Research Catalog
Immortal engines : life extension and immortality in science fiction and fantasy
- Title
- Immortal engines : life extension and immortality in science fiction and fantasy / edited by George Slusser, Gary Westfahl, and Eric S. Rabkin.
- Publication
- Athens [Ga.] : University of Georgia Press, 1997.
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| Status | Format | Access | Call Number | Item Location |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Text | Request in advance | PN3433.2 .I56 1997 | Off-site |
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- Additional Authors
- Description
- 242 pages; 23 cm
- Summary
- These nineteen original essays seek to recontextualize the subject of immortality, examining its influence as an ancient human aspiration while at the same time considering new scientific advances and their impact on life and literature.
- Grouped in three broad categories, the essays provide key information about and concepts of immortality, examine science fiction stories and scientific research to consider the prospects and possible effects of achieving immortality, and discuss immortality and life extension as literary themes.
- The topics the essays focus on, as well as the perspectives of the contributors, range widely: genetics, cryonics, Marxism, Darwinism, cyberspace, feminist writing, religion, Italian science fiction, film, children's literature, video games, and comic books.
- Subject
- Note
- Essays originally presented at the 14th annual Eaton Conference on Science Fiction and Fantasy, University of California at Riverside, April 1992.
- Bibliography (note)
- Includes bibliographical references and index.
- Contents
- Introduction: Immortality: The Self-Defeating Fantasy / Eric S. Rabkin -- Pt. I. Approaches to Immortality. Philosophical Models of Immortality in Science Fiction / John Martin Fischer and Ruth Curl. From the Sublime to the Ridiculous: Immortality and The Immortal / James Gunn. Longevity as Class Struggle / Fredric Jameson -- Pt. II. Science and Immortality. The Immortality Myth and Technology / Steven B. Harris. A Roll of the Ice: Cryonics as a Gamble / Sterling Blake. Living Forever or Dying in the Attempt: Mortality and Immortality in Science and Science Fiction / Joseph D. Miller. The Biopoetics of Immortality: A Darwinist Perspective on Science Fiction / Brett Cooke. IBMortality: Putting the Ghost in the Machine / Stephen Potts. How Cyberspace Signifies: Taking Immortality Literally / N. Katherine Hayles -- Pt. III. Literature and Immortality. Alienation as the Price of Immortality: The Tithonus Syndrome in Science Fiction and Fantasy / S. L. Rosen.
- "No Woman Born": Immortality and Gender in Feminist Science Fiction / Robin Roberts. The Science Fiction of the House of Saul: From Frankenstein's Monster to Lazarus Long / Barry Crawford. Cosmifantasies: Humanistic Visions of Immortality in Italian Science Fiction / Terri Frongia. "We Are All Kin": Relatedness, Mortality, and the Paradox of Human Immortality / Judith Lee. Dual Immortality, No Kids: The Dink Link between Birthlessness and Deathlessness in Science Fiction / Howard V. Hendrix. Clifford D. Simak's Way Station: The Hero as Archetypal Science Fiction Writer, the Science Fiction Writer as Seeker for Immortality / Bud Foote. Living Dolls: Images of Immortality in Children's Literature / Lynne Lundquist. Zen and the Art of Mario Maintenance: Cycles of Death and Rebirth in Video Games and Children's Subliterature / Gary Westfahl. You Bet Your Life: Death and the Storyteller / Frank McConnell.
- ISBN
- 0820317322
- 0820317330 (pbk.)
- LCCN
- 96010462
- OCLC
- 503365877
- ocn503365877
- Owning Institutions
- Columbia University Libraries