International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts

The recent rise of the interdisciplinary subfield of “Energy Humanities” as a prominent critical endeavor has seen an efflorescence of academic and cultural production from around the world focusing on the crucial topic of energy resources. A major spur for this work is, of course, the pervasive anxiety of late environmentalism in the face of anthropogenic climate change, a phenomenon in which energy use plays a central role: as both cause and possible solution. A variety of critical thinking around past, present, and future energy scenarios is motivated by what has been called the contemporary “energy trilemma”: how to balance energy security, equality, and sustainability on a world – and indeed planetary – scale? This question starkly confronts humans as we seek to configure a means to a less environmentally precarious future. The trilemma is further stressed by the contradiction between a seemingly inexorable rise in global demand and the fact that the world-system remains stubbornly beholden to a toxic carbon economy. As post-oil culture either mourns or celebrates the passing of cheap and easy oil it speculates on the elevation of its potential alternatives. Despite the unprecedented degree of consensus over the findings and pronouncements of climate science and despite an abundance of technological innovations, engineering skill and infrastructural promise, we still find ourselves at somewhat of a general impasse preventing transition to another, “cleaner” energy regime.

So what chance cultural production? What role does Humanities scholarship play, in breaking what has been called the techno-social-lock-in of oil-driven modernity? How preposterous is it to ask how cultural work can “save the future”? In fact Humanities scholars have been contributing in novel ways to the issues and concerns around energy for some time. An insistence on energy forms and their related infrastructures as social phenomena has sparked new research exploring the long – and sometimes unconscious or under-determined – inter-relation between energy and culture, registering in literature, visual art, film and media, philosophy, performance, design and many other fields. As well as asking fundamental questions of the Humanities’ responsibility and relation to crisis-ridden issues of power, politics, and the environment, this work is also asking fundamental questions of critical practice, genre, form and periodization.

The genres of science fiction (SF) and the fantastic have considerable salience here. Given the future-orientation of energic concerns as a significant strand in the Energy Humanities’ trajectory, we should expect work in the speculative mode to feature strongly. Novel systems and radical visions proliferate in SF/F, offering futures of resource scarcity and eco-apocalypse or, alternatively, of “free” and “abundant” energy forms; alternative and even “inconceivable” fuel supplies. Fantastic, desirable and “impossible” forms of mobility are presented in countless examples of “alien” infrastructures or post-human, after-earth scenarios of dwelling, moving, producing and consuming. Questions and opportunities proliferate throughout SF/F as to how we might envisage an alternative energy world; model a post-oil scenario; employ a utopian or dystopian vision of the future to orient and overcome the present lock-in. Yet they remain somewhat embedded within critical outlooks that still tend to regard energy and power resources as background features at best. Work already begun in this evolving area has insisted that sf is the cultural genre best placed to realize, communicate, and extrapolate the issues and concerns of the Energy Humanities in innovative and exciting ways. An alternative energy imaginary – involving both “powered-up” and “powered-down” visions – is prolific across the histories and genres of SF/F. It only awaits critical extraction and empowerment. This call for papers seeks essays that will deepen and heighten this engagement.

Topics for submission may include, but are not limited to:

• SF/F and petroculture: visions of enduring petroworlds, peak and post-oil imaginaries in literature, television, cinema, and art
• Energy Utopias / Dystopias
• Theoretical readings of SF/F as an energy-bound genre
• Past and present energy resources as SF/Fantasy (fossil fictions of surplus and/or “magic” sources and solutions / electro-SF/F / thermodynamics / magnetism)
• Narrating / Narratives of “Low-Carbon” living and/or “Sustainability” in SF/F
• SF and “Renewables”: solar/wind/hydro/bio/geothermal readings
• SF and extractivism
• History of fuel / power / energy in SF/F’s historical registrations of energy use / forms / infrastructures / machines
• Political / ecocritical theories/readings of SF/F as a means to system change/ model climate change scenarios
• Nuclear SF/F
• ‘Monstrous’ and/or alien and/or “magic” energy systems
• SF and alternative dwelling / design
• Post-autopia? Mobilities of the far future – transport infrastructures / travel / imagining new affective “energic” embodiments
• Energy Retrofutures and Counterfactuals
• SF media / digital paradigms related to the energy crisis.
• Science / Technologies of Energy in SF

Research articles should be approximately 8000 words in length, including references and a short bibliography. Submissions in languages other than English are welcome. Submissions should comprise of:

•    Abstract (250 words)
•    Full-length article (8000 words)
•    Author information (short biographical statement of 200 words)

The deadline for submission is 1st July 2016.

The special collection, edited by Dr Graeme Macdonald and Dr Caroline Edwards is to be published in the Open Library of Humanities (ISSN 2056-6700). The OLH is an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation-funded open-access journal with a strong emphasis on quality peer review and a prestigious academic steering board. Unlike some open-access publications, the OLH has no author-facing charges and is instead financially supported by an international consortium of libraries.

