Zepke Stephen: Head in the Stars. Essays on Science Fiction

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Notes1 Reddell’s genealogy of the ‘sonic novum’ in his recent The Sound ofThings to Come is a remarkable example of what can be achieved bytaking this approach.2 I am referring to Owen Hatherley’s excellent book of the samename. Csicsery-Ronay makes a similar point, writing, ‘the novumreveals history’s contingency: that, at any point, history can changedirection. […] Modern historical consciousness is shaped by belief innovums.’ (2008 57)3 ‘My day’, Nietzsche complained (but also boasted), ‘won’t come untilthe day after tomorrow.’ (1968 125)4 There are, of course, other philosophies of the ‘new’, perhaps mostnotably the recent work of Alain Badiou and his concept of the‘event’ that is discussed in chapter three. Phillip Wenger has alsodrawn upon Badiou in his discussion of science fiction films (seeWenger 2009).5 In recent years the number of dystopian films has declined somewhat,less as a reflection of current politics, and more because of theseeming hegemony of superhero films, which currently dominate thescience fiction market.6 Science fiction is based, Jameson argues, on ‘the properly utopiandialectic of Identity and Difference’ (2005, xiv). This dialectic conse-233
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Stephen ZepkeStephen ZepkeHead in t
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Stephen ZepkeHead inthe StarsEssays
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‘I hold out my hand to the future
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Acknowledgments
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‘Towards an Ethics of the Alien:
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IntroductionScience Fiction, Prelud
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estrangement’ that seek to reflec
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simply destroying the results. To i
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new’ (2008 53). So although scien
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(dialectically) connected to today,
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Science fiction is about the future
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The novum’s difference from reali
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even say “transhistorical” impe
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structure of what he calls ‘criti
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But, according to Suvin, there is a
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(in its autonomous and insect-like
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‘sanity’ with the defeat of the
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fiction’s politics. While this su
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in doing so they turn this individu
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The problem here is that when scien
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We need, Nietzsche says, a ‘criti
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the criteria of creation, and by so
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disappearing, but one which is not
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setting seems devoid of time itself
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instead a mysterious refusal of it.
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a strange coupling around a half ab
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Real hallucinations - Videodrome
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The great achievement of the film i
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‘Long live the new flesh’ - bey
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Chapter TwoInterface Aesthetics,Sci
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Virtual pathologies - The Lawnmower
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capital. This is clearly illustrate
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total war into an economy of (non)
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in order to instrumentalise and exp
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someone else’s entertainment. Snu
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Johnny uploads the info (with memor
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fragmented experiences of the infos
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Corporate brainwashing - Cypher
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‘Reality’ returns - the end of
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new sensation has not been destroye
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to this, in order to instead set up
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contemporary capitalism, but to emb
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(ie., parasites) that can reconstit
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Unfortunately perhaps, the interfac
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war imagery and porn to the social
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[...], destructions in relation to
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We do not fundamentally need a phil
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beyond? 42 The problem for Badiou a
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truth, and in the second it provoke
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appearance of the alien as a monste
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Consequently, the verified terms co
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the point of the indiscernible, an
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universal address is explicitly fig
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time big, dwarfing John. The door i
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who are against - on principle - bo
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event. This fidelity is what can fo
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Every invocation of blood and soil,
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but the alien goes on to articulate
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length backing away, then CUT to th
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point-of-view frame, it is no diffe
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all’ (2001 27). This point is fin
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Chapter FourAgainst Nihilism,Nietzs
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Nietzschean inspiration rather than
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birth to consciousness, and the ape
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overcomes the natural cycle of life
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In 1887-88 Nietzsche explains the c
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To see others suffer does one good,
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day. But on the other hand, everyth
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develop their own techniques except
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Council has “requested formal sec
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Excavating their future - 2001
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mission. This is, the announcer tel
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reliable computer ever made, no 900
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Does HAL resent man’s body and in
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an end to the reign and realm of as
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The manual airlock - 2001
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The body, the corpo-real, is the ob
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jupiter and beyond the infiniteHavi
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untroubled by any sentimental retur
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a place existing beyond human exper
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freedom and be lord in its own dese
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Bowman emerges from the Star Gate i
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Bowman however, forever unflappable
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monolith and what has become of man
Page 183: Chapter FivePeace and Love (and Fuc
Page 186 and 187: was the only way I ever learned any
Page 188 and 189: Spinoza’s fundamental insight tha
Page 190 and 191: of ‘networking’, a form of comm
Page 192 and 193: This added luminosity is the light
Page 194 and 195: (440) This is an intense infinity t
Page 196 and 197: depends on the nature of the experi
Page 198 and 199: In the reconstructed spider-pit seq
Page 200 and 201: Eric finds happiness where Bill saw
Page 202 and 203: look less like a valley ... than an
Page 204 and 205: could not effect matter directly, w
Page 206 and 207: Eric has clearly ‘got’ the Ethi
Page 208 and 209: simplest thing can reveal infinity.
Page 210 and 211: one of only two unsympathetic chara
Page 212 and 213: run by the Kyle foundation, ‘an i
Page 214 and 215: Yes, help was what it was all about
Page 216 and 217: Fred Moten has argued that Delany
Page 218 and 219: formed from tradition and learning,
Page 220 and 221: Eric’s desire, a desire that led
Page 223 and 224: BibliographyJerold J. Abrams (2007)
Page 225 and 226: Gilles Deleuze (1978). Third lesson
Page 227 and 228: H. P. Lovecraft (2001). The Thing o
Page 229 and 230: Leonard F. Wheat (2000). Kubrick’
Page 231: Elysium (Neill Blomkamp, 2013)Equil
Page 235 and 236: yond’. As such it is perpetuated
Page 237 and 238: films Bloodshot (Wilson, 2020) or U
Page 239 and 240: to the Italian political movement o
Page 241 and 242: 41 This understanding of the alien
Page 243 and 244: (but also nothing more) than the de
Page 245 and 246: that they amount to nothing more th
Page 247 and 248: too often and precisely for this to
Page 249 and 250: emphasises 2000 year historical cyc
Page 251 and 252: Unsurprisingly she hardly deals wit
Page 253 and 254: 87 In this sense 2001 seems to acco
Page 255 and 256: 97 All page references now given in
Page 257 and 258: limited by another thought. But a b
Page 259: This book is published within the p
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