In Other Worlds: SF and the Human Imagination

Zusatztext “Atwood is a perceptive and enthusiastic literary critic! dryly funny and eclectically curious.” — The San Francisco Chronicle “Interesting! entertaining and thoughtful. . . .  Atwood fans! sci-fi fans! indeed fiction fans! have reason to rejoice. In Other Worlds is a delightful read full of Atwood’s well-honed prose and sly sense of humor.” — The Miami Herald “Margaret Atwood is a valiant champion [of science fiction]. . . . Her prose is addictive. . . . She crafts sentences with grace and pitch-perfect highbrow humor.” — The Plain Dealer   “A smart and often playful book.” — Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel   “ In Other Worlds is an eminently readable and accessible clarification of [Atwood’s] relationship with SF and the SF tradition. . . . The lectures are insightful and cogently argued with a neat comic turn of phrase. . . . [Atwood’s] enthusiasm and level of intellectual engagement are second to none.” — Financial Times   “It’s a delight to see Atwood revisit Mischiefland! both because of the lovely details she remembers (the flying bunnies kept cats as pets and ate only ice cream)! and because this retelling leads Atwood to speculate on the origins—cultural! literary! mythic! religious—of the science fiction genre. . . . In Other Worlds reminds us that all genres are capable of deepening and developing this one human story.” — The Boston Globe   “Atwood gives us a bracing tour of the writers and books she admires (like Ursula Le Guin and ‘She’ by H. Rider Haggard)! her interest in ustopia (a mix of utopia and dystopia) in her fiction! as well as some autobiography. . . . Explains how the genre fits into a continuum dating to the world’s oldest myths and continuing today with authors who use the genre to examine social ills! not run away from them.” — Los Angeles Times   “Atwood certainly has read a fair bit of and thought deeply about science fiction! and she shares generously with her readers.” — The Christian Science Monitor   “Fascinating. . . . Vibrant. . . . Compelling. . . . Not only is In Other Worlds powerfully readable and mentally refreshing! it’s also one heck of a joyride through the limitless imagination of a national (and international) treasure.” —Bookreporter Informationen zum Autor Margaret Atwood Klappentext In these marvelously wide-ranging essays, Margaret Atwood explores her lifelong relationship to science fiction, as a reader and as a writer. At a time when the borders between genres are increasingly porous, she maps the fertile crosscurrents of speculative and science fiction, utopias, dystopias, slipstream, and fantasy, musing on the age-old human impulse to imagine new worlds. She shares the evolution of her personal fascination with SF, from her childhood invention of a race of flying superhero rabbits to her graduate study of its Victorian antecedents to the creation of her own acclaimed novels. Studded with appreciations of such influential writers as Marge Piercy, Ursula K. LeGuin, Kazuo Ishiguro, H. Rider Haggard, Aldous Huxley, H. G. Wells, and Jonathan Swift, In Other Worlds is as humorous and charming as it is insightful and provocative. Introduction       “I’m a fifty-three-year-old writer who can remember being a ten-year-old writer and who expects some day to be an eighty-year-old writer.” – Octavia Butler.                        In Other Worlds is not a catalogue of science fiction, a grand theory about it, or a literary history of it.  It is not a treatise, it is not definitive, it is not exhaustive, it is not canonical. It is not the work of a practicing academic or an official guardian of a body of knowledge. Rather, it is an exploration of my own lifelong relationship to a literary form, or forms, or sub-forms, both as read...

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Atwood is a perceptive and enthusiastic literary critic, dryly funny and eclectically curious. The San Francisco Chronicle

Interesting, entertaining and thoughtful. . . .  Atwood fans, sci-fi fans, indeed fiction fans, have reason to rejoice. In Other Worlds is a delightful read full of Atwood s well-honed prose and sly sense of humor. The Miami Herald

Margaret Atwood is a valiant champion [of science fiction]. . . . Her prose is addictive. . . . She crafts sentences with grace and pitch-perfect highbrow humor. The Plain Dealer
 
A smart and often playful book. Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel
 
In Other Worlds is an eminently readable and accessible clarification of [Atwood s] relationship with SF and the SF tradition. . . . The lectures are insightful and cogently argued with a neat comic turn of phrase. . . . [Atwood s] enthusiasm and level of intellectual engagement are second to none. Financial Times
 
It s a delight to see Atwood revisit Mischiefland, both because of the lovely details she remembers (the flying bunnies kept cats as pets and ate only ice cream), and because this retelling leads Atwood to speculate on the origins cultural, literary, mythic, religious of the science fiction genre. . . . In Other Worlds reminds us that all genres are capable of deepening and developing this one human story. The Boston Globe
 
Atwood gives us a bracing tour of the writers and books she admires (like Ursula Le Guin and She by H. Rider Haggard), her interest in ustopia (a mix of utopia and dystopia) in her fiction, as well as some autobiography. . . . Explains how the genre fits into a continuum dating to the world s oldest myths and continuing today with authors who use the genre to examine social ills, not run away from them. Los Angeles Times
 
Atwood certainly has read a fair bit of and thought deeply about science fiction, and she shares generously with her readers. The Christian Science Monitor
 
Fascinating. . . . Vibrant. . . . Compelling. . . . Not only is In Other Worlds powerfully readable and mentally refreshing, it s also one heck of a joyride through the limitless imagination of a national (and international) treasure. Bookreporter

Product details

• Authors: Margaret Atwood
• Publisher: Anchor Books USA
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback
• Released: 31.08.2012
• EAN: 9780307741769
• ISBN: 978-0-307-74176-9
• No. of pages: 255
• Dimensions: 130 mm x 202 mm x 20 mm
• Series: Anchor Books
• Subjects: Fiction > Science fiction, fantasy; Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > General and comparative literary studies