*CFP* "BUT NOW, WE MUST EAT! FOOD AND DRINK IN SCIENCE FICTION", EDITED VOLUME

In her contribution to Reel Food: Essays on Food and Film (2004), Laurel Forster remarks that “food appears as an important element in a surprising number of […] science fiction films” and helps “illuminat[e] social, national, and even global structures, agencies, and order.” Thus, the interrelationships between food and science fiction offer “a valuable means of understanding the link between the individual and controlling powers around her/him.” While many science fiction texts employ food and drink in uncritical ways and/or as “simple” (if such exists) props supporting the narrative action, the genre also often foregrounds food and drink (and the attendant activities of eating and drinking) as means for generating affect and/or producing meaning. For example, in David Cronenberg’s The Fly (1986), half-mutated Seth vomits digestive juices onto his morning donut to prepare it for consumption, noting, “Oh, that is disgusting,” thereby mirroring the viewer’s response to the on-screen action. Similarly, when first the aliens and then “undercover” Frank consume the green, vomit-like goo in Peter Jackson’s Bad Taste (1987), this moment might evoke laughter or, more likely, induce anastaltic reflexes. Likewise, disgust and revulsion were likely the first reactions Star Trek: Discovery (2017–) viewers had to Terran Empress Georgiou dining on the ganglia of a Kelpian—a sentient species kept as slaves and livestock. What do these corporeal responses to food images mean? What meanings do food and drink, more generally, communicate in science fiction texts?

This volume will discuss food and drink in science fiction across media—movies, television shows, literature, video games, comics, etc. Of course, as forms of sustenance, food and drink are among the essential elements of life. But this is also precisely why representations of food and drink are always ripe with meaning. As this book will show, science fiction uses food and drink to explore pertinent issues ranging from the homogenization of food in a globalized economy to the exploitation of our natural resources and the attendant phenomena of water, air, and soil pollution, deforestation, and the scarcification of food.

If you are interested in contributing to this volume, please submit a 500-word proposal to science.fiction.food@gmail.com. All submissions will be acknowledged. If you do not receive a confirmation of receipt within 48 hours, you may assume that your email hasn’t reached us for some reason. In that case, please re-submit. Please also direct any questions you might have to the email address indicated above.

FYI: We will most likely first approach European university presses with this project, as they generally move ahead faster than their American counterparts.

Roadmap

November 15, 2018: deadline for abstracts

December 15, 2018: notifications (please note that the acceptance of your abstract does not guarantee your chapter’s inclusion in the collection)

June 30, 2019: chapter drafts due

September 30, 2019: feedback to authors

December 31, 2019: revised chapters due