Alien Audiences


Book Description

Released in 1979, Ridley Scott's Alien has come to be regarded as a classic film, and has been widely written about. But how have audiences engaged with it? This book presents the – sometimes very surprising – results of a major audience research project, exploring how people remember and continue to engage with the film.




Light of the Stars: Alien Worlds and the Fate of the Earth


Book Description

Winner of the 2019 Phi Beta Kappa Award for Science "A valuable perspective on the most important problem of our time." —Adam Becker, NPR Light of the Stars tells the story of humanity’s coming of age as we realize we might not be alone in this universe. Astrophysicist Adam Frank traces the question of alien life from the ancient Greeks to modern thinkers, and he demonstrates that recognizing the possibility of its existence might be the key to save us from climate change. With clarity and conviction, Light of the Stars asks the consequential question: What can the likely presence of life on other planets tell us about our own fate?




Alien Legacies


Book Description

The 1979 film Alien has left an indelible mark on popular culture. Directed by Ridley Scott, at the time known primarily for making advertisements, and starring then-unknown actor Sigourney Weaver in the lead role, it transcended its humble origins to shock and disturb audiences upon its initial release. Its success has led to three direct sequels, two prequels, one "mashup" franchise, a series of comic books, graphic novels, novelizations, games, and an enormous and devoted fanbase. For forty years, Alien and its progeny have animated debate and discussion among critics and academics from a wide variety of fields and methodological perspectives. This book brings together scholars from diverse disciplinary backgrounds to explore Alien through a contemporary lens. The chapters here demonstrate the extent to which its effects and reception are deeply multifaceted, with the Alien franchise straddling the lines between "high" and "low" culture, playing with generic categories, crossing media boundaries, and animating theoretical, critical, and political debates. Chapters touch on female agency and motherhood, the influence of H.R. Giger, the viscerality of Alien's body horror, the narrative tradition of the Female Gothic, the patriarchal gaze in the Alien video games, and the rise of in-universe online marketing campaigns. In so doing, the volume aims to debate Alien's legacy, consider its current position within visual culture, and establish what the series means--and why it still matters--forty years since its birth.




The Oxford Handbook of Cinematic Listening


Book Description

The Oxford Handbook of Cinematic Listening explores the intersection between the history of listening and the history of the moving image. Featuring established and emergent scholars from musicology, film studies, and literary studies, ethnomusicology and sound studies, popular music,sociology, media and communications, and psychology, this Handbook offers a wide range of case studies and methodological perspectives on the archaeologies, aesthetics, and extensions of cinematic listening.Chapters are structured around six themes: Part I ("Genealogies and Beginnings") considers film sound in light of pre-existing genres such as opera and shadow theatre, and explores changes in listening taking place at critical junctures in the early history of cinema. Part II ("Locations andRelocations") focuses on specific venues and presentational practices (from roadshow movies to and contemporary live-score screenings). Part III ("Representations and Re-presentations") zooms into the formal properties of specific films, analysing representations of listening on screen as well as onthe role of sound as a representational surplus. Part IV ("The Listening Body") focuses on cinematic sound as a powerful and sensual stimulus that has the power to engage the full body sensorium. Part V ("Listening again") discusses a range of ways in which film sound is encountered andreinterpreted outside the cinema, through ancillary materials like songs and soundtrack albums, in experimental conditions, and in pedagogical contexts. Part VI ("Between Media") compares the listening protocols of cinema with those of TV series and music video, promenade theatre and personalstereos, video games and Virtual Reality.




Dimensions of Alien Thought Patterned by the Presence of a Sultan


Book Description

Dimensions of Alien Thought Patterned by the Presence of a Sultan describes our author's definition of beauty. Its themes and conclusions reveal emotions and sagas which at times are very graphic, dark, and dreary, yet full of love and fiery passion, all at once personifying the beauty that is poetry. The words that fill the pages, sensing they are being read, realize, though not everyone or everything can relate, there is someone or something out there that can relate with this journey the author takes you on.




