Science Fiction

By Alex Fitch, University of Brighton | – December 28 2022 marks 100 years since the birth of the world’s most famous comic book writer: the late Stan Lee. The 1960s were Stan Lee’s most astonishing decade, during which he came up with ideas and scripts for the first appearances of such heroes as the […]

African-Americans

How Samuel Alito’s Attack on Privacy Rights could Make that famous Star Trek Kiss between Nichelle Nichols and William Shatner Illegal Again

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Steve Chawkins writes in the LA Times that actress Nichelle Nichols died of a heart attack on Saturday at 89 in Silver City, New Mexico. Nichols was cast by Star Trek creator Gene Rodenberry as Lt. Nyota Uhura, chief communications officer of the Federation star ship Enterprise and the fourth […]

Africa

Dune – a prophetic tale about the environmental destruction wrought by the colonisation of Africa

The Conversation

By Oli Mould | – Director Denis Villeneuve’s most recent sci-fi epic is the latest attempt to tell the story of Frank Herbert’s acclaimed 1965 novel, Dune. The film is set millennia in the future when the galaxy is ruled by a class of family Houses. Each house battles for control over the most valuable […]

Books

At its heart, Dune is a Tragedy, and a Warning against Trumpism

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The protagonist of the new Denis Villeneuve film, Dune, Paul Atreides, is a complex character, but he should be seen as an antihero, as the protagonist of a Greek tragedy with a fatal tragic flaw. The author of the 1965 novel on which the film is based, Frank Herbert, was […]

Climate Crisis

“To Dirty it!” On how For-Profit News Obscured William Shatner’s Climate Emergency Warning after Suborbital Flight

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – On Wednesday, pop culture icon William Shatner, Star Trek‘s Captain James Tiberius Kirk, explained the enormity of seeing the earth from a suborbital flight on Blue Origin’s New Shepherd space craft. Part of what he said when he returned from 66 miles up got lost in all of the news […]

Donald Trump

“Children of Men” Come True: Trump Immigration Crackdown outdoes Cuaron’s Science Fiction Dystopia

Dan Dinello

Chicago (Special to Informed Comment) – Like the dystopian nightmare imagined in the 2006 science fiction masterpiece Children of Men, Trump’s xenophobic efforts to terminate immigration result in death, suffering, humiliation, and destroyed lives. Under Trump, the speed of America’s plunge into casual barbarism is breathtaking. Along with the illusory border wall, the immigration clampdown […]

Science Fiction

Science Fiction Author William Gibson: Nostalgia for the Present and Future Fatigue

The Conversation

By Andre Spicer | – The future isn’t what it used to be, at least according to the Canadian science fiction novelist William Gibson. In a interview with the BBC, Gibson said people seemed to be losing interest in the future. “All through the 20th century we constantly saw the 21st century invoked,” he said. […]

Africa

Black Panther: Honoring the legacy of Black style

Juan Cole

by Henry Navarro Delgado | (The Conversation) | – – One knows that something is touching a nerve in North American culture when a foreign luxury car company wants a piece of the pie. The movie Black Panther is that type of archetypical popular culture milestone. The release of Black Panther provides the opportunity to […]

Books

6 Reasons Feminist Carrie Fisher Was Ahead of Her Time

contributors

TeleSur | – – While all Star Wars (male) fans only remember Carrie Fisher in her sex-slave golden bikini, the late actress had a feminist conception of her role way ahead of her time. 1. As early as 1983, in an interview with Rolling Stones about the freshly-released “Return of the Jedi,” Fisher already had […]