This Is Not a Science Fiction Textbook

by Mark Bould (Editor), Steven Shaviro (Editor)

Science fiction as a vital bridge between technoscience and culture, an early warning system, a method for imagining differently.

In the new millennium, science fiction has moved from the margins to the mainstream. At the same time, it has undergone massive transformations. No longer can it be derided as indigestible technobabble or escapist trash or a white man’s playground—not that it ever really was. Sf is rich and diverse, serious, and fun. A vital bridge between technoscience and culture, it is an early warning system, a method for imagining differently, and a way of experiencing our increasingly science-fictional world. It is the vernacular of the 21st century.

This Is Not A Science Fiction Textbook brings together leading sf scholars, including some of the most exciting new critical voices, to introduce the genre for the general reader. Its first part outlines some key ideas used to think about sf, such as Estrangement, Extrapolation, and Alterity. Its second part maps some of the genre’s global history, from the Enlightenment and European colonialism to Indigenous and African Futurisms. Its third part surveys sf at the turn of the 2020s, organised by concepts, movements and new academic disciplines, from Afrofuturism and Animal Studies to Queer Theory and the Weird—and each chapter, whether it is on Climate Fiction or Neurodiversity, is accompanied by an introduction to a major contemporary novel and film.

Genres: Science Fiction

168 pages, Paperback

Published February 6, 2024

Reviews

[Kazen]

I was so excited to pick this up, only to find that the kindle edition is essentially a scanned pdf and impossible to read comfortably on a phone or my ereader. I'm guessing they wanted to preserve the formatting, but there's no reason this couldn't have been a regular ebook with text you can change the size and font of. And unlike a pdf it's not searchable or highlight-able. Ugh. You'd think people writing about SF would be more tech savvy.

Sadly inaccessible to me (and many others) in its current digital form.

[Jannik Fogt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mit nye go-to opslagsværk om everything science fiction. Kort og præcis med tonsvis af henvisninger til flere film og bøger at nærsturderer. Et lille værk fyldt med store tanker, ideer og litterære greb.

[Nick · Rating 3 out of 5]

The authors encouraged jumping around this fast-paced academic "non-textbook." I feel that if I had taken their advice, the book would have been even more enjoyable. To be sure, reading through each chapter gives you the impression that "they know what they are talking about." It is fully detailed, without drowning the causal reader. A few of the editorial decisions leave something to be desired. Reading from cover to cover, as I did, you get bogged down by the "leftist" tone. I lost count of how many times 'colonialism" was mentioned. A slower read would have made that less of a pain. Despite that criticism, this book plays an important role: a catalog of titles. Sure, they have several titles that are repeated over and over again, yet there is such a diversity of titles and authors, any sci-fi fan would walk away with a much longer TBR. That reason along makes this book worth the read.

[Michelle Scott Roark · Rating 4 out of 5]

SF essays about the many sub-genres. Interesting and the lists of books will be increasing my TBR pile as well.

[ASC Library]

809.38762 Thi