Science Fiction
A Very Short Introduction
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Science Fiction
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Narrated by:
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Brian Holsopple
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By:
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David Seed
About this listen
Frankenstein, The Time Machine, Star Trek, Dune, 1984, Blade Runner - science fiction has been explained as a combination of romance, science, and prophecy; as a genre based on an imagined alternative to the reader's environment; and as a form of fantastic fiction and historical literature. It has also been argued that science fiction narratives are the most engaged, socially relevant, and responsive to the modern technological environment.
In this Very Short Introduction, David Seed doesn't offer a history of science fiction, but instead attempts to tie examples of science fiction to different historical moments, in order to demonstrate how science fiction has evolved over time, especially the emergence of science fiction as a popular genre in the 20th century. Seed looks not only at literature, but also at drama and poetry, as well as film. Examining recurrent themes in science fiction, he looks at voyages into space, the concept of the alien and alternative social identities, the role of technology in science fiction, and its relation to time - in the past, present, and future.
©2011 David Seed (P)2021 TantorListeners also enjoyed...
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5 out of 5 stars
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Long before the European Enlightenment and the Darwinian revolution, which we often take to mark the birth of the modern revolt against religious explanations of the world, brave people doubted the power of the gods. Religion provoked skepticism in ancient Greece, and heretics argued that history must be understood as a result of human action rather than divine intervention. They devised theories of the cosmos based on matter and notions of matter based on atoms.
-
5 out of 5 stars
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We have a history as long and as rich as any relig
- By Glencannnon on 08-13-19
By: Tim Whitmarsh
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War Without Mercy
- Race and Power in the Pacific War
- By: John W. Dower
- Narrated by: Tim Campbell
- Length: 13 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 86
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 70
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Story4 out of 5 stars 69
War Without Mercy has been hailed by the New York Times as "one of the most original and important books to be written about the war between Japan and the United States." In this monumental history, professor John Dower reveals a hidden, explosive dimension of the Pacific War - race - while writing what John Toland has called "a landmark book...a powerful, moving, and evenhanded history that is sorely needed in both America and Japan."
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1 out of 5 stars
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War without Mercy
- By rbergen on 05-02-17
By: John W. Dower
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The Chalice and the Blade
- Our History, Our Future
- By: Riane Eisler
- Narrated by: Riane Eisler
- Length: 2 hrs and 52 mins
- Abridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 298
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Performance3.5 out of 5 stars 252
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 250
Riane Eisler believes that war and the "war of the sexes" are concepts neither divinely nor biologically ordained. Join the author as she reconstructs a prehistoric culture based on partnership rather than domination and traces the roots of the global shift to patriarchy. Eisler, an acclaimed scholar, futurist, and activist, also presents new scripts for living based on a more socially, economically, ecologically, personally, and spiritually balanced society. This script is in direct opposition to the tension and violence typical of what she calls the dominator model. Her vision is the partnership model, which today is struggling to reemerge. This program is an important contribution to that struggle.
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1 out of 5 stars
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the chalice and the blade
- By Anne on 07-25-08
By: Riane Eisler
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Dark Star Rising
- Magick and Power in the Age of Trump
- By: Gary Lachman
- Narrated by: Jason Culp
- Length: 9 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 155
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 136
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 136
Within the concentric circles of Trump's regime lies an unseen culture of occultists, power-seekers, and mind-magicians whose influence is on the rise. In this unparalleled account, historian Gary Lachman examines the influence of occult and esoteric philosophy on the unexpected rise of the alt-right.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Step Right This Way!
- By Brad on 06-03-18
By: Gary Lachman
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Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest
- By: Matthew Restall
- Narrated by: James Cameron Stewart
- Length: 8 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 61
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 50
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 50
Using a wide array of sources, historian Matthew Restall highlights seven key myths, uncovering the source of the inaccuracies and exploding the fallacies and misconceptions behind each myth. This vividly written and authoritative book shows, for instance, that native Americans did not take the conquistadors for gods and that small numbers of vastly outnumbered Spaniards did not bring down great empires with stunning rapidity. We discover that Columbus was correctly seen in his lifetime - and for decades after - as a briefly fortunate but unexceptional participant in efforts.
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4 out of 5 stars
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A good book marred by awful narration
- By Dr. Philip Fowler on 02-23-24
By: Matthew Restall
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Another Bloody Century
- By: Colin Gray
- Narrated by: David Shaw-Parker
- Length: 19 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 33
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 29
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 29
Many nations, peoples and special interest groups believe that violence will advance their cause. Warfare has changed greatly since the Second World War; it continued to change during the late 20th century, and this process is still accelerating. Political, technological, social and religious forces are shaping the future of warfare, but most Western armed forces have yet to evolve significantly from the Cold War era when they trained to resist a conventional invasion by the Warsaw Pact.
