Download or read book Apocalypse in Contemporary Japanese Science Fiction written by M. Tanaka and published by Springer. This book was released on 2014-01-29 with total page 189 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Starting with the history of apocalyptic tradition in the West and focusing on modern Japanese apocalyptic science fiction in manga, anime, and novels, Motoko Tanaka shows how science fiction reflected and coped with the devastation in Japanese national identity after 1945.
Download or read book Apocalypse in Contemporary Japanese Science Fiction written by M. Tanaka and published by Palgrave Macmillan. This book was released on 2014-01-29 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Starting with the history of apocalyptic tradition in the West and focusing on modern Japanese apocalyptic science fiction in manga, anime, and novels, Motoko Tanaka shows how science fiction reflected and coped with the devastation in Japanese national identity after 1945.
Download or read book Robot Ghosts and Wired Dreams written by Christopher Bolton and published by U of Minnesota Press. This book was released on 2007-11-15 with total page 293 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since the end of the Second World War—and particularly over the last decade—Japanese science fiction has strongly influenced global popular culture. Unlike American and British science fiction, its most popular examples have been visual—from Gojira (Godzilla) and Astro Boy in the 1950s and 1960s to the anime masterpieces Akira and Ghost in the Shell of the 1980s and 1990s—while little attention has been paid to a vibrant tradition of prose science fiction in Japan. Robot Ghosts and Wired Dreams remedies this neglect with a rich exploration of the genre that connects prose science fiction to contemporary anime. Bringing together Western scholars and leading Japanese critics, this groundbreaking work traces the beginnings, evolution, and future direction of science fiction in Japan, its major schools and authors, cultural origins and relationship to its Western counterparts, the role of the genre in the formation of Japan’s national and political identity, and its unique fan culture. Covering a remarkable range of texts—from the 1930s fantastic detective fiction of Yumeno Kyûsaku to the cross-culturally produced and marketed film and video game franchise Final Fantasy—this book firmly establishes Japanese science fiction as a vital and exciting genre. Contributors: Hiroki Azuma; Hiroko Chiba, DePauw U; Naoki Chiba; William O. Gardner, Swarthmore College; Mari Kotani; Livia Monnet, U of Montreal; Miri Nakamura, Stanford U; Susan Napier, Tufts U; Sharalyn Orbaugh, U of British Columbia; Tamaki Saitô; Thomas Schnellbächer, Berlin Free U. Christopher Bolton is assistant professor of Japanese at Williams College. Istvan Csicsery-Ronay Jr. is professor of English at DePauw University. Takayuki Tatsumi is professor of English at Keio University.
Download or read book American Cities in Post Apocalyptic Science Fiction written by Robert Yeates and published by UCL Press. This book was released on 2021-11-15 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Visions of the American city in post-apocalyptic ruin permeate literary and popular fiction, across print, visual, audio and digital media. American Cities in Post-Apocalyptic Science Fiction explores the prevalence of these representations in American culture, drawing from a wide range of primary and critical works from the early-twentieth century to today. Beginning with science fiction in literary magazines, before taking in radio dramas, film, video games and expansive transmedia franchises, Robert Yeates argues that post-apocalyptic representations of the American city are uniquely suited for explorations of contemporary urban issues. Examining how the post-apocalyptic American city has been repeatedly adapted and repurposed to new and developing media over the last century, this book reveals that the content and form of such texts work together to create vivid and immersive fictional spaces in ways that would otherwise not be possible. Chapters present media-specific analyses of these texts, situating them within their historical contexts and the broader history of representations of urban ruins in American fiction. Original in its scope and cross-media approach, American Cities in Post-Apocalyptic Science Fiction both illuminates little-studied texts and provides provocative new readings of familiar works such as Blade Runner and The Walking Dead, placing them within the larger historical context of imaginings of the American city in ruins.
