Fafnir – Nordic Journal of Science Fiction and Fantasy Research 1/2022
Download the full issue as PDF
__________________________________________________________________________________________
Laura E. Goodin, Essi Varis, Elizabeth Oakes & Dennis Wise
Editorial 1/2022
Download this article as PDF
__________________________________________________________________________________________
Prefatory
Bodhisattva Chattopadhyay
Fictioning the Futures of Climate Change
Download this article as PDF
__________________________________________________________________________________________
Articles
Saija Isomaa
Abandoning the Untrustworthy Risk Society: Salvage and the Critique of Modernity in Laura Gustafsson’s Post- Apocalyptic Novel Korpisoturi
Abstract: This paper examines Laura Gustafsson’s third novel, Korpisoturi (Wilderness Warrior, 2016), as a work that combines conventions from both the mimetic and speculative genres. I suggest that the novel begins as a rather conventional psychological novel and a depiction of an “ordinary Finn”, but the realist reading is challenged when a cataclysm occurs in the form of an international trade embargo against Finland, and the conventions of the post-apocalyptic novel and survivalist fiction begin to dominate the narration. My main argument is to claim that Korpisoturi makes use of two genre conventions of the contemporary post-apocalyptic novel: salvage and the critique of modernity, even if some of the critique of modernity is communicated through the protagonist’s psychological development and thus the psychological novel. I also argue that despite Ahma, the protagonist, being a literary character, his psychological development resembles that of real-life American survivalists who adopt a self-sufficient lifestyle because they consider postmodern risk society untrustworthy.
Keywords: post-apocalyptic novel, survivalist fiction, self-sufficiency movement, critique of modernity, Finnish dystopian fiction
Download this article as PDF
Kati Aakkonen
Kasvien vieraus ja ekofeminismin vaarallisuus – Poison Ivyn toiseuttaminen ja torjuminen elokuvassa Batman & Robin
Abstrakti: Fiktiossa kasvit saavat usein toimijuutta vain silloin, kun ne näyttäytyvät vaarallisina ja uhkaavina. Näin ollen kasvikauhun hirviöt avaavat tärkeitä näkökulmia kasvien ja ihmisten välisten suhteiden ymmärtämiseen. Elokuvassa Batman & Robin (1997) Poison Ivyn hahmoon henkilöityy kasvien ja naisten toiseuttaminen, minkä lisäksi elokuvan sankarit torjuvat hänen edustamansa ajatuksen luonnonsuojelun tärkeydestä. Koska ympäristöongelmien vaikutukset ja yhteiskunnan alistavat mekanismit toimivat limittäin, vähän tutkittu Poison Ivyn hahmo on intersektionaalisuudessaan ajankohtainen. Ekofeministinen analyysi hahmosta paljastaa, miten ja miksi tietyistä olennoista tehdään populaarifiktiossa vieraita ja hirviömäisiä. Kasvin ja ihmisen yhdistelmänä Poison Ivy haastaa olentojen välisiä rajoja ja hierarkioita, samalla kun hänen yhteiskunnalliseen muutokseen tähtäävä toimintansa vaatii ihmisiä ottamaan päätöksissään huomioon myös ei-inhimilliset olennot.
Avainsanat: Poison Ivy, kasvikauhu, hirviö, ekofeminismi, supersankarielokuvat
Download this article as PDF
Minna Siikilä-Laitila
“I’m just being a difficult LoTR hardcore fan”: Tolkien Fans’ Actions and Reactions to Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit Trilogy
Abstract: Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit trilogy has been debated and discussed widely. Fans of J.R.R. Tolkien have had strong opinions about the films, and I believe that their online conversations about the movies call for a closer look. I am particularly interested in Tolkien fans’ reactions to the films; the reasons for these reactions; and the actions they provoked.
Some fans loved the possibility of revisiting Middle-earth. They drew a clear distinction between the book and the movies, showing understanding towards the changes and additions required by the adaptation process. Pitted against them were the fans who experienced the films negatively. This group did not differentiate between the movies and the novel, and saw the former as a problematic continuation of the latter. This study focuses on the latter group of fans and the disappointments caused by The Hobbit movies.
