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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Page vii
... word Sf after 19 ? Changing paradigms 2 GENERIC ENGINEERING Out of the pulps Science fiction's formulae How much change ? Uncanny and marvellous Diagramming the fantastic Cognitive and estranged New words , new sentences 3 GENRE OR MODE ...
... word Sf after 19 ? Changing paradigms 2 GENERIC ENGINEERING Out of the pulps Science fiction's formulae How much change ? Uncanny and marvellous Diagramming the fantastic Cognitive and estranged New words , new sentences 3 GENRE OR MODE ...
Page ix
... words The interpretative context 10 SF AS A MODULAR CALCULUS A mirror for observers Black box and finagle factor The rudder of language Writing in phase space Conceptual breakthrough 11 THE MULTIPLICITY OF WORLDS , OF OTHERS Art as play ...
... words The interpretative context 10 SF AS A MODULAR CALCULUS A mirror for observers Black box and finagle factor The rudder of language Writing in phase space Conceptual breakthrough 11 THE MULTIPLICITY OF WORLDS , OF OTHERS Art as play ...
Page xvi
... 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 through a collective ' mega - text ' . Chapter 5 finds these ...
... 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 through a collective ' mega - text ' . Chapter 5 finds these ...
Page 3
... word for it , how do you think about it ? ( Samuel R. Delany ) 2 Sf ? Already we are in trouble , because these initials are the accepted abbreviation of a whole sheaf of classificatory terms applied to texts produced and received in ...
... word for it , how do you think about it ? ( Samuel R. Delany ) 2 Sf ? Already we are in trouble , because these initials are the accepted abbreviation of a whole sheaf of classificatory terms applied to texts produced and received in ...
Page 4
... word . Taken together , these comprise the corpus of commercial , usually American , post - World War II sf writing readily available in English.6 THE LINEAGE OF SF Like parvenus attempting to purchase respectability by the adoption of ...
... word . Taken together , these comprise the corpus of commercial , usually American , post - World War II sf writing readily available in English.6 THE LINEAGE OF SF Like parvenus attempting to purchase respectability by the adoption of ...
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