Monthly Archives: August 2011

The SFRA Invades 2011 Dragon*Con in Atlanta on Labor Day Weekend

Posted on August 31, 2011 | Leave a comment

Actually, the Science Fiction Research Association isn’t really “invading” Dragon*Con with ray guns drawn, but we will host a panel titled, “What does Science Fiction Mean: A Conversation with the SFRA” on Sunday morning in the Hyatt’s Fairlie room at 11:30am. Thanks to the SFRA’s Publicity Director R. Nicole Smith, several SFRA EC members (Lisa Yaszek and myself) and SFRA Review editors (Doug Davis and Jason Embry) will hold a panel to let convention goers know a little bit about what we do in the SFRA. We will also invite attendees to join the SFRA and participate in the 43rd annual conference in Detroit next year. If you are attending Dragon*Con, stop by the panel and join the conversation. If you aren’t going to Dragon*Con but are in the Atlanta area and what to talk shop, drop me a line [dynamicsubspace now-what-goes-here gmailcom]–I will be in town from Friday until Sunday.

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Posted in Personal, Science Fiction, SFRA

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Find My Review of Eric Carl Link’s Understanding Philip K. Dick in the New JFA

Posted on August 30, 2011 | Leave a comment

I received my complimentary copy of the latest Journal for the Fantastic in the Arts yesterday, because I wrote a very favorable review of Eric Carl Link’s survey of Philip K. Dick titled: Understanding Philip K. Dick. You can find my review on pages 114-116.

Besides all of the other great content in this issue of JFA, there is a review of Muhammad Husain Jah’s Hoshruba: The Land and the Tilism (translated by Musharraf Ali Farooqi) by Anna C. Oldfield. I was happy to see this review of Farooqi’s translation, because I made the layout for two serialized excerpts from this work in Masood Raja’s Pakistaniaat: A Journal of Pakistan Studies when I was the layout editor [read the excerpts in the first and second issues of the journal].

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Posted in Personal, Science Fiction

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Green Planets: Ecology and Science Fiction CFP, Deadline Approaching

Posted on August 29, 2011 | Leave a comment

The proposal deadline for Canavan and Robinson’s Green Planets is in two days. I wish that I had the time to contribute something, but I am writing my diss as if the Devil were on my tail. Read below for the details on this important project:

*CFP for edited collection: /Green Planets: Ecology and Science Fiction/*
Editors: Gerry Canavan and Kim Stanley Robinson (ecologyandsciencefiction@gmail.com <mailto:ecologyandsciencefiction@gmail.com>)
*Abstracts due August 31, 2011*
*Final essays due Summer 2012*

We are seeking proposals for an edited collection tentatively titled /Green Planets: Ecology and Science Fiction,/ with completed essays due in Summer 2012. We seek contributions that touch on any aspect of the relationship between ecological science, environmentalism, and SF, with particular attention to such topics as:

* ecological futurity and ecocriticism in SF
* visions of eco-disaster, eco-catastrophe, and eco-apocalypse
* strategies for ecotopia
* “the globe” and global thinking in SF
* science fictional critiques of global capitalism, consumerism, and ecological racism
* social justice as an ecological technology
* narratives of political resistance
* SF as it figures within current public debate about ecological science (climate change, Peak Oil, etc)
* philosophies and fantasies of Nature
* narratives of evolution, extinction, and extermination
* eco-feminist SF
* reproductive futurity
* ecology and Afrofuturism
* ecology, digitality, and techno-optimism
* terraforming and other narratives of space colonization
* aliens, alien worlds, xenobiology, and exo-ecology
* ecological thinking as a strategy for cognitive estrangement
* ecological critiques of particular unscientific or anti-ecological science fictions, or critiques of the history of the genre as a whole

We hope to produce a collection that speaks to the long history of ecological SF, ranging from the climate change that prompts the Martian invasion in /War of the Worlds/ to /Oryx and Crake, The Wind-Up Girl, Avatar,/ and /WALL-E/ (and everything else before, after, and between). We likewise intend “SF” in its broadest possible sense, to include fantasy and horror literature alongside “science fiction” more narrowly construed, and hope to receive submissions that properly reflect SF as a diverse and global genre.

Please direct all queries, questions, and submissions to ecologyandsciencefiction@gmail.com. <mailto:ecologyandsciencefiction@gmail.com> Abstracts should be around 250-300 words; submissions should also include contact information and a short bio. Please plan for final essays to range between 4000-8000 words.

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Posted in cfp, Science Fiction

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Gary Westfahl’s The Mechanics of Wonder

Posted on August 28, 2011 | 6 Comments

I just finished reading Gary Westfahl’s The Mechanics of Wonder as part of the research on my dissertation’s important theoretical chapter.

I wish that I had known about and read this book a long time ago. I have heard some of the things that he argues about Hugo Gernsback and John W. Campbell, Jr. in other places, but I see now that those other places likely based or were inspired by Westfahl’s book.

Having read The Mechanics of Wonder, I am persuaded by Westfahl’s arguments that science fiction came to be what it was from the work of Gernsback and Campbell. Their delayed influence on the writing taking place in the genre appears to have had profound implications. For the most part, Westfahl’s rigorous approach to evidence and his claims based on that evidence are very well received.

This is not to say that I am giving up my Aldiss or Suvin. I find their work equally stimulating even if their historical claims might not always be on target. I believe that we can find earlier examples of science fiction even if they are not part of the modern instantiation of the genre itself. Can we not say that a particular work is science fictional? Can we not go so far as to say that a given work is part of the science fiction genre, because it shares all of the characteristics of the work even if it was not yet part of the genre due to its chronological deficiencies?

