Hello! Matt and Hilary are back with a preview episode of the next season of Marooned! On [Fill in the Blank]. This season we’ll be discussing KSR’s brilliant Aurora.

In this preliminary episode we re-introduce ourselves and the premise of the show. We talk about what science fiction and utopia are, why we’re interested in them (and why you should be, too), and our approach to thinking about them.

We also decide how many episodes you should expect. After consulting with your psychoanalysts, we resolve to read this chapter by chapter, so there will be 7 episodes after this, maybe an additional one after that.

Stop at 40 minutes if you are only interested in science fiction and don’t want to hear Matt and Hilary rant about politics and vociferously endorse Bernie Sanders and enumerate his positive qualities and the glorious future his presidency will usher in, while simultaneously maintaining a healthy skepticism about electoralism and the State. We talk about knocking on doors, solidarity, making a new world, being here for each other, being a person. Hilary shares her experience canvassing for Bernie in Iowa, and next week Matt will share his experience of knocking doors in New Hampshire.

I don’t know what’s up with the audio on this episode, why Matt sounds like he’s in a fishbowl for like 40 minutes or whatever, why his beard seems to have its own soundtrack, etc. I’m not an audio engineer. Just take what you can get.

At one point Matt laughs so hard at Hilary uses the accurate appellation “Mayor Cheat” that he knocks his microphone out and disconnects the connection. Good stuff!

Around 1:08:00 Matt starts talking about Maine politics so if you’re not interested in that or indulging his idle thoughts, just stop listening. But listen to the joker who represents Matt’s district in Congress.

Other texts and thinkers we discuss in this episode include:

Jose Munoz, Cruising Utopia https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781479874569

Ernst Bloch, The Principle of Hope https://www.indiebound.org/book/9780262521994

Darko Suvin, Metamorphoses of Science Fiction https://www.indiebound.org/book/9783034319485

Fredric Jameson

Encyclopedia of Science Fiction http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/

World Without End https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0049964/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_2

Other generation ship novels:

Molly Gloss, The Dazzle of Day https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781481498470

Gene Wolfe, Book of the Long Sun https://www.indiebound.org/search/book?keys=book+of+the+long+sun

Stan’s essay Dystopias Now https://communemag.com/dystopias-now/

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Music by Spirit of Space