The Monstrous Fantastic Conference Paper Abstracts - International ...

takes a long time to evolve into the form found in The Silmarillion, and being able to examine this evolution step-by-step and in detail is amongthe great benefits of the History of Middle-earth. One of the changes evident is the evolution from the fanciful to the moral. It is not surprisingthat Tolkien eliminates such strange ideas as the purifying fire, Fôs’Almir, which cleanses Túrin Turambar and his sister Nienor of theirincestuous sin, and as the deification of the two mortals since Tolkien also deletes other astonishing ideas found in early texts. In Túrin’s tale,as with the Valaquenta, Tolkien seems to minimize the mythological, removing the pagan and fanciful. Even Túrin’s victory against Morgoth inthe Last Battle, by which “the children of Húrin and all Men [will] be avenged” (Lost Road 1987, 333), disappears from the publishedSilmarillion—along with the entire prophecy of Mandos—and there is no vengeance for Húrin’s family or mankind as a whole. The absence ofthese elements seems to increase the darkness of the tale and is consistent with Tolkien's statement: “I do not expect ‘history’ to be anythingbut a ‘long defeat’—though it contains . . . some samples or glimpses of final victory” (Letters 1981, 255). Additionally, these changes seem tounderscore the pervasiveness of evil, which Tolkien clearly demonstrates is woven into the very fabric of the created world since, as is told inthe Ainulindalë, Melkor/Morgoth participated in creation. No tale of Middle-earth is as dark as that of Túrin Turambar and his family, a talefrom which, in its final form, all glimmer of hope has been extinguished.*******Friday, March 23, 2012 10:30 a.m.-12:00 p.m.66. (SF) New Wave Science Fiction PineChair: Jennifer CoxFlorida Atlantic UniversityLife at the Top: Residential Segmentation and Class Division in Ballard’s High Rise and Silverberg’s The World InsideJeff HicksUC RiversideAs SF scholar Rob Latham has suggested, by the end of the 1960s the utopian promise suggested in Le Corbusier's 1930s architectural project the "VilleRadieuse" had begun to come under heavy criticism by SF's New Wave authors. The idea that centralized living and work spaces could create a classless,tightly-knit community seemed out of touch with the urban realities of the 60s and 70s. Specifically, the image of the tall, free-standing apartmentcomplex had become less associated with a community of equals than with the separation of a specific class of residents from the outside world. My paperaims to show the connection between the isolated, self-contained living spaces depicted in J.G. Ballard's High-Rise (1975) and Robert Silverberg's TheWorld Inside (1971), and the residential segmentation and class segregation found in the urban realities of the late 1960s to mid-1970s.Impure Children and the Mothers That Keep Them: Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter and Judith Merril’s “That Only a Mother”Connor BoyleFlorida Atlantic UniversityMy paper offers a close reading of Judith Merril’s “That Only a Mother” as an atomic age Scarlet Letter tale, where the Puritan desire for moralpurity is replaced with post World War II America’s desire for genetic purity. Both Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter and Judith Merril’s“That Only a Mother” acknowledge that the “ideal mother” is a social construction, and that it is often the real love of a mother that preventsher from achieving this ideal. In Hawthorne’s 17 th -century New England, the village elders offer to adopt Pearl in order to properly socialize herand save the young girl’s soul. In Merril’s scientific America, the antidote for impurity is much more severe. My comparison will demonstratehow expectations placed on the “good citizen” often conflict with mothers’ rights in both religious and scientific societies. The characterizationsof the “protector” mother and the “socially minded” father in American fiction will also be explored.Before Stand on Zanzibar: John Brunner's Early FictionJad SmithEastern Illinois UniversityEditor Donald A. Wollheim regarded Brunner's early fiction as key to understanding his approach and once expressed regret that, for whateverreason, it tended to pass beneath critical notice (qtd. in De Bolt 19). Brunner himself frequently discussed The Squares of the City and TheWhole Man as conscious experiments in craft conducted during his early career, and also once described his Ace novels as "dry-runs for thelater and more substantial books," adding "I set about this quite deliberately" (12). Nonetheless, Stand on Zanzibar is often viewed as alightning-strike moment without precedent in his early fiction. Through reconsideration of stories and novels such as “Fair” and The 100 thMillenium, and attention to Brunner’s own published comments about the craft in various prozines and fanzines, my paper examines the longgestatingapproach that led to Stand on Zanzibar and other notable fiction of Brunner’s mid-career.