|
|
Spacecraft (Object Lessons)Stock informationGeneral Fields
Special Fields
Local DescriptionReview: As I read Morton's account of his childhood engagement with space flight, I thought of my own, when my personal imaginary met world history, though I certainly didn't think in those terms at the time. In pursuing Morton's childhood, I'm not attempting to shoehorn Spacecraft into old-fashioned biographical criticism whereby one seeks to explain a text by finding its secrets in the author's autobiography. It's part of the story he's telling, one common to many children whose imagination has been fired with visions of space travel. It's a story born of a specific cultural imaginary common among children of the last decades of the previous century ... Spacecraft, then, is a vehicle in which Morton meditates on futurality. The Millennium Falcon, along with hyperspace, is at the center of this meditation. * 3 Quarks Daily * Contents: Introduction: Ships and Craft 1. Garbage 2. Winnings 3. Luck 4. Lounge 5. Hyperspace 6. Anyone Index
Author Biography: Timothy Morton is Rita Shea Guffey Chair in English at Rice University, USA. They are the author of 16 books, including Being Ecological (2018) and Humankind: Solidarity with Nonhuman People (2017), and 200 essays on philosophy, ecology, literature, music, art, architecture, design and food. DescriptionScience fiction is filled with spacecraft. On Earth, actual rockets explode over Texas while others make their way to Mars. But what are spacecraft, and just what can they teach us about imagination, ecology, democracy, and the nature of objects? Why do certain spacecraft stand out in popular culture?If ever there were a spacecraft that could be detached from its context, sold as toys, turned into Disney rides, parodied, and flit around in everyone's head-the Millennium Falcon would be it. Springing from this infamous Star Wars vehicle, Spacecraft takes readers on an intergalactic journey through science fiction and speculative philosophy, revealing real-world political and ecological lessons along the way. In this book Timothy Morton shows how spacecraft are never mere flights of fancy. |