Science Fiction and the Two Cultures

Gary Westfahl, a professor emeritus at the University of La Verne, California, has authored, edited, or co-edited 31 books about science fiction and fantasy, and hundreds of articles and reviews. In 2003, he received the Science Fiction Research Association’s Pilgrim Award for his lifetime contributions to science fiction and fantasy scholarship. George Slusser is a professor emeritus of comparative literature at the University of California, Riverside. The longtime curator of the famed Eaton Collection of Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature, he also earned the Pilgrim Award for his numerous scholarly books.

• Table of ContentsIntroduction: Science Fiction at the Crossroads of Two CulturesGARY WESTFAHL      I. OVERVIEWS: SCIENCE FICTION IN THE CONTEXT OF TWO CULTURES1. Science Fiction and the Two Cultures: Reflections after the Snow-Leavis ControversyCARL FREEDMAN      2. Science Fiction, Mediating Agent between C.P. Snow’s Two Cultures: A Historical InterpretationBRADFORD LYAU      3. Fighting Out of Context: Culture Wars Within and Without Science Fiction, from Snow to SokalHOWARD V. HENDRIX      4. A Tale of Two Cultures: Science Studies and Science FictionSTEPHEN POTTS      5. The Rich and the Poor: Science Fiction and the Other Two CulturesGARY WESTFAHL      6. The Science of Fiction and the Fiction of Science: A Storytelling Animal in an Inhospitable WorldFRANK MCCONNELL      7. Dimorphs and Doubles: J. D. Bernal’s “Two Cultures” and the Transhuman PromiseGEORGE SLUSSER      II. CASE STUDIES: SCIENCE FICTION AS AN EXPRESSION OF TWO CULTURES8. Discontinuity: Spaceships at the AbyssCAROL MACKAY and KIRK HAMPTON      9. Gregory Benford’s Against Infinity and the Literary, Historical and Geometric Formation of the Encyclopedic Circle of KnowledgePEKKA KUUSISTO      10. Utopia and Utopianism in the Life, Work, and Thought of H. G. WellsJOHN S. PARTINGTON      11. The Alien Eye: Imperialism and Otherness in H. G. Wells’s The First Men in the MoonGARETH DAVIES-MORRIS      12. Killer Robots, Laws of Robotics, and Pernicious HumansGEORGE ATKINS      13. Philip K. Dick’s Conversion NarrativeNOAH MASS      14. The Terror of Nature Not Understood: Science, Mysticism, and the Unknowable in Don DeLillo’s Ratner’s Star/I>JAKE JAKAITIS      15. When the Caesura Ceases: Two Romanian Authors Gauge the Place of Writers in the Age of ComputersSHARON D. KING      16. A Creature of Double VisionGREGORY BENFORD      Afterword: Science Fiction and the Playing Fields of EatonGARY WESTFAHL      Bibliography of Works Related to Science Fiction and the Two Cultures Debate      Bibliography of Other Works Cited in the Text      About the Contributors      Index

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