Articles inspired by and concerning speculative fiction.
by René Walling This report is a continuation of the work done in Worldcon Membership Demographics, 1939-1960 (Walling, 2016) and aims to see if any of the trends previously observed continue in subsequent Worldcon and provide some hard data on the membership of the Worldcons of that period.
By Jean Asselin Over time, we learn the value of stressing the positive: what we’d do differently rather than what doesn’t work, what to strive for instead of what to avoid. Still, there is efficiency in prescribing “Don’t do ‘X’ in the fiction you submit.” Let ‘X’ be: “On its way to another star [...]
by René Walling Sweeping statements and generalizations are often made about the membership of early World Science Fiction Conventions (WSFC, or Worldcon) such as “only the same people came back every year” or “the attendance was all male.” Yet rarely is more than anecdotal evidence given to support these statements. The goal of this report is to provide some hard data on the membership of early Worldcons so that such statements can be based on more than anecdotal evidence.
by Victor Grech Star Trek is a popular cultural phenomenon. One of the spin-offs, the Voyager series, features a naïve and lonely young human officer called Harry Kim who repeatedly falls for warm and affectionate “dark haired girls” or cold and calculating “schizoid women” as famously categorized by N. Katherine Hayles about Philip K. Dick’s oeuvre.
by Sheila Finch Utopian or dystopian, the view of the near future adopted by an author owes much to the political and social climate of its time. Two dystopian works by Paolo Bacigalupi, out of the many that have appeared in recent years, illustrate this point:
by Jean Asselin, Editor - Our namesake, James Gunn, says that fantasy and science fiction (SF) are literatures of discontinuity—the world of the story differs from the one we live in—with one essential difference.
A look at the outgoing editor's view of the past few years, and an introduction to the new era of the magazine.
Last year, there was a storm brewing over sexism and minority voices being underrepresented in the science fiction community. That debate hasn't gone away, but in the finest SF tradition, it has mutated.
By Jean Asselin Abstract This article presents a theme-based curriculum for the teaching SF literature. Sets of 15 stories each, six in all, match the number of weeks in the North American semester system. Selection criteria include theme, awards won or nominated for, and critical recognition. Curricular material is taken from 80 years of [...]
by Jean Asselin These are the sources referenced in "A Theme-based Online Curriculum for the Teaching of Science Fiction" Adams, J. J. (Ed.). (2008). Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse. San Francisco, CA: Night Shade Books. Adams, J. J. (Ed.). (2009). Federations. Rockville, MD: Prime Books. Adams, J. J. (Ed.). (2011). Brave New Worlds: Dystopian Stories. [...]
