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Science fiction culture

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University of Pennsylvania Press, 2000 - Social Science - 317 pages

In a century that has taken us from the horse and buggy to the world wide web, science fiction has established itself as the literature to explore the ways in which technology transforms society while its counterpart, genre fantasy, insistently reminds us of the magical transformations of the individual in response to the demands of the social. So it should come as no surprise that the fans and producers of these genres come together to create the culture of the future around the ideal that tales of wonder about the future and the imaginary past can be shared as both symbolic communication and social capital.

In Science Fiction Culture, Camille Bacon-Smith explores the science fiction community and its relationships with the industries that sustain it, including the publishing, computer, and hotel/convention industries, and explores the issue of power in those relationships: Who seems to have it? Who does have it? How do they use it? What are the results of that use? In the process, Bacon-Smith rejects the two major theoretical perspectives on mass culture reception. Consumers are not passive receivers of popular culture produced by the hegemonic ideology machine that is the mass media industry, nor are they rebels valiantly resisting that machine by reading against the grain of the interpretation designed into the products they consume.

Bacon-Smith argues that the relationship between consumers of science fiction and producers is much more complex than either of these theories suggests. Using a wide range of theoretical perspectives, she shows that this relationship is based on a series of continuing negotiations across a broad spectrum of cultural interests.

  

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Selected pages

Contents

Introduction
1
Creating the Landscape
7
The Secret Masters of Fandom
11
Worldcon Mobile Geography in Real Time
31
The Cyberscape GEnie and the Rise of the Internet
63
The Women Were Always Here The Obligatory History Lesson
95
Women in Science Fiction The Backlash and Beyond
109
Gay and Lesbian Presence in Science Fiction
135
From Fan to Pro Getting Published
191
BestSellers Short Fiction and Niches
213
Laboring in the Fields of Cultural Production
243
Bulletin Boards EMail and Usenet
267
Notes
269
Bibliography
299
Index
313
Acknowledgments
319

Youth Culture
155
Sexual Identity and Fandom
173
Copyright

Other editions - View all

Science fiction culture
Science fiction culture
Camille Bacon-Smith
Snippet view - 2000

Common terms and phrases

ahnost Amelia G anthology audience Baen Balticon best-seller bookstores Boskone Bujold C. J. Cherryh characters club committee ConFrancisco costume created cyberpunk Darkover Dragon e-mail editor Ethnographer fan community fannish fanzines fat fantasy feminist fiction and fantasy field fuid gay and lesbian Gaylaxicon GEnie genre going goths guest of honor hard science fiction horror Hugo Awards industry interest Internet interview Joanna Russ literary literature look magazines MagiCon mainstream male Marion Zimmer Marion Zimmer Bradley Martha Soukup mass-market novel organizers panel participants Peter Heck postmodern production professionals publishing readers science fiction community science fiction convention science fiction culture science fiction fandom science fiction fans seems sell sexual short fiction short story Shwartz small press SMOFs social space Star Ttek sysop talk television things tion Usenet Wollheim women Worldcon Yalow

Popular passages

Page 304 - Haraway, Simians, Cyborgs, and Women: The Reinvention of Nature, New York: Routledge, 1991, p.‎
Appears in 297 books from 1986-2008

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References from web pages

Camille Bacon-Smith: Science Fiction Culture
In her study Science Fiction Culture, Camille Bacon-Smith brings a sociologist’s perspective to the strange activities and relationships SF fans have with ...
www.sfsite.com/ ~silverag/ bacon.html

Science Fiction Culture | Bacon-Smith, Camille
In Science Fiction Culture, Camille Bacon-Smith explores the science fiction community and its relationships with the industries that sustain it, ...
www.upenn.edu/ pennpress/ book/ 13333.html

Newfolk ndif: The Cybergoth in Science Fiction Culture
The Cybergoth explotion in Science Fiction Culture, in New Directions in Folklore 3 (formerly the Impromptu Journal) May/July, 1999.
www.temple.edu/ isllc/ newfolk/ goth1.html

articles: Bacon-Smith, Camille - Science Fiction Culture (2000)
과학소설 공동체 연구 Camille Bacon-Smith, Science Fiction Culture (2000). Bacon-smith_sf_culture.gif. "SF 공동체(SF Community)"에 관한 귀중한 정보를 담은 ...
inkeehong.com/ articles/ 02_reviews_on_everything/ 36_baconsmith_camille_science_fiction_culture_2000.html

**UW-madisonlis571f99dalbello*syllabus
Science Fiction Culture. (University of Pennsylvania Press). Janice Radway. 1991. Reading the Romance: Women, Patriarchy, and Popular Literature. Rev. ed. ...
www.scils.rutgers.edu/ ~dalbello/ courses/ 549/ 549s2002syllabus.html

Sarah Brouillette - Corporate Publishing and Canonization ...
8 Often, those talented people were fans formerly associated with specialty presses and heavily invested in the history of science-fiction culture. ...
muse.jhu.edu/ journals/ book_history/ v005/ 5.1brouillette.html

Reviews: March 2001
Science Fiction Culture is a wonderful detonation device. ... Science Fiction Culture functions as a guide for initiating this concern; it helps the sf ...
www.depauw.edu/ SFs/ birs/ bir83a.htm

Geek Culture: An Annotated Interdisciplinary Bibliography
Bacon-Smith's more recent Science Fiction Culture offers a broader scope, ... Science Fiction Culture examines the world of the overlapping genres science ...
reconstruction.eserver.org/ 011/ GeekCulture.htm

JSTOR: Whose Community? Where Is the "YA" in YA Literature?
Camille Bacon-Smith describes a contem- porary example of communitas in an excerpt from Science Fiction Culture. A masquerade is held each year as part of ...
links.jstor.org/ sici?sici=0013-8274(200207)91%3A6%3C70%3AWCWIT%22%3E2.0.CO%3B2-1

norli.no :: BOKDETALJER: Science Fiction Culture
Science Fiction Culture. Forfatter: Bacon-Smith, Camille. Forlag: University of Pennsylvania Pre. Språk: Engelsk. Antall sider: 336 ...
www.norli.no/ NORLI_HTML/ ibeCCtpItmDspRte.jsp?item=303693

About the author (2000)

Camille Bacon-Smith is the author of several books, including Enterprising Women: Television Fandom and the Creation of Popular Myth, also available from the University of Pennsylvania Press, The Face of Time, and Eyes of the Empress.

Bibliographic information

QR code for Science fiction culture
TitleScience fiction culture
Feminist Cultural Studies, the Media and Political Culture
AuthorCamille Bacon-Smith
PublisherUniversity of Pennsylvania Press, 2000
ISBN0812215303, 9780812215304
Length317 pages
Subjects › 

Literary Criticism / Science Fiction & Fantasy
Social Science / Popular Culture
  
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