Astounding Wonder

Author : John Cheng
Publisher : University of Pennsylvania Press
Page : 402 pages
File Size : 45,9 Mb
Release : 2012-03-19
Category : History
ISBN : 9780812206678

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Astounding Wonder by John Cheng Pdf

When physicist Robert Goddard, whose career was inspired by H. G. Wells's War of the Worlds, published "A Method of Reaching Extreme Altitudes," the response was electric. Newspaper headlines across the country announced, "Modern Jules Verne Invents Rocket to Reach Moon," while people from around the world, including two World War I pilots, volunteered as pioneers in space exploration. Though premature (Goddard's rocket, alas, was only imagined), the episode demonstrated not only science's general popularity but also its intersection with interwar popular and commercial culture. In that intersection, the stories that inspired Goddard and others became a recognizable genre: science fiction. Astounding Wonder explores science fiction's emergence in the era's "pulps," colorful magazines that shouted from the newsstands, attracting an extraordinarily loyal and active audience. Pulps invited readers not only to read science fiction but also to participate in it, joining writers and editors in celebrating a collective wonder for and investment in the potential of science. But in conjuring fantastic machines, travel across time and space, unexplored worlds, and alien foes, science fiction offered more than rousing adventure and romance. It also assuaged contemporary concerns about nation, gender, race, authority, ability, and progress—about the place of ordinary individuals within modern science and society—in the process freeing readers to debate scientific theories and implications separate from such concerns. Readers similarly sought to establish their worth and place outside the pulps. Organizing clubs and conventions and producing their own magazines, some expanded science fiction's community and created a fan subculture separate from the professional pulp industry. Others formed societies to launch and experiment with rockets. From debating relativity and the use of slang in the future to printing purple fanzines and calculating the speed of spaceships, fans' enthusiastic industry revealed the tensions between popular science and modern science. Even as it inspired readers' imagination and activities, science fiction's participatory ethos sparked debates about amateurs and professionals that divided the worlds of science fiction in the 1930s and after.

Author : John Cheng
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 840 pages
File Size : 40,7 Mb
Release : 1997
Category : Literature and science
ISBN : UCAL:C2689616

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Amazing, Astounding, Wonder by John Cheng Pdf

Author : William Oxley
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 216 pages
File Size : 47,8 Mb
Release : 1889
Category : Religion
ISBN : HARVARD:AH5UIP

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Modern Messiahs and Wonder Workers by William Oxley Pdf

Author : Donald Harman Akenson
Publisher : McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP
Page : 672 pages
File Size : 51,6 Mb
Release : 1998
Category : Bible
ISBN : 9780773522893

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Surpassing Wonder by Donald Harman Akenson Pdf

What Noam Chomsky did for political commentary, and Stephen Hawking did for cosmology, Donald Harman Akenson does for the Bible and its interpreters, and the resulting conclusions are just as astounding. Surpassing Wonder illuminates how the greatest cultural artifacts of our civilization are related to one another and constitute the very core of our consciousness. With biting irreverence for denominational prejudices and the pretensions of academics, Akenson renews our sense of awe before these religious works. He challenges received doctrines, arguing that the ancient Jews were indeed idol worshippers and that Saint Paul did not believe in the bodily resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth or in the virgin birth. With wit, elegance, and clarity Surpassing Wonder makes the ancient Hebrew scriptures, the Christian New Testament, and the Talmuds of the Rabbis accessible to all and shows they can be understood only in relation to each other and against their specific historical settings. Akenson argues that each of the great texts must be considered as the product of a single author and thus as a religious invention - that is, as a self-consciously formed unity rather than an anthology of disparate works. He also argues that the great inventor of the Hebrew scriptures should be credited with constructing the very concept of narrative history and thus the foundations of Western civilization. Using a rich and imagistic language that combines tractor mechanics, Winnie-the-Pooh, and architecture with analogies from astronomy, evolutionary biology, and economics, Akenson brings about nothing less than a radical reformation of how to think about the sacred texts. He restores their spiritual power through a just appreciation of the achievement of their authors while leaving readers to decide for themselves on the presence of a "guiding hand." Surpassing Wonder is a penetrating study of the historian's craft and a brilliant exposé of how theologians and biblical scholars abuse historical reasoning and evidence in their treatment of the sacred texts. Just as a previous reformation cast out the priestly intercessors, so Akenson casts the scholars out of the temple and lets readers in to see the texts anew. In so doing he reinvests religion with meaning for a contemporary world and shows us how Western civilization was created not by the Greeks of Athens or the patricians of Rome but by the desert worshippers of Yahweh.

