In this he differs from many on the political right who have called for a return to the traditional values of the "western canon" while shining the boots of corporate capitalism. He acknowledges the important efforts of many individuals to bring about change through personal transformation and grassroots activism, then replies "lets not kids ourselves: The ability of these sorts of approaches to significantly deflect the juggernaut of global corporate capitalism in a decade or two is non-existent."A central element of Berman's discussion is, indeed the role played by the corporatization of the planetary culture, the merging of corporate and adolescent ethics, the "culture of McWorld" as he and others have termed it. And his proposal for spanning the decline is unique.For one thing, Berman brings a clear-eyed directness to his extensive and eclectic description of the indicators of decline. This is, itself, something that has been said many times before, back to Spengler and beyond, but Berman's telling is engaging in all sorts of ways.
#The shining blade of leibowitz movie
But along the way he takes a peek at everything from the movie "Blade Runner" to Don DeLillo's "White Noise" and Miller's "A Canticle for Leibowitz."Berman's claim boils down to "same old story" - civilizations, including ours, move toward decline. Berman does, in the end, articulate a powerful vision of the importance of being aware of some of the classic works of western culture.
#The shining blade of leibowitz full
My list for Berman's "The Twilight of American Culture" was a full page long!Let me say right off the bat, though - Berman is no William Bennett, muscling-in with his insistent, canonical listings or telling you precisely what your 6th grader needs to know (as a teacher I'm especially touchy about that one!). If you are a person who is captured by books, by ideas, and especially by their conjunction, you've probably noticed this same affinity for books that demonstrate the same pleasure in crediting their antecedents. It is our hope that The Shining Cities will be only the most recent addition to an ever-growing catalogue of Pagan science fiction.I know I've got a powerful work of non-fiction on my hands when I start writing down the names of other books the author refers-to. In these pages you will find tales that run the gamut from humorous to ecological to anthropological to time travel to space fantasy to space opera to steampunk. With The Shining Cities, we add one more to that short list of works. With its limitless potential for world-building - and real world influence - science fiction is also a genre rich in possibility for Pagan authors and readers alike, but one which has been sadly neglected. So, perhaps the best definition is also the broadest: science fiction as a genre deals with imaginary, but plausible and logically constructed, worlds in which the implications and consequences of cultural, environmental, and scientific change and innovation are explored.
As a genre, science fiction is difficult to define.
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