CFP: Imagining Science Fiction Dangerously

Source: Mail sent by Sean Redmond to the Fan Studies list.

The power of science fiction lies in its dangers. Science fiction imagines other worlds that can challenge, unsettle, and disturb the known world. It turns on dangerous ideas, affective ruptures, political critique, and unfamiliar textures. It has the power to threaten the established order of things and open gaps in the way we conceptualise the contemporary world. But are we losing sight of the dangers of science fiction as we try to come to understand it? Istvan Csicsery-Ronay warned "there is a danger in making Science Fiction into an academic specialty. [...] I'm somewhat suspicious of treating Science Fiction as if it were a circumscribed subject with a canon and set of reading protocols" (interview with Rain Taxi, 2009).

This special issue aims to address questions of:

* How can science fiction continue to be imagined dangerously in all its forms – from literature to film to gaming to art – in the face of it becoming a "discipline"?

* How does science fiction recover its danger, away from the neo-liberal safety of commercialisation and criticism that renders it as a digestible genre?

* How can academia approach science fiction in a way that both contributes to, and avoids eroding, the power and danger of science fiction?

* How can the tropes of science fiction be challenged to imagine new intersections of science and fiction?

* What do advances in science and technology mean for the dangerous dimension of science fiction?

* How is science fiction used dangerously; for example in military planning or by environmentalists imagining dangerous futures?

* How can the spaces and the textures of science fiction continue to be imagined as dangerous?

* How do practices of reading contribute to science fiction becoming "safe" (in other words, are we missing the point?), and how can practices of reading make sci-fi dangerous again?

* Where is science fiction the most unsettling, confronting, and urgent?

We invite contributions that address any of these questions from the disciplines of literature, film, gaming, art, and science and technology, and any other field with an investment in the possibilities of imagining science fiction dangerously.

The issue will be edited by the Emerging Research Group in Science Fiction at Deakin University, Australia (lead by Associate Professor Sean Redmond, Associate Professor Leon Marvell, Dr Elizabeth Braithwaite, Dr Chris Moore, and Trent Griffiths, postdoctoral student), aiming for publication in late 2014.

We welcome abstracts for of 300-350 words, along with a short biography, emailed to sean.redmond@deakin.edu.au or leon.marvell@deakin.edu.au by Friday September 20th 2013. General enquiries about the special issue or the research group are also welcome.
Notification of acceptance of articles will be by Friday October 18th 2013. Completed articles should be original work which has neither been simultaneously submitted for publication elsewhere nor published previously, and will be due in April 2014.

Looking forward to Khan / Spock slash fiction

Ok so star trek has benerdict cumberbatch in it-_-I think I just had a nerdgasm.

— Nina ☯ (@NinaHanvey) May 9, 2013

CfP: Journal of Cult Media

Hinweis aus der Fanstudies-Mailingliste:

<snip>The Journal of Cult Media has relaunched and is currently accepting submissions for issue six. Intensities is an online journal first launched at Cardiff University in 2001 under the editorship of Matt Hills and Sara Gwenllian Jones. It later moved to Brunel University, where it was edited by David Lavery, and is currently edited (still at Brunel) by Leon Hunt.
Intensities will publish two issues a year. The journal addresses all aspects of cult media including cult television, cult film, cult radio, cult comics, literary cults and cult authors, new media cults, cult figures and celebrities, cult icons, musical cults, cult geographies, historical studies of media cults and their fandoms, cult genres (e.g. science fiction, horror, fantasy, pulp fiction, Manga, anime, Hong Kong film etc.), non-generic modes of cultishness, theorisations of cult media, relevant audience and readership studies, and work that addresses the cult media industry.
Issue six seeks submissions examining TV shows that have acquired cult status at a historical distance – both established cult shows ("The Avengers, The Prisoner, "the 'classic' series of "Doctor Who") and those that have received less (or possibly even no) critical attention. In addition, the papers will locate those shows historically, either by drawing on archive materials or suggesting new cultural, historical or institutional contexts in which they might be understood.
Submissions should be sent to intensities@brunel.ac.uk. They should be between 6000 and 8000 words, referenced Harvard style and sent as a word document – a 200 word abstract should be sent as a separate document. - Deadline for submissions is May 31st 2013.<snap>

"Extremfans" bei Domian

"In der kommenden Woche lautet unser Thema: Extrem-Fans. Wir wollen mit Menschen sprechen, die Fans von Stars aus Musik, Sport, Film oder Show-Geschäft sind. Oder wir sprechen gern mit Fans von Autos, Fußballvereinen oder auch bestimmten Marken". Jetzt auf WDR.

