CREATING A CULTURAL STUDIES CONSORTIUM:

THE GENRE EVOLUTION PROJECTEric S. Rabkin

Department of EnglishUniversity of Michigan

Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1003Presented at the

Modern Language Association ConventionSan Diego, California

27 Dec 2003

Copyright © 2003 Eric S. Rabkin

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Hypothesis and MethodsHypothesis: cultural creations evolve in the same way as biological

organisms, that is, as complex adaptive systems that succeed or fail according to their fitness to their environment and, by their existence and success, modify their environment.

Methods: a dialectically developing system for coding that allows gathering statistically significant amounts of relevant cultural data.• Collaborative, progressive definition of fields and values• Collaborative data-collection• Ongoing normalization• Data analysis may be both qualitative and quantitative• Extending the network of collaborators and of the cultural

creations examined

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UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGANAnn Arbor, Michigan

Founded January 1998Eric S. Rabkin: EnglishCarl P. Simon: Mathematics, Economics, Public Policy, Director of the

Center for the Study of Complex SystemsBobbi Low: Natural Resources and Ecology~ 15 student researchers/semester

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Project Website

http://www.umich.edu/~genreevohttp://www.umich.edu/%7Egenreevo

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Online Database – login

(All logos courtesy of Ross Smith; web application courtesy of Zach Wright)

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Online Database – opening screen

(For a full list of GEPA2 team members, see http://www.umich.edu/~genreevo or http://www.umich.edu/%7Egenreevo or drop-down menu of Readers in database searches)

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Key Data SourcesOffline

Archives (U-M, MSU, Texas A&M, UC-Riverside)Microforms

OnlineInternet Speculative Fiction DatabaseContento’s IndexLocus IndexScience Fiction and Fantasy Research Database

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“The Medical Lessons Of Science Fiction”

Literature and Medicine, spring 2001, pp. 13-25

SF Stories by Dominant ScienceUsing GEP tacfile of 12/18/00 N % of

1836% of 1094

Expected random distribution of 1836 total unique texts

102 5.56

Expected random distribution of 1094 science-designated unique texts

61 5.56

Unique stories, dominant science = pedagogy

6 0.33 0.55

Unique stories, dominant science = physics

171 9.31 15.63

Unique stories, dominant science = medicine (p<0.0001)

41 2.23 3.75

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Reprinted Medicine StoriesReprinted Stories, dominant science = medicine

# of Reprints

Flowers for Algernon (Keyes, 1959) 19

Of Mist, and Grass, and Sand (McIntyre, 1973)

17

The Planners (Wilhelm, 1968) 8

The Last Flight of Dr. Ain (Tiptree, 1969) 7

The Miracle of the Broom Closet (Norbert, 1952)

2

In each story, note both the role of the doctor and the outcome.

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Female Authorship Over TimeDecade % female

authorship

1920s 0.00

1930s 2.19

1940s 3.23

1950s 8.04

1960s 11.27

1970s 13.10

1980s 14.62

1990s 22.11

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Authors of Reprinted Stories,dominant science = medicine

Sexp<0.0001

Daniel Keyes M

Vonda McIntyre F

Kate Wilhelm F

James Tiptree, Jr. F

W. Norbert M

Author Sex and Medicine Reprints

Discussion of the Medical Lessons of Science Fiction

Science fiction is in many ways a literature of stereotypes. Often it does not so much praise science as show us when and how to fear it. Science is fearsome when it puts power in the hands of someone who feels too little obligation to subordinate him- or herself for the community, someone who feels unrestrained by the dictates of god or needs of humanity. It is not too false a stereotype to see women much more than men as sacrificing for others. How many Noras have fled their doll’s house compared to the number of men who just couldn’t be bothered raising their children? Women tend to stick, to nurture, to suffer, not inevitably, of course, but often in reality and very often in stereotype. Louis Pasteur is an icon of intellect, Florence Nightingale of selfless compassion. This is a matter that science fiction typically does not want to address, but when it does, it is disproportionately women who show us the way, who make clear that the only good doctor is the doctor who puts his (or, in McIntyre’s exemplary case, her) welfare after that of the patient. The SF exploration of medicine, in Keyes and Wiener and Wilhelm and Sheldon, makes us feel that we are misspending our funds by supporting such people.

If one were to read science fiction about medicine out of one’s common humanity, it would put one on guard. If one were to read it as a physician, one would draw one clear lesson: learn humility and service or society will abandon you; the pursuit of medicine, even for the ostensible good of others, will be crippled. The future of medicine, science fiction tells us, will be molded not only by the minds of doctors but by their characters.

