Landon, Brooks
Entry updated 12 September 2022. Tagged: Author, Critic.
(? - ) US teacher and academic, with the University of Iowa from 1978, full professor from 1990; much of his work has focused on science fiction. His primary focus is on Genre SF in various essays and in Science Fiction After 1900: From the Steam Man to the Stars (1997), which provides useful narrative synopses of several significant titles, including William Gibson's Neuromancer (1984), though most authors of recent decades are listed rather than discussed. Landon's interest in sf Cinema has also been winning in its knowledgeable enthusiasm, as expressed in titles like Viewer's Guide for Watch the Sky: The American Science Fiction Movie (1983), published in conjunction with a University of Iowa telecourse with the same name, and the more ambitious The Aesthetics of Ambivalence: Rethinking Science Fiction Film in the Age of Electronic (Re)Production (1992). Thomas Berger (1989), followed by Understanding Thomas Berger (2009) (see Thomas Berger), together comprise a significant attempt to get the measure of an enigmatic and undervalued figure in American literature. Landon received the IAFA Award for distinguished scholarship in 2001. [JC]
Brooks Landon
born
works (selected)
- Viewer's Guide for Watch the Sky: The American Science Fiction Movie (Iowa City, Iowa: The University of Iowa, 1983) [nonfiction: pb/Kathy Thomas]
- The Aesthetics of Ambivalence: Rethinking Science Fiction Film in the Age of Electronic (Re)Production (Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1992) [nonfiction: hb/nonpictorial]
- Science Fiction After 1900: From the Steam Man to the Stars (New York: Simon and Schuster Macmillan/Twayne Publishers, 1997) [nonfiction: in the publisher's Studies in Literary Themes and Genres series: hb/Tim Grajek]
- Thomas Berger (Boston, Massachusetts: Twayne, 1989) [nonfiction: in the publisher's Critical Essays on American Literature series: Thomas Berger: hb/nonpictorial]
- Understanding Thomas Berger (Columbia, South Carolina: University of South Carolina Press, 2009) [nonfiction: in the publisher's Understanding Contemporary American Literature series: Thomas Berger: hb/photographic]
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