Clyde Wilcox

Political Science Fiction examines the close relationship between politics and science fiction and shows how much of the former is grounded in the latter. Sixteen science fiction writers and critics join forces to offer an anthology that explores a diversity of futuristic literature, from the novels of H. G. Wells to Star Trek: The Next Generation, and a spectrum of ideas, from the libertarianism of Robert A. Heinlein to the feminism of Ursula K. LeGuin and Sheri S. Tepper. As the science fiction writer Frederik Pohl observes in the lead essay, the contributors collectively find science fiction to be either implicitly or explicitly political by its very nature. Equally divided between essays that analyze science fiction texts as literature and essays that discuss them as models of political science theory and practice, the collection reveals the propensity of fiction writers to center their works on particular governmental structures. Other essays reveal the ways in which science fiction speaks to the study of international relations, such as the support for realist ideology found in the enormous genre of interspecies war novels and stories. Of particular interest to viewers of Star Trek, three essays deal specifically with the depiction of alien governments, gender identity, and isolationism in both the original and the new television series.

"Chapters in this book were originally commissioned for a conference ... held at the Mershon Center on the Ohio State University campus, March 7-10, 2002"--Pref.

From career woman...to camp fire girl?As regional chief of employment and training, Sue Ellen Carson gets to sit in a comfortable, air-conditioned office and make funding decisions--she just doesn't do fieldwork. But this time her boss insists that she evaluate a program firsthand--three weeks of survival training with at-risk teens in the Florida wilderness. Entering the rough-and-tumble world of camp founder USAF Chief Master Sergeant Joe Goodwin isn't her idea of fun--especially once she gets the hang of the rules:1. Never wear perfume. Bugs--stinging, biting bugs--love designer fragrance.2. Never pretend to be up on the latest street lingo. Acting too cool for school around troubled teens can have disastrous consequences.3. Never, ever get too close to Sergeant Goodwin. Because resisting this man's animal magnetism is such risky business, even a seasoned exec like Sue Ellen can't pull it off....