Description:
"Science fiction" can be translated into "real unreality." More than a genre like fantasy, which creates entirely new realms of possibility, science fiction constructs its possibilities from what is real, from what is, indeed, possible, or conceivably so. This collection, then, looks to understand and explore the "unreal reality," to note ways in which our culture's continually changing and evolving mores of sex and sexuality are reflected in, dissected by, and deconstructed through the genre of science fiction.
This book is a collection of new essays, with the general objective of filling a gap in the literature about sex and science fiction (although some work has gone before, none of it is recent). The essays herein explore the myriad ways in which authors--regardless of format (print, film, television, etc.)--envision very different beings expressing this most fundamental of human behaviors.
Brief description: Donald E. Palumbo is a professor of English at East Carolina University. He lives in Greenville, North Carolina.
Review Quotes: "Essays are incisive and well-written...recommended for most college libraries"-Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts; "This collection of over a dozen essays interrogates how sex and sexuality are reflected in science fiction as changing categories and persistent motifs"-Reference & Research Book News.