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The MIT Press Essential Knowledge
Science Fiction
How science fiction has been a tool for understanding and living through rapid technological change.
The world today seems to be slipping into a science fiction future. We have phones that speak to us, cars that drive themselves, and connected devices that communicate with each other in languages we don't understand. Depending the news of the day, we inhabit either a technological utopia or Brave New World nightmare. This volume in the MIT Press Essential Knowledge surveys the uses of science fiction. It focuses on what is at the core of all definitions of science fiction: a vision of the world made otherwise and what possibilities might flow from such otherness.
Sherryl Vint is Professor of Science Fiction Media Studies at University of California, Riverside. She is the author of Bodies of Tomorrow, Animal Alterity, and Science Fiction: A Guide for the Perplexed, coauthor of the Routledge Concise History of Science Fiction, and coeditor of The Routledge Companion to Science Fiction (2009).
The world today seems to be slipping into a science fiction future. We have phones that speak to us, cars that drive themselves, and connected devices that communicate with each other in languages we don't understand. Depending the news of the day, we inhabit either a technological utopia or Brave New World nightmare. This volume in the MIT Press Essential Knowledge surveys the uses of science fiction. It focuses on what is at the core of all definitions of science fiction: a vision of the world made otherwise and what possibilities might flow from such otherness.
Sherryl Vint is Professor of Science Fiction Media Studies at University of California, Riverside. She is the author of Bodies of Tomorrow, Animal Alterity, and Science Fiction: A Guide for the Perplexed, coauthor of the Routledge Concise History of Science Fiction, and coeditor of The Routledge Companion to Science Fiction (2009).
224 pages, Kindle Edition
Published February 16, 2021
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About the author
Sherryl Vint
30 books17 followersSherryl Vint is Professor of Media and Cultural Studies and of English at the University of California, Riverside. She is the author of Bodies of Tomorrow, Animal Alterity, and Science Fiction: A Guide for the Perplexed, coauthor of the Routledge Concise History of Science Fiction, and coeditor of The Routledge Companion to Science Fiction.
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Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews
June 7, 2021
Many science fiction fans enjoy also reading books about science fiction (me included), so this addition to the MIT Press Essential Knowledge series is of interest - particularly as Sherryl Vint tells us that she isn't taking the usual route of a history or describing key works, but rather focussing on what 'science fiction can do, how it has been described by a variety of constituencies in distinct ways for multiple ends.'
Vint does recognise that science fiction is many things to many people - but rather than embrace this diversity, she seems determined to force it into a particular image (that you are only likely to appreciate if you can cope with somebody using ‘imaginary’ as a noun rather than an adjective). We are told SF is about change - but I'm not convinced that's accurate. It is about storytelling (which is hardly mentioned here) that asks 'What if?' - so it's not so much about change as things being different. The obsession with change produces an overemphasis on dystopias or reflecting particular groups’ challenges where these often make dull or worthy fiction. Vint just doesn't seem to get the point the reason many of us read SF is not to deeply consider important concepts - it's for enjoyment. To have fun. There's very little fun in this book.
This comes through, for example, in the description of the science journal Nature's decision to have a short SF story in each issue. Vint comments 'Acknowledging that imaginative speculations have their place in scientific histories and in discussions regarding policy making, the preeminent science journal Nature began to publish short original works of SF in 1999, initially as a project to reflect the turn of the millennium, but adopted as a regular feature, Nature’s “Futures” beginning in 2005...' I've contributed several stories to this series: when I asked someone at Nature about the reasoning, they found Vint's justification very amusing, saying that it was done because they could, and they wanted to have some fun.
Leaving aside the strange take on the nature of SF, there were one or two smaller issues. History of science (as opposed to science fiction) is clearly a problem, as we read about 'the widespread cultural interest provoked by Galileo's invention of the telescope.' We're also told that Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics 'have become a starting point for conversations about robotic design and the ethics of a world in which we increasingly interact with them.' Yet almost every book I've read about robot and AI ethics, if it mentions the three laws at all, it does so to quickly point out they are meaningless in practice and to move on.
It doesn't help that we sometimes get a heavy dose of indigestible academic English. So, for example, we read this remarkable single sentence: 'Design choices are the real-world equivalent of what the sf community call worldbuilding, that is, the coproduction of the social and its technology from existing cultural assumptions that create a set of constraints that shape future possibilities: how work and family structures intersect, what kinds of people are considered valuable and why, what is made easy and what is difficult to achieve and the like.'
In the end, this feels like a vegan telling you what a hamburger tastes like, based primarily on what a bunch of other people who don't eat hamburgers have guessed its chemical constituents to be. It's a curious, but ultimately unfulfilling experience.
Vint does recognise that science fiction is many things to many people - but rather than embrace this diversity, she seems determined to force it into a particular image (that you are only likely to appreciate if you can cope with somebody using ‘imaginary’ as a noun rather than an adjective). We are told SF is about change - but I'm not convinced that's accurate. It is about storytelling (which is hardly mentioned here) that asks 'What if?' - so it's not so much about change as things being different. The obsession with change produces an overemphasis on dystopias or reflecting particular groups’ challenges where these often make dull or worthy fiction. Vint just doesn't seem to get the point the reason many of us read SF is not to deeply consider important concepts - it's for enjoyment. To have fun. There's very little fun in this book.
This comes through, for example, in the description of the science journal Nature's decision to have a short SF story in each issue. Vint comments 'Acknowledging that imaginative speculations have their place in scientific histories and in discussions regarding policy making, the preeminent science journal Nature began to publish short original works of SF in 1999, initially as a project to reflect the turn of the millennium, but adopted as a regular feature, Nature’s “Futures” beginning in 2005...' I've contributed several stories to this series: when I asked someone at Nature about the reasoning, they found Vint's justification very amusing, saying that it was done because they could, and they wanted to have some fun.
Leaving aside the strange take on the nature of SF, there were one or two smaller issues. History of science (as opposed to science fiction) is clearly a problem, as we read about 'the widespread cultural interest provoked by Galileo's invention of the telescope.' We're also told that Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics 'have become a starting point for conversations about robotic design and the ethics of a world in which we increasingly interact with them.' Yet almost every book I've read about robot and AI ethics, if it mentions the three laws at all, it does so to quickly point out they are meaningless in practice and to move on.
It doesn't help that we sometimes get a heavy dose of indigestible academic English. So, for example, we read this remarkable single sentence: 'Design choices are the real-world equivalent of what the sf community call worldbuilding, that is, the coproduction of the social and its technology from existing cultural assumptions that create a set of constraints that shape future possibilities: how work and family structures intersect, what kinds of people are considered valuable and why, what is made easy and what is difficult to achieve and the like.'
