The past is fixed – what happened happened. But our descriptions of that past are in constant flux, creating branching networks of contradictory accounts more complex than any fictional franchise. Revising Reality uses pop culture and media concepts of revision to untangle our real-world histories – with startlingly revelatory results.
Novels, comics, films, and TV shows can continue previous events (sequels), reinterpret events (retcons), or restart events (remakes), and audiences can ignore any of these revisions (rejects). Drawing on these four kinds of revision derived from franchises such as Star Wars, Harry Potter, The Lord of the Rings, and Marvel comics, Chris Gavaler and Nat Goldberg make sense of the stories we tell about a remarkable range of actual events, including scientific discoveries, Supreme Court cases, historical moments, folk heroes, and even trans names and human memory.
They ask: –
What happened to the original, green-scaled dinosaurs after scientists decided dinosaurs had multi-colored feathers?
When overturning Roe v. Wade, did the Supreme Court end the right to abortion, or did the Court claim that the right of the previous half century never existed?
Since Ronald Reagan increased taxes, expanded government, and championed amnesty for undocumented immigrants, who is the Ronald Reagan whom today’s conservatives champion as a model president?
When a trans person comes out as trans, has their gender changed or has their gender remained consistent?
Are our memories accounts of real events or some kind (or kinds) of revision? And if our memories are in flux, what does that say about our memory-dependent identities?
Revising Reality answers these and so many more questions, providing surprising new tools for explaining the world and our relationship to it.
By:
Dr Chris Gavaler,
Professor Nat Goldberg
Imprint: Bloomsbury Academic
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions:
Height: 234mm,
Width: 156mm,
ISBN: 9781350439610
ISBN 10: 1350439614
Pages: 232
Publication Date: 27 June 2024
Audience:
College/higher education
,
Professional and scholarly
,
Primary
,
Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Introduction: the Histories of History Sequels Remakes Retcons Rejects Moving Forward 1. Rejecting Possibilities Unforced Exorcised Unearthed Mandated TERFed Gated Re-versed Barred 2. Rewriting History Storying Origins Revering Paul Amending Men Trumping Thomas Queering Authors Canceling Culture Hiding History 3. Making America Resolving Winners Remaking America (Great Again) Reckoning Reagan Criticizing the Common Core Objecting to Obamacare Revising Racism Criticizing Critical Race Theory Taking Tenure 4. Retconning Law Ridged Klingons v. Ridgeless Klingons Ministers and Genomes v. Winnie the Pooh Buses v. Cars and Cocaine Trafficking Judicial Retcons v. Legal Sequels Metaphysics v. Epistemology Cannons v. Stun Guns People v. People SCOTUS v. Disregarding Citizens 5. Knowing Science Planets and Dwarves Lizards and Birds Hobbits and Hoaxes Counseling and Cognition Ulcers and Ivermectin Paradigms and Shifts 6. Naming Change A Knight and a Lord A Caliph and a Prince Two Marriages and a Divorce Two Women A Baby and Dear Abby A Star, a King, and a Kennedy A Building and an Institution A Man, a Person, and a Corporation A Person and an Alias 7. Changing Minds Encoring Yesterdays Categorizing Villains Theorizing Characters Alternating Worlds Justifying Cartoonists Combating Memories Forgetting Selves Continuing People Philosophizing Brains Bibliography Index
Chris Gavaler is Associate Professor of English at Washington and Lee University, USA. He is the author of On the Origin of Superheroes (2015), Superhero Comics (Bloomsbury 2017), Superhero Thought Experiments (with Nathaniel Goldberg, 2019), Creating Comics (with Leigh Ann Beavers, Bloomsbury 2020), Revising Fiction, Fact, and Faith: A Philosophical Account (with Nathaniel Goldberg, 2021), and The Comics Form (Bloomsbury 2022). Nathaniel Goldberg is Professor of Philosophy at Washington and Lee University, USA. He is the author of Kantian Conceptual Geography (2014), Superhero Thought Experiments (with Chris Gavaler, 2019) and Revising Fiction, Fact, and Faith: A Philosophical Account (with Chris Gavaler, 2022).
Reviews for Revising Reality: How Sequels, Remakes, Retcons, and Rejects Explain the World
Scholar-author Chris Gavaler takes us through the history of superhero comics in a way that is accessible for any reader, and academically considered enough for any erudite. Gavaler traces the genre from the beginning, commenting on how comic books and graphic novels reflected the culture and events around them, including war and eugenics. * Praise for Superhero Comics authored by Chris Gavaler, JD DeHart, Reading and Literature Resources * This would make the perfect textbook for a class on the history of comics. It’s great for comic fans who want to go beyond the pages of the latest DC or Marvel adventure to understand and appreciate how these stories evolved and what were their origins. * Praise for Superhero Comics authored by Chris Gavaler, Artistic Bent * This lively and timely book engages an impressive breadth of topics in defense of a remarkable thesis: that practices like retconning and rebooting, which find their home in storytelling, are powerful tools for understanding science, history, and much more besides. * Sam Cowling, Associate Professor of Philosophy, Denison University, USA *