Tarnished Heroes, Charming Villains and Modern Monsters


Book Description

The heroes, villains, and monsters portrayed in such popular science fiction television series as Heroes, Lost, Battlestar Galactica, Caprica, Doctor Who, and Torchwood, as well as Joss Whedon's many series, illustrate a shift from traditional, clearly defined characterizations toward much murkier definitions. Traditional heroes give way to "gray" heroes who must become more like the villains or monsters they face if they are going to successfully save society. This book examines the ambiguous heroes and villains, focusing on these characters' different perspectives on morality and their roles within society. Appendices include production details for each series, descriptions and summaries of pivotal episodes, and a list of selected texts for classroom use. Instructors considering this book for use in a course may request an examination copy here.




The Making of Alien


Book Description

A comprehensive and definitive volume telling the complete story of how Alien was made, featuring new interviews with Ridley Scott and other production crew, and including many rarely-seen photos and illustrations from the Fox archives. In 1979 a movie legend was born, as Twentieth Century-Fox and director Ridley Scott unleashed Alien - and gave audiences around the world the scare of their lives. To celebrate the movie's fortieth anniversary, author J.W. Rinzler (The Making of Star Wars) tells the whole fascinating story of how Alien evolved from a simple idea in the mind of writer Dan O'Bannon into one of the most memorable sci-fi horror thrillers of all time. With brand new interviews with Ridley Scott and other key members of the original production crew, and featuring many never-before-seen photographs and artworks from the archives, The Making of Alien is the definitive work on this masterpiece of popular cinema.




The Cosmopolitan First Amendment


Book Description

We live in an interconnected world in which expressive and religious cultures increasingly commingle and collide. In a globalized and digitized era, we need to better understand the relationship between the First Amendment to the United States Constitution and international borders. This book focuses on the exercise and protection of cross-border and beyond-border expressive and religious liberties, and on the First Amendment's relationship to the world beyond US shores. It reveals a cosmopolitan First Amendment that protects cross-border conversation, facilitates the global spread of democratic principles, recognizes expressive and religious liberties regardless of location, is influential across the world, and encourages respectful engagement with the liberty regimes of other nations. The Cosmopolitan First Amendment is the product of historical, social, political, technological and legal developments. It examines the First Amendment's relationship to foreign travel, immigration, cross-border communication and association, religious activities that traverse international borders, conflicts among foreign and US speech and religious liberty models, and the conduct of international affairs and diplomacy.




Alien Chronicles: Unraveling the Mysteries of Extraterrestrial Visitations


Book Description

This is Clara Bennett’s second book, following “Roswell Revealed: The Untold Story Of America’s Most Famous UFO Incident.” This book delves into humanity's long-standing quest to understand the cosmos, tracing this journey from ancient civilizations to modern scientific endeavors. It highlights how early societies like the Mesopotamians, Egyptians, Babylonians, Greeks, and Romans developed intricate mythologies and astronomical systems to interpret the stars and celestial phenomena. The narrative emphasizes the evolution of astronomical exploration, showing how ancient stargazing laid the foundation for contemporary astronomy. This historical perspective underscores humanity's enduring curiosity and the continuous quest for knowledge about the universe. The book also discusses the role of media and popular culture in shaping public perceptions of extraterrestrial phenomena, particularly UFO sightings. It warns against jumping to conclusions without proper investigation, as sensationalism can lead to myths and exaggerations. The “Goldilocks Zone” concept is introduced, which refers to the habitable zone around stars where life could exist. This idea expands our understanding of the conditions necessary for life beyond Earth and encourages the exploration of diverse environments where life might thrive. The book touches on the Fermi Paradox, which highlights the contradiction between the high probability of extraterrestrial civilizations and the lack of evidence for their existence. This paradox fuels debates about the nature of advanced civilizations and the challenges in making contact with them. The pursuit of technosignatures, or markers of advanced extraterrestrial intelligence, is presented as a key aspect of humanity's insatiable curiosity and quest for knowledge. This search represents a significant frontier in our exploration of the cosmos. The conclusion of Clara Bennet’s book reflects on the transformative journey of interstellar travel, emphasizing humanity's relentless pursuit of discovery and the potential for technological innovation to open new frontiers in space exploration. Overall, the book weaves a narrative that celebrates human curiosity and the relentless drive to unravel the mysteries of the universe, from ancient stargazing to the search for extraterrestrial life and beyond.




The American Mercury


Book Description