Utopia is what? At this particularly anxious moment in our political and cultural lives, Bookforum sets out to explore this most placeless of places: Paul La Farge on how perfect worlds are games to be played by following the rules to the letter; and Keith Gessen asks, is it time for dystopian novelists to end the reign of the free-market idealists? From Colloquy, a special issue on utopia, dystopia and science-fiction, including Darren Jorgensen (UWA): On Failure and Revolution in Utopian Fiction and Science Fiction of the 1960s and 1970s; David Jack (Monash): Spectres of Orwell, or, The Impossible Demand of the Subject; Simon Sellars (Monash): “Extreme Possibilities”: Mapping “the Sea of Time and Space” in J G Ballard’s Pacific Fictions; and Alec Charles (Bedfordshire): The Flight from History: From H G Wells to Doctor Who — and Back Again. From the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies' Biopolitics of Popular Culture Seminar, Edward Miller on Beyond Utopia and Dystopia: A Critical Examination of the Ecology of Science Fiction; and Alex Lightman on The Future Engine: How Science Fiction Catalyzes Technology and Transforms Society. The visions of tomorrow inspire the actions we take today — science fiction is as much a reflection of society's deep fascination with science as it is an agent of change for its future course. Beam Me Up, Scotty: Is science fiction destroying science? From The Symptom, Slavoj Zizek on the future as sci fi: A new Cold War. A review of Red Planets: Marxism and Science Fiction (and more). In science fiction, there's dystopia and there's utopia: Kim Stanley Robinson maps the future's gray areas. A review of Science Fiction and Philosophy. Peter Y. Paik on his book From Utopia to Apocalypse: Science Fiction and the Politics of Catastrophe.
