ◽  
Mass Culture ◽  
Graphic Novels ◽  
Reception History ◽  
Classical Antiquity ◽  
Hate Groups ◽  
Media Audiences ◽  
Ya Fiction

Classical antiquity echoes through everyday life, and is continuously being mediated for and consumed by mass culture and subcultures; these popular representations shape, and are shaped by, non-specialist understandings of antiquity. Empowered by new media, diverse constituencies (including cult media audiences and minorities, but also ethnic-nationalists and hate groups) interrogate antiquity through its reception history to find versions of ‘Greece’ and ‘Rome’ that help develop their own agendas. As a recent and developing specialisation informed by trends in cultural and media studies, the academic study of classical reception in popular culture poses new challenges for, and breathes new life into, the discipline of Classics. After a slow start, such study has embraced mass and ‘cult’ media including television, videogames, popular music, comics and graphic novels, science fiction and fantasy, and children’s and young adult (YA) fiction. Scholarly rebuttals of appropriations of antiquity by hate groups are re-engaging Classics with the politics of representation (of the past, and of ourselves and each other) in the here and now.

scholarly journals O ljudima i zverima: antropološka analiza filma Ljudi i kokoške

2017 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 437
Author(s):  
Nina Kulenović
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
Science Fiction ◽  
General Public ◽  
Western Thought ◽  
Analytical Process ◽  
Relevant Question ◽  
Cultural Status ◽  
Polar Opposite ◽  
Shed Light ◽  
The Way

Following the path established in Serbian anthropology by the subdiscipline of the anthropology of film, as well as the anthropological "section" for the study of science fiction, the analytical focus of this paper is the film Men and Chicken. Contrary to critics who saw in this film "an unreadable, morbid and cynical postmodern horror", the basic thesis of this paper is that the film helps us not only to question public ideas about science, but also to shed light on the hopes, fears and conceptual dilemmas caused by the advance of biotechnologies. It helps us to, using a product of popular culture close to the experience of the general public, analyze the way in which the imaginarium of the film deals with the "paradox at the heart" of western thought - the simultaneous claim that humans are animals and that animality is the polar opposite of what we hold to be human. The paradox in question need not be an intellectual chew toy for a bored mind, nor an opportunity for demonstrating the wondrous power of an analytical process of Levi-Straussian calibre, rather a very relevant question in current institutional and public discussions on creating hybrid embryos/species at the heart of which are attempts to establish the biological, moral and cultural status of humans, non-humans and hybrids.

Living machines in our cultural imagination

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Szollosy
Keyword(s):  
Artificial Intelligence ◽  
Science Fiction ◽  
Public Perceptions ◽  
Human Condition ◽  
Cultural Imagination ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Enlightenment ◽  
The Future ◽  
Public Imagination ◽  
The Human Condition

Public perceptions of robots and artificial intelligence (AI)—both positive and negative—are hopelessly misinformed, based far too much on science fiction rather than science fact. However, these fictions can be instructive, and reveal to us important anxieties that exist in the public imagination, both towards robots and AI and about the human condition more generally. These anxieties are based on little-understood processes (such as anthropomorphization and projection), but cannot be dismissed merely as inaccuracies in need of correction. Our demonization of robots and AI illustrate two-hundred-year-old fears about the consequences of the Enlightenment and industrialization. Idealistic hopes projected onto robots and AI, in contrast, reveal other anxieties, about our mortality—and the transhumanist desire to transcend the limitations of our physical bodies—and about the future of our species. This chapter reviews these issues and considers some of their broader implications for our future lives with living machines.

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