Phenomenologies of Mars: Exploring Methods for Reading the Scientific Planetext Of Kim Stanley Robinson’s Mars Trilogy

In 2013, The New Yorker Magazine called Kim Stanley Robinson ‘one of the greatest living science-fiction writers’. And in 2008, Time Magazine named him a ‘hero of the environment.’[1] Yet, no lengthy study has yet been attempted on any of his fiction. This thesis aims to redress this absence with a long-form reading of one of the high peaks of his achievement: the Mars Trilogy. It considers that what I am calling the ‘planetext’ (or planet-text) is a vital narrative space. It assumes the perspectival form in which the Trilogy is told is crucial to understanding how its planetexts are read. The several viewpoints in the Trilogy comprise the several attempts of this thesis toward understanding not only how the planet is used in the novels, but also how it arranges and functions according to textual principles of readability. My several readings adopt the scientific bases of each of these viewpoints, and develops a sense of the way different characters experience the planet around them as either enabled by science, or confounded by it. ‘Planetext’ is therefore a useful neologism for interpreting how such a vast and multidimensional site as Mars is, or is not, encountered through these sciences. Understanding the planetext of Mars is therefore a phenomenological task, with the requirement of reading how each character is able, or unable, to experience and comprehend their experiences. A sense of the phenomenologies of Mars means this thesis must take the approach of seeing how different sciences yield different phenomenologies, and different experiences of the planet. By calling Mars a planetext, this thesis investigates the ways in which language, writing, and textuality participate in building the planet of the Trilogy, treating writing as a coefficient of terraforming. Understood as a kind of planetography, or planetary writing, the planetext (or host of planetexts) foregrounds the written-ness of the Martian space in Robinson’s Trilogy. The planetextual space of the novels shapes a variety of readerly paths through the narrative, which are in turn adopted. As a long study, this thesis understands the planet as a sizeable arena, which challenges the view any one reading can give of it. Acknowledging this as a limitation, its four chapters focus only on four characters, aiming to supplement an overview style of reading the Trilogy with a series of close readings. Understanding the textual status of the planet means paying specific attention to how characters either find meaningful access to the planet, or fail to find any. For Ann Clayborne, a geologist who wants to keep Mars uncontaminated and un-colonized, the planetext forms itself as a zone of différance, in which the task of interpreting the non-living planet must coincide with her resistance to the terraforming project. With Michel Duval, the Martian psychiatrist, readability is itself questioned as he attempts to overcome his depression and homesickness. For Saxifrage Russell, one of the chief terraformers, a discussion over scientific method takes the path of this thesis away from the troubling and compromised planetexts of Ann and Michel, toward how textual meaning is enabled and opened. With Hiroko Ai, a final theorization of what I call viridical force is proposed as a planetextual function, based around the Trilogy’s mention of viriditas and Jacques Derrida’s idea of force, to come to terms with how the planet makes itself available to the reader as expansive, rich in possible meaning, and always arranging itself around the reader. Between the opening of the planetext and its equivocations, this thesis charts its course. [1] Tim Kreider, ‘Our Greatest Living Novelist?’ December 12, 2013. The New Yorker Magazine. http://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/our-greatest-political-novelist; Oliver Morton, ‘Kim Stanley Robinson: Heroes of the Environment 2008,’ Wednesday September 24, 2008. Time Magazine. http://content.time.com/ time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1841778_1841779_1841803,00.htm

Blood Heist

A novel of fiction. John Stick, along with his two best friends, Spartacus Rex and Leon Flowers, rob a blood bank with the intent to sell the blood in Mexico. On the way, the ice cream truck that they have converted to transport the blood breaks down, and they become stranded in the desert. Stick notices that one of the bags of blood belongs to his ex-girlfriend, Cryopathria Rex, with whom he is still in love. Stick tries to take the blood back to Albuquerque out of guilt. Rex and Flowers stop him. The three men have en escalating feud, which leads to Flowers and Rex tying Stick to a tree and soaking him with several bags of blood and leaving him to die. Flowers and Rex ride south on a team of ostriches that Flowers has stolen from Crazy Patti LeBeau. Stick is rescued by a woman from Mexico named Alma. Together they pursue Flowers and Rex. On the way they encounter an alpaca farm, an Apache policeman named Chuck, the chupacabras, a vengeful Patti LeBeau, before they finally confront Rex in the Rio Grande gorge on the border of Texas and Mexico. The novel explores themes of masculinity, trauma, betrayal, friendship, and the American-Mexican border. It is constructed with particular attention to character construction and imagery. It fits into the broad category of Post-Western literature

5th International Probabilistic Workshop: 28-29 November 2007, Ghent, Belgium

These are the proceedings of the 5th International Probabilistic Workshop. Even though the 5th anniversary of a conference might not be of such importance, it is quite interesting to note the development of this probabilistic conference. Originally, the series started as the 1st and 2nd Dresdner Probabilistic Symposium, which were launched to present research and applications mainly dealt with at Dresden University of Technology. Since then, the conference has grown to an internationally recognised conference dealing with research on and applications of probabilistic techniques, mainly in the field of structural engineering. Other topics have also been dealt with such as ship safety and natural hazards. Whereas the first conferences in Dresden included about 12 presentations each, the conference in Ghent has attracted nearly 30 presentations. Moving from Dresden to Vienna (University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences) to Berlin (Federal Institute for Material Research and Testing) and then finally to Ghent, the conference has constantly evolved towards a truly international level. This can be seen by the language used. The first two conferences were entirely in the German language. During the conference in Berlin however, the change from the German to English language was especially apparent as some presentations were conducted in German and others in English. Now in Ghent all papers will be presented in English. Participants now, not only come from Europe, but also from other continents. Although the conference will move back to Germany again next year (2008) in Darmstadt, the international concept will remain, since so much work in the field of probabilistic safety evaluations is carried out internationally. In two years (2009) the conference will move to Delft, The Netherlands and probably in 2010 the conference will be held in Szczecin, Poland. Coming back to the present: the editors wish all participants a successful conference in Ghent

