Reading by Starlight: Postmodern Science FictionReading by Starlight explores the characteristics in the writing, marketing and reception of science fiction which distinguish it as a genre. Damien Broderick explores the postmodern self-referentiality of the sci-fi narrative, its intricate coded language and discursive `encyclopaedia'. He shows how, for perfect understanding, sci-fi readers must learn the codes of these imaginary worlds and vocabularies, all the time picking up references to texts by other writers. Reading by Starlight includes close readings of paradigmatic cyberpunk texts and writings by SF novelists and theorists including Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, Brian Aldiss, Patrick Parrinder, Kim Stanley Robinson, John Varley, Roger Zelazny, William Gibson, Fredric Jameson and Samuel R. Delaney. |
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... Darko Suvin, Michael Swanwick, Tzvetan Todorov and John Varley. Damien Broderick, author of The Architecture of Babel: Discourses of Literature and Science, is an award-winning writer who sold his first collection of stories at 20, has ...
... Darko Suvin, Michael Swanwick, Tzvetan Todorov and John Varley. Damien Broderick, author of The Architecture of Babel: Discourses of Literature and Science, is an award-winning writer who sold his first collection of stories at 20, has ...
Page i
... Darko Suvin , Michael Swanwick , Tzvetan Todorov and John Varley . Damien Broderick , author of The Architecture of Babel : Discourses of Literature and Science , is an award - winning writer who sold his first collection of stories at ...
... Darko Suvin , Michael Swanwick , Tzvetan Todorov and John Varley . Damien Broderick , author of The Architecture of Babel : Discourses of Literature and Science , is an award - winning writer who sold his first collection of stories at ...
Page xii
... Darko Suvin . In his Metamorphoses of Science Fiction , 2 Suvin proposed that sf is an ensemble of fiction tales marked by cognition and estrangement ( Suvin , 1979 , p . viii ) , a provocative definition to which I shall return . Suvin ...
... Darko Suvin . In his Metamorphoses of Science Fiction , 2 Suvin proposed that sf is an ensemble of fiction tales marked by cognition and estrangement ( Suvin , 1979 , p . viii ) , a provocative definition to which I shall return . Suvin ...
Page xvi
... Darko Suvin ) . We see that sf is marked by its use of new words put together in new ways . By Chapter 4 , we begin to understand that even this does not account for the way a vast number of sf texts support and contest each other ...
... Darko Suvin ) . We see that sf is marked by its use of new words put together in new ways . By Chapter 4 , we begin to understand that even this does not account for the way a vast number of sf texts support and contest each other ...
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... Darko Suvin's bibliography of sf books published between 1848 and 1900 in the UK comprises 72 pages.20 The two innovative giants are usually held to be Jules Verne and H.G.Wells, the first preceding the second by some 30 years.21 The ...
... Darko Suvin's bibliography of sf books published between 1848 and 1900 in the UK comprises 72 pages.20 The two innovative giants are usually held to be Jules Verne and H.G.Wells, the first preceding the second by some 30 years.21 The ...
Contents
3 | |
GENERIC ENGINEERING | 21 |
GENRE OR MODE? | 38 |
THE USES OF OTHERNESS | 49 |
READING THE EPISTEME | 64 |
DREAMS OF REASON AND UNREASON | 75 |
THE STARS MY DISSERTATION | 89 |
MAKING UP WORLDS | 103 |
SF AS A MODULAR CALCULUS | 128 |
THE MULTIPLICITY OF WORLDS OF OTHERS | 137 |
THE AUTUMNAL CITY | 153 |
Notes | 159 |
Bibliography | 180 |
xi | 193 |
74 | 195 |
ALLOGRAPHY AND ALLEGORY | 117 |
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Common terms and phrases
Aldiss alien allegory attempts attention become called Chapter character cited close codes cognitive common constituted constructed course critical culture death definition Delany Delany's detail developed discourse discussion dream early effect episteme especially example experience fantasy figure force future genre given human ibid icons images imagination important interesting Intersection invention Jameson John kind language late later least less limits linguistic literary literature Lobey Marxism means mega-text metaphor mode move myth narrative never notes novel object offers once perhaps play position possible postmodern precisely question reader reading reality recent reference relation remains science fiction scientific seems semiotic sense sf's signifiers social space specific Stars story Strange structure tell textual theory things thinking tropes true turn universe volume writing