In the end, this feels like a vegan telling you what a hamburger tastes like, based primarily on what a bunch of other people who don't eat hamburgers have guessed its chemical constituents to be. It's a curious, but ultimately unfulfilling experience.
June 25, 2024
I concur with most of the reviewers here that Sherryl Vint's 2021 contribution to the MIT Press Essential Knowledge series will become an essential tool for any SF syllabus or course that strives to be synthetic and still leave room for further elaboration.
It has become simply impossible (and I say this by cheering this multiplicity) to try and squeeze all the new directions, compact all the heterogeneity and vivacity of contemporary SF into one book. When I think about other non-English, and quite ambitious attempts Niegeschichte: Science Fiction als Kunst- und Denkmaschine at approaching international, outernational and definitely planetary SF, no matter how thick, no matter how in-depth, they still feel incomplete and quite partial in what they provide in what they decide to include or to leave out.
All in all, I prefer S. Vint's take on it since she does not try to summarise the impossible but invokes everything of importance in today's world, clarifying why SF matters today even for those who care shit about SF for one thing. And secondly why we should look for it where one is not supposed to search for it or to find it.
Importantly she does not separate speculative fiction from - SF - in fact, she supports the inclusiveness and ambiguity of S.F. that is not just Science Fiction but is always -Speculative- at its core. In a small Glossary at the end of the book, "Speculative" is defined as "conjectural" or "extrapolative" and traced back to its use by Robert Heinlein in an essay from 1947. The use of speculative for Vint is important since it also points out to the way science as a concept has been complicit in the enslavement and extermination of non-Western others, as well as the dismissal and sidelining of non-Western perspectives and knowledges. One of the most interesting chapters is the one on "Genomics, the Microbiome and Posthumanism". Vint refers to bio-medicine several times in her book. My feeling is that our sociotechnical imaginary and theoretical appraisals are still quite undertheorized, still very much non-biotechnical and non- biological, and that COVID may have the possibility to change this. Medical SF and Intergalactic Hospitals (with the notable exception of James White Hospital Station) are still the odd ones out.
In the age of COVID, we need imaginative ways in which speculative fiction can question our negative biopolitcs as well as counter-actualize the commodification of life via biotechnolgies in order to insure the possibility of constructive biopolitics, one which might take into account the vernacular repurposing of tracking technologies (in China, Taiwan or Korea let's say), the 'health scare' aspect as well as the failing and ailing health care systems around the world that have been reducing costs and number of beds per capita.
This I hope will get explored by Sherryl Vint in a future study Biopolitical Futures in Twenty-First-Century Speculative Fiction. We get a glimpse of that in here in the way cancer research and Henrietta Lacks immortal cell-line story is addressed, or the way historical abuses of African Americans, forced sterilizations as promoted by Social Darwinism or eugenics are mentioned or how Transhumanism has became institutionalized (largely via the work of Nick Bostrom) and how it now reflects the aspirations of multitudes everywhere that did not probably had the chance to open a book of SF (not to mention government policies).
First, I dare say that Sherryl Vint's small volume is the best way for anyone and everybody (nuub or just a passionate fan) to SF theory (and I consider myself the eternal nuub in this direction). Why is that has maybe to do with what could be blandly called the "can-do" spirit it (in tune with John Rieder) of much contemporary thinking (including thinking about 'agency' in the natural world of non human organisms).
There is something actionistic, matter-of-fact and pragmatic in the best of ways (particularly in the way Isabelle Stengers defines pragmatism) in addressing ideas, situations and outcomes that seem to lie beyond the pale of established domains of knowledge and expertise.
Almost automatically and without much ado, SF takes on what basically nobody dares touch upon, maybe because these are things both beyond the reach of philosophy as such or even beyond the current reach of science and technology (as Steven Shaviro Discognition likes to point out). Yes, her introductory volume cannot bring into its fold a lot of the recent SF (just thinking about all the new EN translations from Korean, Latinx, Indian, Arab, Iranian, Chinese, Indonesian etc works of a truly globalized SF - for #SFintranslation one needs to follow Rachel S Cordasco on X/TW).
Nevertheless, Sheryl Vint pays due attention to AfroCyperPunk, or the stakes of how environmental activists draw upon the SF imaginary, or how it has become a vital mode of critique for writers of color, indigenous, Latinx or Asian diasporic.
But this small tome manages to do something else while tracing all these various improbable engagements of SF with our current reality.
From the core of the US academia, it reflects on what still remains to be done, completely aware of its own limitations and all the various forces that have shaped SF as a tool "for understanding and living through rapid technological change" (as the quip on the back sleeve makes clear). It is not a science fiction studies book, but she does incredible work in summarising a lot of essential work done in SF studies, cyberfeminism and postcolonial SF studies (Jameson, Suvin, Luckhurst, Rieder, Csicsery-Ronay Jr etc) along with SF philosophical groundwork (Ernst Bloch, Baudrillard, Haraway), fan studies (Henry Jenkins) as well as any fallout from STS (science and technology studies) or say history or sociology of science that one can use. STS scholar Sheila Jasanoff defined "sociotechnical imaginary" as:
"collectively held, institutionally stabilized, and publicly performed visions of desirable futures,
animated by shared understandings of forms of social life and social order attainable through, and
supportive of, advances in science and technology".
this is taken by Vint only a starting point since there is more at stake. A SF tool kit is here to help out to discern and follow-up on such imaginative jumps and so critically hone and interrogate who is part of this "shared understanding". Especially now since there is so much uncritical intensification and push for 'relentless' (the ominous mantra of Amazon) "Innovation" and "Disruption" in all areas of 21st c life.
With expanding collapse studies, more X-Risk assessments, and the current practice of doomscrolling, her book makes our world as already ongoing and unfinished SF.
She follows various strains that do not immediately strike one as SF proper - but this is just important proof of how invisible, completely unspectacular or inherently SF everything has become in the 21st century. Not even 1985 Haraway's observation in the Cyborg Manifesto about the difference btw social reality and SF being an optical illusion does it justice anymore. What we have been witnessing in the first decade of the 21 century was how the everydayness of SF via multimedia almost instantaneous mainstreaming (TV, radio, movie, YT, 4chan, 8chan, streaming services etc) as well as what Dan Hassler-Forrest recent contribution to The New Routledge Companion to Science Fiction calls "Transmedia and Franchise SF" came to roost. The banality of media conglomerates churning prequels or supplementary expanded universe (MCU) series or political leaders/tech billionaires talking about AIs, Transhumanism or say youtubers weighing in on the impact of crypto currencies, the Economics of Financialization or NFTs (all ways of experiencing economy as a kind of sf) is ample proof of how we indulge our current "sociotechnical imaginary" and how such chitchat is to be heard at Davos meetings as well as finding its own vernacular street level usages.
