While analyzing humor is difficult, Henri Bergson's concept of comedy (a person acting like a machine) outlined in the classic essay, "Le Rire," in 1900, is probably too narrow a definition. Science fiction film, a genre which has evolved since the publication of Bergson's essay, has also speculated about man and society, often to…

Argues that good film and television fantasy is not a retreat from reality but a means of expanding the imagination. (FL)

The focal image of the film "The Black Hole" functions as a visual metaphor for the sacred, order, unity, and eternal time. The black hole is a symbol that unites the antinomic pairs of conscious/unconscious, water/fire, immersion/emersion, death/rebirth, and hell/heaven. The black hole is further associated with the quest for…

Discusses reasons for the popularity of "Star Trek" as a television show and cultural phenomenon, considers the success of formulaic plots, and provides an annotated list of 10 of the best episodes out of all 79 that are available on videocassettes for possible purchase by librarians. (LRW)

"Star Trek II" is a treatment of the penultimate stages of the monomyth in which the hero descends into the underworld and is reborn. This psychological sense of rebirth is evoked in modern audiences by the film. In particular, the doppelganger (psychic double) motif, so often associated in film, literature, and myth with the…

Looks at "The World of Tomorrow" (a 1984 documentary film of the 1939 New York World's Fair) as a gloss on the cultural tendency to sell the pleasures of technology while deferring questions about its nature. Notes that the film views the link between pleasure and technology that science fiction films variously exploit. (RS)

Argues that television convention mitigates against depictions of technology as socially destructive. Argues that the presentation of science as television fiction is a conservative act. Concludes that television reinforces the socially constructed technological imperative of industrial societies, effacing its own role in the preservation of the…

The paper examines science fiction literature as a product and part of the social consciousness of the modern capitalist world order. This world order is seen as emphasizing science, technology, movement, growth, urbanization, industrialization, complex organization, and progress. The document is organized into two sections. The first section…

Fifteen-year-old John Scott created a 35-page science fiction comic. The authors describe his effort to demonstrate that art teachers should not denigrate such work simply because it derives from popular culture, for it is a valid form of creative expression and one which teaches important artistic processes. (SJL)

Discusses two paperback books, "The Malacia Tapestry" and "The Shattered Chain," that are written with a junk-fiction formula yet have serious themes. Contends that teachers may find the books useful in motivating thoughtful nonreaders. (FL)