I will focus on the discussions on fan edits. Some Tolkien fans demanded new, more orthodox fan versions of The Hobbit movies. This was an attempt by the fans to integrate Jackson’s world with Tolkien’s world as seamlessly as possible. Most importantly, these fan edits appear as a moral statement, signalling the fans’ collectively experienced ownership of Tolkien’s legacy. I will argue that the fans’ experience of a moral duty to create their own edits of The Hobbit movies also shows that they do not recognise Jackson as the custodian of Tolkien’s cinematic world.
Keywords:The Hobbit; fans; J.R.R. Tolkien; Peter Jackson; reception; fan edits
Download this article as PDF
Veera Mäkelä
Courting Tragedy: The Lies of Locke Lamora, City Comedy, and Revenge Tragedy
Abstract: Brian Attebery writes in Strategies of Fantasy (1992) about reading fantasy as a mode rather than a genre. Following his lead, I look at Scott Lynch’s The Lies of Locke Lamora (2006) as a revenge tragedy in the fantastic mode. I prove that the novel is a revenge tragedy by genre through tracing the elements commonly associated with Renaissance plays, as outlined in Wendy Griswold’s Renaissance Revivals: City Comedy and Revenge Tragedy in the London Theatre 1576–1980 (1986). The Lies of Locke Lamora moves from city comedy to two different kinds of revenge tragedy, the English and the Senecan, of which the latter ends in disillusionment in terms of power hierarchies. Linda Woodbridge’s English Revenge Drama: Money, Resistance, Equality (2010) provides support for my argument that reading Lynch’s debut as a revenge tragedy reveals its political themes and places it in the context of the history of literature.
Keywords: Brian Attebery, Wendy Griswold, Linda Woodbridge, Scott Lynch, revenge tragedy, fantasy
Download this article as PDF
__________________________________________________________________________________________
Lectio Praecursoria
Elise Kraatila
Speculative Mimesis – Beyond Non- Mimetic Models
Download this article as PDF
__________________________________________________________________________________________
Interview
Laura E. Goodin
Hail and Farewell: An Interview with Fafnir’s Departing and Arriving Editors-In-Chief
Download this article as PDF
__________________________________________________________________________________________
Book Reviews
Cait Coker
Book Review: Comic Books Incorporated: How the Business of Comics Became the Business of Hollywood
Download this article as PDF
Dominick Grace
Book Review: Middle-earth, or There and Back Again
Download this article as PDF
Everett Hamner
Book Review: Science Fiction and Catholicism: The Rise and Fall of the Robot Papacy
Download this article as PDF
Sami Ahmad Khan and Rahul Rana
Book Review: Indian Science Fiction: Patterns, History and Hybridity
Download this article as PDF
Graham Minenor-Matheson
Book Review: Fighting for the Future: Essays on Star Trek: Discovery
Download this article as PDF
C. Palmer-Patel
Book Review: George R. R. Martin and the Fantasy Form
Download this article as PDF
Abhishek Sarkar
Book Review: Fantasy Fictions from the Bengal Renaissance: Abanindranath Tagore’s The Make-Believe Prince and Gaganendranath Tagore’s Toddy-cat the Bold
Download this article as PDF
Amar Singh
Book Review: Posthuman Bliss? The Failed Promise of Transhumanism
Download this article as PDF
Jonathan William Thurston-Torres
Book Review: The Nature of the Beast: Transformations of the Werewolf from the 1970s to the Twenty-First Century
Download this article as PDF
Joseph Rex Young
Book Review: Weird Talers: Essays on Robert E Howard and Others
Download this article as PDF
Essi Varis
Kirja-arvostelu: Fantasia: Lajit, ilmiö ja yhteiskunta
Download this article as PDF
__________________________________________________________________________________________
Call for Papers: Fafnir 1/2023
Download this article as PDF