Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Politics

Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Politics PDF

Author: Dan Hassler-Forest

Publisher: Radical Cultural Studies

Published: 2016

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781783484935

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From J.R.R. Tolkien to Star Trek and from Game of Thrones to Battlestar Galactica and from The Walking Dead to Janelle Mone's Afrofuturist concept albums, transmedia world building offer us complex and immersive environments beyond capitalism. Science Fiction, Fantasy and Politics examines the ways in which these popular storyworlds offer tools for anticapitalist theory and practice. Building on Hardt and Negir's theory of global capitalism. Dan Hassler-Forest shows how transmedia world-building has the potential to offer more than a momentary escape from capitalist realism in the age of media a converagence and participator culture. This book feature eight fantastic storyworlds that offer vivid illustration of global capitalism contradictory logic. Approaching transmedia world-building both as a cultural form and as a political economy, Hassler-Forest demonstrates the limitations inherent in fandom and fan culture, which is increasingly absorbed as a form of immaterial labor. At the same time, he also explores the productive ways in which fantastic storyworlds contain a radical energy that can give us new ways of thinking about politics popular culture and anticapitalism.

New Boundaries in Political Science Fiction

New Boundaries in Political Science Fiction PDF

Author: Donald M. Hassler

Publisher: Univ of South Carolina Press

Published: 2008

Total Pages: 384

ISBN-13: 9781570037368

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Surveying the vast expanse of politically-charged science fiction, this book posits that the defining dilemma for these tales rests in whether identity and meaning germinate from progressive linear changes or progress, or from a continuous return to primitive realities of war, death and the competition for survival.

Poli Sci Fi

Poli Sci Fi PDF

Author: Michael A. Allen

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2016-03-10

Total Pages: 347

ISBN-13: 1317266757

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Poli Sci Fi: An Introduction to Political Science through Science Fiction allows readers, students, and instructors to explore the multiple worlds of science fiction while gaining a firm grasp of core political science concepts. This carefully composed text is comprised of sixteen brief chapters, each of which takes a prominent science fiction film or television episode and uses it to explore fundamental components of political science. The book is designed to serve as a supplemental text for undergraduate political science courses, especially Introduction to Political Science. The structure and content of the volume is shaped around the organization and coverage of several leading texts in this area, and includes major parts devoted to theory and epistemology, political behavior, institutions, identity, states, and inter-state relations. Its emphasis on science fiction—and particularly on popular movies and television programs—speaks to the popularity of the genre as well as the growing understanding that popular culture can be an extraordinarily successful vehicle for communicating difficult yet foundational concepts, especially to introductory level college students.

The Folding Knife

The Folding Knife PDF

Author: K. J. Parker

Publisher: Orbit

Published: 2010-02-22

Total Pages: 333

ISBN-13: 0316072109

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A new stand-alone novel from the acclaimed author of the Engineer Trilogy and The Company. Basso the Magnificent. Basso the Great. Basso the Wise. The First Citizen of the Vesani Republic is an extraordinary man. He is ruthless, cunning, and above all, lucky. He brings wealth, power and prestige to his people. But with power comes unwanted attention, and Basso must defend his nation and himself from threats foreign and domestic. In a lifetime of crucial decisions, he's only ever made one mistake. One mistake, though, can be enough.

Building Imaginary Worlds

Building Imaginary Worlds PDF

Author: Mark J.P. Wolf

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2014-03-14

Total Pages: 409

ISBN-13: 113622081X

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Mark J.P. Wolf’s study of imaginary worlds theorizes world-building within and across media, including literature, comics, film, radio, television, board games, video games, the Internet, and more. Building Imaginary Worlds departs from prior approaches to imaginary worlds that focused mainly on narrative, medium, or genre, and instead considers imaginary worlds as dynamic entities in and of themselves. Wolf argues that imaginary worlds—which are often transnarrative, transmedial, and transauthorial in nature—are compelling objects of inquiry for Media Studies. Chapters touch on: a theoretical analysis of how world-building extends beyond storytelling, the engagement of the audience, and the way worlds are conceptualized and experienced a history of imaginary worlds that follows their development over three millennia from the fictional islands of Homer’s Odyssey to the present internarrative theory examining how narratives set in the same world can interact and relate to one another an examination of transmedial growth and adaptation, and what happens when worlds make the jump between media an analysis of the transauthorial nature of imaginary worlds, the resulting concentric circles of authorship, and related topics of canonicity, participatory worlds, and subcreation’s relationship with divine Creation Building Imaginary Worlds also provides the scholar of imaginary worlds with a glossary of terms and a detailed timeline that spans three millennia and more than 1,400 imaginary worlds, listing their names, creators, and the works in which they first appeared.