Download or read book The Metabolist Imagination written by William O. Gardner and published by U of Minnesota Press. This book was released on 2020-04-14 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Japan’s postwar urban imagination through the Metabolism architecture movement and visionary science fiction authors The devastation of the Second World War gave rise to imaginations both utopian and apocalyptic. In Japan, a fascinating confluence of architects and science fiction writers took advantage of this space to begin remaking urban design. In The Metabolist Imagination, William O. Gardner explores the unique Metabolism movement, which allied with science fiction authors to foresee the global cities that would emerge in the postwar era. This first comparative study of postwar Japanese architecture and science fiction builds on the resurgence of interest in Metabolist architecture while establishing new directions for exploration. Gardner focuses on how these innovators created unique versions of shared concepts—including futurity, megastructures, capsules, and cybercities—making lasting contributions that resonate with contemporary conversations around cyberpunk, climate change, anime, and more. The Metabolist Imagination features original documentation of collaborations between giants of postwar Japanese art and architecture, such as the landmark 1970 Osaka Expo. It also provides the most sustained English-language discussion to date of the work of Komatsu Sakyō, considered one of the “big three” authors of postwar Japanese science fiction. These studies are underscored by Gardner’s insightful approach—treating architecture as a form of speculative fiction while positioning science fiction as an intervention into urban design—making it a necessary read for today’s visionaries.
Download or read book Routledge Handbook of Contemporary Japan written by Hiroko Takeda and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-09-21 with total page 650 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Routledge Handbook of Contemporary Japan presents a synthesized, interdisciplinary study of contemporary Japan based on up-to-date theoretical models designed to provide readers with a comprehensive and full understanding of the dynamics of contemporary Japan. In order to achieve this, the Handbook is organized into two parts. Part I, ‘Foundations’, clarifies the state of contemporary Japan topic by topic by referring to the latest theoretical developments in the relevant disciplinary fields of politics, international relations, economy, society, culture and the personal. Part II, ‘Issues’, then offers a series of concrete analyses building upon the theoretical discussions introduced in Part I to help undergraduate and postgraduate students learn how to conduct independent analysis. Locating Japan in a comparative and interdisciplinary perspective, this Handbook is an essential resource for students and scholars interested in Japanese studies, Asian studies and global studies.
Download or read book The Monstrous Feminine in Contemporary Japanese Popular Culture written by Raechel Dumas and published by Springer. This book was released on 2018-06-01 with total page 217 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores the monstrous-feminine in Japanese popular culture, produced from the late years of the 1980s through to the new millennium. Raechel Dumas examines the role of female monsters in selected works of fiction, manga, film, and video games, offering a trans-genre, trans-media analysis of this enduring trope. The book focuses on several iterations of the monstrous-feminine in contemporary Japan: the self-replicating shōjo in horror, monstrous mothers in science fiction, female ghosts and suburban hauntings in cinema, female monsters and public violence in survival horror games, and the rebellious female body in mytho-fiction. Situating the titles examined here amid discourses of crisis that have materialized in contemporary Japan, Dumas illuminates the ambivalent pleasure of the monstrous-feminine as a trope that both articulates anxieties centered on shifting configurations of subjectivity and nationhood, and elaborates novel possibilities for identity negotiation and social formation in a period marked by dramatic change.
Download or read book Speculations of War written by Annette M. Magid and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2021-02-15 with total page 254 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Late 19th century science fiction stories and utopian treatises related to morals and attitudes often focused on economic, sociological and, at times Marxist ideas. More than a century later, science fiction commonly depicts the inherent dangers of capitalism and imperialism. Examining a variety of conflicts from the Civil War through the post-9/11 era, this collection of new essays explores philosophical introspection and futuristic forecasting in science fiction, fantasy, utopian literature and film, with a focus on the warlike nature of humanity.
