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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Page 4
... modern phenomenon and cannot claim the respectability of age . 12 Leaving aside the remarkable complacency of this passage , surely humans have employed systematised knowledge prior to the present blessed epoch ? Well , explains Asimov ...
... modern phenomenon and cannot claim the respectability of age . 12 Leaving aside the remarkable complacency of this passage , surely humans have employed systematised knowledge prior to the present blessed epoch ? Well , explains Asimov ...
Page 5
... Modern science fiction . Introducing his landmark volume The Astounding Science Fiction Anthology , 13 drawn from the magazine he edited , Campbell announced a stunningly hubristic agenda : Science fiction is the literature of the ...
... Modern science fiction . Introducing his landmark volume The Astounding Science Fiction Anthology , 13 drawn from the magazine he edited , Campbell announced a stunningly hubristic agenda : Science fiction is the literature of the ...
Page 6
... pleasing story which may itself be poetical and true thus circulating a knowledge of the Poetry of Science , clothed in a garb of the Poetry of Life'.17 This can be seen , though , as merely an 6 MODERN SCIENCE FICTION Definitions.
... pleasing story which may itself be poetical and true thus circulating a knowledge of the Poetry of Science , clothed in a garb of the Poetry of Life'.17 This can be seen , though , as merely an 6 MODERN SCIENCE FICTION Definitions.
Page 8
... follows that we may learn more about any genre by examining its readership than by studying its writers . ( ibid . , pp . 143-5 ) While Disch is here neither exactly proclaiming the death of 8 MODERN SCIENCE FICTION A mythology of tomorrow.
... follows that we may learn more about any genre by examining its readership than by studying its writers . ( ibid . , pp . 143-5 ) While Disch is here neither exactly proclaiming the death of 8 MODERN SCIENCE FICTION A mythology of tomorrow.
Page 10
... a sign of bad faith . One's taste matures , after all , and even the most faithful cultural pluralist or practitioner of différance has to confess the frailty of generic writing . To 10 MODERN SCIENCE FICTION Running the universe.
... a sign of bad faith . One's taste matures , after all , and even the most faithful cultural pluralist or practitioner of différance has to confess the frailty of generic writing . To 10 MODERN SCIENCE FICTION Running the universe.
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