Science Fiction and the Prediction of the Future

by Westfahl, Gary; Yuen, Wong Kin; Chan, Amy Kit-sze; Palumbo, Donald E.; Sullivan, C. W., III

• ISBN13: 9780786458417
• ISBN10: 0786458410
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-02-15
• Publisher: McFarland Publishing

Summary

Science fiction has always intrigued readers with depictions of an unforeseen future. Can the genre actually provide audiences with a glance into the world of tomorrow? This collection of fifteen international and interdisciplinary essays examines the genre's predictions and breaks new ground by considering the prophetic functions of science fiction films, As well as science fiction literature. Among the texts and topics examined are classic stories by Murray Leinster, C. L. Moore, and Cordwainer Smith; 2001: A Space Odyssey and its sequels, Japanese anime and Hong Kong cinema; and electronic fiction.

Author Biography

Gary Westfahl teaches at the University of California, Riverside. A prolific writer and editor, he earned the Science Fiction Research Association's Pilgrim Award for his lifetime contributions to science fiction and fantasy scholarship. Wong Kin Yuen is the chair of the English department at Hong Kong Shue Yen University and has published broadly on science fiction. Amy Kit-Sze Chan teaches English at Hong Shue Yen University and has published numerous articles on women's issues and cultural studies.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Of Futures Imagined, and Futures Inhabited	p. 1
Cosmic Visions
Pitfalls of Prophecy: Why Science Fiction So Often Fails to Predict the Future	p. 9
Emotional Dimensions of Transmimetic Fiction: Emotion, Aesthetics, Ethics, and Rhetoric in Tales of Tomorrow's Science, Technology, and Technoscience	p. 23
The Internet and the Anagogical Myths of Science Fiction	p. 41
Technobodies and the Anxieties of Performance	p. 52
Places of Alterity in Science Fiction	p. 64
The Practice of Prophecy
Future City Toyko: 1909 and 2009	p. 84
Rebooting "A Logic Named Joe": Exploring the Multiple Influences of a Strangely Predictive Mid-1940s Short Story	p. 104
Victims of a Globalized, Radicalized, Technologized World, or, Why the Beatles Needed Help!	p. 120
"A Journey Beyond the Stars": 2001: A Space Odyssey and the Psychedelic Revolution in 1960s Science Fiction	p. 128
The Endless Odyssey: The 2001 Saga and Its Inability to Predict Humanity's Future	p. 135
Intercultural and Interface: Kung Fu as Abstract Machine	p. 171
Post-Genre Cinemas and Post-Colonial Attitude: Hong Kong Meets Paris	p. 189
Writing, Weaving, and Technology	p. 198
The Technological Contours of Contemporary Science Fiction, or, The Science Fiction That Science Fiction Doesn't See	p. 213
Thinking About the Smart Wireless World	p. 220
Bibliography of Works Related to Science Fiction and the Prediction of the Future	p. 229
Bibliography of Other Works Cited in the Text	p. 241
About the Contributors	p. 253
Index	p. 255
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