Table of Contents Introduction (Gregory Benford, Gary Westfahl, Howard V. Hendrix and Joseph D. Miller) Science Fiction as Truncated Epic (Patrick Parrinder) Dialogues Concerning Human Understanding: Empirical Views of God from Locke to Lem (Stephen W. Potts) The Descent of Fantasy (Eric S. Rabkin) The Virginity of Astronauts: Sex and the Science Fiction Film (Vivian Sobchack) Running Out of Speculative Niches: A Crisis for Hard Science Fiction? (David Brin) Effing the Ineffable (Gregory Benford) Discriminating Among Friends: The Social Dynamics of the Friendly Alien (John Huntington) Nature: Laws and Surprises (Poul Anderson) In the Palace of Green Porcelain: Artifacts from the Museums of Science Fiction (Robert Crossley) Just How Frumious Is a Bandersnatch?: The Exotic and the Ambiguous in Imaginative Literature (Joseph D. Miller) Making the Pulpmonster Safe for Demography: Omni Magazine and the Gentrification of Science Fiction (Howard V. Hendrix) For Tomorrow We Dine: The Sad Gourmet in the Scienticafé (Gary Westfahl) Cannibalism in Science Fiction (Paul Alkon) Longevity as Class Struggle (Fredric R. Jameson) How Cyberspace Signifies: Taking Immortality Literally (N. Katherine Hayles) You Bet Your Life: Death and the Storyteller (Frank McConnell) Revamping the Rut Regarding Reading and Writing About Feminist Science Fiction: Or, I Want to Engage in “Procrustean Bedmaking” (Marleen S. Barr) Literary Gatekeepers and the Fabril Tradition (Tom Shippey) Flying to the Moon in the French Bande Dessinée (Danièle Chatelain and George Slusser) Shapes from the Edge of Time: The Science Fiction Artwork of Richard M. Powers (Kirk Hampton and Carol MacKay) The Science Fiction of Medicine (H. Bruce Franklin) Science Fiction and the Two Cultures: Reflections After the ­Snow-Leavis Controversy (Carl Freedman) The Eaton Roll of Honor Bibliography About the Contributors Index