Author : Charles Carey Jr.
Publisher : Infobase Holdings, Inc
Page : 578 pages
File Size : 46,9 Mb
Release : 2020-03-01
Category : History
ISBN : 9781438182148

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American Inventors, Entrepreneurs, and Business Visionaries, Revised Edition by Charles Carey Jr. Pdf

Praise for the previous edition: "This fun-to-read source will add spice for economics and business classes..."—American Reference Books Annual "...worthy of inclusion in reference collections of public, academic, and high-school libraries. Its content is wide-ranging and its entries provide interesting reading."—Booklist "A concise introduction to American inventors and entrepreneurs, recommended for academic and public libraries."—Choice American Inventors, Entrepreneurs, and Business Visionaries, Revised Edition profiles more than 300 important Americans from colonial times to the present. Featuring such inventors and entrepreneurs as Thomas Edison and Madame C. J. Walker, this revised resource provides in-depth information on robber barons and their counterparts as well as visionaries such as Bill Gates. Coverage includes: Jeffrey Bezos Michael Bloomberg Sergey Brin and Larry Page Michael Dell Steve Jobs Estée Lauder T. Boone Pickens Russell Simmons Oprah Winfrey Mark Zuckerberg.

Author : Michael Ashley,Mike Ashley
Publisher : Liverpool University Press
Page : 316 pages
File Size : 41,5 Mb
Release : 2000-01-01
Category : Literary Criticism
ISBN : 0853238553

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The History of the Science-fiction Magazine by Michael Ashley,Mike Ashley Pdf

This is the first of three volumes that chart the history of the science fiction magazine from the earliest days to the present. This first volume looks at the exuberant years of the pulp magazines. It traces the growth and development of the science fiction magazines from when Hugo Gernsback launched the very first, Amazing Stories, in 1926 through to the birth of the atomic age and the death of the pulps in the early 1950s. These were the days of the youth of science fiction, when it was brash, raw and exciting: the days of the first great space operas by Edward Elmer Smith and Edmond Hamilton, through the cosmic thought variants by Murray Leinster, Jack Williamson and others to the early 1940s when John W. Campbell at Astounding did his best to nurture the infant genre into adulthood. Under him such major names as Robert A. Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, A. E. van Vogt and Theodore Sturgeon emerged who, along with other such new talents as Ray Bradbury and Arthur C. Clarke, helped create modern science fiction. For over forty years magazines were at the heart of science fiction and this book considers how the magazines, and their publishers, editors and authors influenced the growth and perception of this fascinating genre.

Author : Rob Latham
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
Page : 416 pages
File Size : 40,6 Mb
Release : 2017-02-23
Category : Literary Criticism
ISBN : 9781474248631

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Science Fiction Criticism by Rob Latham Pdf

Including more than 30 essential works of science fiction criticism in a single volume, this is a comprehensive introduction to the study of this enduringly popular genre. Science Fiction Criticism: An Anthology of Essential Writings covers such topics as: ·Definitions and boundaries of the genre ·The many forms of science fiction, from time travel to 'inner space' ·Ideology and identity: from utopian fantasy to feminist, queer and environmental readings ·The non-human: androids, aliens, cyborgs and animals ·Race and the legacy of colonialism The volume also features annotated guides to further reading on these topics. Includes writings by: Marc Angenot, J.G. Ballard, Damien Broderick, Istvan Csicsery-Ronay, Samuel R. Delany, Philip K. Dick, Grace Dillon, Kodwo Eshun, Carl Freedman, Allison de Fren, Hugo Gernsback, Donna Haraway, N. Katherine Hayles, Robert A. Heinlein, Nalo Hopkinson, Veronica Hollinger, Fredric Jameson, Gwyneth Jones, Rob Latham, Roger Luckhurst, Judith Merril, John B. Michel, Wendy Pearson, John Rieder, Lysa Rivera, Joanna Russ, Mary Shelley, Stephen Hong Sohn, Susan Sontag, Bruce Sterling, Darko Suvin, Vernor Vinge, Sherryl Vint, H.G. Wells, David Wittenberg and Lisa Yaszek

