Critical Reception and Postmodern Violation of Generic Conventions in Jacques Brossard’s "Monument aux marges": L’Oiseau de feu

Québec writer Jacques-Edmond Brossard's 1989 novel, L'oiseau de feu-1. Les années d'apprentissage, first of the five-part Oiseau series, created a literary sensation as a potential monument of la science-fiction québécoise. Despite critical approbation, however, few readers endeavour beyond the series' first instalment, and the whole stands at the margins of the field both for readers and scholars. In part, the difficulty of identifying Brossard as primarily a mainstream or a science-fiction writer has estranged fans and critics of both camps. But more importantly, his series' ludic irreverence toward and self-conscious play with generic conventions – one of its many postmodern features – works against its long-term engagement of québécois/French-Canadian critics in both the mainstream and the genre milieux. Yet, this "monument aux marges" deserves more attention precisely because of its postmodernism

Mark Bould and Williams Rhys, Sf Now

Who said the Left is dead? It is alive and kicking in a major strain of science-fiction writing and criticism as witnessed in the most recent edition of the annual journal Paradoxa, edited by Mark Bould and Rhys Williams appropriately titled Sf Now. If this is a publication that is not on your radar because of its annual appearance, if you are interested in rigorous, cutting edge scholarship, you should check it out (paradoxa.com). With an international editorial board that includes such heav..

A Companion to the Companions

What is a companion ? A companion is someone who is frequently at our side, a fellow traveler with whom we dialogue and share opinions, whose advice we might seek when in doubt. At least that begins to define the nature of a human companion ; but what is a “companion” when it is a book ? That question, in part, provided the impetus for this review essay on the widening array of introductory and reference books on the science-fiction genre. For some time, I have been trying to untangle the mea..

Le sublime naturel dans le “cycle de Neubourg” de Daniel Sernine

Le « cycle de Neubourg et de Granverger » de Daniel Sernine se compose de dix romans pour la jeunesse publiés entre 1980 et 1995 et d’une vingtaine de nouvelles fantastiques pour adultes réunie dans trois recueils publiés entre 1978 et 1983. Leur auteur y raconte les événements insolites qui touchent la vie des colons et de leurs descendants installés sur les bords d’une rivière fictive, la Paskédiac en Nouvelle France/Québec, depuis leur arrivée jusqu’au présent. Ces rencontres avec le surna..

Mike Ashley. Out of This World: Science Fiction, But Not As You Know It

The British Library held an exhibition on science fiction from 25 May to 25 September, 2011. Mike Ashley’s beautiful companion volume, Out of This World, offers a brilliant, illustrated history of science fiction. Destined for newcomers to the genre, the oversize tome provides a useful handbook and even some tidbits of lesser-known factoids for the specialist. I highly recommend this work for all libraries and coffee tables. Ashley has proven himself to be one of the genre’s foremost historia..

Irinotecan or FOLFIRI for 2nd line colorectal

Background Second-line treatment with irinotecan for advanced or metastatic colorectal cancer prolongs survival. It is uncertain whether irinotecan is better administered with 5- fluorouracil or alone in patients previously treated with a fluoropyrimidine. We compared toxicity (particularly diarrhoea), quality of life, and efficacy of combination chemotherapy and irinotecan in these patients. Methods In DaVINCI, a randomised phase II trial, patients with advanced colorectal cancer were randomly allocated to: combination therapy (FOLFIRI), irinotecan (180 mg/m2 IV over 90 min, day 1), 5-fluorouracil (400 mg/m2 IV bolus and 2400 mg/m2 by 46-hour infusion from day 1) and folinic acid (20 mg/m2 IV bolus, day 1), 2-weekly; or single-agent, irinotecan (350 mg/m2 IV over 90 min), 3-weekly. Toxicity was evaluated every treatment cycle; QOL and response 6 weekly. Analysis was by intention to treat. Results were also combined with those of other trials. Findings We randomised 44 patients to combination and 45 to single-agent. The most common toxicity was complete alopecia (single-agent 37%, combination 14%, P<0.02). Eight patients in the irinotecan arm and 4 in the combination arm had grade 3–4 diarrhoea (P=0.24). The treatment groups did not differ significantly in overall QOL changes, response rate, or progression free or overall survival. In a systematic review of 29 trials of second-line irinotecan-based treatment, single-agent irinotecan was associated with more diarrhoea and alopecia than the combination, but efficacy was similar. Interpretation Combination treatment compared with single-agent irinotecan appears to reduce the rateof complete alopecia and diarrhoea without compromising efficacy on clinical outcomes.Australasian Gastro-Intestinal Trials Grou

Investigation of the Behavior of Free-Standing Gabions in Seismic Regions

This thesis investigates the behavior of free-standing gabion walls in areas of mild seismicity. To investigate this behavior, three walls of varying internal cable patterns were constructed at a quarter-scale. These walls were tested with a mass shaker, and mode shapes, tone extractions, and damping ratios were calculated. A modal analysis was conducted using design spectra created from a suite of seven earthquakes from countries bordering Kenya. The corresponding lateral forces to these spectral displacements were found, and the restoring eccentricities from the soil restoring force were backed out through a summation of moments. All analysis was experimentally done due to the complexity of properly modeling the wall system for a secondary analytical comparison. This process was done under the assumption of linear behavior. Similarly, the criteria for failure involved the eccentricity of the restoring soil force exceeding the kern distance (assuming elastic behavior)—criteria that all three of the wall specimens met. However, further research into the nonlinear behavior of this wall type is suggested for future conclusions on free-standing gabion wall behavior