Submissions should be made online at: https://submit.openlibhums.org/ in accordance with the author guidelines and clearly marking the entry as [“POWERING THE FUTURE,” SPECIAL COLLECTION]. Submissions will then undergo a double-blind peer-review process. Authors will be notified of the outcome as soon as reports are received.

47th Annual Mythopoeic Conference

Omni Colonnade – San Antonio, Texas

August 5-8, 2016

Faces of Mythology: Ancient, Medieval, and Modern

Author Guest of Honor: Midori Snyder
Midori Snyder is an American writer of fantasy, mythic fiction, and nonfiction on myth and folklore. She has published eight novels for children and adults, winning the 2001 Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for The Innamorati (2000), a novel inspired by early Roman myth and the Italian “Commedia dell’Arte” tradition. Snyder’s first novel, Soulstring (1987), is a fairytale fantasy loosely inspired by the Scottish legend of Tam Lin. This was followed by an imaginary world trilogy: New Moon, Sadar’s Keep, and Beldan’s Fire (1989–1993). The Flight of Michael McBride (1994) is a work of mythic fiction set in the old American West, drawing upon Irish-American, Mexican, and indigenous folklore. Hatchling (1995) is a children’s book set in the world of Dinotopia. Hannah’s Garden (2004) is a contemporary fantasy for young adult readers about fairies, folk music, and family dynamics, set in rural Wisconsin. With Jane Yolen, Snyder co-authored the novel Except the Queen (2010), a contemporary urban fantasy featuring two fey who are banished to the World as elderly women, where they find themselves embroiled in a much larger struggle for power. Her short stories have appeared “The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror,” as well as numerous adult and young adult anthologies. Her nonfiction essays on fairy tale and folklore have appeared in folklore anthologies, magazines, and the Journal of Mythic Arts online. In addition to writing, she co-directs the World Fantasy award winning Endicott Studio for Mythic Arts with Terri Winding.

Scholar Guest of Honor: Andrew Lazo
Andrew Lazo co-edited Mere Christians: Inspiring Stories of Encounters with C.S. Lewis and has contributed articles and reviews on C.S. Lewis and other Inklings to several books and journals, including Mythlore. More recently, he transcribed and edited the landmark “Early Prose Joy,” which has definitively corrected the accepted dating of Lewis’s conversion to Theism. Lazo regularly speaks in Houston and around the country and has taught Lewis in both Oxford and Cambridge. He also teaches English and a course on Lewis at Houston Christian High School and is currently researching and writing a book on Till We Have Faces. This is his first appearance at Mythcon.

CONFERENCE THEME
Faces of Mythology: Ancient, Medieval, and Modern
Inspired by the 60th anniversary of C.S. Lewis’s Till We Have Faces and The Last Battle, this year’s theme focuses on the mythology that has shaped and “given faces” to so many of our beloved characters, ranging from the myths of the Ancient Greeks to the legends of the Middle Ages and even to the modern mythology of the American Southwest. Similarly, this mythological influence is also evident in the works of many of our favorite mythopoeic authors, from J.R.R. Tolkien to J.K. Rowling, from Ursula K. Le Guin to Alan Garner, and many, many more.

Papers dealing with the conference theme are especially encouraged. We also welcome papers focusing on the work and interests of the Inklings (especially J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and Charles Williams), of our Guests of Honor, and other fantasy authors and themes. Papers from a variety of critical perspectives and disciplines are welcome. Papers from graduate and undergraduate students are encouraged; we offer an award for “Best Student Paper.” See details here.

Each paper is generally given a one-hour slot to allow time for questions, but individual papers should be timed for oral presentation in 40 minutes maximum. Participants are encouraged to submit papers chosen for presentation at the conference to Mythlore, the refereed journal of the Mythopoeic Society. Paper abstracts of no more than 300 words, along with contact information, should be sent to the Papers Coordinator at the address below (e-mail preferred) by May 15, 2016 (a further extension to May 30 may be possible; please contact Papers Coordinator Jason Fisher). Please include your A/V requirements and the projected time needed for your presentation. You will be notified if your paper is accepted after that date.

Participants are encouraged to submit papers chosen for presentation at the conference to Mythlore, the refereed journal of the Mythopoeic Society. All papers should conform to the MLA Style Manual.

All paper presenters must register for the conference; please see the Mythcon 47 web page for information and rates.

Jason Fisher
Mythcon 47 Papers Coordinator
visualweasel@yahoo.com

The Mythopoeic Society is an international literary and educational organization devoted to the study, discussion, and enjoyment of the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and mythopoeic literature. We believe the study of these writers can lead to greater understanding and appreciation of the literary, philosophical, and spiritual traditions which underlie their works, and can engender an interest in the study of myth, legend, and the genre of fantasy. Find out about the Society’s activities at: www.mythsoc.org.

