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 x
... SF and the Postmodern ' ( No. 30 , February 1991 ) ; ' Reading SF as a Mega - Text ' ( No. 47 , July 1992 ) and ' The Object of Science Fiction ' ( No. 58 , July 1993 ) . Meridian : ' SF as a Mode ' ( Vol . 11 , No. 2 , October 1992 ) ...
... SF and the Postmodern ' ( No. 30 , February 1991 ) ; ' Reading SF as a Mega - Text ' ( No. 47 , July 1992 ) and ' The Object of Science Fiction ' ( No. 58 , July 1993 ) . Meridian : ' SF as a Mode ' ( Vol . 11 , No. 2 , October 1992 ) ...
Page xii
Postmodern Science Fiction Damien Broderick. to be false science ? All too often , the ... sf - theoretic locus in the pioneering writings of Darko Suvin . In his ... texts , produced and read via their distinctive narrative strategies and ...
Postmodern Science Fiction Damien Broderick. to be false science ? All too often , the ... sf - theoretic locus in the pioneering writings of Darko Suvin . In his ... texts , produced and read via their distinctive narrative strategies and ...
Page xiii
... sf enthusiasts - by , that is to say , readers and writers with specialised ... writing ) which must be learned by apprenticeship . This necessity , of ... text depends importantly on access to an unusually concentrated * encyclopaedia'3 ...
... sf enthusiasts - by , that is to say , readers and writers with specialised ... writing ) which must be learned by apprenticeship . This necessity , of ... text depends importantly on access to an unusually concentrated * encyclopaedia'3 ...
Page xiv
... sf theory and criticism without a certain familiarity with many sf texts . Just as a brilliantly articulate English user with rudimentary cafe Italian cannot simply pick up Dante or Eco and begin a nuanced enjoyment of The Divine Comedy ...
... sf theory and criticism without a certain familiarity with many sf texts . Just as a brilliantly articulate English user with rudimentary cafe Italian cannot simply pick up Dante or Eco and begin a nuanced enjoyment of The Divine Comedy ...
Page xvi
... Sf's texts , and their special strategies and tactics , have emerged in a number of stages which can be correlated , to some extent , with its historical , economic and ideological contexts . This development - beginning definitively ...
... Sf's texts , and their special strategies and tactics , have emerged in a number of stages which can be correlated , to some extent , with its historical , economic and ideological contexts . This development - beginning definitively ...
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