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. |
From inside the book
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... Science fiction tries to do much the same24 —and write up, in story form, what the results look like when applied not only to machines but to human society as well.25 A Mythology of Tomorrow At an extreme remove from Campbell's.
... Science fiction tries to do much the same24 —and write up, in story form, what the results look like when applied not only to machines but to human society as well.25 A Mythology of Tomorrow At an extreme remove from Campbell's.
Page 4
... human beings to make themselves better understand the universe and even to alter some parts of it for their own ... humans have employed systematised knowledge prior to the present blessed epoch ? Well , explains Asimov , it is the rate ...
... human beings to make themselves better understand the universe and even to alter some parts of it for their own ... humans have employed systematised knowledge prior to the present blessed epoch ? Well , explains Asimov , it is the rate ...
Page 5
... human thought and human ingenuity that was the agent of the change ' : We can then define science fiction as that branch of literature that deals with the human response to changes in the level of science and technology - it being ...
... human thought and human ingenuity that was the agent of the change ' : We can then define science fiction as that branch of literature that deals with the human response to changes in the level of science and technology - it being ...
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... human is alien to the poet , and if the human practice of science should ever receive general currency its subject matter will perforce enter the discourse of letters . An example of just this is Don DeLillo's White Noise , 19 a novel ...
... human is alien to the poet , and if the human practice of science should ever receive general currency its subject matter will perforce enter the discourse of letters . An example of just this is Don DeLillo's White Noise , 19 a novel ...
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... human society as well.25 A MYTHOLOGY OF TOMORROW At an extreme remove from Campbell's positivist prospectus , sf is often claimed as the myth - form of the industrial age . Whether or not sf is best identified as myth , it clearly has ...
... human society as well.25 A MYTHOLOGY OF TOMORROW At an extreme remove from Campbell's positivist prospectus , sf is often claimed as the myth - form of the industrial age . Whether or not sf is best identified as myth , it clearly has ...
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