Author : Steven Hrotic
Publisher : A&C Black
Page : 224 pages
File Size : 52,5 Mb
Release : 2014-07-31
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9781472527455

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Religion in Science Fiction by Steven Hrotic Pdf

Religion in Science Fiction investigates the history of the representations of religion in science fiction literature. Space travel, futuristic societies, and non-human cultures are traditional themes in science fiction. Speculating on the societal impacts of as-yet-undiscovered technologies is, after all, one of the distinguishing characteristics of science fiction literature. A more surprising theme may be a parallel exploration of religion: its institutional nature, social functions, and the tensions between religious and scientific worldviews. Steven Hrotic investigates the representations of religion in 19th century proto-science fiction, and genre science fiction from the 1920s through the end of the century. Taken together, he argues that these stories tell an overarching story-a 'metanarrative'-of an evolving respect for religion, paralleling a decline in the belief that science will lead us to an ideal (and religion-free) future. Science fiction's metanarrative represents more than simply a shift in popular perceptions of religion: it also serves as a model for cognitive anthropology, providing new insights into how groups and identities form in a globalized world, and into how crucial a role narratives may play. Ironically, this same perspective suggests that science fiction, as it was in the 20th century, may no longer exist.

Author : James Gunn,Michael R. Page
Publisher : McFarland
Page : 214 pages
File Size : 51,7 Mb
Release : 2018-05-24
Category : Literary Criticism
ISBN : 9781476673196

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Modern Science Fiction: A Critical Analysis by James Gunn,Michael R. Page Pdf

James Gunn--one of the founding figures of science fiction scholarship and teaching--wrote in 1951 what is likely the first master's thesis on modern science fiction. Portions were in the short-lived pulp magazine Dynamic but it has otherwise remained unavailable. Here in its first full publication, the thesis explores many of the classic Golden Age stories of the 1940s and the critical perspective that informed Gunn's essential genre history Alternate Worlds and his anthology series The Road to Science Fiction. The editor's introduction and commentary show the historical significance of Gunn's work and its relevance to today's science fiction studies.

Author : Hugo Gernsback
Publisher : U of Minnesota Press
Page : 735 pages
File Size : 55,5 Mb
Release : 2016-11-21
Category : Literary Criticism
ISBN : 9781452953144

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The Perversity of Things by Hugo Gernsback Pdf

In 1905, a young Jewish immigrant from Luxembourg founded an electrical supply shop in New York. This inventor, writer, and publisher Hugo Gernsback would later become famous for launching the first science fiction magazine, Amazing Stories, in 1926. But while science fiction’s annual Hugo Awards were named in his honor, there has been surprisingly little understanding of how the genre began among a community of tinkerers all drawn to Gernsback’s vision of comprehending the future of media through making. In The Perversity of Things, Grant Wythoff makes available texts by Hugo Gernsback that were foundational both for science fiction and the emergence of media studies. Wythoff argues that Gernsback developed a means of describing and assessing the cultural impact of emerging media long before media studies became an academic discipline. From editorials and blueprints to media histories, critical essays, and short fiction, Wythoff has collected a wide range of Gernsback’s writings that have been out of print since their magazine debut in the early 1900s. These articles cover such topics as television; the regulation of wireless/radio; war and technology; speculative futures; media-archaeological curiosities like the dynamophone and hypnobioscope; and more. All together, this collection shows how Gernsback’s publications evolved from an electrical parts catalog to a full-fledged literary genre. The Perversity of Things aims to reverse the widespread misunderstanding of Gernsback within the history of science fiction criticism. Through painstaking research and extensive annotations and commentary, Wythoff reintroduces us to Gernsback and the origins of science fiction.

Author : Gardner Dozois
Publisher : Penguin
Page : 388 pages
File Size : 51,5 Mb
Release : 2009-04-07
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9781101028865

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Nebula Awards Showcase 2006 by Gardner Dozois Pdf

Each year, the members of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America(r) bestow the Nebula Awards to authors whose exemplary fiction represents the most thought-provoking and entertaining work the genre has to offer. Nebula Awards Showcase collects the year's most preeminent science fiction and fantasy in one essential volume. This year's winners include Lois McMaster Bujold, Eileen Gunn, Ellen Klages, and Walter Jon Williams, as well as Grand Master Anne McCaffrey.

