Categories
Academic Conventions Events Fantasycon Fiction New Column New Story Readings Shoreline of Infinity

Update: Fantasycon 2023

Update: Due to a family bereavement, I’m sorry to announce that I will no longer be attending Fantasycon 2023. However, the details in this blog on the Shoreline of Infinity pre-orders and the BFS Journal special issue still stand. Neil Williamson has agreed to take my reading slot on Saturday at 5pm, which’ll be well worth attending instead.

Join me at Fantasycon 2023 for some brand new fiction and hopefully more! For schedule details for Fantasycon, as well as updates on Shoreline of Infinity and the British Fantasy Society Journal special issue on Fantasy & Gaming, read on.

Categories
Academic Academic Events Events

Once and Future Fantasies

Update: My apologies to those looking forward to hearing this paper. Unfortunately I had to cancel due to illness.

As I write, the big yellow thing has returned to the skies above Glasgow, and people are turning into lobsters. But before we welcome our new crustacean overlords, I’ll be appearing at the Once and Future Fantasies conference at the University of Glasgow.

Categories
Academic CYMERA Festival New Column Shoreline of Infinity

Newcastle Law School and Shoreline of Infinity

Just one more thing…

Shoreline of Infinity 29 is now up for pre-order, and features my latest column (deep breath), ‘Beyond UK Black History Month: The Self-Fulfilling Prophecy of the Fear of Being Awful’. This one tackles the somewhat taboo subject of why many white folks don’t explore the historical contributions of POC outside of the annual celebrations. I’m hoping this will encourage folks to dig into their motivations for doing the work and take a chance on themselves. And if you’re unsure of where to start your own journey, this column also includes some recommended reading.

Issue 29 also includes the first print publication of my GSFWC buddy E.M. Faulds‘ short story ‘A Flight Of Birds’, as well as work by Tim Major, Callum McSorley, Ida Keogh‘s stunning flash fiction piece ‘The Reminder’ and a new interview with Ken MacLeod about Beyond The Hallowed Sky, his latest novel.

Pre-order link: https://www.shorelineofinfinity.com/product/shoreline-of-infinity-29/

The cover of Shoreline of Infinity 29 - scene inside a spaceship cockpit. A zombie pilot called Newton cries in terror as his ship speeds through space.

You can hear some of these stories, along with a brilliant reading by Eris Young and more, as part of Event Horizon’s takeover at Cymera‘s recent mini-festival. Check out the video below:

In other news, last week I had the privilege of dropping in to Newcastle University Law School to talk to students exploring “Emerging Technologies: Emerging Relationships” – part of an independent research module on the future of the Law. Here, I spoke on ‘Science Fiction and the Law of Relationhips’ and how genre can help explore our developing society, highlighting the work of authors such as Aliette de Bodard, Helen Sedgwick and Becky Chambers.

A title slide. The background is black coffee in a mug. The text reads: "Science Fiction and the Law of Relationships, Ruth EJ Booth".

In return, I was delighted to hear the students working on projects exploring the Gender Recognition Act, Domestic Abuse, Social Media, Ghanaian legal approaches following R vs R (1991), and more. To see students even at an undergraduate level exploring the social responsiveness of the Law, especially with such timely topics, was particularly uplifting. I’ve attended courtrooms several times (either as court reporter or visitor) and sometimes come away rather disheartened – and so this research gives me hope for the future of the Law and courtroom decision making.

And that’s it! If I don’t post again before the holidays, here’s wishing you happiness and peace over the festive season, and all the hope and joy this new year deserves.

Categories
Academic

#StrathLife

Quick bit of news for you: I’m moving to the University of Strathclyde!

Categories
Academic

*Updated* Games Studies India – Games and More

I had a lovely afternoon/evening at Game Studies India yesterday, as Darshana Jayemanne and I spoke to their community about our developing work in Ludographic Metafiction and Final Fantasy VII: Remake. The wide-ranging post-talk discussion took in RTS games and colonialism, escapism and exploration, JPGs, games culture, representing climate change and gameplay conventions, and more. As Darshana half-jokingly lamented, we’ve been left with even more ideas to cover as part of the core theory – for which we’re extremely thankful, especially to Poonam Chowdhury and Prof. Souvik Mukherjee, who invited us to speak.

The YouTube video will be online soon, but in the meantime, it strikes me there are a lot of games, discussion groups, and other things that came up during the post-talk discussion that folx might have missed. So, here’s a list of general “things” for your consideration. Please note that Discord’s “forever” invite links have a nasty habit of expiring early, so make sure you join those first.

Edit [6th December 2021]: You can now watch the entire talk on the DiGRA India YouTube page – or the embed below.

Reading Groups

Game Studies India Links
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gamestudiesindia
Twitter: https://twitter.com/GameStudiesInd

Caledonian Game Studies Reading Group
Discord: https://discord.gg/5Za9mqTZwn

Fan Studies Grad Students
Discord: https://discord.gg/mMRjBEf5at

Games

Banished
https://store.steampowered.com/app/242920/Banished/

Umurangi Generation
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1223500/Umurangi_Generation/

Lichenia
https://www.molleindustria.org/lichenia/

Doki Doki Literature Club
https://store.steampowered.com/app/698780/Doki_Doki_Literature_Club/

Death Stranding
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1190460/DEATH_STRANDING/

Braid (not discussed, but in terms of ways we can subvert gameplay, it’s always worth a mention)
https://store.steampowered.com/app/26800/Braid/

Postcolonialism in RTS Games

Mukherjee, S. 2016. ‘Playing Subaltern: Video Games and Postcolonialism’, Games and Culture 13.5, pp504-520.
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1555412015627258

Super Bunnyhop on Global Warming in Strategy Games (thanks to Aritro)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9n78WYo-SQQ

The Spiffing Brit (provides an interesting “commentary” on colonialism and RTS games through the caricature of “The Spiffing Brit”)
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRHXUZ0BxbkU2MYZgsuFgkQ

And Finally…

If you want to learn more about the man, the legend, Dan Hibiki…

Designing For Parody:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oExVN9L21Wc

Capcom Fandom Page:
https://capcom.fandom.com/wiki/Dan