It has become simply impossible (and I say this by cheering this multiplicity) to try and squeeze all the new directions, compact all the heterogeneity and vivacity of contemporary SF into one book. When I think about other non-English, and quite ambitious attempts Niegeschichte: Science Fiction als Kunst- und Denkmaschine at approaching international, outernational and definitely planetary SF, no matter how thick, no matter how in-depth, they still feel incomplete and quite partial in what they provide in what they decide to include or to leave out.
All in all, I prefer S. Vint's take on it since she does not try to summarise the impossible but invokes everything of importance in today's world, clarifying why SF matters today even for those who care shit about SF for one thing. And secondly why we should look for it where one is not supposed to search for it or to find it.
Importantly she does not separate speculative fiction from - SF - in fact, she supports the inclusiveness and ambiguity of S.F. that is not just Science Fiction but is always -Speculative- at its core. In a small Glossary at the end of the book, "Speculative" is defined as "conjectural" or "extrapolative" and traced back to its use by Robert Heinlein in an essay from 1947. The use of speculative for Vint is important since it also points out to the way science as a concept has been complicit in the enslavement and extermination of non-Western others, as well as the dismissal and sidelining of non-Western perspectives and knowledges. One of the most interesting chapters is the one on "Genomics, the Microbiome and Posthumanism". Vint refers to bio-medicine several times in her book. My feeling is that our sociotechnical imaginary and theoretical appraisals are still quite undertheorized, still very much non-biotechnical and non- biological, and that COVID may have the possibility to change this. Medical SF and Intergalactic Hospitals (with the notable exception of James White Hospital Station) are still the odd ones out.
In the age of COVID, we need imaginative ways in which speculative fiction can question our negative biopolitcs as well as counter-actualize the commodification of life via biotechnolgies in order to insure the possibility of constructive biopolitics, one which might take into account the vernacular repurposing of tracking technologies (in China, Taiwan or Korea let's say), the 'health scare' aspect as well as the failing and ailing health care systems around the world that have been reducing costs and number of beds per capita.
This I hope will get explored by Sherryl Vint in a future study Biopolitical Futures in Twenty-First-Century Speculative Fiction. We get a glimpse of that in here in the way cancer research and Henrietta Lacks immortal cell-line story is addressed, or the way historical abuses of African Americans, forced sterilizations as promoted by Social Darwinism or eugenics are mentioned or how Transhumanism has became institutionalized (largely via the work of Nick Bostrom) and how it now reflects the aspirations of multitudes everywhere that did not probably had the chance to open a book of SF (not to mention government policies).
First, I dare say that Sherryl Vint's small volume is the best way for anyone and everybody (nuub or just a passionate fan) to SF theory (and I consider myself the eternal nuub in this direction). Why is that has maybe to do with what could be blandly called the "can-do" spirit it (in tune with John Rieder) of much contemporary thinking (including thinking about 'agency' in the natural world of non human organisms).
There is something actionistic, matter-of-fact and pragmatic in the best of ways (particularly in the way Isabelle Stengers defines pragmatism) in addressing ideas, situations and outcomes that seem to lie beyond the pale of established domains of knowledge and expertise.
Almost automatically and without much ado, SF takes on what basically nobody dares touch upon, maybe because these are things both beyond the reach of philosophy as such or even beyond the current reach of science and technology (as Steven Shaviro Discognition likes to point out). Yes, her introductory volume cannot bring into its fold a lot of the recent SF (just thinking about all the new EN translations from Korean, Latinx, Indian, Arab, Iranian, Chinese, Indonesian etc works of a truly globalized SF - for #SFintranslation one needs to follow Rachel S Cordasco on X/TW).
Nevertheless, Sheryl Vint pays due attention to AfroCyperPunk, or the stakes of how environmental activists draw upon the SF imaginary, or how it has become a vital mode of critique for writers of color, indigenous, Latinx or Asian diasporic.
But this small tome manages to do something else while tracing all these various improbable engagements of SF with our current reality.
From the core of the US academia, it reflects on what still remains to be done, completely aware of its own limitations and all the various forces that have shaped SF as a tool "for understanding and living through rapid technological change" (as the quip on the back sleeve makes clear). It is not a science fiction studies book, but she does incredible work in summarising a lot of essential work done in SF studies, cyberfeminism and postcolonial SF studies (Jameson, Suvin, Luckhurst, Rieder, Csicsery-Ronay Jr etc) along with SF philosophical groundwork (Ernst Bloch, Baudrillard, Haraway), fan studies (Henry Jenkins) as well as any fallout from STS (science and technology studies) or say history or sociology of science that one can use. STS scholar Sheila Jasanoff defined "sociotechnical imaginary" as:
"collectively held, institutionally stabilized, and publicly performed visions of desirable futures,
animated by shared understandings of forms of social life and social order attainable through, and
supportive of, advances in science and technology".
this is taken by Vint only a starting point since there is more at stake. A SF tool kit is here to help out to discern and follow-up on such imaginative jumps and so critically hone and interrogate who is part of this "shared understanding". Especially now since there is so much uncritical intensification and push for 'relentless' (the ominous mantra of Amazon) "Innovation" and "Disruption" in all areas of 21st c life.
With expanding collapse studies, more X-Risk assessments, and the current practice of doomscrolling, her book makes our world as already ongoing and unfinished SF.
She follows various strains that do not immediately strike one as SF proper - but this is just important proof of how invisible, completely unspectacular or inherently SF everything has become in the 21st century. Not even 1985 Haraway's observation in the Cyborg Manifesto about the difference btw social reality and SF being an optical illusion does it justice anymore. What we have been witnessing in the first decade of the 21 century was how the everydayness of SF via multimedia almost instantaneous mainstreaming (TV, radio, movie, YT, 4chan, 8chan, streaming services etc) as well as what Dan Hassler-Forrest recent contribution to The New Routledge Companion to Science Fiction calls "Transmedia and Franchise SF" came to roost. The banality of media conglomerates churning prequels or supplementary expanded universe (MCU) series or political leaders/tech billionaires talking about AIs, Transhumanism or say youtubers weighing in on the impact of crypto currencies, the Economics of Financialization or NFTs (all ways of experiencing economy as a kind of sf) is ample proof of how we indulge our current "sociotechnical imaginary" and how such chitchat is to be heard at Davos meetings as well as finding its own vernacular street level usages.
