Month: September 2010

Addendum #2 to [Literary] SF: A Social Phenomenon (Plus Some Detours)

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This entry is part 39 of 72 in the series SF in South Korea

Note: This is an addendum to this original post, and to the first addendum I posted the other day. Some of the discussion that has cropped up in the responses to the earlier post and addendum to which this is appended (and which I want to address) is concerned with the “colonialism” or “imperialism” of the status I suggested American mainstream non-SF media have for average Korean viewers. That is to say, questions were raised as to whether this non-SF having a kind of pseudo-SFnal, utopian quality — in that it depicts a world not only radically different, but also …

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Happy Chuseok, or, “If I Were White, Would You Beat and Abuse Me?”

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While the holiday still registers on my own radar as little more than some time off work, I know some people out there might excited about Chuseok tomorrow, and I hope people do enjoy it as much as possible. (Though in my experience, Chuseok is viewed with dread by women of all ages, and young men, as the time when family tortures one another; when women are stuck doing insanely intensive kitchen duty, and where young people are constantly grilled about when they will get plastic surgery, get more plastic surgery, finish school, get a job, get a better job, …

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Addendum to [Literary] SF: A Social Phenomenon (Plus Some Detours)

gordsellar2 Comments
This entry is part 38 of 72 in the series SF in South Korea

Over at the Livejournal mirror of this site, I was asked, just now, to clarify something about my last post, titled “[Literary] SF: A Social Phenomenon (Plus Some Detours),” why in the point I called Access I placed so much emphasis on foreign works in translation. I thought I would clarify that, as well as adding a point or two from the recent paper I presented at WorldCon. Note: I suggest you click that link, and see the original post first, before reading what follows. First: I emphasize foreign works in translation as an important part of “Access” to SF …

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[Literary] SF: A Social Phenomenon (Plus Some Detours)

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This entry is part 37 of 72 in the series SF in South Korea

So, I recently recounted my observation that SF is a social phenomenon, which was (though somewhat buried) basically the point of a recent presentation I made. I was thinking about this fact when I had a sudden realization, or what felt like one, anyway. It had to do with being asked what attracted me personally, to SF, but I noted that I was an unusual case, since I came to the genre as an adult. (That is, if we take SF to mean science fiction. If we consider SF in the sense of “speculative” fiction, ie. including fantasy and horror …

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El Sistema, Musical Utopianism, and Social Change in Venezuela

gordsellar13 Comments

Have you ever wondered how to fix an unfixable mess? That’s the question that faced José Antonio Abreu, of Venezuela, except for one thing: he didn’t regard the mess that Caracas was in as unfixable. In 1975, he decided that there had to be a way to get kids off the street, away from the innumerable dangers vying for their attention, energy, and lives. He realized that there had to be a way to wake up families, to form communities, to give the handicapped and the poor a chance to be respected and shine. How? Music. I kid you not. …

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