Author : Anonim
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 660 pages
File Size : 47,5 Mb
Release : 1847
Category : Electronic
ISBN : OXFORD:555010050

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The Gospel magazine, and theological review. Ser. 5. Vol. 3, no. 1-July 1874 by Anonim Pdf

Author : Oliver Tristan Dunnett
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 311 pages
File Size : 44,6 Mb
Release : 2021-04-19
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9780429631634

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Earth, Cosmos and Culture by Oliver Tristan Dunnett Pdf

This book traces the development of diverse British cultures of outer space, utilizing key geographical concepts such as landscape, place, and national identity. It examines the early visionary ideas of writers H. G. Wells and Olaf Stapledon, the ambitious British space programme of the 1960s, and narrations of British cultural identity that accompanied the space missions of Helen Sharman, Beagle 2 and Tim Peake. The exploration of British cultures of outer space throughout the book helps understand the emergence of the British Interplanetary Society. It also explains its significance in pre-war and post-war periods through an analysis of the roles of influential figures such as Arthur C. Clarke and Patrick Moore. The chapters explore utopian and dystopian representations of space exploration, examine the mysterious phenomenon of UFO culture, and consider plans for humanity’s imagined future across interstellar space. Throughout the book geography is advocated as a home for critical studies of outer space, illuminating its significance in terms of the reciprocal relationships between exploration and the sublime, science and the imagination, Earth and cosmos. As an emergent field of research in the social sciences, this book makes an excellent contribution to the study of the outer space in Britain and abroad developing a distinctive kind of outer spatial geography with major implications for future teaching and research.

Author : Everett Franklin Bleiler,Richard Bleiler
Publisher : Kent State University Press
Page : 780 pages
File Size : 43,7 Mb
Release : 1998
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 0873386043

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Science-fiction by Everett Franklin Bleiler,Richard Bleiler Pdf

Complementing Science-Fiction: The Early Years, which surveys science-fiction published in book form from its beginnings through 1930, the present volume covers all the science-fiction printed in the genre magazines--Amazing, Astounding, and Wonder, along with offshoots and minor magazines--from 1926 through 1936. This is the first time this historically important literary phenomenon, which stands behind the enormous modern development of science-fiction, has been studied thoroughly and accurately. The heart of the book is a series of descriptions of all 1,835 stories published during this period, plus bibliographic information. Supplementing this are many useful features: detailed histories of each of the magazines, an issue by issue roster of contents, a technical analysis of the art work, brief authors' biographies, poetry and letter indexes, a theme and motif index of approximately 30,0000 entries, and general indexes. Science-Fiction: The Gernsback Years is not only indispensable for reference librarians, collectors, readers, and scholars interested in science-fiction, it is also of importance to the study of popular culture during the Great Depression in the United States. Most of its data, which are largely based on rare and almost unobtainable sources, are not available elsewhere.

Author : David L. Knight
Publisher : WestBow Press
Page : 426 pages
File Size : 42,7 Mb
Release : 2012-05
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9781449745653

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Downstream from Eden by David L. Knight Pdf

Downstream from Eden is a celebration of water in a less-than-perfect world. It will inspire you and bring you hope, Probably the most comprehensive study of water and the Bible you will find anywhere. Well-researched and highly readable, with stories from Icelandic waterfalls to the Aral Sea, from the origins of the universe to the Apocalypse, the author weaves a conversation that turns water into wine. You will sip and savor page after page. Water is an urgent global concern with 800 million people living today in parched conditions or with unsafe water. The UN Water for Life Decade 2005-2015 highlights the need for sustainable water solutions. Downstream from Eden adds a unique voice to this discussion with insights from the Bible, science, history and literature on issues of social justice, the environment and personal spirituality. Fascinating material! David Knight is a profound, reflective and interesting writer. - Ramez Atallah, The Bible Society of Egypt A beautiful study of water. Read it slowly and enjoy. You will be refreshed – spirit and soul! - Barry Mackay, Habitat for Humanity India (retired), Includes “A Manifesto for Action: Ten Disciplines for Living Downstream from Eden” and Questions for Small Group and Book Club discussion.