June 9, 2021
Reading a discourse like this was helpful in putting names to themes within sci-fi that are attractive to me. Not surprising, the chapter on Genomics, the Microbiome, and Posthumanism describes a set of sci-fi questions that I find fascinating, be it Bujold’s exploration of clones in Mirror Dance or Martine’s postulation of fungi conferring humanity in A Desolation called Peace. The questions of what make us human, when do (or don’t) we see the other as human, and how can we come to value and respect the other are all questions that attract me to this genre.
I was a bit disappointed that there were such limited references to books written in the last ten year but I did like seeing the historical linkages within the thematic areas that Vint chose for the framing and also that she included movie references along with books.
I was a bit disappointed that there were such limited references to books written in the last ten year but I did like seeing the historical linkages within the thematic areas that Vint chose for the framing and also that she included movie references along with books.
March 15, 2021
I love Vint's work and this short work handsomely produced by MIT Press is no exception. A great introduction to the field of science fiction.
December 14, 2021
《沙丘》你看了嗎? 最近幾天滑臉書一直看到男主角提摩西夏勒梅的照片，現在真的是一個小鮮肉霸屏的時代，顏值決定話語權的聲量XD(有臉蛋似乎就該善加利用?!)，看似柔弱卻成為沙丘的救世主，從白瘦弱搖身一變成為全宇宙帝國的主宰，英雄主義實在是歐美文化的基礎啊，從荷馬史詩和奧德賽以降，主角往往半推半就踏上英雄旅途，歷經各種磨難以後，成為征服者名垂青史。
《沙丘》原著科幻小說厚厚一系列六本，它的廣告也一直刷屏動態牆。這讓我想起小時候的閱讀，快要而立的”老人”好像都會開始懷古，最近跟人吃飯討論的都是再過十年就該對人生不惑，但大家都越活越困惑，理想的幻滅大概就是這種感受吧呵呵。科幻小說是我最初接觸閱讀的起點，大約2005年左右開始，一路讀下來竟然默默的見證科幻在台灣開花結果的歷程。
科幻小說在20世紀的西方文學裡是不被重視的分支，屬於極小眾的文學，甚至被嘲諷不入流。科幻小說的起源眾說紛紜，不同的學派給出各種定義。有些學者會追溯至古希臘，有點像八旗文化出版的書《天工，諸神，機械人：希臘神話與遠古文明的工藝科技夢》這種感覺，古人的思想天馬行空，許多古文明都有科技擬人化的想像，這確實可以當作某種科幻作品。若比較純粹從文學性的角度出發，《科學怪人》是諸多科幻研究者公認的始祖，它的框架定義了整個類型的未來發展。
時間來到19世紀末，法國的凡爾納和英國的HG威爾斯開拓了新疆域，讓科技與人文完美交織，編寫出精彩叫座的科幻故事。說到這裡，關於19世紀的文學，它有一種難以言喻的迷人魅力，在科幻小說的世界觀設定中，最經典的就是維多利亞女王統治的那個年代，Victorian London，工業革命已經成熟，科學革命迎來跳躍式的突破，蒸汽機讓人類文明的發展騰飛，已經逝去卻又鮮活的時代，轉換為一種稱做”蒸氣龐克”的科幻流派。
我的kindle裡有一本書《Gaslight: Lantern Slides from the Nineteenth Century》，透過燈影迷離的幻燈片視角，檢視19世紀如何形塑20乃至21世紀的今日世界，這種文化語境的探索太過奧妙，三言兩語難以道盡，等我哪天讀完這本書有力氣再來寫寫讀後感~自己讀了那麼多書，已經理解何謂歷史是一種動態的延續，引領人類的思潮其實有脈絡可循，可惜21世紀的今天竟然是快樂哲學在牽引大眾。偏偏我喜愛的閱讀主題又是這種”旁門左道”，唉…不過murmur這種主題也不會炎上，也是不錯!
時間進入20世紀，1920年代開始，歐美有越來越多的作家投入科幻小說的創作中。這跟台灣文化界很愛引用的一種概念雷同，出自班雅明的經典哲學著作《機械複製時代的藝術作品》，它的概念就是在工業時代，一切事物都能大量複製(愛情也是)，古代的藝術創作講求靈光及來自心靈的真實感，但到了20世紀，這種大量複製使藝術的存在變得浮濫，甚至粗糙低俗。有趣的是，這種概念正是安迪沃荷等人的創作精神，把一些大眾化的商品(康寶湯罐頭)、符碼、名人圖像(瑪麗蓮夢露)複製拼湊，竟然成為20世紀美國藝術的時代精神。21世紀更把這種概念推展至極致，最近不是很流行NFT藝術品嗎? 我在工作上竟然也有處理到這種案件! 跟同事討論，我們都搖搖頭說跟不上時代了。
這本書是麻省理工學院出版社推出的一系列精緻書系MIT Press Essential Knowledge Series，我已經成為本書系的死忠讀者了，正如書介these compact volumes offers readers a point of access to complex ideas，碎片化時代的學習已經索然無味，還好在資訊超載的同時，出版業依然有這種與時俱進的用心，把篇幅縮減至穠纖合度的腰身，摟起來超級舒服啦! 打個不恰當的比喻，這些書就像選妃，每一位都國色天香，況且在知識的領域並沒有一夫一妻制，所以讀者大可開後宮，所謂環肥燕瘦，但現代崇尚瘦身，共享良辰美景，夜夜春宵，昨夜雨疏風驟，卻道海棠依舊。
這本書的作者是加州大學河灣分校的媒體、文化研究、英語教授，看她的論文被不少人引用，應該也是這個領域的意見領袖吧。這本書把科幻小說視為一種思想上的工具(conceptual tool)，探討如何將其應用於日常生活。讀完一些哲學性的著作以後，我愛上這種所謂的conceptual tool，工欲善其事，必先利其器。當代資本社會不存在任何人類的情感因子，個體生命只是利潤生產器，所以要努力取得學位、證照、實習，把生活建構在專業技能的養成之上，終極目的就是賺錢。踏入社會以後的每個人，往往開始懷念學生時代，天真爛漫的理想還沒被現實磨滅，想當年多渴望精神上的歸宿及成長呀! 隨著工作資歷積累，茫然油然而生，最近幾年也有越來越多書籍探討心理/精神疾病為何逐漸蔓延，佛洛伊德那一套在美國發揚光大的精神分析系統，也慢慢在台灣紮根。看一下暢銷書排行榜，就會感嘆現代人精神壓力之大，包含我在內的社畜們該一起喊一聲:共勉之!
