Description: List of Figures Note on References A Personal Preface What SF Is 1 Coming Out of the Science Fiction Closet ?Learning to Read Science Fiction? 2 Rejecting Gesture Politics ?Literary Gatekeepers and the Fabril Tradition? 3 Getting Away from the Facilior Lectio ?Semiotic Ghosts and Ghostlinesses in the Work of Bruce Sterling? SF and Change 4 Getting Serious with the Fans ?Science Fiction and the Idea of History? 5 Getting to Grips with the Issue of Cultures ? ?Cultural Engineering: A Theme in Science Fiction? 6 ? And Not Fudging the Issue! ??People are Plastic?: Jack Vance and the Dilemma of Cultural Relativism? 7 SF Authors Really Mean what they Say ?Alternate Historians: Newt, Kingers, Harry and Me? 8 A Revealing Failure by the Critics ?Kingsley Amis?s Science Fiction and the Problems of Genre? 9 A Glimpse of Structuralist Possibility ?The Golden Bough and the Incorporations of Magic in Science Fiction? 10 Serious Issues, Serious Traumas, Emotional Depth ?The Magic Art and the Evolution of Words: Ursula Le Guin?s ?Earthsea? Trilogy? SF and Politics 11 A First Encounter with Politics ?The Cold War in Science Fiction, 1940?1960? 12 Language Corruption, and Rocking the Boat ?Variations on Newspeak: The Open Question of Nineteen Eighty-Four? 13 Just Before the Disaster ?The Fall of America in Science Fiction? 14 Why Politicians, and Producers, Should Read Science Fiction ?The Critique of America in Contemporary Science Fiction? 15 Saying (When Necessary) the Lamentable Word ?Starship Troopers, Galactic Heroes, Mercenary Princes: The Military and its Discontents in Science Fiction? References Index

Please Wait