SOAR GSF-2010 Lecture#3A.jnt

Transcription

SOAR Global Science Fiction: 3/22/10
European SF
Soviet and Soviet-era SF
Coming up:
Week III: mostly Cuban and Latin SF
Lecture #2 (Wk2) -- DWK
Martians in the Plaza de la
Revolución:
The history and future of Cuban
science fiction
Daniel W. Koon
SLU Physics Dept.
Cuba at a glance
Population: 11 Million
► Per capita GDP (PPP) $3000 [2004]
► Original settlers: Taino (Arawak) &
Siboney. Wiped out by Spaniard
settlers, replaced with African
slaves.
► Population: 51% mulatto, 37%
white, 11% black, 1% Chinese
►
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuba
Accessed 3/27/2006
Cuban History at a glance
► 1492
Christopher Columbus.
► 1898 Independence from Spain.
► Heavy US influence.
► Jan. 1, 1959 Batista regime overthrown. Fidel Castro,
Ernesto “Che” Guevara, etc. in charge.
► 1961 Bay of Pigs.
► 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, US Blockade.
► 1980 Mariel boatlift.
► 1989 Fall of Berlin Wall. 1991 Soviet Union dissolved.
QUESTIONS ABOUT CUBAN SF:
► Is
there such a thing?
► Is there very much of it?
► Is it any good?
► What futures are dreamed in Cuban SF?
► What futures are permitted in Cuban SF?
► What characterizes Cuban SF?
► Does anything characterize Cuban SF?
(i.e. Is there a Cuban SF, or is it just SF
made in Cuba?)
HISTORY OF A GENRE
0.
I.
II.
III.
IV.
Influences
Prehistory
First Golden Age: 1964 - 1973
Second Golden Age: 1978 - 1989
Third Golden Age?: 1999 - present
LITERARY INFLUENCES
ON CUBAN SF
► Anglo-American
SF
► Soviet SF: The Ivan Efremov,
Arkady & Boris Strugatsky
Reference: “Martians in Bartolo’s banana field:
historical analysis and perspectives of SF in
Cuba”, Yoss, Stardust, Dec. 12, 2002.
►Latin
American SF
►Latin American
“magical realism”?
http://it.stlawu.edu/~koon/cuba/CFCubana/History.html
LATIN AMERICAN SF INFLUENCE
”Science fiction in Latin America and Spain”: Introduction to
Cosmos Latinos
► “Soft”
SF
► Role of Christian motifs and iconography
► Use of allegory and humor
Issues of Gender
I. PREHISTORY
Juan Francisco Calcagno Monzón
(1827-1903)
1875: Historia de un muerto [Story
of a dead man]
http://www.circuloguinero.org/figures.htm
Esteban Borrero (1849-1906)
Aventura de las hormigas
[Adventure of the ants]
http://www.cubaliteraria.com/autor/juana_borrero/galeria.htm
THE FIRST GOLDEN AGE
1964
OSCAR HURTADO, “El Dragón”
(1919-1977)
► La
Ciudad Muerta de Korad [The Dead City
of Korad], Oscar Hurtado (1919-1977),
Cuadernos R.
► Cuentos
de Ciencia-ficción [Science fiction
stories (collection)], Oscar Hurtado, ed.
Cuadernos R.
► ¿A
dónde van los cefalomos? [Whither go
the cephalomos?], Ángel Arango (1926 - ),
Fisherman, journalist, poet, lecturer, critic
Lived in USA, returned to Cuba after Triumph of the
Revolution.
► Traveled to USSR, interviewing SF writers, 1962.
►
►
Cuadernos R.
Malathar’s Dragons: http://dragonneo.com/Malathar/animgifs.html
THE DEAD CITY OF KORAD
ÁNGEL ARANGO
(1926 - present)
Blank verse twin to The papers of Valencia the Mute
► Origins in Edgar Rice Burrough’s Princess of Mars
►
“I loved Dejah Thoris. The touch of my arm upon her naked
shoulder had spoken to me in words I would not mistake, and I
knew that I had loved her since the first moment that my eyes
had met hers that first time in the plaza of the dead city of
Korad.”
Cosmonaut-narrator travels to Mars to save Dejah
Thoris from “the methane vampires of Jupiter”
► Quotes and allusions to multitude of works
► Inspiration for the world’s first SF ballet, 1980
►
Has published in 1960s, 70s, 80s, 90s.
See The Cosmonaut in Cosmos Latinos.
HIBERNATION
THE END OF THE FIRST GOLDEN AGE
► The
"quinquennio gris", the gray five-year-plan
► Suspicion of the genre as politically unreliable:
"pessimistic, antisocial literature, heretically
foreign to the sacred models of socialist realism
imported from the USSR" – Yoss, “Martians…”
"Its place as a privileged genre within the national
literature passed to the detective story of a new variety:
investigators (who are always trying to quit
