Dan Hassler-ForestScience Fiction, Fantasy, and Politics: Transmedia World-Building Beyond Capitalism
2019; Volume: 46; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1353/sfs.2019.0003
ISSN2327-6207
Autores Tópico(s)Utopian, Dystopian, and Speculative Fiction
Resumo177 BOOKS IN REVIEW science fiction and creative writing classes as an adjunct; and then parleyed his extensive publication record to jump directly from lecturer status to full professor in the English department, a rank he obtained in 1974. He retired at KU’s mandated age of 70, which also freed him from tedious committee work and allowed him more time to devote to his writing. He wrote novels, worked in outreach to help other schools launch sf programs, networked at sf conferences, juried sf awards, and founded the Institute for the Study of Science Fiction, which offers summer classes and workshops on sf. He also won a variety of honors and had one of his novels turned into a TV show. The prose style used in Star-Begotten reads like a one-sided conversation. Although the text is roughly chronological, asides are frequent, with the author recalling a memory or anecdote that is often mediated by his remembrance of a remark his mother made years later, thus providing context and permitting elements of the story to be remembered simultaneously from an adult’s and a child’s point of view. He also occasionally drops in names of people not mentioned before (mostly family members) as if assuming the reader will know whom he means, which adds a level of immediacy to the text. (And who are those people? He eventually gets there.) Although Gunn occasionally ruminates on the meaning of it all, the book is mostly matter-of-fact, told in a style that evokes his early training as a journalist. In addition to its primary focus on Gunn’s life, this autobiography also acts as a kind of close-up history of the University of Kansas and the town of Lawrence, and it is particularly interesting in its description of this locale around the time of World War II. As a KU graduate myself, I found the street addresses of the houses he lived in, the status of long-torn-down buildings, and his recollection of various university offices to be fascinating because I know the neighborhood well. Likewise, he mentions the names of neighbors, fellow bridge players, departmental chairs, and colleagues—many of whom were important to KU, and some of whom have names that now adorn campus buildings. These reminiscences will likely resonate most strongly with people with ties to KU or for people interested in the history of the area. Similarly, the text Gunn provides of his acceptance speeches for his many honors may be useful to scholars working in the sf field. Star-Begotten: A Life Lived in Science Fiction is important as a historical document because it provides not only a wealth of information on James Gunn but also a firsthand account of the evolution of the world of sf from the pulps to what it is today. Gunn trained many editors and writers in the genre, and his influence helped turn science fiction into a field of legitimate study and inquiry. “It is all so unlikely,” he concludes, “and it’s all so marvelous that we were able to observe it and speculate about it and tell ourselves about what it all means and what, if anything, about it matters” (190). One is left to wonder: is he saying this about sf or about his life?—Karen Hellekson, Jay, Maine Democratic Energies. Dan Hassler-Forest. Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Politics: Transmedia World-Building Beyond Capitalism. London: Rowman and 178 SCIENCE FICTION STUDIES, VOLUME 46 (2019) Littlefield, RADICAL CULTURAL STUDIES, 2016. 246 pp. ^80 hc, ^24.95 pbk, ^24.99 ebook. Dan Hassler-Forest’s Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Politics argues that “fantastic storyworlds provide us with valuable ways to challenge and interrogate the cultural logic of capitalism while at the same time imposing serious limits on their radical political potential” (197). His critical framework is grounded in the application of Antonio Negri and Michael Hardt’s interrogations of global capitalism to the transmedia storyworlds of THE LORD OF THE RINGS (2001-2003), STAR TREK (1966-1969; 1987-2005), GAME OF THRONES (2017-2019), BATTLESTAR GALACTICA (2003-2009), SPARTACUS (2010-2013), THE HUNGER GAMES (2012-2015), THE WALKING DEAD (2010-), and Janelle Mon...
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