Vergil-Fan Fiction ;-)

Dante Alighieri, diary: "Ich have nat finisshed my two prose treatises. Too busye workinge on Vergile/Hell fanfic. Ich am such a slacker."

— Chaucer Doth Tweet (@LeVostreGC) March 1, 2013

Adapting Shakespeare for Star Trek

Ich habe gerade den interessanten Beitrag von Karolina Kazimierczak über die Übersetzung zweier Shakespeare-Dramen ins Klingonische entdeckt: "Adapting Shakespeare for Star Trek and Star Trek for Shakespeare: The Klingon Hamlet and the Spaces of Translation". In: Studies in Popular Culture, 32 (2010) 2, S. 35 - 55 (pdf).

ST-Phile 1: "The original Star Trek idea"

Laura J. Sweeney bietet auf ihrer Website zu ihrer Master Thesis "The Origins of the Star Trek Phenomenon: Gene Roddenberry, the Original Series, and Science Fiction Fandom in the 1960s" einiges Material, darunter zum Beispiel Auszüge aus frühen Fanzines. Aufgefallen ist mir der Beitrag über "The original Star Trek idea as submitted to NBC by Gene Roddenberry" (noch mit Captain Robert April), der in der ersten Ausgabe von ST-Phile erschienen ist. Sweeney führte anscheinend Interviews mit den Fans der ersten Stunde Juanita Coulson, Bjo Trimble und Devra Langsam. Die Thesis ist auch als Buch erschienen, vielleicht sollte ich die dreizehn Euro ausgeben...

Ohnmächtige Cumberbatch-Fans

Rob Bricken berichtet in io9 über eine Aussage von Benedict Cumberbatch zu seiner Rolle in Star Trek XII (bzw. genauer gesagt Star Trek AOS II): "The costumes look great. Some of them were very cumbersome and heavy, but some were very snug. You can almost see what religion I am" und kommentiert: "That sound you just heard was 100,000 erotic Benedict Cumberbatch fan fic writers fainting in pure joy".

Pornographic #startrek comic strips

James Doohan schreibt in seiner Autobiographie "Beam me up, Scotty" aus dem Jahr 1996: "And there are the truly odd aspects of fandom. For example, so I've been told: pornographic comic strips of all of us, even one between Kirk and Spock – I’m always with some girl" (S. 182) - da hat er wohl nicht geahnt, was noch alles folgt :-)

Klingon Style

Interview mit Betreiberin von TrekNation

Heute habe ich ein zweistündiges Interview mit Nadia Volkrodt, der Betreiberin von TrekNation, einer Plattform für Star Trek-Fan Fiction, geführt.

Sheldon and the napkin

Jean-Luc im Star Trek-Regal

Gene Roddenberry Star Trek Collection @ UCLA

The Online Archive of California offers a finding aid to the Gene Roddenberry Star Trek Television Series Collection, 1966-1969 which is archived at UCLA Library, Performing Arts Special Collections: "Collection consists of material related to the television program, Star trek. Includes story outlines, treatments and various drafts of scripts, shooting schedules, cast lists, title sheets, photographic lists, budget reports, and memoranda".

Conrad Quilty-Harper: "Star Trek: The Tour Phasers on Stun!", 5. Februar 2008, Flickr, CC-BY-NC-SA

Der Star Trek Defender-Charaktertest ;-)

Der "Star Trek Defender" Charaktertest Captain Lairis Ilana Du weißt, was du willst, stehst für deine Sache ein und die Leute halten dich für eine geborene Führungspersönlichkeit. Deine Warmherzigkeit und dein Humor sind so ansteckend, wie deine Temperamentsausbrüche abschreckend sind. Für Schwächere setzt du dich rückhaltlos ein - auch wenn das bedeutet, dass du selbst in die Schusslinie gerätst. Wenn du etwas für richtig hältst, findest du sehr unorthodoxe Wege, dich durchzusetzen - manches grenzt schon an hinterhältige oder illegale Methoden. Damit machst du dir natürlich nicht nur Freunde. Kein Wunder, dass du öfter mal sarkastisch bist. Click Here to Take This Quiz

Quizzes and Personality Tests

Early web: 50% porn, 50% Star Trek fansites

"The 50% of the early world wide web that wasn't porn was made up of Star Trek: The Next Generation fansites", sagt Damien Walter in seinem Kommentar "Fandom matters: writers must respect their followers or pay with their careers", der am 9. Mai 2012 im Guardian erschienen ist und bisher 91 Mal kommentiert wurde.

