Utopia and Science Fiction

Este trabajo aborda aspectos del trabajo intelectual llevado a cabo en colaboración entre los escritores Adolfo Bioy Casares y Jorge Luis Borges. Esta tarea de intelección compartida gira alrededor de algunos temas referidos tanto a cuestiones estéticas como a posicionamientos políticos y les permite, como resultado de esa labor, la producción de obras ficcionales y no ficcionales de  autoría individual.  El marco de lectura de este objeto estará constituido por una reflexión acerca del fenómeno de la utopía, a la que le es inherente un doble carácter: cuanto atañe a la tradición de relatos de viajes a lugares inexistentes, tanto como la condición de que ese mismo relato revista un carácter político en la crítica solapada que el autor realiza hacia la sociedad en la que vive y a la que propone un ideal de organización política.
La relación intelectual y estética entre estos dos escritores ocupa, en gran medida, una preocupación acerca de la discusión que se producía en la escena nacional en torno al rechazo o no de las formas realistas en el arte y también sobre un modelo de identidad nacional. Frente a esto, producen relatos breves, novelas, prólogos y ensayos en los que explicitan una nueva estética fundada en el reconocimiento de algunas tradiciones literarias europeas que, reformuladas en algunos casos en tono de un homenaje paródico, terminan por conformar una novedosa concepción de literatura y de modelo político de comunidad.
A. Bioy Casares y J. L. Borges recuperan rasgos de los relatos de utopías, pero al mismo tiempo rescatan aspectos propios de la ciencia ficción, lo fantástico y el policial. El interés compartido por las cuestiones nacionales acerca de planteos estéticos así como su voluntad de producir un cambio en las convenciones de la literatura argentina y fundar un nuevo nacionalismo ha sido estudiado por la crítica. Este artículo se propone, en cambio, unificar esta tarea intelectual y estética compartida bajo el enfoque del pensamiento utópico.

