Otherworlds: Imagining Planets with Butler, Herbert, and the Pulps

Katherine Buse
English
UC Davis

This dissertation as a whole traces the relationship between the history of climate science and other forms of speculative world building such as science fiction novels, computer graphics, and video games. One important question has to do with the co-emergence of the planetary sciences (Earth sciences and closely related sciences about other planets) and science fictional treatments of imaginary worlds. The project draws upon three collections of papers, manuscripts, and magazines related to planetary science fiction. The first is Octavia Butler’s archived papers and manuscripts, the second is Frank Herbert’s papers and manuscripts, and the third is the Eaton collection’s science fiction pulp magazines.