Synopses & Reviews
Brooks Landon's book is wide-ranging, thought-provoking, and near state-of-the-art. It concerns science fiction film and, toward the end, almost becomes SF in its provocative speculations on the future of such film. His study is really two books in one. The first part argues that most criticism of SF film has been inadequate because it is based on literary rather than film-specific standards. The second argues that SF film will soon become either obsolete or be totally transformed through new computer technology. What ties them together is the author's concern with what might be called the SF ethos or SF thinking, so that science fiction can be seen to encompass not only SF in print, film, TV and comic books, but has become all-pervasive in contemporary culture.
At present, Landon argues that SF film may have exhausted itself as a genre but new electronic technology--computer animation, interactive narratives, and virtual reality--promises to radically transform SF film and possibly create a synthesis of the divergent trends of SF literature and film. Production technology has become the new story, one more interesting than the narrative it ostensibly supports. Landon believes we are at the threshold of a new age, similar to the pioneer years of filmmaking a hundred years ago.
Review
There is little doubt that Landon's book is now one of the most important volumes of science fiction film criticism.Extrapolation
Synopsis
Landon's book is wide-ranging, thought-provoking, and near state-of-the-art. It concerns science fiction film and, toward the end, almost becomes SF itself in its provocative speculations on the future of such film. The first part of the book argues that most criticism of SF film has been inadequate because it is based on literary rather than film-specific standards. The second argues that SF film will soon become either obsolete or be totally transformed through new computer technology. Science fiction can be seen to encompass not only SF in print, film, TV and comic books, but has become all-pervasive in contemporary culture.
Synopsis
Landon's book is wide-ranging, thought-provoking, and near state-of-the-art. It concerns science fiction film and, toward the end, almost becomes SF itself in its provocative speculations on the future of such film.
About the Author
BROOKS LANDON is a Professor of English at the University of Iowa.
Table of Contents
Introduction: Separated at Birth
Rethinking Traditional Relationships Between Science Fiction Literature and Film
Classics and Clunkers: Why SF Film is not Science Fiction Literature and Why That's Not Necessarily Such a Bad Thing
The Thing in All Its Guises: Reconsidering a Science Fiction Classic
"There's Some of Me in You": Blade Runner and the Production Realities of Adapting Science Fiction Literature into Film
Recognizing Changes in the Relationship Between Science Fiction Literature and Film
The Aesthetics of Ambivalence: Spectacle and Special Effects, Trickery and Discovery
Fantastech Visions: Previewing Shifts from SF Film to SF Media
Rethinking Science Fiction Film in the Age of Electronic (Re) Production
Future So Bright They Gotta Wear Shades: Cyberpunk and Beyond
On a Clear Day You Can See the Horizon of Invisibility: Rethinking Science Fiction Film in the Age of Electronic (Re) Production
References
Index