“Make Haste to Live”

2020 ◽  
pp. 249-254
Author(s):  
Jonathan R. Eller
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
Horror Films ◽  
Half Century ◽  
Subsequent Loss ◽  
National Book ◽  
Story Collection ◽  
Hall Of Fame ◽  
Memorial Award

Bradbury’s 1999 induction into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame opens chapter 36. That year he also received the George Pal Memorial Award from the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror Films, followed in 2000 by a National Book Foundation Medal. His November 1999 stroke and subsequent loss of sight in his left eye did not prevent him from attending this ceremony, or from finally gathering his half-century-old stories of the supernatural Elliot family into a novelized story collection, From the Dust Returned. The chapter closes with Bradbury’s cautions against the loss of freedom of the imagination; these thoughts had resurfaced in his new book’s inter-chapter bridges and in his letter to Leon Uris reflecting on the mid-century climate of fear.

Who “Screens” Security?

Biometrics ◽  
2017 ◽  
pp. 1419-1438
Author(s):  
Vincent Casaregola
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
Emotional Response ◽  
The State ◽  
Horror Films ◽  
The Political ◽  
Crime Film ◽  
Art Form ◽  
Or Groups ◽  
A Performance

Films represent our awareness of surveillance and often trigger a deep emotional response from audiences, and for whole genres of film—particularly the political thriller and science fiction/speculative dystopia, along with horror films and some forms of the mystery or crime film—have been built around an individual or group of individuals who are being kept under some form of surveillance, either by the authorities of the state and by other individuals or groups who may have criminal and/or even psychotic motives. For filmmakers and their intended audiences, the surveillance narrative doubles back onto to very art form itself, composed as it is of the camera's surveillance of the action, along with the viewers' attentive watching of the film. While such audience attention had also been fundamental to drama for thousands of years, it has only been more recently that audiences began observing the fourth wall conventions of silence and darkness that make their watching of a performance a kind of surveillance.

Ursula K. Le Guin

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandra J. Lindow
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
American Literature ◽  
Short Story ◽  
Columbia University ◽  
Contemporary American Literature ◽  
Left Hand ◽  
Radcliffe College ◽  
Neil Gaiman ◽  
Book Award ◽  
National Book

One of the most influential voices in contemporary American literature, Ursula K. Le Guin (b. 1929–d. 2018) began publishing in the 1960s and soon became known for her courageous exploration of ethics, ecology, and diversity using fantastic and futuristic settings. Elevating fantasy and science fiction from pulp-era sword and sorcery and space opera, her fiction explores and condemns chauvinistic traditions of colonialism, nationalism, sexism, and racism. Through her literary approach to genre themes and settings, she inspired not only generations of genre writers but also many mainstream writers who incorporated fantastic elements in their work. Ursula Kroeber was born on in Berkeley, California. Her parents were the Alfred Kroeber, pioneering anthropologist, and Theodora Kroeber, author of Ishi in Two Worlds. She graduated from Radcliffe College in 1951, earned a masters degree from Columbia University in 1952, and married historian Charles Le Guin in 1953. A prolific writer, she published more than sixty books including novels for adults and young adults, picture books, short story collections, critical nonfiction, poetry, screenplays, and works of translation. Genre and mainstream recognition occurred throughout her career. Her first fantasy novel, A Wizard of Earthsea (1968), earned the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award. Her groundbreaking novel The Left Hand of Darkness (1969) won Hugo and Nebula Awards. She was only the second woman to receive both honors for one book. The Farthest Shore (1973) won the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature. The Dispossessed (1974) won Locus, Nebula, and Hugo Awards. Overall, her novels alone received five Locus, four Nebulas, two Hugos, and one World Fantasy Award. In 1989 she accepted the Pilgrim Award for her critical work. In 1994, 1996, and 1997, she earned Tiptree Awards for her exploration of gender through her depiction of androgyny and alternative cultures that privilege nonheteronormative marriage. Le Guin’s lifetime achievement awards recognize her importance in American literature. In 2000, the US Library of Congress named her a Living Legend for her significant contributions to America’s cultural heritage. In 2002, she won the PEN/Malamud Award for excellence in short fiction and the Grand Master Award from the Science Fiction Writers Association. In 2014, she received the National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. In his introduction to her National Book Award acceptance speech, author Neil Gaiman describes her as someone who made him not only a better writer but also a better person as a writer.

