SciFi in the Mind's Eye Reading Science Through Science Fiction

by Grebowicz, Margret; Bisson, Terry

• ISBN13: 9780812696301
• ISBN10: 0812696301
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2007-10-28
• Publisher: Open Court

Summary

What does our favorite science fiction tell us about the culture of science? What do stories of cyborg women and genetic engineering show us about how science and values interact and hoW science and politics affect each other? In SciFi in the Mind's Eye, leading scholars look at the way science fiction informs and inspires contemporary research in science and technology, and how scientific breakthroughs spur authors on to yet more creativ science fiction narratives. Alongside investigations into the meaning of science fiction, SciFi in the Mind's Eye gives us previously unpublished 'interventions' by acclaimed science fiction authors L. Timmel Duchamp, Nicola Griffith, Nancy Kress, Terry Bisson, and Stanislaw Lem. Book jacket.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. xi
Introduction: Down to Earth	p. xiii
Races
Race through the Alpha Quadrant: Species and Destiny on Star Trek	p. 3
The Island of Dr. Moreau: Interpretation of Images of Race and Species	p. 25
It's in the Meat: Science, Fiction, and the Politics of Ignorance	p. 39
How to Do Things with Ideas	p. 59
Genders
Pygmalion's Legacy: Cyborg Women in Science Fiction	p. 73
Tepper's Republic: Feminist Separatism and the Question of Essence	p. 87
Clone Mothers and Others: Uncanny Families	p. 101
Embodying Change: (R)evolutionary Theories of an Alien Synthesis	p. 115
Identity and SF: Story as Science and Fiction	p. 139
Technologies
Sciencepunk: The Influence of Informed Science Fiction on Virtual Reality Research	p. 147
Fictitious Contagions: Computer Viruses in the Science Fiction of the 1970s	p. 165
After the End of the World: Critiques of Technology in Post-Apocalypse Literature	p. 185
Ethics, Science, and Science Fiction	p. 201
SF AS STS
Modest Witnesses? Feminist Stories of Science in Fiction and Theory	p. 213
Cracking the Code: Genomics in Documented Fantasies and Fantastic Documentaries	p. 231
Knowing, Being, and the Reality Police: Science Fiction as Science Studies	p. 243
Between Garlic and Eternity: Fragments from an Interview with Stanislaw Lem	p. 255
At the Limits of the Imagination
Cognitive Constraints on Imagining Other Worlds	p. 263
After the Space Age: Science, Fiction, and Possibility	p. 275
Learning from Ender's Game: Childhood, Education, and War	p. 289
Afterword	p. 301
About the Contributors	p. 305
Index	p. 313
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