Der DLF Kultur hat mich am 18.10. zum neuen Roman Das Ministerium für die Zukunft von Kim Stanley Robinson befragt. Wir haben über den Klimawandel und politische Ohnmacht gesprochen, über Robinsons Tradition in Utopie und Dystopie und darüber, dass jeder mal dieses Buch lesen sollte. Zu hören ist das ganze hier:
Erster Veranstaltungstag – Podiumsdiskussion im ZKM mit meiner Beteiligung ab 55:30 …
Zweiter Veranstaltungstag in der IHK Karlsruhe, mit meiner Beteiligung ab 6:35:00
Am Donnerstag, 16.09., war ich auf einem Book Launch meiner lieben Kollegin Anna McFarlane zu Gast.
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Danielle Shalet has written an mixed review of The Routledge Companion to Cyberpunk Culture (edited by Anna McFarlane, Graham J. Murphy, and Lars Schmeink) in Foundation, vol. 50, no. 2, 132–34. Here is a nice quote:
„What makes this book distinctive from more general works on science fiction […] is that it not only focuses exclusively on cyberpunk but it also thoughtfully illustrates the importance of cyberpunk as a ‘culture’. The editors do this adroitly through their selection of essays and the essays’ strategic placement within the work. It is clear that nothing is done in this book by accident. The essays are tactically placed in terms of interest, cultural significance, importance and quality, and the editors do their best to produce an extensive guide on the subject, drawing from a range of experts as well as postgraduate students and cyberpunk enthusiasts.“
Here is the PDF of the review, in case you are interested.
I would again like to thank Graham J. Murphy and the executive committee of the SFRA for the kind invitation and the opportunity to speak at SFRA. It was a really enjoyable experience and I regret that it wasn’t possible in a personal format. When asked by the SFRA Review to publish the keynote, I had to admit to myself that it did not feel ready for publication in its current form. I feel it needs further exploration, giving me a chance to incorporate aspects that were cut short from the text, adding new thoughts from the discussions afterwards and so on. But I still felt that some form of it should be included in this issue to mark its presence at the conference, whose topic “The Future of/as Inequality” is just too entangled with the exploits of capitalism to not comment on it in one way or the other. This short essay is my way of letting you in on my thought process. I have trimmed the keynote ramblings and instead offer up an extract from my “50 shades of capitalism” and their expression in science fiction.
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Coming home from the first international academic conferences we ever attended, incidentally the ICFA, the SFRA, and the Utopian Studies conference—admittedly quite a few years back—we both agreed that science fiction people shared an incredibly warm and welcoming attitude that made it easy to catch fire. Engaged discussions over coffee about books, films, and games, which we all felt passionate about, helped to easily connect and make national and cultural borders seem meaningless. Nevertheless, SF scholarship is also a field where difference is crucial and, at its best, is celebrated as it adds depth and can yield the most productive results—both in the texts we engage with, as well as in our interpersonal, institutional, and academic contexts. SF fascinates us because it can come in so many different shapes and forms. Therefore, we were delighted to read the wonderful country reports from England and India and the last issues of SFRA Review, which gave us some insights into engagements with sf from (to us) largely new perspectives. We would like to contribute to this exchange and present to the members of the SFRA, a status report on how research in SF is faring in Germany.
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Well, not all reviews are glowing and one has to live with criticism, though I feel that Chad Andrews does not do The Routledge Companion to Cyberpunk Culture (edited by Anna McFarlane, Graham J. Murphy, and Lars Schmeink) justice in his review in Science Fiction Studies (SFS) vol. 48, no. 1, 354–60. Let’s agree to disagree to what „cyberpunk“, „punk“ (for that matter) and „cyberpunk culture“ actually mean. But here is a nice, short quote:
„Each entry is a worthwhile and meaningful contribution to sf criticism, and to our understanding of cyberpunk’s evolution, influence, and disbursement over the last several decades. „
Here is the PDF of the review, in case you are interested.
Much nicer and much more to the point is the review that Andrew Watton-Davies has given us on the Bunkazilla: Monsters of Culture blog – yes, not an academic outlet, but it goes to show how much interest and spread something like cyberpunk culture actually does have. And it is a really great and insightful review. Check it and read the full review on the blog.
„Within the 50 information-rich articles is not so much an introduction to Cyberpunk, but more a state-of-the-art snapshot of some of the finest Cyberpunk Studies writing going around. Whilst the writing is not aggressively academic, the concepts and ideas discussed are given a weight and a reverence of serious critical analysis. The articles also demonstrate the most valuable facets of true fans of any genre: the joy of taking apart a favourite topic and evaluating it from every angle and in every light possible. Faults are on display as much as perfections, because it’s a part of the thing being loved, so needs to be part of a whole conversation.“
Der DLF Kultur hat mich am 07.06. zum fünften Teil der Comic-Reihe „Gung Ho“ befragt. Zu hören ist das ganze hier:
Simone Caroti has written an amazing review of The Routledge Companion to Cyberpunk Culture (edited by Anna McFarlane, Graham J. Murphy, and Lars Schmeink) in the Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts (JFA), vol. 31, no. 3, 460–63. Here is the concluding paragraph:
„The Routledge Companion to Cyberpunk Culture is as thorough and careful a study of worldwide cyberpunk as we could have hoped it would be. The writing and the bibliographical apparatus are both of high quality, and the enthusiasm of the writers for their topics matches their professionalism. Most importantly this is a book one can argue with. This reviewer found himself disagreeing with a number of theses in the book, sometimes out loud, and that’s exactly how it should be. Every companion volume is as much a spur toward conversation and argument as it is a compass reading in the field it tackles, and in that respect as in many others, this Companion represents a remarkable achievement.“
Here is the PDF of the review, in case you are interested.
Die deutsche Fantasy hat sich in den 2000er-Jahren mit einer ganzen Reihe sogenannter Völker-Romane hervorgetan, welche die literarische Fantastik noch bis heute prägen und im Allgemeinen als Erbe einer durch Tolkien geprägten sehr klassischen Perspektive auf das Genre zu verstehen sind. Eines der ersten Werke dieses Trends ist der gemeinsam von Bernhard Hennen und James Sullivan verfasste Roman Die Elfen (2004). Für Sullivan war die Kooperation das Sprungbrett für eine erfolgreiche Solokarriere, die ihn über die Fantasy-Romane Der letzte Steinmagier (2008) und Nuramon (2013) zur Science Fiction brachte, in der er mit Chrysaor (2016), Die Granden von Pandaros (2017) und Die Stadt der Symbionten (2019) drei Romane veröffentlichte. Noch in diesem Jahr wird mit Das Erbe der Elfenmagier (2021) der erste Teil einer neuen Fantasy-Reihe erscheinen. Seit einiger Zeit engagiert sich der gebürtige US-Amerikaner mit Kolleg*innen für einen Wandel in der SF&F-Szene, hin zu einer dezidiert politischen und vielseitigeren SF&F. Im Interview berichtet Sullivan über diese »progressive Fantastik«, über seine Erfahrungen als Person of Color in der deutschen Fantastik und welche Verbindung Die Stadt der Symbionten zum Afro-Futurismus hat.
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