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Stories of the Fiction that Shapes Popular Culture

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Science Fiction

March 12, 2018March 13, 2018 Conor20th Century Literature, Science, Science Fiction

Episode 16: Transhumanism, Fiction, and Immortality

Technology, the future, and transhumanism This is an episode about who we are as humans. And, more importantly, where we are going. About a future in which technology and biology have merged in ways that are in equal part fascinating and terrifying. A future of unparalleled technological ingenuity, but one read more…

August 30, 2017January 4, 2018 Conor20th Century Literature, American Literature, Science, Science Fiction

Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Barsoom Novels [Article]

Barsoom and Mars Life on Mars Percival Lowell’s theory of Martian life and the famous canals of Mars influenced a huge number of science fiction writers. Whether one believed that the canals really were proof of life on the red planet, the theory certainly offered plenty of scope for fiction. read more…

August 20, 2017January 25, 2018 Conor20th Century Literature, Literature and Science, Science, Science Fiction

Episode 5: Canals on Mars

Percival Lowell, Science Fiction, and the Canals on Mars   (c) ESO / M. Kornmesser Artist’s impression of Mars about four billion years ago. For as long as humans have been looking at the night sky, the planet Mars has fascinated us. But while astronomers had charted the movements of read more…

July 30, 2017January 9, 2018 ConorScience Fiction

How do you define science fiction? [Article]

In Episode 3 of Words To That Effect (listen here) I asked a selection of unsuspecting friends a seemingly straightforward question: “what is science fiction?”. I got lots of answers: it’s about the future, about plausibility, about aliens, about science, about technology, about being realistic and not surrealistic. It’s a read more…

July 20, 2017January 25, 2018 Conor19th Century Literature, 21st Century Literature, Irish Literature, Science Fiction

Episode 3: Irish Science Fiction

What is Irish Science Fiction? Ireland is not, it is fair to say, the first country that springs to mind when you think “science fiction”. When aliens land on Earth, we tend to assume they’ll land in New York, or London, or Tokyo. Definitely not Dublin or Cork. But then, read more…

July 17, 2017January 9, 2018 Conor19th Century Literature, 20th Century Literature, British Literature, Science Fiction

Lost World Literature [Article]

Filling in the Blank Spaces In Joseph Conrad’s famous 1899 novella Heart of Darkness the narrator, Marlow, notes that since his childhood the world has become increasingly mapped and explored : “At that time there were many blank spaces on the earth, and when I saw one that looked particularly read more…

June 25, 2017January 25, 2018 Conor20th Century Literature, British Literature, History, Science Fiction, World War I

Episode 1: Invasion Fiction, William Le Queux, and Fake News

What is invasion fiction? Who was the mysterious William Le Queux? Why did a group of famous British authors secretly meet at the outbreak of World War I? And what did “fake news” look like a century ago?   Episode 1 of Words To That Effect explores the power of read more…

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