Description
Book SynopsisThere has been plenty of scholarship on science fiction over the decades, but it has left one crucial aspect of the genre all but unanalyzed: the visual. Ambitious and original, Landscape and the Science Fiction Imaginary corrects that oversight, making a powerful argument for science fiction as a visual cultural discourse. Taking influential historical works of visual art as starting points, along with illustrations, movie matte paintings, documentaries, artist's impressions, and digital environments, John Timberlake focuses on the notion of science fiction as an "imaginary topos," one that draws principally on the intersection between landscape and historical/prehistorical time. Richly illustrated, this book will appeal to scholars, students, and fans of science fiction and the remarkable visual culture that surrounds it.
Trade Review'Landscape and the Science Fiction Imaginary offers valuable analyses of works of non-literary sf, and makes a strong case for their importance to our understanding of the development of the genre and its engagement with landscape. The works central to each chapter are carefully historicized, and broaden our view of the sf imaginary and its intersection with landscape in visual culture.'
-- Chris Pak * Foundation: The International Review of Science Fiction 131 *
'The conceptual gravity of Timberlake’s study is undeniable, and his compelling readings make Landscape and the Science Fiction Imaginary a valuable contribution to the field of sf criticism and visual media theory.'
-- Patrick Whitmarsh, Science Fiction Research Association Review
Table of ContentsLand of Giants: Size and Scale, Mascroscopy and MicroScopy in the Landscapes of Science Fiction
John Timberlake A Game in the Ruins: Landscape and Virtual Realities
John Timberlake Blasted Heaths and Turbulent Energies: Chris Foss's Accelerated Dream of Wessex
John Timberlake An Unforgivable Composure: The Apocalyptic Imaginary Since Yosuke Yamahata's Nagasaki
John Timberlake 'Suppositional Realism' and the Fictions of Science: THe Astronomical Landscapes of Pavel Klushantsev and Chesley Bonestell
John Timberlake Beyond the Periphery: Desert and Darkness
John Timberlake Conclusion: Otherwise Nothing Has Changed
John Timberlake
