Archive for January, 2011

what we mean when we talk about science fiction

Posted: 13th January 2011 by Adam in Uncategorized

Arriving at a rock-solid, comprehensive definition of what is and isn’t science fiction isn’t necessarily something we need to do, let alone in week 1.  That said, obviously the question is present for us from the get-go.  What counts as science fiction?  What kind of a thing is science fiction?  How can we recognize it?  […]

back and forth

Posted: 13th January 2011 by Adam in Uncategorized

The last line here aptly summarizes, I think, why science fiction is simultaneously so exhilarating and so frightening.  On the other hand . . as we’re starting to see, the future kind of does care what you think, in the sense that a techno-utopian attitude would produce a very different future from a dystopian, anti-tech […]

the astounding world of the (imagined) future

Posted: 11th January 2011 by Adam in Uncategorized

With “The Gernsback Continuum” and its phantom futures in mind, it’s worth thinking about how other kinds of futures function rhetorically, how they bleed through into the present, how they set the terms for our experience of our own world. For instance, imagine if all stories were written like science fiction stories—imagine what it would […]