Wiley-Blackwell is publishing three academic studies of science fiction in the coming months, one focusing on the iconic television program The Twilight Zone, which this year is celebrating its 50th anniversary. They’ve decided to publish these books because, as Wiley’s Bethany Carland-Adams says, “science fiction in literature, television, and movies has allowed us to step beyond the boundaries of our imagination, and see the world in all of its strangeness and glory, with a new and fresh perspective. These three books from Wiley-Blackwell represent the full spectrum of how science fiction can engage people and allow them to face—and learn from—their wildest perceptions about the world. Science fiction allows us to enter, at our own risk, an alternate reality, environment, or psychological state.”
In May, they’ll publish Philosophy in the Twilight Zone edited by Noël Carroll and Lester H. Hunt. In this book, “the authors discuss the show as a shining example of science fiction popular with the public, as well as an innovative and model example of the genre. Rod Serling is given the spotlight for his role as the auteur of one of the most popular television shows of all time, where he found himself living at the edge of the aesthetic, conceptual, and artistic outer limits. The authors emphasize his ‘writerly’ style and image as a new variety of television executive, as well as how his work shaped future forms of the genre, as well as suspense and horror films.”
Chapters include “Where is the Twilight Zone?”, by the University of Delaware’s Richard Hanley, and “‘The Little People’: Power and the Worshipable” by Temple University’s Aaron Smuts, which “highlight the light, campy, yet serious and instructive tone of the show, and offer an insightful glance at the episodes that provided much fodder for nightmares and musings on the traps and dangers of modern life. The authors also demonstrate how the content of the show did not recoil from the important and pervasive concerns of the day such as nuclear power, infringement of privacy and personal dignity, and the rewards and sacrifices of war, freedom, and justice.”
May will also see the publication of The Science Fiction Handbook by M. Keith Booker and Anne-Marie Thomas. This book “gives the genre its due, celebrates it, and helps to distinguish it from other forms such as fantasy or horror. The authors cover everything from Orwell’s 1984 to Asimov’s I, Robot and explore all of the major subgenres and narrative styles including time travel, alien invasion, utopian, dystopian, cyberpunk, post-human, post-apocalyptic, post-disaster, and lest we forget, space opera. They follow the trajectory of historical influences found within literature (Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein) and television (The Twilight Zone, The X-Files), which helped to create the genre as we know it today.
“In this comprehensive survey the authors trace the ways science fiction has broken new ground and how many of these breakthroughs parallel technological advancements in our society, and often mirror our cultural and collective fascinations and fears. The authors focus on the ever-changing and evolving nature of the genre and how themes such as feminism, gender issues, satire, and multicultural identity serve to distinguish writers and works within the genre, yet also share a foundation with other traditional literary genres, or supposed ‘real literature’. The authors have included almost twenty biographies of prominent science fiction writers such as Philip K. Dick and H.G. Wells, as well as an overview of laudable works that have changed the face of the genre to the point of no return.”
Finally, in June comes Science Fiction and Philosophy: From Time Travel to Superintelligence edited by Susan Schneider. In this book, Schneider “uses examples from heavyweight philosophical thinkers such as Descartes (Excerpt from The Meditations in First Philosophy, Part I) and godfathers of the science fiction genre such as Isaac Asimov (“Robot Dreams”, Part III), as well as contemporary and leading writers found in the pages of the Times and Scientific American, to firmly root the genre in ongoing, relevant philosophical discussions. Schneider puts popular specimens of science fiction such as The Matrix, Vanilla Sky, Star Trek, and 2001: A Space Odyssey into a philosophical context to provide a whimsical jumping-off point for discussion on the multifaceted and fascinating underpinnings of the genre.
“She and the contributors examine what exactly is at stake for humans of the future who face such seemingly fantastical ideas such as computer simulation, loss of free will, and cyborgs. Schneider raises the possibility that in light of ongoing scientific developments such as neural enhancement, virtual reality and neuroethics, these realities may be on the edge of fruition, perhaps sooner than we think.”
M. Keith Booker is the James E. and Ellen Wadley Roper Professor of English and Director of the Program in Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies at the University of Arkansas. He is the author of more than thirty books on literature, popular culture, and cultural theory.
Noël Carroll is a Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. His most recent books are The Philosophy of Motion Pictures (2008) and On Criticism (2008). He is presently working on A Short Introduction to Humour for Oxford University Press.
Lester H. Hunt is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He has also taught at Carnegie-Mellon University, University of Pittsburgh, and The Johns Hopkins University. He is the author of Nietzsche and the Origins of Virtue (1990) and Character and Culture (1998). Most recently, he was editor and a principal contributor to Grade Inflation: Academic Standards in Higher Education (2008). His current research is taking him into fundamental issues in the aesthetics of film.
Susan Schneider is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Philosophy, University of Pennsylvania, and a faculty member in Penn’s Neuroethics program, its Institute for Research in Cognitive Science, and its Center for Cognitive Neuroscience. She is also a fellow with the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies. She is the author of numerous pieces in philosophy of mind, neuroethics, and metaphysics, and has co-edited The Blackwell Companion to Consciousness (2007) with Max Velmans.
Anne-Marie Thomas is Associate Professor of English at Austin Community College. She teaches literature and composition, including science fiction classes for the college’s Honors Program.