Les expositions universelles, une utopie touristique toujours d’actualité ? World’s Fair, The Renew of Touristic Utopia? ¿Exposiciones universales, una utopía turística siempre de actualidad? À travers les expositions universelles récentes et passées et plus particulièrement les expositions de Milan 2015 et de Port-au-Prince 1949, nous rappelons que cette pratique touristique du voyage d’agrément dans une grande ville remonte au XIXe siècle, elle accompagne les origines de notre tourisme moderne, tout en devenant un instrument de géopolitique et de marketing touristique de première importance pour les villes et les pays hôtes. Les expositions peuvent être considérées comme un levier urbanistique, mais aussi un moyen de faire voyager et de comprendre notre monde à travers un système de représentation des identités locales et mondiales proposant toujours une mise en valeur de la découverte scientifique et de l’expérience culturelle à travers les pavillons nationaux. Ces manifestations géantes reposent sur une mise en scène et en récit à partir d’un thème universel questionnant généralement le concept du développement durable et de l’attractivité touristique renouvelée de la destination. Notre analyse porte sur la plus récente des expositions universelles et une exposition oubliée appartenant à l’aire culturelle des caraïbes permettant de dégager trois dynamiques associant le tourisme de méga-événement et l’utopie des voyages initiatiques, à savoir : les expositions universelles se réinventent et retrouvent un certain succès de fréquentation impliquant une redéfinition des champs et des usages d’une utopie contrariée. Faire voyager est un acte à la fois scénographique et symbolique à travers le pavillon impliquant des artifices et des déclinaisons de plus en plus numériques, la quête de cette pratique durable du voyage se confronte à son héritage et à son souvenir à différentes échelles et temporalités. Through the recent and past universal exhibitions and more particularly the world’s fair of Milan 2015 and Port-au-Prince 1949, we recall that this tourist practice of the pleasure trip in a large city dates back to the XIXth century, it accompanies the origins of Our modern tourism, while becoming an instrument of geopolitics and tourist marketing of prime importance to cities and host countries. Exhibitions can be seen as an urban lever, but also a way to make travel and understand our world through a system of representation of local and global identities that always emphasizes scientific discovery and cultural experience through the national pavilion. These giant events are based on a staging and narrative based on a universal theme generally questioning the concept of sustainable development and the renewed attractiveness of the destination. Our analysis focuses on the most recent of the universal exhibitions and a forgotten exhibition belonging to the cultural area of the Caribbean, which reveals three dynamics associating mega-event tourism with the utopia of initiatory journeys, namely: reinvent and regain a certain success of frequentation implying a redefinition of the fields and uses of a disrupted utopia; to make travel is an act both scenographic and symbolic through the pavilion involving artifices and more and more digital declensions, the quest for this sustainable practice of travel is confronted with its heritage and its memory at different scales and temporalities. A través de las exposiciones universales recientes y pasados y, especialmente, la Feria de Milán en 2015 y Puerto Príncipe en 1949, recordamos que esta práctica de turismo de viaje de placer a una gran ciudad se remonta al siglo XIX, que acompaña a los orígenes de turismo moderno, mientras que convertirse en un instrumento geopolítico y comercialización del turismo de las principales ciudades y países anfitriones. Las exposiciones pueden considerarse una palanca urbana, sino también una manera de viajar y entender nuestro mundo a través de un sistema de representación de las identidades locales y globales que todavía ofrece el desarrollo de los descubrimientos científicos y la experiencia cultural a través pabellones nacionales. Estas manifestaciones gigantes basados en una puesta en escena y la narrativa de un tema universal en general, cuestionando el concepto de desarrollo sostenible y renovada atractivos turísticos del destino. Nuestro análisis se centra en las últimas exposiciones universales y una exposición olvidado que pertenecen a la zona cultural del Caribe para identificar tres dinámico entre el turismo mega-evento y la utopía de los viajes iniciáticos, a saber: las exposiciones universales reinventar y encontrar un cierto éxito de asistencia que implica una redefinición de campos y utiliza una utopía alterada, para viajar es un acto tanto teatral y simbólico a través del pabellón y declinaciones cada vez más digitales, las la búsqueda de este viaje práctica sostenible se enfrenta a su artificialidad y su memoria en diferentes escalas y marcos de tiempo. Index géographique : Europe, Caraïbes, Italie, Haïti, France, Milan, Port-au-Prince, New York, Osaka Mots-clés : exposition universelle, utopie, tourisme, architecture, urbanisme Palabras claves : expo, utopía, turismo, arquitectura, urbanismo Keywords : world’s fair, utopia, tourism, architecture, city-planning Patrice Ballester, Les expositions universelles, une utopie touristique toujours d’actualité ? World’s Fair, The Renew of Touristic Utopia? ¿Exposiciones universales, una utopía turística siempre de actualidad?, Études caribéennes 37-38, Août-Décembre 2017 Tourismes, voyages, utopies, pp.1-26.

The German term most used for "post-truth" is "postfactual" and refers to an information strategy that makes use of marketing methods in order to manipulate audiences. By simplification and emphasis on polarization, complexity is eroded and reality is put into question as parallel realities are constructed for and by recipients. Film is interesting in this regard because it features representations of milieus and spaces. Perhaps it also indicates how fact and fiction, truth and untruth can be reconciled?

" The Matrix Trilogy " , which was scripted and directed by Lana Wachowski and Lilly Wachowski, is one of the most important science fiction films. " The problem of reality " , which has been present, in various forms, ever since Plato's " allegory of the cave " , is once again being evaluated in " The Matrix Trilogy " through the medium of cinema. Moreover, there are various opinions regarding exactly what the main natures of human are in " The Matrix Trilogy ". Furthermore, " The Matrix Trilogy " provides a striking view on the relationship between the " basic natures of human " and the " system " in which humans live. The system explored, and the human insights examined in " The Matrix Trilogy " have a distinctly philosophical feel. As such, this article analyses " The Matrix Trilogy " , viewing it as a work of art which presents philosophical problems. Therefore, the dialogues in " The Matrix Trilogy " and the context of the dialogues shall be taken as the basic reference resource for the analysis. This article studies the nature of the understanding of system and human in the " The Matrix Trilogy " , with particular emphasis on analysing the content of dialogues. The article concludes that the basic human characteristics which distinguish " Neo " from other living beings in " The Matrix Trilogy " are " the ability to know " and " the will of change. " Keywords: The Matrix Trilogy, science fiction films, the will of change, the ability to know, the problem of reality, knowledge, system.