這讓我想到一本前幾年的紐時年度好書《我們在存在主義咖啡館：那些關於自由、哲學家與存在主義的故事》，沙特、卡繆、西蒙波娃等二十世紀的思想巨擘為什麼會流芳百世? 很大程度上正因他們提供了一種思想上的框架，當時兩次世界大戰讓歐美文明陷入精神上的低谷，19世紀末~20世紀初因為科技的進步及科學上的發現(如達爾文的演化論)，當時社會上瀰漫著一股樂觀氛圍，認為人定勝天，這就是人類文明發展的極致，人類終將走上一條康莊大道，沒想到接下來科技(如核武器)成為國與國互相毀滅的道具，納粹工業式的種族滅絕讓全世界見識到人性最黑暗的一面，惡的平庸性! 若你去讀這時期歐美作家的文學作品，這種精神上悵然若失的無根狀態，讓整個世代陷入集體茫然，還好存在主義的出現來個即刻救援，重新點燃文明的火苗，賦予大眾全新的人生意義，並促成了1960年代文藝的新浪潮延續至今，這就是conceptual tool的威力!
我蠻慶幸自己懂得如何閱讀Essential knowledge這種書，智識被啟蒙以後，就能以比較多元的視角去審視日常生活。至少不用陷入所謂的人生SOP，從出生到死亡，踩著社會既定的路線跌跌撞撞，渾渾噩噩，搞不清楚到底在幹嘛。坦白說這種迷失自我的情境就是精神病大流行的催化劑，透過閱讀強化自我免疫力，才能對抗各種人生糟心事。2020s是科技全面滲透日常生活的時代，社群媒體放大個體的孤獨感，演算法的廣告核爆，連工作都即將由人工智慧取代。這是最好的時代，也是最壞的時代? 科幻小說已經由邊緣躍居主流，就算不從紙本閱讀，科幻影視作品也已經擄獲大眾的芳心，科幻的影響力與日俱增，認識一下何謂SF，其實很有意思~
這本書講述的並非科幻小說的歷史，更不是經典作品的簡介，讀完以後你會理解科幻如何作為一種思想工具，SF實在是一個扣人心弦的流派! 我本來就對科幻瞭若指掌，但這種書可以系統性的把腦中零散的片段拼湊成全像，所以依然值得一讀! 19世紀的科幻小說之父Hugo Gernsback，科幻最高榮譽雨果獎即以他命名；接下來1930年代在科幻雜誌編輯宗師John Campbell領航之下，開啟了往後科幻小說的格局，20世紀三大巨匠艾西莫夫、海萊茵、亞瑟克拉克等人都由他引薦給讀者。
1950年代以後這些巨匠撐起一片天，科幻早期的題材偏向於太空歌劇，衍生自當年流行刊載於雜誌的pulp fiction類型(經典題材如一個硬漢警長/偵探在煙霧繚繞的曼哈頓緝凶)，太空歌劇便把這種硬漢英雄的冒險套用至星際宇宙，男主角一行人駕駛飛船穿越銀河，最終化解了威脅人類存亡的危機。《沙丘》出版於1965年，其實多少也算這種類型，只不過格局異常宏大! 艾西莫夫的《基地》系列最近也一直在刷屏，兩者都是太空歌劇的經典! 話說艾西莫夫那三大系列(基地、銀河帝國、機器人)我中學時都讀過，腦洞大開，確實型塑我思考的方式。
1960年代也是我最愛的Philip Dick創作的高峰期，此時歐美開始重視精神分析、迷幻藥、生態保育等社會議題，並成為SF創作的題材。1980年代網路普及，賽博龐克於焉成形(電影也有《銀翼殺手》、《阿基拉》、《攻殼機動隊》等)。1990年代蘇聯解體，全球化浪潮崛起，SF也迎來另一波高潮，科幻很適合作為一種詮釋的框架，用來建構/解構資本主義、去殖民化、身分族裔等議題。過往主流的科幻作品都源於英美，21世紀以後不同國家的科幻作家都開始著手將科幻敘事套用於腳下的土地。越來越多不同國籍的SF作家角逐讀者的眼球，中國科幻作家劉慈欣、郝景芳都各據一方山頭，美國的劉宇昆、姜峯楠也都將中國元素融入作品之中。我之前看創新工廠甚至還邀請科幻作家一同參與AI寫作計畫，現實已經比科幻更真實，紅藥丸還是藍藥丸? 我可能會犬儒的吞下藍色(小?)藥丸^^，Welcome to the Matrix! 好期待12月的駭客任務回歸啊!!
這本書還有很多科幻相關的研討，如果你本來就對科幻有認識，讀起來會更起勁，若對科幻毫無概念，它繪製了理想的輪廓，很適合當敲門磚。最後，視角總得拉回台灣，身為一個小讀者，很想對葉李華教授致上敬意，國小時他就有成為國文課本裡其中一篇勵志故事的主人翁(一部電影可以影響一個人一生的志向啊~《聯合縮小軍》)，長大後成為華文世界推廣科幻的旗手，將科幻研究引入台灣，並舉辦倪匡科幻獎廣邀四海寫手共襄盛舉，期待哪天有機會再次讀到華文科幻的優秀作品合輯! 另一個內行人才懂的台灣科幻&奇幻小說資訊的樞紐「卡蘭坦斯蓋普恩基地」，博主是一位精通此類speculative fiction的大大! 剛又看了一下貓頭鷹出版社「科幻推進實驗室」的頁面，想當年這個書系陪伴我多少孤單的年少歲月啊，往事歷歷在目，時間迴旋，科幻作品常常寫成三部曲，我的人生首部曲即將完結，二部曲的開頭要怎麼寫呢? 讓人傷透腦筋~
《沙丘》原著科幻小說厚厚一系列六本，它的廣告也一直刷屏動態牆。這讓我想起小時候的閱讀，快要而立的”老人”好像都會開始懷古，最近跟人吃飯討論的都是再過十年就該對人生不惑，但大家都越活越困惑，理想的幻滅大概就是這種感受吧呵呵。科幻小說是我最初接觸閱讀的起點，大約2005年左右開始，一路讀下來竟然默默的見證科幻在台灣開花結果的歷程。
科幻小說在20世紀的西方文學裡是不被重視的分支，屬於極小眾的文學，甚至被嘲諷不入流。科幻小說的起源眾說紛紜，不同的學派給出各種定義。有些學者會追溯至古希臘，有點像八旗文化出版的書《天工，諸神，機械人：希臘神話與遠古文明的工藝科技夢》這種感覺，古人的思想天馬行空，許多古文明都有科技擬人化的想像，這確實可以當作某種科幻作品。若比較純粹從文學性的角度出發，《科學怪人》是諸多科幻研究者公認的始祖，它的框架定義了整個類型的未來發展。
時間來到19世紀末，法國的凡爾納和英國的HG威爾斯開拓了新疆域，讓科技與人文完美交織，編寫出精彩叫座的科幻故事。說到這裡，關於19世紀的文學，它有一種難以言喻的迷人魅力，在科幻小說的世界觀設定中，最經典的就是維多利亞女王統治的那個年代，Victorian London，工業革命已經成熟，科學革命迎來跳躍式的突破，蒸汽機讓人類文明的發展騰飛，已經逝去卻又鮮活的時代，轉換為一種稱做”蒸氣龐克”的科幻流派。
我的kindle裡有一本書《Gaslight: Lantern Slides from the Nineteenth Century》，透過燈影迷離的幻燈片視角，檢視19世紀如何形塑20乃至21世紀的今日世界，這種文化語境的探索太過奧妙，三言兩語難以道盡，等我哪天讀完這本書有力氣再來寫寫讀後感~自己讀了那麼多書，已經理解何謂歷史是一種動態的延續，引領人類的思潮其實有脈絡可循，可惜21世紀的今天竟然是快樂哲學在牽引大眾。偏偏我喜愛的閱讀主題又是這種”旁門左道”，唉…不過murmur這種主題也不會炎上，也是不錯!