scholarly journals Liquid Surfaces

IDEA JOURNAL ◽  
2017 ◽  
pp. 62-73
Author(s):  
Alexandra Brown ◽  
Kirsty Volz
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
Liquid Surface ◽  
Horror Films ◽  
Apartment Building ◽  
Young Girls ◽  
Film And Television ◽  
Minor Architecture ◽  
Psychic State ◽  
Liquid Surfaces

  Exploring the interactions between liquid surfaces and their relationship to the figure of the fille fatale in dark genres of film and television, this paper suggests that the liquid surface not only disrupts our understanding of architecture as a static structural envelope, but also acts to destabilise the image of the innocent girl in science fiction and horror films and television. The discussion focuses on three relatively recent depictions of young girls who confront (or are forced to confront) the liquid surface: Mitsuko’s submersion in the water vessels of an apartment building in Dark Water (2002), Ofelia and the muddy interior of the tree in Pan’s Labyrinth (2006), and the watery floor of Eleven’s psychic state in Stranger Things (2016). Working with Jill Stoner’s understanding of minor architectures and their ability to deterritorialise both physical structures and structures of power, the paper asks to what extent the liquid surface encounters of Ofelia, Mitsuko and Eleven exist as reflections of each character’s experiences, or as currents of agency through which the fille fatale reshapes her world. In doing so the research considers the ways in which fictional liquid surfaces operate as a visual minor architecture that elicits a questioning of social and physical norms.

Colson Whitehead

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Derek C. Maus
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Science Fiction ◽  
New York Times ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Childhood And Adolescence ◽  
Pulitzer Prize ◽  
Bestseller List ◽  
The New York Times ◽  
National Book ◽  
Village Voice

Over the course of a career now in its third decade, Colson Whitehead has produced a nine-book oeuvre that has made him one of the foremost 21st-century American literary authors. Born Arch Colson Chipp Whitehead in New York on November 6, 1969, he spent his childhood and adolescence devouring pop culture—in particular, science fiction and horror films. His early years were generally divided between Manhattan and his family’s summer home in Sag Harbor on Long Island. In 1987, he began studying literature at Harvard University, where he befriended poet and editor Kevin Young and other members of the influential Dark Room Collective. After graduation, he spent several years in New York writing for the Village Voice. During this time, he also started working on what eventually became his debut novel, The Intuitionist (New York: Doubleday, 1999). Although his initial readership remained relatively small, Whitehead’s critical reputation grew quickly, with each of his first two books earning rave reviews and literary prizes. The Intuitionist was a finalist for the Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award for debut fiction and his second novel, John Henry Days (New York: Doubleday, 2001), won the Anisfield-Wolf Award, a prize given to exemplary American literary works dealing with racism and diversity. John Henry Days was also a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award. In 2000, he received the Whiting Award, which supports promising new writers, and then followed that up with a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship (colloquially known as a “Genius Grant”) in 2002 and a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2013. Although his third novel, Apex Hides the Hurt (New York: Doubleday, 2006), was less critically lauded, it nevertheless won the PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Literary Award, which recognizes outstanding multicultural literature. Over the next decade, Whitehead’s readership began to catch up with his critical acclaim and each of his subsequent five novels has landed on the New York Times bestseller list. The Underground Railroad (New York: Doubleday, 2016) has been his most noteworthy book to date, reaching the top of the New York Times bestseller list, as well as earning him the Pulitzer Prize, the Carnegie Medal, the National Book Award, and public endorsements from Oprah Winfrey and Barack Obama, among others. He followed this success up with a short historical novel, The Nickel Boys (New York: Doubleday, 2019), whose release was accompanied both by considerable fanfare (including Whitehead’s appearance on the cover of Time magazine) and continued critical praise. Although he has gravitated away from the comic-satirical tenor of his earlier work, Whitehead remains both a masterful prose stylist and a pointed social critic.

