We should not mistake Star Trek’s emphasis on decency with a radically different conception of civilization. Both the Federation and its more warlike are equally dependent on imperialism, on colonialism, on limitless resource extraction to survive. Both, in other words,

In Masaaki Yuasa’s Kaiba, minds and bodies are just two more commodities on the market—revealing capitalism’s own dysfunctional relationship to bodily pleasure. by Will Riley In the first episode of 2008’s Kaiba, a sci-fi anime from Masaaki Yuasa, we find the male

The genre-bending Tamil sci-fi/sex-comedy challenges sexual norms, even as it falls back on sexual normativity. by Shinjini Dey The figure of the alien requires no introduction. It’s a category and a concept that is as common on immigration forms as it is

Why Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos love Iain M. Banks’ anarcho-communist space opera. by Kurt Schiller Explicitly ideological fiction is as old as fiction itself. From ancient steles that boasted unconvincingly of the glorious defeat of the Sea Peoples to the biased

Maligned. Detested. Dismissed. Watto deserves a second look. by Trevor Drinkwater // Illustration by Sam Hindman The conventional wisdom around the Star Wars prequels has been a subject of much debate in recent years. In the wake of Disney’s polarizing new sequel

Like the best Sci-Fi, Sleep Dealer's exploration of de-located workers is eerily prescient. by Tyler Peterson It’s a well-worn but no less true maxim that science fiction isn’t about “the future” at all, but rather the present. The futuristic setting of the

Grappling with visions of a possible America. by Paul Walker-Emig America, like any other nation, is a construct supported by a series of fantasies. These fantasies help create what Benedict Anderson called an “imagined community” via a shared vision of what America

Predator isn't just a great action film—it's also ruthless satire. by Joseph Mayall As one of the most highly-regarded action movies of all time, Predator isn’t unappreciated—but it is misunderstood. With the flashing lasers and blazing guns stealing the show, the film’s

What we can learn about exploitation from a 1969 thriller about a dance competition. by Ryan Lambert The American Dream may lure many a foreign traveler with the temptation of industrious opportunity for themselves, their kin, and their spawn, but the people