Political Theory, Science Fiction, and Utopian Literature

Political Theory, Science Fiction, and Utopian Literature PDF

Author: Tony Burns

Publisher: Lexington Books

Published: 2010-02-19

Total Pages: 332

ISBN-13: 0739144871

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Ursula K. Le Guin's The Dispossessed is of interest to political theorists partly because of its association with anarchism and partly because it is thought to represent a turning point in the history of utopian/dystopian political thought and literature and of science fiction. Published in 1974, it marked a revival of utopianism after decades of dystopian writing. According to this widely accepted view The Dispossessed represents a new kind of literary utopia, which Tom Moylan calls a 'critical utopia.' The present work challenges this reading of The Dispossessed and its place in the histories of utopian/dystopian literature and science fiction. It explores the difference between traditional literary utopia and novels and suggests that The Dispossessed is not a literary utopia but a novel about utopianism in politics. Le Guin's concerns have more to do with those of the novelists of the 19th century writing in the tradition of European Realism than they do with the science fiction or utopian literature. It also claims that her theory of the novel has an affinity with the ancient Greek tragedy. This implies that there is a conservatism in Le Guin's work as a creative writer, or as a novelist, which fits uneasily with her personal commitment to anarchism.

To Seek Out New Worlds

To Seek Out New Worlds PDF

Author: J. Weldes

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2003-05-01

Total Pages: 241

ISBN-13: 1403982082

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This volume explores the science fiction/world politics intertext. Through detailed analyses of such texts as Blade Runner, Stalker, Star Trek, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the chapters in this volume examine the complex and sometimes contradictory relations between world politics, both as discipline and as practice, and discourses of science fiction. Offering a novel combination of popular culture analysis with major theoretical and empirical issues concerning world politics, Science Fiction and World Politics provides insights into the discursive constitution of both science fiction and world politics while highlighting the occasional challenges that the science fiction/world politics intertext launches at our common sense.

Otherworldly Politics

Otherworldly Politics PDF

Author: Stephen Benedict Dyson

Publisher: JHU Press

Published: 2015-06-30

Total Pages: 177

ISBN-13: 1421417162

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To help students think critically about international relations and politics, Stephen Benedict Dyson examines the fictional but deeply political realities of three television shows:Star Trek, Game of Thrones, and Battlestar Galactica. Deeply familiar with the events, themes, characters, and plot lines of these popular shows, students can easily draw parallels from fictive worlds to contemporary international relations and political scenarios. In Dyson's experience, this engagement is frequently powerful enough to push classroom conversations out into the hallways and onto online discussion boards. In Otherworldly Politics, Dyson explains how these shows are plotted to offer alternative histories and future possibilities for humanity. Fascinated by politics and history, science fiction and fantasy screenwriters and showrunners suffuse their scripts with real-world ideas of empire, war, civilization, and culture, lending episodes a compelling intricacy and contemporary resonance. Dyson argues that science fiction and fantasy television creators share a fundamental kinship with great minds in international relations. Creators like Gene Roddenberry, George R. R. Martin, and Ronald D. Moore are world-builders of no lesser creativity, Dyson argues, than theorists such as Woodrow Wilson, Kenneth Waltz, and Alexander Wendt. Each of these thinkers imagines a realm, specifies the rules of its operation, and by so doing seeks to teach us something about ourselves and how we interact with one another. A vital spur to creative thinking for scholars and an accessible introduction for students, this book will also appeal to fans of these three influential shows.

Go Teen Writers

Go Teen Writers PDF

Author: Stephanie Morrill

Publisher:

Published: 2020-12-03

Total Pages: 350

ISBN-13: 9781732880825

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You have a story to tell, don't you? Or maybe you simply want to try your hand at fiction writing. Perhaps you've given it your best effort, but simply didn't have enough tools in your tool box to finish that first draft. Wherever you're at with this novel-writing thing, popular bloggers Stephanie Morrill, Jill Williamson, and Shannon Dittemore totally understand. They know it's hard to finish a first draft. To stay motivated until the end. To feel like a "real" writer. They know because they've been there too. In Go Teen Writers: Write Your Novel, you'll learn: There is no such thing as one right way to write a novel. How to take an idea and give it a beginning, middle, and end. What story structure means and how it strengthens a book. Different approaches to plotting a novel. How to develop characters worth reading about. Strategies for creating memorable storyworlds and settings. What theme is and how to use it to enrich your story. What to do when your first draft is finished. There's no doubt about it. Learning to write a novel from beginning to end is a challenge. But with this book as your guide, you'll see that when you're in possession of the right tools, you're capable of finishing what you start. You'll be empowered and encouraged-as if you had a writing coach (or three!) sitting alongside you.

Science Fiction Secrets

Science Fiction Secrets PDF

Author: Nick Redfern

Publisher:

Published: 2009-09-01

Total Pages: 266

ISBN-13: 9781933665405

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This book presents some mind-bending answers to a number of highly intriguing and thought-provoking questions.