Fights of Fancy : Armed Conflict in Science Fiction and Fantasy

by Slusser, George Edgar; Rabkin, Eric S.

• ISBN13: 9780820315331
• ISBN10: 0820315338
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1993-05-01
• Publisher: Univ of Georgia Pr

Summary

This collection of fifteen original essays offers new perspectives on armed conflict as a central aspect of science fiction and fantasy writing. Looking past the superficial conventions associated with ray guns and aliens, swords and sorcerers, the contributors show how writers in the genre today are not so much imagining war more fully as they are completely re-imagining it. Science fiction and fantasy writing is no longer mired in epic or chivalric models but is responding to new and more complex "real-world" motivations for armed aggression: advances in weaponry, shifts in the theaters of war, and changes in battlefield conditions.Most of the papers were presented at the annual J. Lloyd Eaton Conference on Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature, the field's most prestigious international gathering. The trend throughout the book is away from critical interest in stories of spatial or territorial conquest and toward works that deal with topics related to wars of temporal logistics and the internationalization of the combat zone, including urban street violence, gender conflicts, and resistance to runaway technology. The essays range from studies of the semantics and linguistics of warfare in science fiction to a critique of Osip Senkovsky'sFantastic Journeys of Baron Brambeus; from writer Joe Haldeman's assessment of the impact of his Vietnam experiences on his fiction to inquiries into a shared author/reader agenda in novels concerning potential mass destruction, including Stephen King'sDead Zoneand M. J. Engh'sArslan. The collection also charts new directions in writing, such as the anti-apocalyptic science fiction of Samuel R. Delany, and embraces new modes of presentation, particularly computer animation and the bande dessinee, or illustrated narrative, as exemplified by French novelist Phillippe Druillet'sLa Nuit. Musician Bob Marley, film actor/directors Sylvester Stallone and Bruce Lee, and the cyberpunk film classicsTerminatorand theRoad Warriorseries are among other topics discussed.Together, the essays reinforce the editors' contention that the true function of these fantasies and science fictions is neither nostalgia nor fancy, but analysis. The contributors treat the texts they examine as a means not of playing war games but of understanding the role of war in the present and the future.

Author Biography

George Slusser is a professor of comparative literature and director of the Eaton Program for Science Fiction and Fantasy Studies at the University of California, Riverside. Eric S. Rabkin is a professor of English at the University of Michigan.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Wars Old and New: The Changing Nature of Fictional Combat	p. 1
Reimagining War	p. 12
Science Fiction and the Semantics of Conflict	p. 26
Wrangling Conversation: Linguistic Patterns in the Dialogue of Heroes and Villains	p. 35
Warfare Celestial and Terrestrial: Osip Senkovsky's 1833 Russian Science Fantasy	p. 49
"The Evils of a Long Peace": Desiring the Great War	p. 59
Armed Conflict in the Science Fiction of H. G. Wells	p. 70
Fights of Fancy: When the "Better Half" Wins	p. 79
Vietnam and Other Alien Worlds	p. 92
Evolution and Salvation: The Iconic Origins of Druillet's Monstrous Combatants of the Night	p. 103
You're History, Buddy: Postapocalyptic Visions in Recent Science Fiction Film	p. 114
The Apocalyptic Mirage: Violence and Eschatology in Dhalgren	p. 132
Demonic Therapy: Reading the Holy Word in the Mushroom Cloud	p. 145
The Hidden Agenda	p. 155
Third World Fantasies	p. 170
Solos, Solitons, Info, and Invasion in (and of) Science Fiction Film	p. 194
Contributors	p. 209
Index	p. 211
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