CREATING A CULTURAL STUDIES
CONSORTIUM:
THE GENRE EVOLUTION PROJECT
Eric S. Rabkin
Department of English
University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1003
Presented at the
Modern Language Association Convention
San Diego, California
27 Dec 2003
Copyright © 2003 Eric S. Rabkin
Hypothesis and Methods
Hypothesis: 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
Slide 2
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Founded January 1998
Eric S. Rabkin: English
Carl P. Simon: Mathematics, Economics, Public Policy, Director of the
Center for the Study of Complex Systems
Bobbi Low: Natural Resources and Ecology
~ 15 student researchers/semester
Slide 3
Project Website
http://www.umich.edu/~genreevo
http://www.umich.edu/%7Egenreevo
Slide 4
Online Database – login
(All logos courtesy of Ross Smith; web application
courtesy of Zach Wright)
Slide 5
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)
Slide 6
Key Data Sources
Offline
Archives (U-M, MSU, Texas A&M, UC-Riverside)
Microforms
Online
Internet Speculative Fiction Database
Contento’s Index
Locus Index
Science Fiction and Fantasy Research Database
Slide 7
“The Medical Lessons Of
Science Fiction”
Literature and Medicine, spring 2001, pp. 13-25
Slide 8
SF Stories by Dominant Science
Using GEP tacfile of 12/18/00
Expected random distribution of
1836 total unique texts
Expected random distribution of
1094 science-designated unique
texts
Unique stories, dominant science =
pedagogy
Unique stories, dominant science =
physics
Unique stories, dominant science =
medicine (p<0.0001)
N % of % of
1836 1094
102 5.56
61
6 0.33
5.56
0.55
171 9.31 15.63
41 2.23
3.75
Reprinted Medicine Stories
Reprinted Stories, dominant science =
medicine
Flowers for Algernon (Keyes, 1959)
# of
Reprints
19
Of Mist, and Grass, and Sand (McIntyre,
1973)
The Planners (Wilhelm, 1968)
17
The Last Flight of Dr. Ain (Tiptree, 1969)
7
The Miracle of the Broom Closet (Norbert,
1952)
2
8
In each story, note both the role of the doctor and the outcome.
Slide 10
Female Authorship Over Time
Decade
1920s
1930s
1940s
1950s
1960s
1970s
1980s
1990s
% female
authorship
0.00
2.19
3.23
8.04
11.27
13.10
14.62
22.11
Slide 11
Author Sex and Medicine
Reprints
Authors of Reprinted Stories,
dominant science = medicine
Daniel Keyes
Sex
p<0.0001
M
Vonda McIntyre
F
Kate Wilhelm
F
James Tiptree, Jr.
F
W. Norbert
M
Slide 12
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.
Extending the GEP
Within Units
Increase N for any given database
Increase number of relatable databases
Across Units
Develop projects that allow true collaboration
Slide 14
MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY
East Lansing, Michigan
Founded September 2002 – aiming to exploit a fine popular culture archive
Anne Edison-Swift: English (B.A., 2003)
Lister Matheson: English
Tess Tavormina: English
~ 12 student researchers/semester
Slide 15
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
Slide 16
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?
Slide 17
A GEPEL Conclusion
Editorial 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
Slide 18
Dealing With an Objection
Standard literary histories of SF claim that Campbell’s main contributions were
a) demanding an increase in the sophistication of characterization
b) 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 assertion
b) new analyses by GEPA2
Slide 19
Average Hard SF by Half Decade
Drop Page Fields Here
Average of HardSF01
0.35
0.3
0.25
0.2
Drop Series Fields Here
Total
0.15
0.1
0.05
0
1925
1930
1935
1940
1945
1950
1955
1960
1965
1970
1975
1980
1985
1990
1995
2000
PubHaDec
Slide 20
Average Hard SF by Half Decade
in ASF
Drop Page Fields Here
Average of HardSF01
0.45
0.4
0.35
0.3
0.25
Drop Series Fields Here
Total
0.2
0.15
0.1
0.05
0
1930
1935
1940
1945
1950
1955
1960
1965
1970
1975
1980
1985
1990
1995
PubHaDec
Slide 21
TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY
College Station, Texas
Founded January 2003 – aiming to exploit both expertise in evolutionary
aesthetics and a superb SF research collection
Leigh Brett Cooke: Slavic
Hal Hall: Library
Nicole DuPlessis: English graduate student
~ 10 student researchers/semester
Slide 22
Dealing with Methodology
Questions of intercoder reliability
Questions of socialization
Contribution 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
Slide 23
Outcome
Decision
Tree
Slide 24
UNIVERSITY OF TRENTO
Trento, Italy
Founded May 2003
Oriana Palusci: English
~ 4 student researchers, first two semesters
~25 student researchers, subsequent semesters
Slide 25
SF in Italy
Enormously popular since the end of World War II
Almost all SF in Italy is foreign,
95% of which is originally in English, 90% of which is originally American
No reliable compendious bibliographic sources in general, none at all for SF
Most SF translations were unacknowledged abridgments,
but this is no longer true
As in the U.S., SF in Italy is visible not only in literature but in film, design,
architecture, etc.
Slide 26
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? (GEPTNGEPA2)
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 sources
GEPA2 sources
Public Italian sources
Private Italian sources
Slide 27
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
Slide 28
Lessons For Collaboration
GEP
•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
Slide 29
“Ad astra per aspera…”