時間進入20世紀，1920年代開始，歐美有越來越多的作家投入科幻小說的創作中。這跟台灣文化界很愛引用的一種概念雷同，出自班雅明的經典哲學著作《機械複製時代的藝術作品》，它的概念就是在工業時代，一切事物都能大量複製(愛情也是)，古代的藝術創作講求靈光及來自心靈的真實感，但到了20世紀，這種大量複製使藝術的存在變得浮濫，甚至粗糙低俗。有趣的是，這種概念正是安迪沃荷等人的創作精神，把一些大眾化的商品(康寶湯罐頭)、符碼、名人圖像(瑪麗蓮夢露)複製拼湊，竟然成為20世紀美國藝術的時代精神。21世紀更把這種概念推展至極致，最近不是很流行NFT藝術品嗎? 我在工作上竟然也有處理到這種案件! 跟同事討論，我們都搖搖頭說跟不上時代了。
這本書是麻省理工學院出版社推出的一系列精緻書系MIT Press Essential Knowledge Series，我已經成為本書系的死忠讀者了，正如書介these compact volumes offers readers a point of access to complex ideas，碎片化時代的學習已經索然無味，還好在資訊超載的同時，出版業依然有這種與時俱進的用心，把篇幅縮減至穠纖合度的腰身，摟起來超級舒服啦! 打個不恰當的比喻，這些書就像選妃，每一位都國色天香，況且在知識的領域並沒有一夫一妻制，所以讀者大可開後宮，所謂環肥燕瘦，但現代崇尚瘦身，共享良辰美景，夜夜春宵，昨夜雨疏風驟，卻道海棠依舊。
這本書的作者是加州大學河灣分校的媒體、文化研究、英語教授，看她的論文被不少人引用，應該也是這個領域的意見領袖吧。這本書把科幻小說視為一種思想上的工具(conceptual tool)，探討如何將其應用於日常生活。讀完一些哲學性的著作以後，我愛上這種所謂的conceptual tool，工欲善其事，必先利其器。當代資本社會不存在任何人類的情感因子，個體生命只是利潤生產器，所以要努力取得學位、證照、實習，把生活建構在專業技能的養成之上，終極目的就是賺錢。踏入社會以後的每個人，往往開始懷念學生時代，天真爛漫的理想還沒被現實磨滅，想當年多渴望精神上的歸宿及成長呀! 隨著工作資歷積累，茫然油然而生，最近幾年也有越來越多書籍探討心理/精神疾病為何逐漸蔓延，佛洛伊德那一套在美國發揚光大的精神分析系統，也慢慢在台灣紮根。看一下暢銷書排行榜，就會感嘆現代人精神壓力之大，包含我在內的社畜們該一起喊一聲:共勉之!
這讓我想到一本前幾年的紐時年度好書《我們在存在主義咖啡館：那些關於自由、哲學家與存在主義的故事》，沙特、卡繆、西蒙波娃等二十世紀的思想巨擘為什麼會流芳百世? 很大程度上正因他們提供了一種思想上的框架，當時兩次世界大戰讓歐美文明陷入精神上的低谷，19世紀末~20世紀初因為科技的進步及科學上的發現(如達爾文的演化論)，當時社會上瀰漫著一股樂觀氛圍，認為人定勝天，這就是人類文明發展的極致，人類終將走上一條康莊大道，沒想到接下來科技(如核武器)成為國與國互相毀滅的道具，納粹工業式的種族滅絕讓全世界見識到人性最黑暗的一面，惡的平庸性! 若你去讀這時期歐美作家的文學作品，這種精神上悵然若失的無根狀態，讓整個世代陷入集體茫然，還好存在主義的出現來個即刻救援，重新點燃文明的火苗，賦予大眾全新的人生意義，並促成了1960年代文藝的新浪潮延續至今，這就是conceptual tool的威力!