Download or read book Shinjuku X The Darkness Post Apocalyptic Fiction written by Marc Sloane and published by Marc Sloane. This book was released on 2015-04-05 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It all started with an itch... Arriving home to Los Angeles from a weeklong business trip to Japan, Brian Pace contracts the deadly Shinjuku X virus. Six months later and lucky to survive he wakes up in a hospital bed surrounded by death with one thing on his mind: his wife Veronica and his five-year-old son Jackson. Brian sets out to reconnect with his family and is tested again and again, ultimately forcing him to redraw the rules of what he considers right and wrong, struggling to stay inside them. In a world where the only law is survival some rules are meant to be broken. And they will be. post apocalyptic fiction, post apocalyptic survival fiction, survival fiction, dystopian science fiction, post apocalyptic science fiction, post apocalyptic stories, post apocalyptic thriller, dystopian, horror, science fiction, viral apocalypse, virus apocalypse
Download or read book Starship Haiku The Award Winning Post Apocalypse Science Fiction Classic written by S. P. Somtow and published by . This book was released on 2014-01 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: S.P. Somtow's first novel, "Starship & Haiku, " was awarded the Locus Award and caused a sensation in 1981 with its extraordinary Asian-skewed view of the post nuclear apocalypse. In this novel, only Japan has survived a world-wide holocaust, and Japan's culture has turned inward, exalting its past and its aesthetic of suicide. In this grim world, a young girl makes contact with a renegade member of an alien race ... the whales. Together, they plan a new future for the world's intelligent life. Part savage satire, part poetic evocation of a manga-like universe, S.P. Somtow's novel was the inspiration for Kathy Mar's award-winning song "Starship and Haiku."
Download or read book Shinjuku X The Light Post Apocalyptic Fiction written by Marc Sloane and published by Marc Sloane. This book was released on 2015-09-06 with total page 166 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the second and final installment in the Shinjuku Strain series and picks up where the first book left off, with Brian Pace struggling to survive in a world that is rapidly changing under the scourge of Shinjuku X. After murdering his wife and slaying his mutated son, Brian panics and is forced to confront what he does not yet know: human beings are turning into violent, blood thirsty creatures with an appetite for flesh, and a swarm of them is headed right for him. Brian and Dr. Covitz must set out to find Michelle and develop a cure for the disease before the remaining survivors turn. In doing so they must contend with psychopathic leaders, each other, and a virus that continues to mutate into various forms as it threatens to snuff out life on Earth. Ultimately Brian must carve a path forward for humanity, using his will to survive as a catalyst to save the world. Will he succeed? Or will the world crumble under the scourge of Shinjuku X? post apocalyptic fiction, post apocalyptic survival fiction, survival fiction, dystopian science fiction, post apocalyptic science fiction, post apocalyptic stories, post apocalyptic thriller, dystopian, horror, science fiction, viral apocalypse, virus apocalypse
Download or read book Animate d Architecture written by Vahid Vahdat and published by Liverpool University Press. This book was released on 2024-03-25 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At their peak, architectural marvels such as the Sagrada Família, the Tower of London, the Mosque–Cathedral of Córdoba, and the Eiffel tower, had a combined annual visit of almost 16.4 million people. The animated icebound castle in Disney’s (2019) Frozen had 116.4 million views, from one single YouTube trailer, in less than 24 hours. The spaces of such massively consumed animation have for generations informed the architectural imagination of people across the globe and from very early in their lives. Yet, not only have the architectural disciplines remained rather absent in the design of these massively consumed spaces, architectural theory has likewise failed to articulate a framework to approach the architecture of animation. To address this void, this book offers an interdisciplinary approach to survey the role of space in animation, including in creating humorous moments in early cartoon shorts, generating action and suspense in Japanese anime, and even stimulating erotic pleasure in pornographic Hentai. Exploring the imagined architecture of animation, from early motion picture to digital animation and from computer graphics to game engines, offers an analytical frame to reconceptualize space.
Download or read book The Environmental Apocalypse written by Jakub Kowalewski and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2022-11-16 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume brings together scholars working in diverse traditions of the humanities in order to offer a comprehensive analysis of the environmental catastrophe as the modern-day apocalypse. Drawing on philosophy, theology, history, literature, art history, psychoanalysis, as well as queer and decolonial theories, the authors included in this book expound the meaning of the climate apocalypse, reveal its presence in our everyday experiences, and examine its impact on our intellectual, imaginative, and moral practices. Importantly, the chapters show that eco-apocalypticism can inform progressively transformative discourses about climate change. In so doing, they demonstrate the fruitfulness of understanding the environmental catastrophe from within an apocalyptic framework, carving a much-needed path between two unsatisfactory approaches to the climate disaster: first, the conservative impulse to preserve the status quo responsible for today’s crisis, and second, the reckless acceptance of the destructive effects of climate change. This book will be an invaluable resource for students and scholars interested in the contributions of both apocalypticism and the humanities to contemporary ecological debates.