Likewise, I believe that structuralist approaches such as that undertaken by Suvin are useful for understanding the mechanics of the science fiction genre. In fact, Suvin provides an advantageous link between two different spheres of knowledge in my theory chapter. Westfahl’s careful reading does knock a few sizable holes in Metamorphoses of Science Fiction, but I will gladly salvage the concept of cognitive estrangement.

The Mechanics of Wonder is a must-read for everyone studying science fiction. Westfahl not only presents compelling evidence, he also provides a demanding model for scholarly rigor and engagement of evidence.

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Posted in Science Fiction

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End of Summer Updates

Posted on August 27, 2011 | Leave a comment

I completed my entry on “cyborgs” for the Ashgate Encyclopedia of Literary and Cinematic Monsters, edited by Jeffrey Weinstock. I am excited to see this work published, because its entries will pack a research-powered punch!

I am reading Gary Westfahl’s work on Hugo Gernsback and John W. Campbell, Jr. I am also collecting old issues of Amazing Stories for my research. Many thanks to Lisa Yaszek for that after-session conversation in Poland. This is the turn that my chapter needed.

I had a wonderful time with my friends yesterday at Bert and Robin’s house. While Bert was busy running his catering business, Robin hosted a bunch of us graduate students for steaks and good cheer. Y made a delicious fruit pie (following a recipe that our friends in Switzerland gave us).

Y, M, and I enjoyed Japanese cuisine and sushi tonight at Sakura followed by a visit to Barnes & Noble and Wal-Mart. I now find visiting bookstores a depressing affair, because I do not have time to read many books that I would like to read as a result of my studying and writing about books for my dissertation. I have to remind myself: This too shall pass.

 

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Posted in Kent State, Personal

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The Resignations Continue: CmdrTaco Steps Down from Slashdot

Posted on August 26, 2011 | Leave a comment

Rob Malda (aka CmdrTaco), the founder of Slashdot.org, resigned from Slashdot yesterday. Slashdot has been a go-to daily read for me for at least ten years. Many thanks to Rob for kickstarting such a wonderful blog about technology, science, online rights, and a bit more. Leave your thank yous and kind regards to Rob in this thread.

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Posted in Computers, Technology

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I Guess This Just About Sums Up Steve Jobs’ Life So Far

Posted on August 25, 2011 | Leave a comment

I don’t think Steve Jobs’ biography by Walter Isaacson will be nearly as true to the facts as this high production value video (I kid!).

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Posted in Apple, Computers, Technology

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First Sentences in Response to Steven P. Jobs’ Resignation as CEO of Apple

Posted on August 25, 2011 | Leave a comment

Steve Jobs’ departure from the the CEO seat at Apple has overshadowed much of everything else that is going on in the world today. It is a big deal that the prodigal son returned to Apple to set his old family home in order. Now, he is handing the reigns of the most relevant and commanding technology company in the world to former Apple COO Tim Cook.

I was thinking earlier today what was the first thing, i.e., the first sentence, of the major reports on Jobs’ resignation. I wanted to preserve these things as a sort of initializing string of the reports on Jobs’ decision as a way to think through what I ought to be concerned about but honestly don’t find myself caring about as much as I thought I might. Below are some of the sentences that I found today. More thoughts to come later.

The New York Times

Jobs Steps Down at Apple, Saying He Can’t Meet Duties

By David Streitfeld

Steven P. Jobs, whose insistent vision that he knew what consumers wanted made Apple one of the world’s most valuable and influential companies, is stepping down as chief executive, the company announced late Wednesday.

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The Washington Post

Steve Jobs resigns as Apple CEO

By Michael S. Rosenwald

Apple chief executive Steve Jobs, who almost single-handedly changed the way people around the world consume music, the Internet and even TV, announced late Wednesday that he has resigned as leader of the company he co-founded in his parents’ garage.

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Los Angeles Times

Steve Jobs resigns as Apple CEO but named company chairman

By Walter Hamilton, Dawn Chmielewski and David Sarno

Steve Jobs, the visionary co-founder of Apple Inc. and driving force behind a string of products that revolutionized the consumer-electronics industry, stepped down as chief executive but was named chairman of the board, the company said late Wednesday.

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CNN

Internet mourns Steve Jobs’ resignation

By John D. Sutter

It’s a moment many tech fans hoped never would come: Steve Jobs’ resignation from the helm of Apple, which he co-founded from his family garage in 1976.

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MacWorld

Steve Jobs resigns as Apple CEO

By Jason Snell

After 14 years as Apple’s CEO, Steve Jobs resigned his post on Wednesday and was replaced by Tim Cook, who previously was the company’s Chief Operating Officer. Jobs, in turn, was elected as chairman of Apple’s board of directors.

 

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Posted in Apple, Technology

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Steve Jobs Resigns as Apple CEO, Elected to Chairman of the Board

Posted on August 24, 2011 | Leave a comment

According to Yahoo! Finance here, Steve Jobs tendered his resignation to the board of Apple today. Tim Cook was named CEO (he had been acting CEO since Jobs’ past illness), and Jobs was elected Chairman of the Board. These are simultaneously exciting and worrisome changes at the innovating computing company. I believe that Jobs accomplished what he set out to do, which was to pull Apple back from the brink and make it THE standard for computing hardware and software innovation. I hope that Cook can carry Apple forward without suffering the kind of internal divide-and-conquer that has sapped companies like Microsoft and HP.

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Posted in Apple, Computers

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Just Felt Our Second Ohio Earthquake

Posted on August 23, 2011 | 5 Comments

I noticed that our cat Miao was very confused when the window blinds began to wave, the tower fan swayed back and forth, and the futon vibrated. CNN is saying that there was an earthquake in Virginia near DC. I wonder we felt that, or if there was another event connecting that event to what happened in Colorado earlier today.

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Posted in Personal, Science

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