smoking...sad trick of the creators to avoid making the
heroes totally, boringly perfect) as eternal positive
heroes, who always managed, with the help of the
people and their CDR, to capture the thief, spy or
enemy saboteur, albeit after a long and bloody
manhunt.“ – Yoss, “Martians…”
Comic books: Matías Pérez by Luis Lorenzo
► SF magazine: Oscar Hurtado’s "Colección
Dragón", nominally SF, detective, and
horror stories, but mostly detective stories
► Some English-language SF: "The Space
Merchants" by Pohl and Kornbluth, "The
Naked Sun" by Asimov, "The Martian
Chronicles" by Bradbury
► Soviet SF and “the Soviet style”
►
THE SECOND GOLDEN AGE
1978
Two children’s books: Siffig y el vramontono 45-A by
Antonio Orlando Rodríguez; and De Tulán, la lejana
[From Tulan, the distant] by Giordano Rodríguez,
► Honorable mention in David Prize for Aventura en el
laboratorio [Adventure in the laboratory] by Bruno
Henríquez (1947 - ).
►
1979
► SF gets its own David Prize: Los mundos que amo
[The worlds I love] by Daína Chaviano (1957 - )
► Five
anthologies of Cuban SF
Cuentos cubanos de ciencia ficción [Cuban science
fiction stories]
Juegos planetarios [Planetary games]
Recurso extremo [Last resort]
Astronomía se escribe con G [Astronomy is spelled with
a G]
Contactos [Contacts]
► Humor,
parody, e.g. in the buffoonish work of F.
Mond (Felix Móndejar)
► Sometimes lax editorial standards
BRUNO HENRÍQUEZ
► Environmental
physicist
► Director of popular science
magazine
► Organizer of literary
workshop/fanclub/electronic
magazine i+Real
► Organizer of annual Cuban
SF conventions
► Cuban Summer TV SF film
series host, 2001/2
DAÍNA CHAVIANO
“Estila rosada" or "suave"
Moderator weekly for two
months in summer TV
schedule of socialist and
capitalist SF film series.
► Organized Oscar Hurtado
literary workshop
► Living in US since 1991
►
►
►
The Occult Side of Havana
►
Annunciation in Cosmos
story cycle
Latinos
http://www.dainachaviano.com/
Picture by Scott Edelman, http://www.scottedelman.com/cuba.html
AGUSTÍN DE ROJAS
David for Espiral [Spiral]
► Hard SF style vs Chaviano’s “suave”
► Considered one of the best by his fellow
writers.
► Professor of Theatre at Manuel Ascunce
Domenech School for Art Instructors in Santa
Clara.
► Has retired from SF following "the fall of real
socialism", devoted himself to more religious
writings, even though he is a nonbeliever.
► 1980
JOSÉ MIGUEL SÁNCHEZ ("YOSS")
► Timshel:
David Prize
co-winner, 1988.
► Realist novels in 1990s
► Anthology, Reino
eterno, 1999
► Se
alquila un planeta
[Planet for rent], 2002.
Published in Spain.
Cover work courtesy of Equipo Sirius homepage
http://www.equiposirius.com/sirius/libros/tau/alquilaplaneta.html
THE END OF
1989: The fall of European socialism, the end
of subsidized Siberian paper and East
German ink
HIBERNATION II
► i+Real:
literary workshop, SF fan club,
electronic SF magazine. (Era of electronic
samizdat)
► SF Conventions
IBEFICCIÓN 94,
QUASAR-DRAGÓN in 1995
CUBAFICCIÓNs from 1996 to the present
A THIRD GOLDEN AGE:
THE EXTRAMUROS YEARS
NEW BLOOD
(1999-present)
► Anthologies
1999 Polvo en el viento [Dust in the wind] -- Bruno
Henríquez, Argentina
1999 Horizontes probables [Probable horizons] -Vladimir Hernández, Mexico
1999 Reino eterno [Eternal kingdom (fantasy and
SF)] -- Yoss, Cuba
► Publication
by Cuban writers abroad and at home
► Success by Cuban writers in international
competitions
►
Michel Encinosa Fú – epic
fantasy and SF. Like the roses
had to die in Cosmos Latinos
►
Vladimir Hernández –“space
opera techno”. UPC finalist 2000,
2003, 2005
►
Ariel Cruz Vega
►
Raúl Aguiar – “ficción dark”
CUBAN SF ON LINE
► Guaicán

literario website
News
Author biographies, interviews, reviews
History
SF stories in the original Spanish
► Axxón:
Argentine SF e-zine (Vol. 144)
► Alfa Erídiani: SF e-zine (Vol. 6 of Erídano: all
Cuban authors)
INCONCLUSIONS
► Is
there a Cuban SF, or is it just SF made in
Cuba?
► What, if anything, characterizes Cuban SF?
► Is it any good?
► Will any of it be coming to a bookstore near
you any time soon?