Expressing what I thought was wrong

In ihrer Masterarbeit "Cataloging the Whedonverse: Potential Roles for Librarians in Online Fan Fiction" zitiert die Autorin Jessica Freya Kem auf S. 20 eine Interviewpartnerin:

"I was delighted to find fanfic. It was such a wonderful way of expressing what I thought was wrong with the original TV show, and putting it right".

Das bringt es so auf den Punkt, dass ich überlege, es als Motto für meine Diplomarbeit zu verwenden...

Ankündigung: Pictorial History of Science Fiction Fanzines

Für Juli 2013 ist das Buch "The Interpretation of Zines: A Pictorial History of Science Fiction Fanzines" von Luis Ortiz bei Nonstop Press angekündigt.

Verlagstext: "A remarkable journey through the development of a popular subculture, from its earliest fans in the 1930s who used primitive desktop-printing technology to create amateur zines mimicking newsstand magazines to more recent zines dedicated to media science fiction, this chronicle of sci-fi fandom is a unique, eccentric, and richly entertaining look at the genre. This visual compendium showcases the best, most interesting, and strangest fanzines ever produced and provides the historical background of their development and detailed information on the writers and artists involved in their creation. From Ray Bradbury and Gene Simmons to Stephen King and Roger Ebert, the work of famous sci-fi zinesters is explored as well as all the marginal ephemera from a once isolated little genre that has now gained worldwide recognition and acceptance".

Whatcha mean, what's a zine?

In der bibliothekarischen Comicreihe "Unshelved" von Gene Ambaum und Bill Barnes widmet sich eine Ausgabe dem Buch "Whatcha Mean, What's a Zine? The Art of Making Zines and Mini Comics" von Esther Pearl Watson und Mark Todd, erschienen 2006 bei Graphia Books [follow the link].

Marvel and Wonder in Literature and Literary Theory

via h-germanistik: <zitat>The seminar "Marvel and Wonder in Literature and Literary Theory" will be held at the annual American Comparative Literature Association (ACLA) convention from April 4-7, 2013 in Toronto, Canada.

Our panel seeks to explore the concept of wonder and how it functions in literature, both as an emotional response to the foreign and as a stimulus for contemplation and critical reflection. It is through this very emotion, one could argue, that we position ourselves in the world and separate the Self from the Other. Yet, this experience is also what prompts our curiosity for discovery and provokes our search for explanations.

Genres such as travel literature seek to capture these moments of encounter with the foreign in terms of 'content'. Wonder, however, is also an effect that can be sought in the literary 'form' as well and has been a topic of theoretical discussion throughout the ages: from Aristotle (to thaumaston), the medieval Arab world (ta'ajjub), medieval Europe (meraviglia/admiration), the Enlightenment (sublime), to Russian Formalism (defamiliarization/Verfremdung).

We aim at discussing questions such as:

How is wonder defined?

What are the conditions under which it arises (both in terms of form and content)?

Can attitudes towards wonder inform us about the values of a particular cultural/social/historical context andtheir view of themselves in relation to the world?

Are there immutable aspects of wonder?

What is at stake with wonder?

While participating in Orientalism, can it also contribute to cultural understanding and dialogue?

How are pleasure and fear related to wonder?

The seminar welcomes papers looking at any of these aspects of wonder, in any period and region, either as it is treated theoretically or as an analysis of a literary text. Please submit a 250-words abstract by November 15, 2012 through the following link: http://acla.org/submit/index.php.

Seminar organizers: Lara Harb (New York University): lara.harb@gmail.com; Reinhard Möller (Justus Liebig Universität Giessen/Cornell University): Reinhard.M.Moeller@gcsc.uni-giessen.de. For any questions, please feel free to contact the seminar organizers directly by e-mail.<zitatende>