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美国科幻代表团来华访问
2005/07/11 幻想的边疆
与会全体代表合影 白蒂在发言 查理、白蒂、王逢振、吴岩、特里与文学批评与文化批判国际学术会议代表 查理、王逢振、季峥、蒙雪琴、代迅 查理在发言 科幻作家准备发言 特里的太太朱迪 贝蒂安的发言提要： Science Fiction as a Manifestation of Culture Elizabeth Anne Hull （Professor Emerita, William Rainey Harper College, Palatine, IL, USA） In higher education, Science Fiction can be a useful tool for teaching tolerance of others, critical thinking and problem solving, values assessment, and flexibility of attitude. Moreover, although it is often regarded as a popular literature, in its best examples science fiction also manifests the beauties and qualities of high culture, mainstream literature. Examination of several ways of analyzing particular works of science fiction reveals that various ways of looking at the work can yield understanding in depth that a single methodology might lack. Providing historical contexts for reading is especially important for any works written prior to this century. Close reading and structural analysis of plot, character, theme, symbol, irony, diction, style, etc., can help those readers who are accustomed to reading non-fiction to grasp the significance of a work of the imagination more fully. Theories based on particular ideologies or from other disciplines in the social and political sciences (such as feminist theory, Marxist theory, psychological theory, etc.) can also illuminate the texts. In short, the methodology of interpreting a text is most helpful when it is a hybrid built to serve the needs of any given text—“one size fits all” doesn’t work in analysis of science fiction any better than it does in T-shirts. 查理布朗的发言提要： "Genre Fiction; Science Fiction; The Quest for Utopia" Charles N. Brown （Locus Publications） 特里比森的发言提要： What is the appeal of genre fiction, and science fiction in particular? This paper will trace science fiction and the quest for a better future from its roots in genre fiction. Modern Science Fiction Utopias. Terry Bisson (American Writer) Utopias have always been a problem for SF (and novels in general) as the central idea, which is the reduction of conflict and stress, tends to diminish the dranatic interest in the story. If nothing bad can happen, where is the story? Most modern American SF writers avoid this problem by creating a very dystopian futures. This reflects both their belief (things are getting worse!) and their narrative strategy (put the hero in peril!). These books are in the great tradition of Brave New World and 1984,both of which I think can be regarded as not only dystopian but anti-Marxist, as they see collectivity and a collective society as the root of the problem. Since the 1960s, however, there has been a counter tendency in SF, exemplified by writers with a more dialectical view of humanity and progress: Marxist in philosophy if not strictly in ideology. They have not been afraid to undertake the daunting task of actually constructing utopias, and they have done so using ther tools of dialectuical materialism. The most distinguished in this regard are Ursula K LeGuin and Kim Stanley Robinson. I intend to discuss their works along with the works of some of their contemporaries (including perhaps myself) who have used the methods of dialectical materialism to construct realistic utopian visions of a possible future.
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