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4 out of 5 stars
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a must read for those who study warfare
- By Austin on 01-21-24
By: Colin Gray
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The Landscape of History
- How Historians Map the Past
- By: John Lewis Gaddis
- Narrated by: Jack Chekijian
- Length: 6 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 104
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 93
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 89
What is history, and why should we study it? Is there such a thing as historical truth? Is history a science? One of the most accomplished historians at work today, John Lewis Gaddis, answers these and other questions in this short, witty, and humane book. The Landscape of History provides a searching look at the historian's craft as well as a strong argument for why a historical consciousness should matter to us today.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Excellent Book!
- By Billy on 09-15-18
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Heaven's Gate: America's UFO Religion
- By: Benjamin E. Zeller
- Narrated by: Eric Burns
- Length: 9 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 82
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 72
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Story4 out of 5 stars 72
In March 1997, 39 people in Rancho Santa Fe, California, ritually terminated their lives. To outsiders, it was a mass suicide. To insiders, it was a graduation. Benjamin Zeller not only explores the question of why the members of Heaven's Gate committed ritual suicides, but interrogates the origin and evolution of the religion, its appeal, and its practices. By tracking the development of the history, social structure, and worldview of Heaven's Gate, Zeller shows that the movement was both a reflection and a microcosm of larger American culture.
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1 out of 5 stars
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cult apologia.
- By Avery on 06-01-20
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Six Memos for the Next Millennium
- By: Italo Calvino, Geoffrey Brock - translator
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini
- Length: 3 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 45
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 30
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 30
At the time of his death, Italo Calvino was at work on six lectures setting forth the qualities in writing he most valued and which he believed would define literature in the century to come. Here, in Six Memos for the Next Millennium, are the five lectures he completed, forming not only a stirring defense of literature but also an indispensable guide to the writings of Calvino himself. He devotes one "memo" each to the concepts of lightness, quickness, exactitude, visibility, and multiplicity.
By: Italo Calvino, and others
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Prehistory
- Making of the Human Mind
- By: Colin Renfrew
- Narrated by: Robert Ian MacKenzie
- Length: 9 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 212
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 147
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Story4 out of 5 stars 146
A giant of archaeology, Colin Renfrew has immeasurably improved our understanding of human history. In this passionately argued work, he offers a concise summary of prehistory - human existence that predates the development of written records - while challenging the very definition of prehistory itself.
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5 out of 5 stars
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not for the intellectually challenged
- By Anthony on 07-14-10
By: Colin Renfrew
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Zakhor: Jewish History and Jewish Memory (The Samuel and Althea Stroum Lectures in Jewish Studies)
- By: Yosef Hayim Yerushalmi
- Narrated by: Aze Fellner
- Length: 4 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 35
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 29
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 28
Winner of the National Jewish Book Award for History. This book discusses the troubling and possibly irreconcilable split between Jewish memory and Jewish historiography.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Best book of history of Judaism written in centuries
- By Bicigodo on 07-19-15
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Fools, Frauds and Firebrands
- Thinkers of the New Left
- By: Roger Scruton
- Narrated by: Rory Barnett
- Length: 13 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 134
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 114
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 113
From one of the leading critics of leftist orientations comes a study of the thinkers who have most influenced the attitudes of the New Left. Beginning with a ruthless analysis of New Leftism and concluding with a critique of the key strands in its thinking, Roger Scruton conducts a reappraisal of such major left-wing thinkers as E. P. Thompson, Ronald Dworkin, R. D. Laing, Jurgen Habermas, Gyorgy Lukacs, Jean-Paul Sartre, Jacques Derrida, Slavoj Žižek, Ralph Milliband, and Eric Hobsbawm. Scruton delivers a critique of modern left-wing thinking.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Deconstructing the New Left
- By Wayne on 01-17-20
By: Roger Scruton
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China’s Good War
- How World War II Is Shaping a New Nationalism
- By: Rana Mitter
- Narrated by: Dennis Kleinman
- Length: 8 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 56
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 49
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 47
For most of its history, the People’s Republic of China limited public discussion of the war against Japan. It was an experience of victimization - and one that saw Mao Zedong and Chiang Kai-shek fighting for the same goals. But now, as China grows more powerful, the meaning of the war is changing. Rana Mitter argues that China’s reassessment of the World War II years is central to its newfound confidence abroad and to mounting nationalism at home.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Scholarly work
- By Kindle Customer on 09-12-23
By: Rana Mitter