The Dreams Our Stuff is Made Of

How Science Fiction conquered the World

By: Thomas M. Disch

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Paperback | 5 July 2000 | Edition Number 1

At a Glance

Paperback
272 Pages

Edition Type
New edition

Dimensions(cm)
20.96 x 12.07 x 1.91

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Disch traces Sci-Fi's phenomenal growth from the supernatural tales of Edgar Allen Poe to the utopian dreams and technological nightmares of H.G. Wells and Jules Verne, to today when it has become a multi-billion dollar global entertainment industry. While he highlights the genre's predictive successes, he emphasises its cultural role as both a lens and a medium for the very rapid changes driven by modern technology. Disch traces sci-fi's role in all aspects of modern life and explains how it has become a cultural battlefield even helping us to adjust to new social realities. But Disch is also highly critical of the genre and sees its darker expression in the appearance of suicidal UFO cults. Behind the spaceships and aliens, Disch reveals the blueprints of the dizzying postmodern future we have already begun to inhabit.

Industry Reviews

Michael Jacobs USA Today Fascinating. Robert Sheckley San Francisco Chronicle Sharp, provocative....More than just a history, Disch gives us a sense of the events and moods that are so much a part of science-fiction....[Disch] has covered the vital aspects of the field in a highly readable book. Robert Taylor The Boston Globe A provocative and enjoyable book. Dick Allen The Hudson Review Entertaining and provocative....Long overdue -- a pioneering look at what other cultural observers have ignored....Disch convinces us that any cultural study of our century which does not deal seriously with the genre is or will be fatally flawed. Christopher Lehmann-Haupt The New York Times Provocative. Alyssa Katz Newsday [Disch speaks] for the entire genre with admirable authority and grace. Robert Silverberg The Wall Street Journal Mr. Disch's lively and provocative new book is a science-fiction insider's brilliant attempt to come to terms with the bizarre morphing of our civilization in the past fifty years into something that might well have leaped out of the archetypical tales of yesterday's SF masters. George Feeley The Washington Post Witty, urbane and generous....Thomas M. Disch has got it right. Frank McConnell San Jose Mercury News Brilliant....It's a wonderful book, and no one who cares about science fiction, or about American culture, should miss reading it. Alexander Star The New York Times Disch is an eloquent storyteller and polemicist....[His] book is consistently rewarding.

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You Can Find This Book In

Non-Fiction Literature, Poetry & Plays History & Criticism of Literature Literary Studies of Fiction Fiction Science Fiction Science Science in General Modern & Contemporary Fiction General Literary Studies Literary Studies from 1900 to Current

Contents
Introduction
The Right to Lie
Poe, Our Embarrassing Ancestor
From the Earth to the Moon -- In 101 Years
How Science Fiction Defused the Bomb
Star Trek, or the Future as a Lifestyle
Can Girls Play Too? Feminizing Science Fiction
When You Wish Upon a Star -- Science Fiction as a Religion
Republicans on Mars -- Science Fiction as Military Strategy
The Third World and Other Alien Nations
The Future of an Illusion -- Science Fiction Beyond the Year 2000
Notes And References
Acknowledgments
Index
Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.

The Dreams Our Stuff is Made Of

How Science Fiction conquered the World

At a Glance

Paperback

Industry Reviews

Shipping

How to return your order

Defective items

You Can Find This Book In

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