Download or read book Aliens Robots Virtual Reality Idols in the Science Fiction of H P Lovecraft Isaac Asimov and William Gibson written by John L. Steadman and published by John Hunt Publishing. This book was released on 2020-10-30 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Steadman’s comprehensive guide wrestles with the concept of the ‘alien’, applying cutting edge theoretical and philosophical ideas to the work of some of the greats of Science Fiction to arrive at a set of exciting new discoveries about what the genre says it means to be ‘human’. Reading Aliens, Robots and Virtual Reality Idols guarantees that you will never look at the writing of Lovecraft, Asimov or Gibson in the same way again.” --Dr David Simmons, Senior Lecturer in English and Screen Studies, University of Northampton H. P. Lovecraft's aliens are extra-terrestrial, terrestrial & trans-dimensional entities, totally unlike any other aliens in science fiction literature. In contrast, Isaac Asimov's and William Gibson's aliens are human created positronic robots and virtual reality constructs, or 'idols'. Lovecraft's great theme is alien indifferentism, tinged with a malevolence that escalates into an existential, apocalyptic threat against humankind, while for Asimov and Gibson, alien inclusionism is the norm. The robots and the VR idols integrate into society and their influence appears to be beneficial. But this is only on the surface. In this book, John L. Steadman demonstrates that there is ultimately little difference between alien indifferentism and alien inclusionism in the fictional works of these three great writers. For in fact, the robots and the VR idols evolve into monsters whose actions bring about outcomes which are every bit as terrifying as anything in Lovecraft's work. Humans tend to be isolates ('alien'-ated). The reader is invited to question this, and to consider the possibility that an alien perspective, or platform, might, perhaps, be crucial if we intend on seeing ourselves clearly and understanding exactly what it means to be human.
Download or read book William Gibson s Neuromancer written by Graham J. Murphy and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on with total page 131 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book H P Lovecraft and the Black Magickal Tradition written by John L. Steadman and published by Weiser Books. This book was released on 2015-09-01 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Modern practicing occultists have argued that renowned horror writer H. P. Lovecraft was in possession of in-depth knowledge of black magick. Literary scholars claim that he was a master of his genre and craft, and his findings are purely psychological, nothing more. Was Lovecraft a practitioner of the dark arts himself? Was he privileged to knowledge that cannot be otherwise explained? Weaving the life story of Lovecraft in and out of an analysis of various modern magickal systems, scholar John Steadman has found direct and concrete examples that demonstrate that Lovecraft’s works and specifically his Cthulhu Mythos and his creation of the Necronomicon are a legitimate basis for a working magickal system. Whether you believe Lovecraft had supernatural powers or not, no one can argue against Lovecraft’s profound influence on many modern black arts and the darker currents of western occultism.
Download or read book Methods Devour Themselves written by Benjanun Sriduangkaew and published by John Hunt Publishing. This book was released on 2018-08-31 with total page 146 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Methods Devour Themselves is a dialogue between fiction and non-fiction. Inspired by Quentin Meillassoux's Science Fiction and Extro-Science Fiction that was paired with an Isaac Asimov short story, this book examines the ways in which stories can provoke philosophical interventions and philosophical essays can provoke stories. Alternating between Benjanun Sriduangkaew's fiction and J. Moufawad-Paul's non-fiction, Methods Devour Themselves is an interstitial project that brings fiction and essay into a unique, avant-garde whole.
Download or read book At the Mountains of Madness written by H.P. Lovecraft and published by Modern Library. This book was released on 2005-06-14 with total page 221 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Introduction by China Miéville Long acknowledged as a master of nightmarish visions, H. P. Lovecraft established the genuineness and dignity of his own pioneering fiction in 1931 with his quintessential work of supernatural horror, At the Mountains of Madness. The deliberately told and increasingly chilling recollection of an Antarctic expedition’s uncanny discoveries–and their encounter with untold menace in the ruins of a lost civilization–is a milestone of macabre literature. This exclusive new edition, presents Lovecraft’s masterpiece in fully restored form, and includes his acclaimed scholarly essay “Supernatural Horror in Literature.” This is essential reading for every devotee of classic terror.