Aunque política y ciencia constituyen hoy en día ramas casi antagónicas del conocimiento humano-acaso com-binables en ámbitos ficcionales como el cine y la litera-tura-, la relación entre filosofía política y astronomía es una constante histórica que alcanza especial fuerza en el pensamiento emancipatorio del siglo xix. El presente artículo sitúa en ese marco La eternidad por los astros (1872) y, asimismo, somete a contraste la peculiaridad retórica e ideológica de una obra en la que Louis-Auguste Blanqui propone una contigüidad entre orbe celeste y sociedad humana fundada, según él, en su análogo funcionamiento y su común atavismo.

Written in 1974, the American writer Ursula K. Le Guin's The Dispossessed revolves around the central character Shevek's self-appointed mission to improve the relationship between two planets, Anarres and Urras, by breaking down the walls that are separating these ideological enemies. The novel, in that sense, can be read as one man's search for an ideal state, rather than a description of a utopian/anti-utopian state. Literary scholars generally focus on various aspects of The Dispossessed in terms of its anarchist politics, ecological politics, and revolutionary politics. This article; however, aims to approach the novel from a Lacanian perspective by addressing the protagonist's psyche and his relation to the socio-symbolic orders in the novel. By focusing on the characterization of the relations between the subject and the other in an anarchist (as well as a capitalist culture) in The Dispossessed, this article aims to analyze how the novel provides a path towards an ideal state.

Female science fiction writers are about to occupy a significant spot on the genre's author scene in China. At least since August 2016, when Hao Jingfang (*1984) became the first Chinese woman to win the Hugo Award, it is clear that they are as successful as their male counterparts. Since the introduction of science fiction literature to China in the late Qing dynasty, the scene was male-dominated. Nevertheless, in connection with the current heyday it has lately evolved more diversified.
This paper examines social and political commentary in contemporary Chinese science fiction literature written by women. I argue that these writings pose challenging views of a future Chinese society as well as provide suggestions for a more equal society. Through a close reading of Hao Jingfang’s novella “Folding Beijing” (2014) and her short story “Invisible Planets” (2010), this paper analyzes the discrepancies between the official image and her perceptions of the “Harmonious Society” and the “China Dream”.

Terry Gilliam's 12 Monkeys (1995) was a commercial and critical success, but it is Gilliam's least understood film, even on the basic plot level. Aside from recognizable debts to specific films such as La Jetée (1962) and Dr. Strangelove (1964), 12 Monkeys plays with a number of genres: apocalypse and post-apocalypse movies; sci-fi; nuclear noir, and what is becoming known as 'geek dystopia.' This book examines Gilliam’s film—and briefly the TV series based on it—in the context of post-apocalypse movies and with an eye to the film’s major themes, including mental illness, conspiracy theories, the impossibility of human closeness, and the nature of reality. It is the first to read 12 Monkeys’ portrayal of time travel in light of Einstein’s ideas about time, and to ask what answers these ideas suggest to the film’s most basic philosophical predicament: the problem of free will versus determinism.

The novel "Limes inferior" (1982) by Janusz A. Zajdel is the main work of the Polish social SF of the late 1970s and 1980s. It was read by the critics as a parable for social relations in the communist Poland of that time. But its scope is broader: Zajdel's novel shows the society divided into intellectual classes, also economics of unemployment and surveillance of all by electronics (everyone in controlled by their personal card called "key"). The protagonist gains knowledge about his world. and finally he tries to translocate himself and all the mankind to the newer/better world. That plot evokes the gnostic myth ("Hymn of the Pearl"). Read in postsecular way, Zajdel's novel shows the fairytale wonder (or postmodern fabulation) as the root of religion and political hope.

