Andy of the Five Towns

It seemed like a good idea at the time: I would buy an Explorer ticket and go and photograph the beach shelter at Margate and pick up a book by Levinas in Whitstable. To fill up the rest of the day I could check out Horseclans novels in Ramsgate and maybe have a coffee at Westwood Chaos or in Ramsgate. The only thing was to be at the campus on the hill for Sean Hughes.

First - after chatting with my elderly neighbour's daughter - was to go to Boots to pick up this month's pills, and catch a bus out to Margate. It might have made more sense to go to Ramsgate first - but I'm not sure how early the bookshop would open, and the light was with me. Against the law that the bus you catch is late and the one you miss is early, this one kept stopping to mesh with its timetable. Curses.

( Margate )

( November is the cruelest month )

( 'I share all your antipathy to the noisy Plebeian excursionist. A visit to Ramsgate during the season and the vision of the crowded, howling sands has left in me feelings which all my Radicalism cannot allay. At the same time I think that the lower orders are seen unfavourably when enjoying themselves. In labour and trouble they are more dignified and less noisy.' )

( Westgate on Sea )

( Herne Bay )

( Whitstable )

( The Carbuncle )

( The Last Leg )

Shameless Self-Promotion

Tuesday 1st December 5.30 Lg26 [Laud]
North Holmes Campus
Canterbury Christ Church University


Dr. Andrew M. Butler
Unsatisfactory Conclusions: The Ends of 1970s Science Fiction Films

The science fiction films of the first half of the 1970s reflect the tumultuous political times in which they were made – the women’s movement, civil rights, gay liberation, President Nixon’s resignation over the Watergate scandal and so on. The films were at best uneasy about the way forward, at times downright pessimistic. These seriously intended, often artistic, films have largely been eclipsed by the success in 1977 of Star Wars, a movie which set the mould for more than thirty years’ of rather more optimistic sf blockbusters. This paper explores the ends of these films from the first half of the 1970s, and the emotions they evoke.

Andrew M. Butler is a world expert in the field of science fiction and has written five books and edited seven on the subject, including two on bestselling comic fantasy writer Terry Pratchett. He is a past winner of the Pioneer Award, given by the Science Fiction Research Association. He has recently spoken at conferences in California and Belgium, as well as in Leicester and Nottingham. This is a great opportunity to hear the fruits of Andrew’s latest research for his next book, Solar Flares, to be published in 2011.

For further information, please contact: Dr. Shane Blackman
shane.blackman@canterbury.ac.uk