Outputs (25)

19th-Century sf and the discourses of science: Martin Willis, Mesmerists, monsters and machines: Science fiction and the cultures of science in the Nineteenth Century (2008)
Journal Article

Book review of named text

There is no such thing as science fiction (2008)
Book Chapter

Taking Tom Godwin’s classic – and controversial – sf short story ‘The Cold Equations’ as its starting point, this essay draws on contemporary genre theory and Bruno Latour’s science studies model of enrolment to argue that there is no such thing as s... Read More about There is no such thing as science fiction.

The thin men: Anorexic subjectivity in Fight Club and The Machinist. (2008)
Presentation / Conference Contribution

Taking anorexia as a model of subjectivity under contemporary capital, this paper analyses the noir protagonists of Fight Club and The Machinist and their relationships to power, labour and their own bodies.

Staging the limits to knowledge: Cognition, estrangment and spectacle in 2001: A Space Odyssey (2008)
Presentation / Conference Contribution

Beginning by questioning the possibility of judging relative scale and postion in the famous final image of the 2001, this paper challenges Carl Freedman's influential argument about the possibility of spectacle generating cognitive estrangement.

Journal editors' panel (2008)
Presentation / Conference Contribution

After providing an overview of the journal I co-edit, and the processes through which submissions go, I then participated in a chaired discussion (along with other journal editors who had made similar presentations) geared towards an audience of grad... Read More about Journal editors' panel.

Nothing much to phone home about (with exceptions): Four books on Spielberg (2008)
Journal Article

10,000 word review of four more or less concurrent academic/critical books on Spielberg's films, including Warren Buckland, directed by Steven Spielberg: Poetics of the contemporary blockbuster; Lester D Friedman, Citizen Spielberg; Andrew Gordon, Em... Read More about Nothing much to phone home about (with exceptions): Four books on Spielberg.

Atrocity exhibition (2008)
Journal Article

Review of named film

Eraserheads (2008)
Presentation / Conference Contribution

This public panel discussed various aspects of the relationship between cinema and memory, with a particular focus on the gallery work of Pierre Bismuth and Michel Gondry. The panel was chaired by Roger Luckhurst; the co-panellists were Jonathan Romn... Read More about Eraserheads.

Monsters and modernity (2008)
Presentation / Conference Contribution

A critical overview of the repressive aspects of modernity which, in popular culture at least, tend to unleash monsters. Drawing on Walter Benjamin, this paper also considers the relationship between 'progress' and catastrophe.

Reading science fiction (2008)
Presentation / Conference Contribution

After an initial short presentation on the failure of sf studies to engage with issues emerging in genre studies over the last decade or so, I participated in a chaired discussion concerning this and presentations by other panellists.