Stephen W. Potts presents Arkady and Boris Strugatsky in terms of their dual contributions to the SF genre and to modern Russian literature, placing their work in both its historical and literary context.
Knockin' On Heaven's Door offers a critically sophisticated and truly interdisciplinary analysis of the relationship between biblical studies and contemporary culture. Specific biblical texts are examined in the light of cultural criticism and areas of popular culture including pornography, heavy metal music and McDonald's hamburgers in the light of biblical criticism.
A gripping account of the Russian visionaries who are pursuing human immortality As long as we have known death, we have dreamed of life without end. In The Future of Immortality, Anya Bernstein explores the contemporary Russian communities of visionaries and utopians who are pressing at the very limits of the human. The Future of Immortality profiles a diverse cast of characters, from the owners of a small cryonics outfit to scientists inaugurating the field of biogerontology, from grassroots neurotech enthusiasts to believers in the Cosmist ideas of the Russian Orthodox thinker Nikolai Fedorov. Bernstein puts their debates and polemics in the context of a long history of immortalist thought in Russia, with global implications that reach to Silicon Valley and beyond. If aging is a curable disease, do we have a moral obligation to end the suffering it causes? Could immortality be the foundation of a truly liberated utopian society extending beyond the confines of the earth—something that Russians, historically, have pondered more than most? If life without end requires radical genetic modification or separating consciousness from our biological selves, how does that affect what it means to be human? As vividly written as any novel, The Future of Immortality is a fascinating account of techno-scientific and religious futurism—and the ways in which it hopes to transform our very being.
For students, scholars, readers' advisors, and curious SF readers and fans, this guide provides an easy-to-use launch pad for researching and learning more about science fiction writers and their work. Emphasizing the best popular and contemporary authors, this book covers 100 SF writers, providing for each: • a brief biographical sketch, including a quote from theauthor, awards, etc. • a list of the author's major works (including editions and other writings) • research sources-biographies, criticism, research guides, and web sites • In addition, you'll find read-alike lists for selected authors. For anyone wanting to find information on popular SF authors, this should be the first stop.
...he is an expert at intellectual and moral triage, sorting patiently through the tangle of mixed motives that make for art, admiring the candor, admonishing the perversion.
Potts here provides a comprehensive critical examination of Joseph Heller's literary career, from his earliest published short stories to Closing Time (1994), the long-awaited sequel to Catch-22. Complete with Chronology, Notes, Primary Bibliography, Secondary Bibliography, and Index.
Over the last twenty-five years, Stephen Resnick and Richard Wolff have developed a groundbreaking interpretation of Marxian theory generally and of Marxian economics in particular. This book brings together their key contributions and underscores their different interpretations. In facing and trying to resolve contradictions and lapses within Marxism, the authors have confronted the basic incompatibilities among the dominant modern versions of Marxian theory, and the fact that Marxism seemed cut off from the criticisms of determinist modes of thought offered by post-structuralism and post-modernism and even by some of Marxism’s greatest theorists.