摘要

      魏德聖導演的《賽德克‧ 巴萊》是一部探討霧社事件的影片，描繪
賽德克族遭受日本殖民政府壓迫並起而反抗，由於處理的是真實歷史素
材，自然引發多方討論，其中尤以莫那‧ 魯道的英雄形象備受爭議。筆
者認為重點不在質問莫那‧ 魯道究竟是個英雄或歷史罪人，而應聚焦在
探問霧社事件究竟開啟了何種域外（不）可思考的空間，供我們思索魏德
聖透過此象徵人物所帶出的可能意涵與對當代的意義。本文援引德勒茲
的死亡與渾沌宇宙概念，企圖探討血祭祖靈的死亡儀式如何幫助族人突
破殖民秩序，進入祖靈生命並脫離同一性。若我們將死亡當作一個「無
人稱事件」，並且將莫那‧ 魯道視為一個「概念性人物」，我們將進到一
個無人稱的潛態宇宙。潛態宇宙並不會抹煞個體性，而是允許每一個肉
身化死亡的個體都有機會成為概念性人物，共同進入潛態宇宙的生命之
流。賽德克人的反抗是重大事件，特別能將個體推向潛態宇宙，同時結
合秩序的反面，也就是渾沌，形成「渾沌宇宙」。德勒茲的渾沌宇宙概念
幫助我們理解族人如何含納與表達歧異，形成獨特的自我特異性。族人
從渾沌借取武器對抗日本殖民秩序，期望能達到情感與政治的連結。這
時死亡代表不可思考的渾沌失序力量，幫助族人脫離被化約成野蠻「非
人」的命運，成為「賽德克‧ 巴萊」──真正的人。反抗使個體進入潛
態，飛掠於現實化之上，成為既是你我他，亦非你我他的潛態／現實雙
面體。每一個有覺知的個體所表達出的巴洛克視域綻放為如水晶結晶般
獨一無二的朵朵緋櫻。

關鍵詞：《賽德克‧ 巴萊》，莫那‧ 魯道，霧社事件，死亡，渾沌宇宙，無人稱事件，祖靈之家，概念性人物

Student Learning Outcomes
Students will be able to—
1. Demonstrate familiarity with Plato’s concepts of the ideal society as described in his Republic
2. Demonstrate familiarity with the Socratic method of inquiry
3. Argue whether or not the society portrayed in Genesis is “ideal” (why or why not)
4. Construct a definition of what it means to be “human” and argue whether or not animal life or artificial intelligence can ever approach that definition (why or why not)

Who is Perry Rhodan? He is the central figure of an epic Science Fiction phenomenon created by German-speaking authors. Published weekly in pulp magazine format since 1961 with colorful covers depicting futuristic landscapes, Perry Rhodan’s 3000th issue now hits the newsstands. Science Fiction is gaining importance for contemporary planning efforts, and both SF literature and its images inspire planners and designers by offering fantastic visions of speculative futures and humanity’s cosmic destiny. Blade Runner is one case in point, and Perry Rhodan is another. By the way: This is also our first small step towards the upcoming issue of topos focused on utopias.

Russian anarchism of the 1910s-1920s (biocosmism, pan-anarchism) proposed an original political and aesthetic model of "access to space", which possessed a great heuristic and utopian potential, which, due to political circumstances of the first half of the 20th century, was repressed and forgotten. The article reconstructs and interprets this model through questions about (cosmic) language, (anarchic) imagination and (interplanetary) technics.

Il saggio affronta due modalità di scrittura contemporanee che si sono prestate ad un uso impegnato, politico-civile: le forme a bassa finzionalità e quelle romanzesche. Dopo un'analisi teorica che parte da Benjamin e cerca d'identificare le recenti perturbazioni nel sistema narrativo, il saggio affronta il diario a otto mani "Presente" rilevando come l'aderenza ai fatti sia progressivamente messa in discussione in favore di uno spunto creativo - antirealistico che mette in crisi le strategie veridittive della forma-diario come mezzo per descrivere l'attualità. Il secondo libro in analisi è il romanzo "Piove all'insù", di cui si sottolinea la distanza da altre narrative "storiche" o "metastoriche", e dai vari "romanzi della memoria" diffusi in tempo recente, sottolineando come al centro del libro di Rastello ci sia una spinta utopistica, decisamente anti-fattuale, alla base della volontà di azione politica. Le conclusioni rilevano come entrambe queste forme, pur così diverse, non ritengono possibile agire sullo stato di cose – impegnarsi – senza utilizzare la carica figurale tipica della letteratura.