Download or read book Icons of Horror and the Supernatural written by S. T. Joshi and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2006-12-30 with total page 819 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Horror and the supernatural have fascinated people for centuries, and many of the most central figures appear over and over again. These figures have gained iconic status and continue to hold sway over popular culture and the modern imagination. This book offers extended entries on 24 of the most enduring and significant figures of horror and the supernatural, including The Sea Creature, The Witch, The Alien, The Vampire, The Werewolf, The Sorcerer, The Ghost, The Siren, The Mummy, The Devil, and The Zombie. Each entry is written by a leading authority on the subject and discusses the topic's essential features and lasting influence, from the classical epics of Homer to the novels of Stephen King. Entries cite sources for further reading, and the Encyclopedia closes with a selected, general bibliography. Entries include illustrations, sidebars of interesting information, and excerpts from key texts. Horror and the supernatural have fascinated people for centuries, with many of the most central figures appearing over and over again across time and cultures. These figures have starred in the world's most widely read literary works, most popular films, and most captivating television series. Because of their popularity and influence, they have attained iconic status and a special place in the popular imagination. This book overviews 24 of the most significant icons of horror and the supernatural.
Download or read book The Rough Guide to Comedy Movies written by Bob McCabe and published by . This book was released on 2005 with total page 332 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This guide discusses laughter in the cinema, from "Airplane!" to "Withnail and I" and from John Belushi to Billy Wilder.
Download or read book Encyclopedia of Pulp Fiction Writers written by Lee Server and published by Infobase Publishing. This book was released on 2014-05-14 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Provides an introduction to American pulp fiction during the twentieth century with brief author biographies and lists of their works.
Download or read book The Fifth Head of Cerberus written by Gene Wolfe and published by Orb Books. This book was released on 1994-03-15 with total page 262 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Tor Essentials presents new editions of science fiction and fantasy titles of proven merit and lasting value, each volume introduced by an appropriate literary figure. Far from Earth, two sister planets, Saint Anne and Saint Croix, circle each other in an eternal dance. It is said a race of shapeshifters once lived here, only to perish when men came. But one man believes they can still be found, somewhere in back of the beyond. In The Fifth Head of Cerberus, Gene Wolfe skillfully interweaves three bizarre tales to create a mesmerizing pattern: the harrowing account of the son of a mad genius who discovers his hideous heritage; a young man's mythic dreamquest for his darker half; and the bizarre chronicle of a scientist's nightmarish imprisonment. Like an intricate, braided knot, the pattern at last unfolds to reveal astonishing truths about this strange and savage alien landscape. With a new introduction by O. Henry Award winning author Brian Evenson At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
Download or read book The MUP Encyclopaedia of Australian Science Fiction Fantasy written by Sean McMullen and published by Melbourne University. This book was released on 1998 with total page 218 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book covers all Australian science fiction and fantasy authors, books and stories, as well as important magazines, sub-genres and works published electronically.
Download or read book Transhumanism written by David Livingstone and published by David Livingstone. This book was released on 2015-09-02 with total page 404 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Transhumanism is a recent movement that extols man’s right to shape his own evolution, by maximizing the use of scientific technologies, to enhance human physical and intellectual potential. While the name is new, the idea has long been a popular theme of science fiction, featured in such films as 2001: A Space Odyssey, Blade Runner, the Terminator series, and more recently, The Matrix, Limitless, Her and Transcendence. However, as its adherents hint at in their own publications, transhumanism is an occult project, rooted in Rosicrucianism and Freemasonry, and derived from the Kabbalah, which asserts that humanity is evolving intellectually, towards a point in time when man will become God. Modeled on the medieval legend of the Golem and Frankenstein, they believe man will be able to create life itself, in the form of living machines, or artificial intelligence. Spearheaded by the Cybernetics Group, the project resulted in both the development of the modern computer and MK-Ultra, the CIA’s “mind-control” program. MK-Ultra promoted the “mind-expanding” potential of psychedelic drugs, to shape the counterculture of the 1960s, based on the notion that the shamans of ancient times used psychoactive substances, equated with the “apple” of the Tree of Knowledge. And, as revealed in the movie Lucy, through the use of “smart drugs,” and what transhumanists call “mind uploading,” man will be able to merge with the Internet, which is envisioned as the end-point of Kabbalistic evolution, the formation of a collective consciousness, or Global Brain. That awaited moment is what Ray Kurzweil, a director of engineering at Google, refers to as The Singularly. By accumulating the total of human knowledge, and providing access to every aspect of human activity, the Internet will supposedly achieve omniscience, becoming the “God” of occultism, or the Masonic All-Seeing Eye of the reverse side of the American dollar bill.
