Science Fiction, Children's Literature, and Popular Culture: Coming of Age in Fantasyland

Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2000. Hardcover. VG (Ex-library with stamps and labels on spine, inside front and rear covers, ffep and block. Pages are otherwise clean and clear. Binding tight.). Navy cloth boards with gilt lettering; xiv, 157 pp. "Literature often is central to individual maturation. It typically reflects, in one way or another, the experiences of the reader and the larger strains of society. This book examines representative works of science fiction, children's literature, and popular culture as mirrors of what it means to grow up in the late 20th century world. That world is permeated by technology, and technology thus figures prominently in the process of growing up and in these literary works."-Website. contents: How Charlie made children hate him: fantasy and reality in stories for small children -- The three lives of Superman -- and everybody else -- Mystery of the amateur detectives: the early days of the Hardy boys -- Giving Horatio Alger goosebumps, or, from Hardy boys to hapless boys: the changing ethos of juveline series fiction -- From the back of the head to beyond the moon: the novel and film This island Earth -- Opposing war, exploiting war: the troubled pacifism of Star trek -- Even better than the real thing: advertising, music videos, postmodernism, and (eventually) science fiction -- Legends of the fall: going not particularly far Behind the music -- Hollywood strikes a pose: seven tales of triumph, treachery, and travail in old Tinseltown -- In defense of stone tablets: Isaac Asimov explains why science fiction is skeptical about "new information technologies" -- Partial derivatives: popular misinterpretations of H.G. Wells's The time machine.