Le numéro 133 de la revue Science Fiction Studies est paru.

ARTICLES

Jeremy Withers

Bicycles Across the Galaxy: Attacking Automobility in 1950s Science Fiction

Abstract. This essay focuses on several works of science fiction from the 1950s that function as counter-narratives to the hegemony of the automobile during this decade and to the accompanying dismissive perceptions of the bicycle. In its analysis of a novel by Robert A. Heinlein (The Rolling Stones, 1952), a novella by Poul Anderson  (“A Bicycle Built for Brew,”  1958), and a short story by Avram Davidson (“Or All the  Seas with  Oysters,” 1958), it asserts that some of the leading  figures in  Golden Age  sf were not content to relegate bicycles to the status of a technological obsolescence fit only for children. Instead, they chose to portray bicycles as useful, potent, and agentic—images that counter the prevailing ideology of “automobility” that was crystallizing with such durability in postwar America.

Connor Pitetti

Uses of the End of the World: Apocalypse and Postapocalypse as  Narrative Modes

Abstract. Through a broad survey of fictional, religious, philosophical, and political end-time narratives, this essay identifies two strategies for telling stories about the end of the world. Apocalyptic narratives use the idea of the end to give structure to the experience of history. By narrating the end as a moment of rupture that creates  an  absolute division between old and new worlds, they frame history as a series of clearly defined and therefore comprehensible transitions between distinct moments or epochs. Postapocalyptic narratives complicate this neatly organized account by narrating “ends” as complex historical transformations that involve survivals and continuities and thus blur before/after distinctions. Rather than providing a comprehensive and therefore existentially stabilizing overview of history, they draw attention to the indeterminate nature of ongoing processes of historical change. By focusing on the conceptual understanding of historical change that underwrites different kinds of end-time narratives, the essay clarifies the theoretical terminology of apocalypse and postapocalypse, and articulates a clearer understanding of the ways in which different kinds of contemporary stories about the end of the world are used to  provide  conceptual support for political action  in  the  present.

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Le numéro 132 de la revue Science Fiction Studies est paru.

ARTICLES

SPECIAL ISSUE ON SPANISH SF
Edited by Sara Martín and Fernando Ángel Moreno

• Sara Martín. Introduction. Spanish SF: A Phantom Genre (Full text)
• Fernando Ángel Moreno and Cristina Pérez. An Overview of Spanish Science Fiction
• Symposium on Spanish SF
• Mikel Peregrina and Jimena Escudero Pérez. Domingo Santos: Bringing on the Golden Decade

Domingo Santos is arguably the most influential and prolific personality in Spanish science fiction, and this paper provides an overview of his career. Although ideologically conservative, dating from his life before the political changes witnessed during the Spanish Transition, Santos initiated an entire process of both formal and thematic maturation that would culminate in Spanish sf’s Golden Decade (1985-1995). As a writer, he is the author of one of the best dystopian short-story collections written during the late Francoism of the 1970s: Futuro imperfecto [Imperfect Future, 1981]. Despite their dark endings, these tales raise new political and ecological issues and employ innovative narrative techniques non-existent until then in Spanish sf. Furthermore, Santos was also involved in some of the most prominent sf editorial projects in the country, from the leading sf magazine Nueva Dimensión [New Dimension, 1968-1983] to new sf book series by publishers such as Acervo, Orbis, and Ultramar. These sf editorial initiatives enabled the publication of many important sf works—including those by a host of New Wave authors—and launched the writing careers of many modern Spanish sf authors such as Gabriel Bermúdez Castillo and Rafael Marín.

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