Download or read book Better Luck Next Time written by Julia Claiborne Johnson and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2021-01-05 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Doesn’t a romantic comedy set on a 1930s Nevada dude ranch teeming with about-to-be-divorced women owe a certain debt to the era’s big-screen classics? Then again, it’s hard to believe a cinematic version could be any more fun.” — New York Times Book Review The dazzling second novel from the bestselling author of Be Frank with Me, a charming story of endings, new beginnings, and the complexities and complications of friendship and love, set in late 1930s Reno. It’s 1938 and women seeking a quick, no-questions split from their husbands head to the “divorce capital of the world,” Reno, Nevada. There’s one catch: they have to wait six-weeks to become “residents.” Many of these wealthy, soon-to-be divorcees flock to the Flying Leap, a dude ranch that caters to their every need. Twenty-four-year-old Ward spent one year at Yale before his family lost everything in the Great Depression; now he’s earning an honest living as a ranch hand at the Flying Leap. Admired for his dashing good looks—“Cary Grant in cowboy boots”—Ward thinks he’s got the Flying Leap’s clients all figured out. But two new guests are about to upend everything he thinks he knows: Nina, a St Louis heiress and amateur pilot back for her third divorce, and Emily, whose bravest moment in life was leaving her cheating husband back in San Francisco and driving herself to Reno. A novel about divorce, marriage, and everything that comes in between (money, class, ambition, and opportunity), Better Luck Next Time is a hilarious yet poignant examination of the ways friendship can save us, love can destroy us, and the family we create can be stronger than the family we come from.
Download or read book Live Fast Die Hot written by Jenny Mollen and published by Anchor. This book was released on 2017-06-27 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: *A NEW YORK TIMES HUMOR BESTSELLER* By the author of I Like You Just the Way I Am and a frequent Chelsea contributor, an outrageous collection of personal stories about motherhood, responsibility, and other potential disasters. Jenny Mollen is a writer and actress living in New York. Until recently, her life was exciting, sexy, a little eccentric, and one hundred percent impulsive. She had a husband who embraced her crazy—who understood her need to occasionally stalk around the house in his ex-girlfriend’s old beach caftans and to invite their drug dealer to Passover seder (so he wouldn’t feel like they were using him only for drugs). Then they had their son, Sid, and overnight, Jenny was forced to grow up: to be responsible, to brush her hair, to listen to her voicemail. Searingly funny and surprisingly affecting, Live Fast Die Hot is a collection of stories about what happens when you realize that some things are more important than crafting the perfect tweet—and a reminder that even if you never thought you were cut out for parenting, at least you can be better at it than your mother.
