INVENTED FUTURES
INVENTED FUTURES: FIN DE SIECLE FANTASIES
ANDREW WATT & PREM PODDAR
Is fiction stranger than life? Perhaps not. Two cultural theorists with a collection of 19th century drawings that depict an imagined future look at how these visual fantasies of oracular and predictive character have come to pass.
What invented and imagined technology is currently the case? How do gender roles fit into the prefigured technological advancements? These are some of the questions that Watt and Poddar consider, while delighting us to with their impressive set of images.
6×9” | Color illustrations | 266 pp
ISBN 978-8792633361
CATEGORY
Culture criticism
EDITION
Standard paperback 2016 | $27
NOTE
Ekphrastic essay
REVIEWS
As art, as nostalgia, as historical documents and as explorations of the idea of the future (an idea which, as time goes on, becomes more and more important to deal with), these rare images deserve to be seen, so that we can understand how and why we have diverged from these ‘futures’. In what ways, we ask, are we truly the reflections of the people at play in these colourful and attractive dreams? — ANDY SAWYER Science Fiction Foundation, University of Liverpool
Looking back at how oddly our present was imagined a hundred years ago or more, the thought arises that we may be similarly in the dark about the futures that loom ahead. Should we worry about this, or try to enjoy it? Depending on which hands it falls into, and at which moments, this book, and the collection that it celebrates, will support both abject trepidation and playful openness to whatever may be over the horizon. — DOMINC RAINSFORD, Professor of Literatures in English, Aarhus University
