We're very pleased to be hosting a full academic conference as part of Nine Worlds - our Academia track will host a series of lectures, discussions and paper presentations by students, researchers and academics who study Science Fiction and Fantasy. Lots more abstracts are on their way, and see the main track page for the full descriptions, or see the summaries below!
Hadaly: The First Android
The titular character of Villiers d'Isle-Adam's 1886 novel Tomorrow's Eve, Hadaly is the brainchild of no less an inventor than Thomas Edison, who bets a friend he can create the "perfect woman": sparking the first "Pygmalion" story in modern science fiction. This talk will explore Tomorrow's Eve against the technological developments of the late nineteenth-century obsession with "creating reality", and will also look at popular contemporary "robot Pygmalion" stories - such as Warren's "Buffy-Bot" on Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
Wicker Men, Straw Dogs and Fireflies: Celts and Others in 70s Cinema and ‘Safe’’
This talk looks at some of the controversial ancestors of the witch-burning scene in Firefly’s episode ‘Safe’, focusing on how certain groups (ethnic ones such as Celts, religious factions, national stereotypes and so on) are portrayed as different and mutually antagonistic. How do texts such as films and novels demonise certain groups? How long is the history of certain stereotypes? How far do competing stereotypes merge into each other? And, in each text, how do we decide which side we are on?
The 48k ZX Spectrum: Material culture and early home computer game history in Britain
Among the first and most popular home computers available in Britain, the 48k Sincalir ZX Spectrum played a major part in home gaming culture. For all its limitations, the Spectrum became a site of intense experimental creativity. In the early 1980s player-producers made their own games to sell via mail order or set up their own small companies. By taking a close look at the material culture of these games we can gain a better understanding of our gaming history.
Gayle Rubin, Gay Wizards and Denying a Paradigm
In her 1984 essay “Thinking Sex”, Gayle Rubin questioned a hierarchical sexual value system which defines some sexual behaviours as acceptable/good/natural, and others as unacceptable/bad/unnatural. As genres, Fantasy and Sci-Fi are often accused of perpetuating this singular sexual paradigm, rather than exploring their limitless potential for alternate sexual structures. This talk will argue that Sci-Fi and Fantasy fan-fiction often displays far more subversive, exploratory potential than canon works, with a focus on Harry Potter.
Tolkien and the English Language
Edmund Weiner, co-author of The Ring of Words and the deputy chief editor of the Oxford English Dictionary, shares high insights into Tolkien's relationship with language. He'll be looking at Tolkien's use of existing English, and at Tolkien's invented English – from the way he developed words which are linguistically English but are either his own coinages or adaptations of existing words in modern, Middle, or Old English or Old Norse, to the wordplay and allusion he did so well.
“Real Adventures for Real Heroes” – Does Dungeons and Dragons deliver what it promises?
Emblazoned on the front of my first edition of D&D were the words: “Real adventures for real heroes”. But exactly what kind of reality does D&D promise? If we buy into the idea that whilst playing D&D we are engaging in something more than the mere entertaining of involvement in a particular adventure, more fool us. However, the questions of what exactly we can learn from D&D, what real-world impacts it can have, what knowledge we can gain from it, and how it can improve us as persons existing and acting in the world, need to be looked at more carefully before we dismiss D&D as having no impact upon reality whatsoever.
Monogamy, Heteronormativity and Compulsory Heterosexuality in Recent Science Fiction Cinema
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) is interrogated as a compulsory heterosexuality text, in which straight attraction is capable of overcoming even reconstructive brain surgery. Timer (2009) literalises the imperative of lifelong monogamy, as individuals are implanted with clocks which count down to the moment they meet ‘the one’. The Adjustment Bureau (2011) depicts heterosexuality as threatened by a shadowy homosocial authority, different sex-sexuality being powerful enough to defy, while ultimately endorsed by, God’s plan as representing a radical expression of free will. While presenting straight relations as the only viable sexual option, these films reinforce – while occasionally critiquing – dominant conceptions of heterosexuality.
The Design Of Alien Ecologies: The Invention Of Reality-Based Aliens
Dr Jack Cohen, who worked on The Science of the Discworld, has assisted with the invention of many fictional life forms (e.g. McCaffrey's Dragons of Pern, Harrison's Yilane of West of Eden, several by Niven and White). In this talk, he will look at why we should remain true to real biology, to invent a new series of peculiarities which could replace our human lot, as well as why the "universal" evolutionary solutions must be retained. He'll discuss how the real difficulty is artistic, not primarily biological; it is to lose the anthropomorphism without losing communication with the audience.
Synthetic Biology: A Convergence of Fact and Fiction
Synthetic biology (syn-bio) sits at the intersection of science fiction and scientific reality, seeking to reliably engineering living things. Syn-bio has practical applications in chemical synthesis, bio-sensors, bio-computing, and perhaps in the future, living buildings and asteroid mining. In this talk, we'll look at how syn-bio has appeared in science fiction, and just how quick the gap is closing between fiction and reality.
Dancing on the Grave: New Utopian Wastelands and Social Movements Against and Beyond Capital
The ruin or wasteland is a constant trope of science fiction – almost so common as to be a permanent fixture of the genre. More often than not the wasteland signals a dystopian condition. In recent years though, the wasteland has taken on a different, almost neo-pastoral significance: wasteland as the condition of utopia. This talk contends that this shift reflects a transformed understanding of utopian thinking, one that starts not from a sense of progress but of salvage.