我蠻慶幸自己懂得如何閱讀Essential knowledge這種書，智識被啟蒙以後，就能以比較多元的視角去審視日常生活。至少不用陷入所謂的人生SOP，從出生到死亡，踩著社會既定的路線跌跌撞撞，渾渾噩噩，搞不清楚到底在幹嘛。坦白說這種迷失自我的情境就是精神病大流行的催化劑，透過閱讀強化自我免疫力，才能對抗各種人生糟心事。2020s是科技全面滲透日常生活的時代，社群媒體放大個體的孤獨感，演算法的廣告核爆，連工作都即將由人工智慧取代。這是最好的時代，也是最壞的時代? 科幻小說已經由邊緣躍居主流，就算不從紙本閱讀，科幻影視作品也已經擄獲大眾的芳心，科幻的影響力與日俱增，認識一下何謂SF，其實很有意思~
這本書講述的並非科幻小說的歷史，更不是經典作品的簡介，讀完以後你會理解科幻如何作為一種思想工具，SF實在是一個扣人心弦的流派! 我本來就對科幻瞭若指掌，但這種書可以系統性的把腦中零散的片段拼湊成全像，所以依然值得一讀! 19世紀的科幻小說之父Hugo Gernsback，科幻最高榮譽雨果獎即以他命名；接下來1930年代在科幻雜誌編輯宗師John Campbell領航之下，開啟了往後科幻小說的格局，20世紀三大巨匠艾西莫夫、海萊茵、亞瑟克拉克等人都由他引薦給讀者。
1950年代以後這些巨匠撐起一片天，科幻早期的題材偏向於太空歌劇，衍生自當年流行刊載於雜誌的pulp fiction類型(經典題材如一個硬漢警長/偵探在煙霧繚繞的曼哈頓緝凶)，太空歌劇便把這種硬漢英雄的冒險套用至星際宇宙，男主角一行人駕駛飛船穿越銀河，最終化解了威脅人類存亡的危機。《沙丘》出版於1965年，其實多少也算這種類型，只不過格局異常宏大! 艾西莫夫的《基地》系列最近也一直在刷屏，兩者都是太空歌劇的經典! 話說艾西莫夫那三大系列(基地、銀河帝國、機器人)我中學時都讀過，腦洞大開，確實型塑我思考的方式。
1960年代也是我最愛的Philip Dick創作的高峰期，此時歐美開始重視精神分析、迷幻藥、生態保育等社會議題，並成為SF創作的題材。1980年代網路普及，賽博龐克於焉成形(電影也有《銀翼殺手》、《阿基拉》、《攻殼機動隊》等)。1990年代蘇聯解體，全球化浪潮崛起，SF也迎來另一波高潮，科幻很適合作為一種詮釋的框架，用來建構/解構資本主義、去殖民化、身分族裔等議題。過往主流的科幻作品都源於英美，21世紀以後不同國家的科幻作家都開始著手將科幻敘事套用於腳下的土地。越來越多不同國籍的SF作家角逐讀者的眼球，中國科幻作家劉慈欣、郝景芳都各據一方山頭，美國的劉宇昆、姜峯楠也都將中國元素融入作品之中。我之前看創新工廠甚至還邀請科幻作家一同參與AI寫作計畫，現實已經比科幻更真實，紅藥丸還是藍藥丸? 我可能會犬儒的吞下藍色(小?)藥丸^^，Welcome to the Matrix! 好期待12月的駭客任務回歸啊!!
這本書還有很多科幻相關的研討，如果你本來就對科幻有認識，讀起來會更起勁，若對科幻毫無概念，它繪製了理想的輪廓，很適合當敲門磚。最後，視角總得拉回台灣，身為一個小讀者，很想對葉李華教授致上敬意，國小時他就有成為國文課本裡其中一篇勵志故事的主人翁(一部電影可以影響一個人一生的志向啊~《聯合縮小軍》)，長大後成為華文世界推廣科幻的旗手，將科幻研究引入台灣，並舉辦倪匡科幻獎廣邀四海寫手共襄盛舉，期待哪天有機會再次讀到華文科幻的優秀作品合輯! 另一個內行人才懂的台灣科幻&奇幻小說資訊的樞紐「卡蘭坦斯蓋普恩基地」，博主是一位精通此類speculative fiction的大大! 剛又看了一下貓頭鷹出版社「科幻推進實驗室」的頁面，想當年這個書系陪伴我多少孤單的年少歲月啊，往事歷歷在目，時間迴旋，科幻作品常常寫成三部曲，我的人生首部曲即將完結，二部曲的開頭要怎麼寫呢? 讓人傷透腦筋~
May 23, 2025
Dr. Sherryl Vint supplies a run-down of the science fiction works and scholarship that address a specific set of contemporary issues. The introduction establishes the point that the traditional history of science fiction is not the only one, and also establishes the premise of the book: "This book is neither a history nor a survey of sf, but a selective description of the genre as something like a toolkit for thinking through urgent issues in social life today." More specifically, the first few chapters covering the utopian tradition, science fiction's history with actual science, the colonial history of science fiction and the movement away from that history, and its relation to AI and transhumanism. Later chapters cover genetics and the posthuman, environment and climate-related science fiction, and economic-oriented science fiction, which a brief conclusion that restates the point that science fiction can be used to address important issues in the contemporary world.
The book isn't really a thorough examination of science fiction; Vint's Science Fiction: A Guide for the Perplexed is a bit older (2014) but does that much more thoroughly (and it was one of my major introductions to the scholarship of the genre). Nor is it a survey of the genre; the Routledge History of Science Fiction (which she was an editor on) does that better. It is an excellent launchpad, however, for explaining science fiction's relation to each of the seven main topics, and where to go both academically and fictionally for more. And that, I think, is the goal for the MIT Press Essential Knowledge series--not so much to be the definitive voice on their subjects, but an index or starting point of sorts to help towards them. Personally, I found the economics chapter to be the most useful, as it's an area I'm much less familiar with. It's a quick read, and potentially a very helpful one, especially for someone who knows they want more on one of its focus subjects.
The book isn't really a thorough examination of science fiction; Vint's Science Fiction: A Guide for the Perplexed is a bit older (2014) but does that much more thoroughly (and it was one of my major introductions to the scholarship of the genre). Nor is it a survey of the genre; the Routledge History of Science Fiction (which she was an editor on) does that better. It is an excellent launchpad, however, for explaining science fiction's relation to each of the seven main topics, and where to go both academically and fictionally for more. And that, I think, is the goal for the MIT Press Essential Knowledge series--not so much to be the definitive voice on their subjects, but an index or starting point of sorts to help towards them. Personally, I found the economics chapter to be the most useful, as it's an area I'm much less familiar with. It's a quick read, and potentially a very helpful one, especially for someone who knows they want more on one of its focus subjects.
December 5, 2022
Part of the MIT Press Essential Knowledge Series, this book is a survey of what Science Fiction is and intriguingly what Science Fiction DOES. It's thoughtful and well written, and I must say, an excellent source of suggestions of what to read in the genre. Does Science Fiction predict the future or is it more a reflection of our fears and desires for the technologies we see emerging around us? Why has Science Fiction been the red-headed step child of genres, not taken seriously by the trend setters of literature? The author looks at Utopian works, how the "Golden Age" of Science Fiction was based on white male colonial tropes, Robots, AI, The apocalypse, the Anthropocene, Economic Sci-Fi, the future of biology - and I didn't see this coming - the microbiome. Finally, she points out that more people are reading Science Fiction than ever before, probably because the issues the genre explores have become so central to modern life.
November 7, 2022
Essential knowledge. I like that simple phrase. There are things people should know, and MIT has a publishing house that releases short books that cover subjects by knowledgeable authors. In this case it is a volume on Science Fiction by Sherryl Vint, from UC Riverside's Media and Cultural studies department. I really enjoyed this little book.
It is not a history of sci fi. It is not a critique of sci fi. It is an explanation of sci fi as a genre. The author views sci fi as a tool for understanding our world as it rapidly changes around us. She describes the genre as "a Janus-faced discourse" that enables readers to critique injustices and to inspire readers to work for a better future.