Download or read book Lovecraft written by Haefele John D. and published by . This book was released on 2021-02-09 with total page 763 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Haefele's interpretations are sure to spark debate among scholars of this influential author. Lovecraftians won't want to miss this one." --Publishers Weekly An In-Depth Look Behind the Supernatural Horror Writings of the Great H. P. Lovecraft! Story by Story. Concept by Eldritch Concept. Howard Phillips Lovecraft (1890-1937) emerged from the American pulp magazines of the 1920s and 30s as the major writer of supernatural horror of the twentieth century. Today, his ideas permeate the culture -- literature, film, graphic novels, and gaming all bear the signs of his Arkham cycle. Lovecraft's "The Call of Cthulhu" -- taken alone -- one of the most influential short stories of all time. Tracing the development of HPL's fictional universe, John D. Haefele ranges from childhood readings of the Arabian Nights to the seismic encounter with the works of Edgar Allan Poe. Major discoveries such as Lord Dunsany, the Welsh mystic Arthur Machen and Robert W. Chambers with his noxious collection The King in Yellow hone Lovecraft's sensibilities. His dreams and nightmares over his lifetime underlie the great tales, so much so that HPL wrote, "I wonder, though, if I have a right to claim authorship of things I dream?" In pulps such as Weird Tales and Astounding Stories he spun his dark narratives alongside Clark Ashton Smith's cycles of Zothique and Hyperborea -- Robert E. Howard and the creation of the barbaric figure of Conan of Cimmeria -- and a young acolyte of Lovecraft named Robert Bloch, today famed for the novel Psycho. Haefele's revolutionary ways of looking at HPL's work defy generations of critical orthodoxy. New ideas -- but when you check the stories, suddenly evident and logical. His 2013 essay "Shadow out of Hodgson" broke the news that William Hope Hodgson inspired many aspects of HPL's major story "The Shadow out of Time" The late Hodgson expert Sam Gafford conceded, "I am inclined to agree that Lovecraft revised some of his concepts for the story after reading Hodgson. . . a masterful case. . . ." After a lifetime of studying and appreciating Lovecraft, John D. Haefele finally sits down and does an unprecedented excavation of the texts, revealing years of startling discoveries, smashing the tame boilerplate criticism of recent decades. You won't find a more masterful handling of the case of Howard Phillips Lovecraft.
Download or read book A Look Behind the Derleth Mythos written by John Haefele and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2014 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Trust me, this book makes a mind-blowing addition to your weird fiction criticism collection." --- Ross E. Lockhart, editor of The Book of Cthulhu "As a writer in this tradition, I devour books about the Mythos. . . [A Look Behind the Derleth Mythos] is the finest such book that I have ever read." --- Wilum H. Pugmire, author of Some Unknown Gulf of Night and Uncommon Places An instant classic when first released, John D. Haefele's critically acclaimed account of the birth of the Cthulhu Mythos is now back in a completely revised trade paperback edition overflowing with fascinating new insights and discoveries. In 1939, the prolific Wisconsin writer August Derleth launched Arkham House, one of the most influential small presses in the history of publishing. Its mission: to preserve in the permanence of hardcovers the writings of Derleth's late friend, the legendary horror fantasist Howard Phillips Lovecraft (1890-1937). During three decades of editing and storytelling, Derleth became the major player in the explosive growth of the "Cthulhu Mythos" into a worldwide cultural phenomenon. Does the Cthulhu Mythos owe its existence to the Lovecraft Mythos -- or is the parallel fictional world of the Derleth Mythos even more influential? Comparatively shallow works such as S. T. Joshi's The Rise and Fall of the Cthulhu Mythos are filled with misconceptions and tell only a small part of this hotly controversial story. Now join Haefele as he digs far deeper, unearthing important layers of the saga neglected by past scholars. A Look Behind the Derleth Mythos answers numerous questions with fresh evidence and thunderous revelations, covering in unprecedented detail everything from the notorious Black Magic Quote to Derleth's infamous "posthumous collaborations" with Lovecraft. One of the most striking books of criticism ever written on the works of H. P. Lovecraft, A Look Behind the Derleth Mythos is a riveting chronicle no fan of Cthulhu, Yog-Sothoth and Nyarlathotep should miss!
Download or read book Monsters written by Andrew J. Hoffman and published by Bedford/St. Martin's. This book was released on 2015-10-23 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The Bedford Spotlight Reader Series brings critical topics to life in a portable, cost-effective reader. In this volume, you'll explore these questions: why do we create monsters -- and why are we attracted to them? How do monsters adapt to reflect the values, beliefs, and culture of the times? Is the monster within us? Readings by a range of classic poets, contemporary fiction writers, pop-culture critics, philosophers, psychologists, occultists, ethicists, historians, and others take up these questions and more. The book helps you form your own questions and responses as you investigate and write about this popular and intellectually rich topic." -- From back cover.
Download or read book Light Years and Dark written by Michael Bishop and published by Berkley Publishing Group. This book was released on 1984 with total page 498 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Tells the stories of a mysterious astronaut, suspended animation, time travel, alien invasions, post nuclear societies, and alternate worlds
