How Sci-Fi Visions of the Future Become Dystopian and Paranoid

After last week’s ACFM Trip to the Future, Jem and Keir reconvene to talk about science fiction – a genre that emerged alongside the scientific revolution of the 19th century and came to both shape popular culture and influence reality itself.

Is sci-fi a reaction to the “time-space compression” of the present? Is it inherently progressive? How did dystopian and paranoids visions of the future come to dominate sci-fi? How do feminist sci-fi writers imagine other worlds? Was Arthur C. Clarke an acid communist?

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Films and TV: Hackers (1995) / Starship Troopers (1997) / The Day of the Triffids (1951) / Village of the Damned (1960) / Solaris (1972) / Stalker (1979) / Blade Runner (1982) / Star Trek / The Expanse

Books, magazines and articles: Darko Suvin – Estrangement and Cognition / Carl Freedman – Critical Theory and Science Fiction / Lucian of Samosata – A True Story / Johannes Kepler – Somnium / Mary Shelley – Frankenstein / Mary Shelley – The Last Man / Jules Verne – Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea; Journey to the Centre of the Earth / H.G. Wells – The Time Machine; The Island of Dr. Moreau / Astounding Stories of Super Science magazine / Isaac Asimov – Foundation series; Robot series / Robert A. Heinlein – Farnham’s Freehold / Bernard Suits – The Grasshopper / Ray Bradbury – Fahrenheit 451 / John Wyndham – The Day of the Triffids; The Midwich Cuckoos / J.G. Ballard – The Drowned World / Stanisław Lem – Solaris / Arkady and Boris Strugatsky – Roadside Picnic / New Worlds magazine / Philip K. Dick – A Scanner Darkly; The Man in the High Castle / Ursula K. Le Guin – The Left Hand of Darkness; The Dispossessed / Samuel R. Delany – Dhalgren / 2000 AD / William Gibson – Neuromancer / Russell Hoban – Riddley Walker / Margaret Atwood – The Handmaid’s Tale / Vonda N. McIntyre – Dreamsnake / Octavia E. Butler – Dawn / Iain M. Banks – The Culture series / Kim Stanley Robinson – The Mars trilogy; Aurora; The Ministry for the Future / Ann Leckie – the Ancillary Justice trilogy / China Miéville – The City & the City