Elokuvan suhdetta menneisyyteen ja tulevaisuuteen on viime aikoina käsitelty varsin paljon, mutta huomio on kohdistunut ennen kaikkea niihin lajityyppeihin, joilla on eksplikoidusti "ajallinen" orientaatio. On kirjoitettu sekä historiallisen elokuvan tavasta kertoa menneisyydestä että tieteiselokuvan tavasta kuvata tulevaisuutta. Tarkoitukseni on tässä artikkelissa kääntää asetelma päinvastaiseksi ja kysyä: miten tieteisfiktio kuvaa menneisyyttä? Kaiken kaikkiaan nyt-hetkessä eläminen on jatkuvaa menneisyyden kokemusten ja tulevaisuuden odotuksen välistä vuoropuhelua. Käsitykset menneestä ja tulevasta eivät ole toisistaan riippumattomia: mistäpä muualta tieteiskirjailija tai elokuvaohjaaja etsisi ymmärrystä tulevaisuuden kuvaamiseksi ellei menneisyydestä. Historiasta tieteisfiktioiden tekijät usein noutavat myös kerronnallista ja kuvallista raaka-ainetta.

This chapter examines the perverse utopianism in Chinese author Liu Cixin’s science fiction novel 三体 (literally Three-Body, English translation The Three-Body Problem). It argues that the text’s exploration of the desire for human extinction functions as a critique of the utopian belief in scientific progress, evident in earlier Chinese science fiction and the aesthetics of socialist realism. Extinction becomes a way of mapping the decline of the idea of utopia. The threat of extinction allegorises a number of threats to the human species, particularly climate catastrophe and the future solar death of the Earth. In Three-Body, extinction pushes allegorical writing to its limit. This chapter argues that in reaching the limits of allegory, the text reaches a utopia that is radically inconceivable and refuses inscription.

The Anthropocene has emerged as the dominant conception of the contemporary moment, centering the human individual as both responsible for and bearing the responsibility to counteract its numerous interrelated socioeconomic, political, and environmental issues including the staggering loss of biodiversity across the globe and the reality of anthropogenic climate change. This constitutes a significant psychological impasse that disempowers and disenfranchises humans living in this epoch, discouraging any substantive individual effort. Drawing on the posthuman feminist philosophy of theorists such as Rosi Braidotti and Stacy Alaimo together with a reflection of the power of science fiction as a literature of cognitive estrangement highlighting social issues, this paper reads “The Boston Hearth Project” by T.X. Watson as a short story demonstrative of an ethos of community and hope that resists the negative affects and oppressive social structures of the Anthropocene. I argue in the course of this paper that theorists and activists alike must turn to alternative narratives, such as those modelled in the emergent science fiction genre of solarpunk, in order to reject essentializing and individualizing forces and think multiply in order to realize meaningful resistance in a time of increasing fragmentation in society and destruction of the more-than-human world.

https://scholars.wlu.ca/thegoose/vol18/iss1/2

The political ecology of water shapes environments and human responses. Water also plays a prominent role in Science Fiction, either by its abundance or its absence. Floods destroy cultures and necessitate them to adapt, such as in Stephen Baxter's "Flood" or Kim Stanley Robinson's "New York 2140". The absence of water is a powerful backdrop for how people survive in a harsh environment in Frank Herbert's "Dune" novels. Patterns of power are contoured by water not only today, but also in futures and worlds far away.

This article defines the ‘post’ part of Post-Cyberpunk as it appears in Neal Stephenson’s The Diamond Age (1995). Marketed as a Post-Cyberpunk novel, The Diamond Age adopts some of Cyberpunk’s genre-specific motifs such as setting the novel in a near-future dystopia and embedding cyberspace as a “microworld” (McHale). This article extends and adapts Brian McHale’s definition of Cyberpunk from Constructing Postmodernism (1992) to a definition of Post-Cyberpunk, while showing how Post-Cyberpunk can be considered part of the Romantic tradition. McHale defines Cyberpunk using motifs of “worldness,” motifs of “the centrifugal self,” and motifs of “death both individual and collective.” My analysis shows The Diamond Age is Cyberpunk to the extent it adopts this postmodern worldness and dissolution of self. However, the text is also Post-Cyberpunk because it subverts Cyberpunk’s motifs of individual and collective death. According to Northrop Frye, Romanticism is a “new mythology” that attempts to recover the life-affirming power of nature in magical terms. Stephenson’s subversion of death is Romantic because his protagonist Nell’s quest for a better life is a deliberate rewriting of the life-affirming concerns of Dickens’s The Old Curiosity Shop (1841). Additionally, Nell’s quest is motivated by the magical realist nanotechnological device – the Primer – which allows her to redefine her world in magical terms. I evaluate the extent to which The Diamond Age is truly Post-Cyberpunk based on Stephenson’s (mis)use of Jung’s spiritual theories and make some suggestions for thinking beyond Stephenson’s version of the genre.

