Red Planets: Marxism and Science Fiction

Commendation Quotes: "Red Planets is a highly readable and interesting collection of essays. Many of the pieces have completely new things to tell us, and will be of interest even to those who are antagonistic toward politically inspired criticism."Review Quotes: "Red Planets is that rare event, an entirely coherent collection where each contributor intervenes to conspire a shared 'problem, ' ... (it) is an exemplary collection."--Darran Jorgensen, Science Fiction, Film, and TelevisionBiographical Note: MARK BOULD teaches film and literature at the University of the West of England. He is the author of Film Noir: From Berlin to Sin City (2005) and The Cinema of John Sayles (2008), and coeditor of The Routledge Companion to Science Fiction (2009). CHINA MIEVILLE is an independent researcher and novelist. He won the Arthur C. Clarke Award for Perdido Street Station (2000) and Iron Council (2004), the British Fantasy Award for The Scar (2002), and the Locus Award for Best Young Adult Book for Un Lun Dun (2007). Table of Contents: Series Preface - Mike Wayne and Esther LeslieIntroduction: Rough Guide to a Lonely Planet, from Nemo to Neo - Mark BouldTHINGS TO COMEThe Anamorphic Estrangements of Science Fiction - Matthew BeaumontArt as 'The Basic Technique of Life': Utopian Art and Art in Utopia in The Dispossessed and Blue Mars - William J. BurlingMarxism, Cinema and some Dialectics of Science Fiction and Film Noir - Carl FreedmanSpectacle, Technology and Colonialism in SF Cinema: the Case of Wim Wenders' Until the End of the World' - John RiederWHEN WORLDS COLLIDEThe Singularity is Here - Steven ShaviroSpecies and Species Being: Alienated Subjectivity and the Commodification of Animals - Sherryl VintKen MacLeod's Permanent Revolution: Utopian Possible Worlds, History, and the Augenblick in the Fall Revolution Quartet - Phillip WegnerBACK TO THE FUTURE'Madonna in moon rocket with breeches': Weimar SF Film Criticism during the Stabilisation Period - Iris LuppaThe Urban Question in New Wave SF - Rob LathamToward a Revolutionary Science Fiction: Althusser's Critique of Historicity - Darren JorgensenUtopia and Science Fiction Revisited - Andrew MilnerAfterword: Cognition as Ideology: A Dialectic of SF Theory - China MievilleAppendicesAbout the ContributorsIndexMarc Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.; Avail. in cloth. Publisher Marketing: Science fiction and socialism have always had a close relationship. Many science fiction novelists and filmmakers have used the genre to examine explicit or implicit Marxist concerns. Red Planets is an accessible and lively account, which makes an ideal introduction to anyone interested in the politics of science fiction. The volume covers a rich variety of examples from Weimar cinema to mainstream Hollywood films, and novelists from Jules Verne, H. G. Wells, Philip K. Dick, and Thomas Disch to Ursula K. Le Guin, Kim Stanley Robinson, Ken MacLeod, and Charles Stross. Contributors include Matthew Beaumont, William J. Burling, Carl Freedman, Darren Jorgensen, Rob Latham, Iris Luppa, Andrew Milner, John Rieder, Steven Shaviro, Sherryl Vint, and Phillip Wegner. Review Citations: Choice 05/01/2010 (EAN 9780819569134, Paperback) Chronicle of Higher Education 11/06/2009 pg. 21 (EAN 9780819569127, Hardcover) Contributor Bio:  Bould, Mark Mark Bould is senior lecturer in film studies at the University of the West of England. Contributor Bio:  Mieville, China J. G. Ballard was born in Shanghai in 1930 and lived in England from 1946 until his death in London in 2009. He is the author of nineteen novels, including "Empire of the Sun", "The Drought", and "Crash", with many of them made into major films.