I enjoyed the sections on robotics, genomes, and economic issues in sci fi. The book comes with an excellent glossary and suggestions for further reading on the subject. Thank you MIT Press.
It is not a history of sci fi. It is not a critique of sci fi. It is an explanation of sci fi as a genre. The author views sci fi as a tool for understanding our world as it rapidly changes around us. She describes the genre as "a Janus-faced discourse" that enables readers to critique injustices and to inspire readers to work for a better future.
I enjoyed the sections on robotics, genomes, and economic issues in sci fi. The book comes with an excellent glossary and suggestions for further reading on the subject. Thank you MIT Press.
June 6, 2022
The Persians have the bane of being described and characterized by their enemies, the Greeks, for the historical record. From this book, Sherryl Vint has nothing on the Greeks in her vituperative description (or perhaps misdescription) of the field of Science Fiction, but fair being fair her bias and shallow understanding is normally shared by both academia and the major news organizations, when the dien to acknowledge SF's existence at all. I had thought that now with the cultural dominance enjoyed by the realm, the Spiro identified, "nattering nabobs of negativism" would reconsider their position, but no. There is nothing to recommend, except that the actual presentation is as professional as the entire line of the MIT series, too bad the content does not reflect it.
April 29, 2024
To be clear, as Sheryl Vint writes, this is not a history of science fiction or science fiction's works. It is a look of the the different themes science fiction can tackle: Utopian, Futurology, Colonialization (looking at us approaching alien worlds and being invaded), Robots, AI, Transhumanism, Genomics, Microbiome, Post-humanism, Environment, and Economics. Vint is not interested in talking about the literary side of things, but more interested in how the genre talks about society and how the genre influences the future of science. It is a crunchy, dry read, but it was not unreadable. There were a couple of chapters that flew for me and others that were a drag to get through and I think which chapters worked for me will not always be the ones that work for you as interests vary.
June 6, 2024
This was my first foray into the MIT Press Essential Knowledge Series and I will likely go back for more in the future. Vint's book attempts to cover an extremely large amount information and succeeds in some areas more than others. There were some topics that felt overdone and others that were completely overlooked, but I guess that just comes down to personal preference.
The further reading section was well done and very helpful. The choice to only include 3-4 books per chapter/topic was concise and helpful. I would recommend this, but as a first and not final stop regarding the subject of sf.
The further reading section was well done and very helpful. The choice to only include 3-4 books per chapter/topic was concise and helpful. I would recommend this, but as a first and not final stop regarding the subject of sf.
December 18, 2024
Tengo debilidad por los ensayos que reflexionan sobre la ciencia ficción, por lo que no dudé en comprarme este de la colección de Essential Knowledge del MIT. Sherryl Vint toma la decisión de no hacer un recorrido lineal sobre la historia del género, sino que traza diversos itinerarios de cómo la ciencia ficción es un lenguaje literario que ha servido (y sirve) para tratar grandes temas de la humanidad. Y lo hace diseccionando, precisamente, algunas obras y tendencias que se ha enfrentado a dichos temas, con especial atención a la de las últimas décadas.
A cualquier aficionado a este tipo de ensayo creo que le resultará sugerente su lectura.
A cualquier aficionado a este tipo de ensayo creo que le resultará sugerente su lectura.
February 20, 2023
This installment of the extraordinary MIT Press Essential Knowledge series sets out to describe what sf (science/speculative fiction) can do, especially as in instrument for living into possible futures. The author does not claim to offer a thorough survey of sf, but nevertheless opens paths for further exploration of masterworks, drawn from both written and visual media. The serious sf reader (and writer) will found countless stepping-off points as well as interesting critical and philosophical texts directly relevant to the key ideas.
January 6, 2025
Expecting a history or survey, I instead found a thoughtful literary analysis of the genre. While sometimes overly academic and jargony (despite my taking a English seminar in college on science fiction), the overall book is well worth reading for fans of the genre. Those who have read less science fiction may find it less meaningful, but still worth it! It is a quick read and orients the reader to authors and subgenres such as kim Stanley Robinson or Octavia butler. overall it earned its 5 stars for its expert and thorough analysis of the genre.
December 21, 2023
What if we could choose the future? What if we do already? ✨
I may not be good at reading science fiction, but I can surely read about it! 🤦♂️
Cosmos, genomics, apocalypse, robots, and post-humanism.. How many books and movies do we have yet to implement in real life? If you could, would you create a clone for longer life? That's right.. it is not only about extrapolating possible, but also implications on the norms.
The book is relatively dry, but not too bad to read once.
I may not be good at reading science fiction, but I can surely read about it! 🤦♂️
Cosmos, genomics, apocalypse, robots, and post-humanism.. How many books and movies do we have yet to implement in real life? If you could, would you create a clone for longer life? That's right.. it is not only about extrapolating possible, but also implications on the norms.
The book is relatively dry, but not too bad to read once.
March 3, 2021
I've been looking for a monograph on SF to leverage in several of the undergrad courses I teach; this, at last, is the one.
Accessible, concise, eloquent, poignant.
Vint pulls together so many vital lines and ever with an approach to SF as what it's becoming.
Accessible, concise, eloquent, poignant.
Vint pulls together so many vital lines and ever with an approach to SF as what it's becoming.
September 29, 2021
This book was informative and interesting. Vint does a great job of discussing a good mix of movies and TV. This book is not a book of recommendations. Instead, Vint explores the themes of sci-fi and how it reflects and predicts society.
August 9, 2024
This short book is packed with insights on what science fiction offers us and on how it has changed over time. I particularly enjoyed the chapters on robots and genomics. I would have loved to see more explorations of time travel, Galactic empires, and the metaverse, but nevertheless this was a thoughtful and stimulating read.
December 11, 2021
Iako me u uvodniku mrvicu iznervirala, Vint je opravdala investiciju. Družit ćemo se i dalje.
March 16, 2023
thanks prof
September 29, 2023
this book is basically my bible
March 25, 2024
This book somewhat managed to encapsulate the essence of sci-fi genre and how it plays an important part in the modern world.
A recommended read for sci-fi fans or readers who are curious about sci-fi.
A recommended read for sci-fi fans or readers who are curious about sci-fi.
January 14, 2025
Bland overview of scifi with some observations worth considering as a fan of the genre. But nothing too interesting so it was difficult to get through.
February 5, 2025
4/5
Very informational. By no means thrilling though.
Very informational. By no means thrilling though.
February 23, 2025
Loved hearing about Sci Fi and its broad range of subject matter. And hearing about the different aspects of life that SF explores
December 30, 2022
Very useful to me personally but not a deep dive into any particular topic.
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