All 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.

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.

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.

Atrocity exhibition (2008)
Journal Article

Review of named film

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.

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.

Peristalsis, proliferation and ejaculation: Reflections on narrative and spectacle in digital sf cinema (2008)
Presentation / Conference Contribution

This paper addresses the changing nature of the cinematic experience in the era of blockbuster digital filmmaking, using Transformers as its key example.

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.

Screening Mars: Desire and denial in Aelita (Protazonov USSR 1924) and Just Imagine (Butler US 1930) (2008)
Presentation / Conference Contribution

An analysis of contrasting depictions of Mars as a location of desire rather than an astronomical venue.

Science fiction television in the United Kingdom (2008)
Book Chapter

A critical overview of British television sf, from 1938 to the present day, with special attention to the ways in which it has articulated the UK’s shifting position in global politics and economics.

The bald and the beautiful: The performativity of Billy Zane (2008)
Presentation / Conference Contribution

Analysis of Billy Zane's performance style in relation to the economics of contemporary filmmaking.

Proliferation, peristalsis and ejaculation: Reflections on narrative and spectacle in digital SF cinema (2008)
Presentation / Conference Contribution

This paper addresses the changing nature of the cinamatic experience in the era of blockbuster digital filmamking, using Transformers as its key example.

Transformers (2008)
Journal Article

Review of named film

Arthur C. Clarke's Vision of Benevolent Empire (2008)
Journal Article

An obituary of Arthur C. Clarke, with a critical focus on his treatment of imperialism/colonialism.

SF histories (2008)
Presentation / Conference Contribution

Mark Bould was one of four closing plenary panel members at this conference. The closing panel sumamrised the key ideas that emerged during the course of the conference and suggestions about their implications for future research.

Writing/Genre/History: Everyone else is wrong (and so am I) (2008)
Presentation / Conference Contribution

An overview of the problems involved in writing a history of a genre, drawing on debates in contemporary historiography and science studies.

Tortured torsos: 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.