The first Polish translation of one of the best-known articles on the poetics of science fiction, considered nowadays a must-read reference in the field. In this classical piece, Darko Suvin famously argues in favour of introducing the concept of cognitive estrangement modelled after Viktor Shklovsky’s ostranenie (often questionably rendered as defamiliarisation) as well as Bertolt Brecht’s Verfremdungseffekt (as defined in his Kleines Organon für das Theater). Arguing, in due course, for acknowledging the cognitive and epistemological potential of thus defined estrangement, Suvin proceeds to introduce and analyse two distinct models for studying science fiction from both historical and formalist perspective—the extrapolative model and analogic model—which altogether help at outlining features of the most prototypal science fiction. This translation is also supplemented with an addendum from 2014 wherein the author revisits his thoughts from Marxist perspective and ponders on their relevance in reference to a more politically inclined debate in science fiction studies.

This paper broadly traces developing attitudes towards in-vitro and other alternative meats within science fiction, from their utopian origins in the nineteenth century to their overwhelmingly dystopian and “neocarnist” depictions in post-twentieth-century literature and culture.

For all its promise of unlimited connetivity, Apple´s design seems to leave almost everything out. Apple has built a style on impenetrability, providing us with sleek, polished technological gizmos that are not only a product of design, but a symbol of designed obsolescence. Looking like an alien mothership hanging gently in the middle of Arcadia, the new Cupertino campus speaks of a dream of ascetic-aesthetic plenitude that goes back to modern utopianism.

Gattaca: Doğa'nın eli, insanın kılıcı ZEYNEP ŞENEL GENCER Hikâye, çok da uzak olmayan bir gelecekte, laboratuvar tüplerinde oluşturulan "tasarım insanların" mükemmelliğe yaklaşmak için çabalayıp durduğu zalim, kişiliksiz bir dünyada geçer. Filmin merak uyandırıcı teması doğuştan gelen kusurları iyileştirme ve kontrol etme konusundaki evrensel arzuyu hedefine alır. Yazar-yönetmen Andrew Niccol, bu filmle, bilim kurgu türünü, Kubrick'in ufuk açıcı 2001: Uzay Macerası ile belirlenen unsurlardan ayırarak bağımsızlaştırır. Gattaca, zayıf DNA profilleri nedeniyle tüm önemli ve çekici kariyer imkanlarından men edilen genetik alt sınıf üyelerinin (geçersizler olarak adlandırılanlar) beklentilerine mahal bırakmayan kasvetli bir geleceği resmeder. Vincent (Ethan Hawke) da geçersizlerden biridir. Fakat, ikinci sınıf statüsünü kabul etmek yerine, sistemle savaşmaya karar verir. Böylece başarısız bir intihar girişimi sonrasında belden aşağısı felç olan üstün genotipli Jerome Morrow'un (Jude Law) yerine geçer. Vincent artık "ödünç bir merdiven" dir. (Sargısız bir DNA zincirinin merdiven yapısına atıf) veya amiyane tabirle, kendisinin de dile getirdiği üzere, bir "doğmamış" tır. Jerome'un idrarını, kanını ve diğer biyolojik maddeleri kendisininmiş gibi sunarak, sahte bir genetik kimlik yaratır ve bu şekilde Gattaca'nın son derece rekabetçi ortamında bir yıllık görev için Saturn'ün uydusu Titan'a gidecek astronotlardan biri olmaya hak kazanır. Ancak, çocukluğundan beri kurduğu uzaya gitme tutkusuna ulaşması o kadar da kolay olmayacaktır.

Study guide for an assignment placing in "dialog" Robert A. Heinlein's Cold War eutopia and Joe Haldeman's emphatically Vietnam Era antiwar novel. Haldeman says he was not consciously answering Heinlein, and we should believe him; the case remains, though, that Vietnam grunt Haldeman has produced a radically different reading of similar "forever wars."  Also guides students to consider different versions of THE FOREVER WAR and how the differences can help make more nuanced our understanding of the movement from Modern to postmodern fiction.