Science Fiction by Sherryl Vint

Abstract

604 SCIENCE FICTION STUDIES, VOLUME 48 (2021) dimensional alien” (63). Moving beyond the work of Lovecraft, Steadman persists in using problematic language when describing “mentally-challenged person[s]” (124, 209) in Asimov’s “… That Thou Art Mindful of Him” (1974) and Gibson’s Mona Lisa Overdrive respectively. He goes on to describe Asimov’s Late Solarians as hermaphrodites and “alien monstrosities” who have taken “their obsessive fears of human contact and sexuality to extreme levels” (153). And finally, in a most perplexing instance, Steadman dedicates an entire paragraph to what he frames as a prescient parallel between the Solarian civilization and “the situation of our millenials in the twenty-first century” (153). Connecting the extreme isolation and technological dependency of these advanced Spacers to the modern-day use of smart phones and other electronic devices, he writes, “Although the millenials have not yet reached the levels of isolation and solipsistic self-absorption that the Solarians have obtained, nevertheless, they seem to be well on their way towards achieving this end” (153). While warning, as Steadman does, against a future with “no room in it for alien love” (245), the lack of critical and self-reflective analysis in this book ultimately falls short of what our current moment most requires. These recurring instances of alienation diminish the value of a text otherwise worthy of praise.—E. Mariah Spencer, University of Iowa Thinking with Science Fiction. Sherryl Vint. Science Fiction. MIT, 2021. 207 pp. $15.95 pbk. Sherryl Vint’s well-conceived, informative, and concise new introduction to science fiction is one of a dozen 2021 entries in MIT Press’s ESSENTIAL KNOWLEDGE series, dedicated, as the series statement says, to offering accessible, expert overviews of “topics of current interest.” This is especially worth noting because Science Fiction is the only volume in the entire series (not just among the 2021 entries) dedicated to a narrative genre. The most closely related topics are volumes on Critical Thinking, Deconstruction, and Hate Speech; otherwise the topics skew toward technical matters such as Algorithms, Biofabrication, Ketamine, and AI Assistants or to social issues such as Gender(s) or Death and Dying. The inclusion of science fiction as a topic in the series is striking evidence in support of Vint’s main thesis, that science fiction is an increasingly important cultural vernacular “for thinking about and intervening in the world” (1-2). Therefore, she explains, “This book is about what science fiction can do, not a catalogue of important authors and titles” (2). This is not in the least a promise to unveil science fiction’s formal essence, something Vint does not think it has. She stresses instead the diversification and globalization of science fiction in recent decades, emphasizing that the genre is “embraced by many communities of practice, often to significantly divergent ends and with correspondingly different aesthetic and formal strategies” (14). The genre’s internal discord, the “tension between scientific extrapolation and social change [that] lies at [its] heart,” is the keynote of Vint’s exposition of its history and contemporary shape (10). She sets out as her main goal to explain how science fiction complements conversations about 605 BOOKS IN REVIEW “visions of desirable futures, animated by shared understandings of forms of social life and social order attainable through, and supportive of, advances in science and technology” (17, quoting science studies scholar Sheila Jasanoff) by doing something “more urgently needed—namely, it critically interrogates who is part of the collective creating those ‘shared understandings.’ Social as well as technological change is at stake in sf, which helps us think through whether ‘advances in science and technology’ are also always advances in civic and social life” (17). She concludes her introductory chapter with a claim that the book fully lives up to: “If we are living in a science-fictional world, this book aims to help us articulate more precisely what that means and to prompt us to think about actively managing—rather than passively awaiting—this future” (18). Vint fleshes out her exposition of what science fiction can do in seven thematically organized chapters. Some of the chapters tackle familiar, wellestablished contexts and motifs of sf: the utopian tradition; the colonial imagination; robots...