Androids, Humanoids, and Other Folklore Monsters: Science and Soul in Science Fiction Films

Unlike science fiction literature, science fiction film has until now been largely neglected as a genre worthy of study and scholarship. This book explores science fiction (sf) films as the modern incarnation of folklore, emblematic of the struggle between nature and culture - but with a new twist. Schelde explains how technology and outer space came to represent the modern wild. The new unknown came alive in the popular imagination with the embodiments of our fears of that unknown: androids, cyborgs, genetics, and artificial intelligence gone awry. Implicit in all of these is fear, an indictment of the power of science to invade our minds and bodies, replacing the individual soul with a mechanical, machine-made one. Focusing on his analysis on 65 popular films, from "Frankenstein" and "Metropolis" to "Invasion of the Body Snatchers", "The Terminator" and "Blade Runner", Shelde brings his command of traditional folklore to this study. He decodes their curious and often terrifying images as expressions of modern man's angst in the face of a rapidly advancing culture he cannot control. This book should be interesting to anyone who is concerned with popular culture, folklore, film studies or science fiction.