AQUATIC ANIMALS AND MONSTERS OF THE NORTHERN SEAS: IMAGINATION, KNOWLEDGE, EXPLOITATION, FROM ANTIQUITY TO 1600

Utopia at the Border

The fourth symposium of the Imaginaries of the Future Research Network
University of Regensburg, 20-22 September 2016

‘There was a wall. It did not look important…’ – Ursula Le Guin, The Dispossessed

The newly established Goldsmiths Press will be publishing a collection of essays on the topic of ‘economic science fictions’. The volume will be edited by Will Davies, Co-Director of PERC, and encompass various disciplinary perspectives, writing styles, including fiction and non-fiction. This builds on PERC’s launch event, at which Professor Ha-Joon Chang spoke on the topic ‘what can economics learn from science fiction?‘.

We are inviting proposals for additional contributions to this volume. Proposals should be no more than 300 words, and offer an overview of what the chapter will explore, what style and approach it will adopt, and which of the themes outlined below it will address. We particularly welcome contributions from designers and design theorists which reflect on how economic institutions are amenable to (re)design. If you are interested in contributing, please email Will Davies with an outline by 20th May. If proposals are accepted, full drafts will be required in late September.

About the book

Contemporary capitalism suffers from a grave shortage of alternative futures. While the dominant models of markets, of property, of money, of regulation no longer inspire much confidence, let alone enthusiasm, our contemporary fate is to repeat them regardless. Blank repetition of the status quo signals a society without the capacity to exercise economic imagination or economic design. The function of debt is precisely to ensure that such possibilities remain unexplored, creating bonds to the past, rather than blueprints for the future.

What we lack is ‘economic science fiction’, that is, the capacity to inject a modernist design ethos into institutions and practices which have come to feel permanent. This may also enable us to reconsider the present as the effect of past ‘science fictions’, and the on-going fictions as repeated by economists, financial services, accountants and managers. This is not simply about the need to revive utopian thinking, but also about the value of prosaic acts of institutional re-design, which go on in everyday situations. It is also about the need to open up the expert discourse of economics to a broader range of voices and styles, and to explore the overlap between economic ‘science’ and economic ‘fiction’. And it is an effort to re-capture the meaning of economic ‘creativity’ from its repetitive business usage.

This collection will bring together around 15-20 short chapters (circa 2,000-5,000 words each) from contributors inside and outside of Goldsmiths, from across economics and other social sciences, and also from creative and artistic spheres, such as creative writing and design.

Chapter topics could include:

• What is ‘economic science fiction’?
• Orthodox economics as a ‘science fiction’
• Designing alternative futures: what do economic blueprints look like?
• The art of writing an ‘economic science fiction’
• Enclaves of utopian thinking: where (and by whom) will economic science fictions be crafted?
• Alternative currencies or alternative property rights as ‘economic science fictions’
• Postcapitalist organisations as ‘economics science fictions’
• Economic science fictions of the past: excavating dead utopias
• Prosaic acts of everyday fiction-building

Ha-Joon Chang’s PERC lecture will be included. We can also confirm contributions from Miriam Cherry, Mark Fisher, Judy Thorne, Owen Hatherley, amongst others.

Contributors are encouraged to write for a general readership and to explore ideas and opinions from a diversity of cultures and standpoints.

About the editor

Will Davies is a Senior Lecturer in Politics at Goldsmiths and Co-Director of the Political Economy Research Centre. He is author of The Limits of Neoliberalism: Authority, Sovereignty and the Logic of Competition (Sage, 2014) and The Happiness Industry: How the Government and Big Business Sold Us Wellbeing (Verso 2015). He blogs at www.potlatch.org.uk

Studies in the Fantastic invites submissions for issue 4 of our peer-reviewed academic journal. Issue 3, which is available online through Project MUSE, covered reboots in a variety of incarnations. For issue 4, set for publication in late 2016, we seek contributions that examine the role of history (real and invented) as a fantastic mode in contemporary media. Analyses of works that employ historical or pseudo-historical methods as modes for fantastic narratives are especially encouraged, including examinations of faux chronicles, alternative histories, manufactured ephemera, epistolary and diary forms, and invented philology. Essays investigating the fantastic from other perspectives are also welcome. For consideration for issue 4, please send submissions to fantastic@ut.edu by August 1, 2016.

Submitted articles should conform to the following guidelines:
1. 6,000-12,000 words
2. MLA style citations and bibliography
3. A separate title page with author information to facilitate peer review
4. 1” margins, 12 point serif font, page numbers

Studies in the Fantastic is an annual journal publishing refereed essays, informed by scholarly criticism and theory, on both fantastic texts and their social function. Although grounded in literary studies, we are especially interested in articles examining genres and media that have been underrepresented in humanistic scholarship. Subjects may include, but are not limited to weird fiction, science/speculative fiction, fantasy, video games, architecture, science writing, futurism, and technocracy.