Download or read book A Canticle for Leibowitz written by Walter M. Miller and published by . This book was released on 1975 with total page 326 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Otaku written by Hiroki Azuma and published by U of Minnesota Press. This book was released on 2009 with total page 177 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Printbegrænsninger: Der kan printes 10 sider ad gangen og max. 40 sider pr. session
Download or read book Cloud Atlas written by David Mitchell and published by Vintage Canada. This book was released on 2010-07-16 with total page 596 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: By the New York Times bestselling author of The Bone Clocks | Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize A postmodern visionary and one of the leading voices in twenty-first-century fiction, David Mitchell combines flat-out adventure, a Nabokovian love of puzzles, a keen eye for character, and a taste for mind-bending, philosophical and scientific speculation in the tradition of Umberto Eco, Haruki Murakami, and Philip K. Dick. The result is brilliantly original fiction as profound as it is playful. In this groundbreaking novel, an influential favorite among a new generation of writers, Mitchell explores with daring artistry fundamental questions of reality and identity. Cloud Atlas begins in 1850 with Adam Ewing, an American notary voyaging from the Chatham Isles to his home in California. Along the way, Ewing is befriended by a physician, Dr. Goose, who begins to treat him for a rare species of brain parasite. . . . Abruptly, the action jumps to Belgium in 1931, where Robert Frobisher, a disinherited bisexual composer, contrives his way into the household of an infirm maestro who has a beguiling wife and a nubile daughter. . . . From there we jump to the West Coast in the 1970s and a troubled reporter named Luisa Rey, who stumbles upon a web of corporate greed and murder that threatens to claim her life. . . . And onward, with dazzling virtuosity, to an inglorious present-day England; to a Korean superstate of the near future where neocapitalism has run amok; and, finally, to a postapocalyptic Iron Age Hawaii in the last days of history. But the story doesn’t end even there. The narrative then boomerangs back through centuries and space, returning by the same route, in reverse, to its starting point. Along the way, Mitchell reveals how his disparate characters connect, how their fates intertwine, and how their souls drift across time like clouds across the sky. As wild as a videogame, as mysterious as a Zen koan, Cloud Atlas is an unforgettable tour de force that, like its incomparable author, has transcended its cult classic status to become a worldwide phenomenon.
Download or read book The Sacred Era written by Aramaki Yoshio and published by U of Minnesota Press. This book was released on 2017-06-13 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The magnum opus of a Japanese master of speculative fiction, and a book that established Yoshio Aramaki as a leading representative of the genre, The Sacred Era is part post-apocalyptic world, part faux-religious tract, and part dream narrative. In a distant future ruled by a new Papal Court serving the Holy Empire of Igitur, a young student known only as K arrives at the capital to take The Sacred Examination, a text that will qualify him for metaphysical research service with the court. His performance earns him an assignment in the secret Planet Bosch Research Department; this in turn puts him on the trail of a heretic executed many years earlier, whose headless ghost is still said to haunt the Papal Court, which carries him on an interplanetary pilgrimage across the Space Taklamakan Desert to the Planet Loulan, where time stands still, and finally to the mysterious, supposedly mythical Planet Bosch, a giant, floating plant-world that once orbited Earth but has somehow wandered 1,000 light years away. K’s journey to this strange world, seemingly sprung from Hieronymus Bosch’s Garden of Earthly Delights, is a journey into inner and outer space, as the novel traffics in mystic and metaphysical questions only to transform them into technical and astrophysical problems, translating the substance of religious and mythic texts into the language of science fiction.
