For Octavia Butler’s characters, often, the only way to survive is to adapt. To adapt one’s expectations, one’s worldview, and ultimately, even one’s identity. For Butler, repeatedly, survival is change. […]
With his ambiguous heterotopia, Samuel Delany is showing us that a perfect place is impossible. It’s definitely impossible in a postmodern world. […]
Judith Butler’s work became one of the cornerstones of queer theory, of a gender politics that takes back the word queer, refusing to think of it as derogatory.
Samuel Delany uses the term heterotopia as a subtitle of a novel which grapples with identity, sex, and gender. It focuses on how things and concepts such as gender can become impossible to name. […]
Anarres is a utopian model. The environment is so harsh it brings out the best in people. There people own virtually nothing but have really important relationships with each other and with their work. […]
In “The Left Hand of Darkness”, Genly is intrigued by the Gethenians, and sees the advantages of their gender system. […]
Le Guin, like other feminist science fiction writers, is clearly using sci-fi and utopia to explore gender issues. […]
“1985” explores the question of how utopian or dystopian societies deal with those at the margins, whether they’re constructed as criminal or not. […]
Kubrick’s film version of “A Clockwork Orange” is strangely beautiful. The violence is clearly portrayed, but it’s also stylized in a way that makes it manageable. […]
In Burgess’s novel, the violent protagonist Alex is reconditioned by the State, and he compares himself to a clockwork orange, a mechanized being. […]
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