Science Fiction and the Mass Cultural Genre System

"Rieder is always a lucid and engaging writer, and this book is no exception."—Mark Bould, University of the West of EnglandBristol

"Rieder is always a lucid and engaging writer, and this book is no exception."—Mark Bould, University of the West of England, Bristol

"John Rieder's Science Fiction and the Mass Cultural Genre System offers a fascinating new perspective on this much defined genre. Rieder compelling argues that we can understand this genre only by examining it within the larger context of the separate but entwined classical and mass genre systems. Focusing less on what science fiction is and instead of what drives communities of readers to collect a set of texts under this label, Rieder offers lucid and original insight not only into the genre's history but more importantly into its future. What are the politics of a moment that, on the one hand, sees the genre dispersing into contemporary culture overall as a set of techniques used by many writers while, on the other hand, fraught ideological battles are fought over the Hugo awards and who might rightfully claim to represent this field of publication? How can we reconcile science fiction's utopian impulses with its inevitable complicity with the capitalist relations of the mass cultural genre system? Rieder's eloquent book powerfully shows us the consequential cultural work we do when we make and remake the many science fiction canons."—Sherryl Vint, University of California, Riverside

"Written with all the brilliance, clarity and insightfulness of Rieder's earlier work, this book has vitally important lessons to teach concerning not only the institutional history of science fiction, but of mass cultural production and reception more generally."—Phillip E. Wegner, University of Florida

"With this volume, Rieder reinforces his position as one of the most interesting and perceptive science-fiction critics at work today. No one seriously interested in the genre—and especially in the relation of science fiction to the whole category of genre—can afford to miss it."—Carl Freedman, author of Critical Theory and Science Fiction