Who “Screens” Security?

2016 ◽  
pp. 57-76
Author(s):  
Vincent Casaregola
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
Emotional Response ◽  
The State ◽  
Horror Films ◽  
The Political ◽  
Crime Film ◽  
Art Form ◽  
Or Groups ◽  
A Performance

Films represent our awareness of surveillance and often trigger a deep emotional response from audiences, and for whole genres of film—particularly the political thriller and science fiction/speculative dystopia, along with horror films and some forms of the mystery or crime film—have been built around an individual or group of individuals who are being kept under some form of surveillance, either by the authorities of the state and by other individuals or groups who may have criminal and/or even psychotic motives. For filmmakers and their intended audiences, the surveillance narrative doubles back onto to very art form itself, composed as it is of the camera's surveillance of the action, along with the viewers' attentive watching of the film. While such audience attention had also been fundamental to drama for thousands of years, it has only been more recently that audiences began observing the fourth wall conventions of silence and darkness that make their watching of a performance a kind of surveillance.

Broadening Horizons

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan R. Eller
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
Writing Group ◽  
Story Collection

This chapter examines Ray Bradbury's professional and personal milestones that followed the crisis of 1949 involving The Illustrated Man. The insights that emerged from Bradbury's April 1949 exchange of letters with Don Congdon renewed the writer's confidence in his submissions. Since then, he worked with Congdon ever more closely to have his Green Town stories, science fiction tales, and fantasies get through the offices of the mainstream magazine editors. By June 1949, Congdon had at least eighteen active story files. This chapter discusses memorable moments in Bradbury's life and career in 1949, including his interaction with UCLA's writing group; his lectures on writing; and his meeting with Theodore Sturgeon and Walter Bradbury. It also considers Bradbury's readings during the period and concludes by noting the transformation of his concept of a Martian story collection into a unified work more in line with Sherwood Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio.

Visions of Mars

2020 ◽  
pp. 294-298
Author(s):  
Jonathan R. Eller
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
Jet Propulsion ◽  
Story Collection ◽  
Jet Propulsion Laboratory ◽  
The Phoenix

The digitized copy of The Martian Chronicles, along with many other stories, novels, and science fiction art inspired by the Red Planet, finally reached Mars aboard the Phoenix lander in 2008. Chapter 43 describes Bradbury’s final trip to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory the following year, the publication of his last story collection, We’ll Always Have Paris (2008), and the passing of Don Congdon, his agent for more than sixty years. Bradbury had come to measure each story he finished as one more victory over death, but the stories were coming more slowly now. Bradbury’s reflections on mortality during the final decades of his life, and his unfinished plans for a final story collection, close out chapter 43.

These are the Voyages?

2020 ◽  
pp. 81-102
Author(s):  
Michael G. Robinson
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
Star Trek ◽  
Substantial Portion ◽  
Television Series ◽  
Network Television ◽  
Half Century ◽  
Feature Films ◽  
Main Thing ◽  
One Year ◽  
Primary Output

The main thing noticeably absent from Star Trek’s half-century anniversary was a network television series. By 2016, the primary output of the Trek franchise was a set of commercially successful feature films that had retconned a substantial portion of the early series history and consequently left later spin-off television series adrift in continuity limbo. One year later, or perhaps one year too late, three programs emerged to take up the mantle of Trek: Star Trek: Discovery (2017-), The Orville (2017-present) and the “U.S.S Callister” episode of Black Mirror (2017). This chapter investigates how these series make a claim to and justify deviations from, a familiar science fiction formula legendary for diverse themes and progressive ideologies with particular attention invocation of Gene Roddenberry’s vision for Star Trek.

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