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Extending the GEPWithin Units

Increase N for any given databaseIncrease number of relatable databases

Across UnitsDevelop projects that allow true collaboration

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MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITYEast Lansing, Michigan

Founded September 2002 – aiming to exploit a fine popular culture archiveAnne Edison-Swift: English (B.A., 2003)Lister Matheson: EnglishTess Tavormina: English~ 12 student researchers/semester

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Socialization and Collaboration

• Anne Edison-Swift and Brandon Mills get training in A2• The MSU Library supports GEPA2 and GEPEL• Anne Edison-Swift, Brandon Mills, and Jon Bakos train

GEPEL

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Dealing With the Magazine Die-Off

In 1951: ~ 38 SF monthlies in the U.S.In 1961: ~ 4 SF monthlies in the U.S.Q 1: Why? Standard Answer: The demise of the American News Company(The real answer is more complex—see GEPA2 MS., “Who Really Shaped

American Science Fiction?” Eric S. Rabkin, James Mitchell, and Carl P. Simon)

Q 2: Which monthlies survived, and why?

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A GEPEL ConclusionEditorial policy shapes the magazine’s (the organism’s) survival characteristics, where survival is measured as continued existence. “Survival characteristics” are defined as elements included in Astounding and not in Planet Stories which may have contributed to Astounding’s success. These elements included a higher prevalence of advertising, as well as trimmed edges, science fact articles, and a higher literary standard for stories. The relationship between the reader and the editor also appears essential to Astounding’s survival. Planet Stories and Astounding both included letters to the editor, in which readers critiqued recently published stories, ranked them, and made recommendations for future issues. Analog editor John Campbell acknowledged readers' comments and used their opinions to guide future content far more than any editor of Planet. This paper will give evidence for why John Campbell’s reader-guided editorial policy enabled Astounding to survive the 1950s die-off and extrapolate how Astounding’s survival characteristics apply to Analog and other magazines published today.

---from accepted abstract for “Life or Death: How John Campbell’s Astounding Survived the Great 1950s Science Fiction Die-off” submitted by Amelia Beamer and Aimee Sutherland for the International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, March 2004

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Dealing With an ObjectionStandard literary histories of SF claim that Campbell’s main contributions were

a) demanding an increase in the sophistication of characterizationb) demanding an increase in the “hardness” of SF

How can GEPEL test those objections?a) by reference to GEPA2 publication (Eric S. Rabkin and Carl P. Simon. "Age, Sex, and Evolution in the Science Fiction Marketplace," Interdisciplinary Literary Studies, spring 2001, pp. 45-58 ) disproving the characterization assertionb) new analyses by GEPA2

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Average Hard SF by Half Decade

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Average Hard SF by Half Decade in ASF

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TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITYCollege Station, Texas

Founded January 2003 – aiming to exploit both expertise in evolutionary aesthetics and a superb SF research collection

Leigh Brett Cooke: SlavicHal Hall: LibraryNicole DuPlessis: English graduate student~ 10 student researchers/semester

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Dealing with MethodologyQuestions of intercoder reliabilityQuestions of socializationContribution by Nicole DuPlessis--based on GEPAM

experience and analysis of a sampling of five years’ worth of GEPA2 email archives--yet to be fully used in GEPA2 or GEPAM

GEPA2 has begun developing coding decision trees that are successful in boosting intercoder reliability

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Outcome Decision

Tree

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UNIVERSITY OF TRENTOTrento, Italy

Founded May 2003Oriana Palusci: English~ 4 student researchers, first two semesters~25 student researchers, subsequent semesters

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SF in ItalyEnormously popular since the end of World War IIAlmost all SF in Italy is foreign,

95% of which is originally in English, 90% of which is originally AmericanNo reliable compendious bibliographic sources in general, none at all for SFMost SF translations were unacknowledged abridgments,

but this is no longer trueAs in the U.S., SF in Italy is visible not only in literature but in film, design,

architecture, etc.

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The GEP’s Italian Connection“The Influence of American Science Fiction on Post-WWII Italian Culture”A Research Plan

Which American short story authors wrote novels? (GEPTNGEPA2)Which novels got translated into Italian? (GEPTN and GEPA2)How do those novels fare in translation? (GEPTN)What factors bear on these questions? ((GEPTN with GEPA2)

Number of novels?Date of publication?Publisher?Date of translation?Sex of translator?Movies?Etc?

Data sources Public American sourcesGEPA2 sourcesPublic Italian sourcesPrivate Italian sources

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Future Development of the GEP• Code other genres of cultural

production, such as−News periodicals−Graphic art−Automobile design−Etc.

• Collaborate with other GEP groups• Develop an ever richer sense of the

forces shaping cultural change• Use our understanding of cultural

change to create the most effective new cultural products

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Lessons For CollaborationGEP

•Make sure that methods are appropriate to the group and vice versa•Make sure the methods are understood•Learn from each other

General•Exploit the power of collaboration•Do work in which everyone gains•Lay out clear working relationships

“Ad astra per aspera…”