Between Fear and Wonder: The Hidden History of Speculative Fiction
(Room JW Grand Ballroom 7)
07 Jul 18
1:30 PM
-
2:45 PM
Speculative fiction resides in the nexus between the urgency of our deepest societal fears and our questing wonder of the unknown: Industrial Revolution of the 19th century; the horror of technological warfare in the early 20th; the frightening power of the atomic bomb and its effects of the 1950s and early ’60s; the terror of mutated viruses and other contagions infecting us all; and computers and AI too good for our own good. But speculative fiction reaches much further back into history. Indeed, the worlds of the unknown have fueled imaginative literature for nearly as long as we’ve been telling stories. A Bram Stoker Award-nominated novelist, TV critic, and executive editor of pop culture magazine BlogCritics, Barbara Barnett presents an engaging multimedia history of speculative fiction, from the Gilgamesh legend to this summer’s biggest blockbuster.