Landscapes of ephemeral embrace : a painter's exploration of immersive virtual space as a medium for transforming perception

The following text has been written to illuminate the research embodied In Ephemere, a fullyimmersive virtual environment which integrates stereoscopic 3D computer-generated images and spatialized 3D sound, with a user interface based on breathing, balance, and gaze. This artwork was begun when I entered the doctoral program at CAiNA (Centre of Advanced Inquiry Into the Interactive Arts) in 1997, and was completed in 1998. The work Ephemere is grounded in a very personal vision, developed over more than 25 years of artistic practice, including, most significantly, painting. Ephemere follows on its predecessor Osmose, and as such, Is a continuation of my efforts to: (I) explore and communicate my sensibility of what it means to be embodied, here now, in the living Rowing world; and (ii) use the medium of immersive virtual space to do so, necessarily subverting its culturally-biased conventions to achieve this goal. The contents of this text are most clearly indicated by its title: Landscapes of Ephemeral Embrace: A Painter's Exploration of the Medium of Immersive Virtual Space for Transforming Perception. And further, by its chapter headings: (I) Context: Rethinking Technology in the "Reign of King Logos ; (II) Defining Terms: Key Concepts and Concerns in the Work; (III) Origins of the Work in Prior Artistic Practice: Emergence of Key Concerns and Strategies; (IV) First Explorations in Immersive Virtual Space: Osmose; (V) Continuing Explorations In Immersive Virtual Space: Ephemere; and (VI) Strategies and Their Implications In the Immersive Experience. In this text, I have focused my discussion on artistic Intent, rather than on whether I have been successful, for this can only be evaluated with the passing of time

Governing Occupation Through Constructions of Risk: The Case of the Aging Driver

Risk and risk-management have become increasingly pervasive features of modern society and governmentality scholars have highlighted various ways risk discourses are taken up to govern citizens and their everyday conduct. Thus, attending to risk is imperative to advance an understanding of how everyday occupation is shaped and governed within contemporary society. Within this study, the example of driving in later life is drawn upon to address two objectives: 1. to advance the understanding of how risk is taken up to govern everyday occupation, and 2. to explicate how risk is taken up in discourses to constitute particular subjectivities and their occupational possibilities. In North-America, alarmist discourses predict a ‘grey Tsunami’ that will have devastating impacts on social and individual security if governments and individuals do not proactively prepare. Within this context, driving in later life has been problematized as a risky occupation. Consequently, the so-called ‘older driver problem’ provides an example to examine how risk is discursively employed to govern a specific occupation (‘driving’) and to shape a specific occupational subjectivity (‘the aging driver’). A critical discourse analysis (CDA) of information brochures targeting aging drivers and their families in Canada was conducted. Drawing upon governmentality as an analytical lens, the analysis focused on how risk as a rationality and technology was employed to construct the occupation of driving in later life and the subjectivities of aging drivers. Brochures incorporated a particular rhetorical structure and risk logic that served to construct the occupation of driving in later as a site of governing. The risks of driving in later life were located in the aging body which is constructed as a mis-fit with safe driving, and three knowledge assemblages were employed to forefront a particular ideal aging driver subjectivity, that is a risk-averse ‘activated’ driver. The texts also promoted an array of self-practices as a means to work towards this subjectivity and avoid becoming a risk to self and others. The study raises concerns regarding how risk is employed in neoliberal modes of governing in ways that individualize responsibility for occupation and obscure the social and political shaping of occupation

Science's First Mistake

This book is available as open access through the Bloomsbury Open Access programme and is available on www.bloomsburycollections.com. The purpose of the book is to deconstruct the process of knowledge discovery and theory construction. Grounded in the tradition of second-order cybernetics, the concept of self-reference is used in the context of systems theory in order to examine the mode in which observation, paradox and delusion become 'structurally coupled' with cognition. To put this simply, physical scientists take it as a given that all the universe is explainable once we've discovered the underlying rules. Whereas social scientists and philosophers are more sensitive to the issues around how the observer actually impacts that which is being observed. The authors work in the fields of Information Studies, which is within the technical or physical realm, and Management Studies, which is about human behaviour. Their argument is that all scientists (physical and social) rely too much on the absolutism and certainty of the methods of traditional physical science and that we should acknowledge the limitations of how we know what we know. Rooted in information systems analysis this fresh and audacious examination of knowledge discovery and theory construction makes an important contribution to the understanding of how we employ scientific method

2010 Creating/Making Forum

The 2010 Creating/Making Forum was held in conjunction with the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art’s “Bruce Goff: A Creative Mind” exhibition and featured peer-reviewed paper sessions titled: Design Education and Tacit Knowledge; Digital Creating and Making; Community Engagement; The Found Object; Innovation, Interdisciplinarity and the Environment; Interpreting Architecture; and History Reframed, as well as a juried poster session. Keynote speakers at the 2010 Forum were Sheila Kennedy, Craig Borum, and Marlon Blackwell.A special thanks to Angela M. Person for editing these proceedings.N

Disruption in the Arts

The volume examines aesthetic disruptions within the various arts in contemporary culture. It assumes that the political potential of art is not solely derived from presenting its audiences with openly political content. Rather, it creates a space of perception and interaction using formal means, thus problematizing the self-evidence of hegemonic structures of communication