Papers by Kálmán Matolcsy
If all Russian literature emerged from under Gogol's "Overcoat," as Dostoyevsky famously wants us... more If all Russian literature emerged from under Gogol's "Overcoat," as Dostoyevsky famously wants us to believe, it is perhaps arguable that all science fiction propelled by an aversion to technology was originally inscribed in William Blake's "Jerusalem." Blake's view of the industrial settlements as "dark Satanic mills" inspired many similar visions, and Samuel
Video as Water: Chaos, Fertility, and Technology in Hideo Nakata’s Ringu (1998)
The essay tracks... more Video as Water: Chaos, Fertility, and Technology in Hideo Nakata’s Ringu (1998)
The essay tracks down the cultural background of the seminal J-horror, Ringu, from the Japanese kaidan to the obscene dreams of 1980’s video technology. I argue that the quality of water in the film is primarily that of the chaos monster’s propensity to fertility, which in turn is conveyed to the virus-like replication capacity in video (resulting in the qualities of instantaneity, architectonics, and plasticity). The clash of cultural claustrophobia and the awful and awe-ful technology in biogenetic video provides a memetic transcription of Japanese mythology. (2007)
The Mythic Fantasy of Robert Holdstock: Critical …, Jan 1, 2011
Gender Studies, Jan 1, 2004
Drafts by Kálmán Matolcsy
Mi lehet bizonyos történettípusok sikerének a titka? Miért maradhattak fenn máig a tradicionális ... more Mi lehet bizonyos történettípusok sikerének a titka? Miért maradhattak fenn máig a tradicionális kísértettörténetek, a kaidan-ok? Miért néznek a japánok filmes kaidan-t a harmadik évezredben? Talán egy jungi archetípus, a yurei -azaz, japán kísértet -örök visszatéréséről van szó, amely a mítosz folyamatos újjáélesztésére, újraformálására késztet.
G. G. Simpson’s The Dechronization of Sam Magruder is the solitary instance of the great paleonto... more G. G. Simpson’s The Dechronization of Sam Magruder is the solitary instance of the great paleontologist’s venture into the field of speculative fiction. In this respect the posthumously published novella is a highly important work, considering it is the potential distilled essence and the intuitive self-interpretation of a life’s scientific work. Basically a time-travel story, The Dechronization of Sam Magruder touches upon some important problems relative to the ideas inherent in Wells’ seminal work but arrives at a genuinely different conclusion. The novella’s concern is not – not only -- socio-historical in nature. It concentrates on the role of the human race in the history of life itself, the eternal solitude and mental insecurity of man that follow from his special role in evolution. Making ramifications of the concepts of both contingent and teleological evolution collide and contemplating the respective ethical pathways available to man, the novella is a possible positive response to that special condition. The Dechronization of Sam Magruder, and the best of science fiction, show the way and the reason why science provides problems for imagination to handle through speculative fiction. As Gregory Benford emphasizes, “hard SF […] is about the beauty of a small, reasoning reed, which can see past its own mortality and wonder at the vistas beyond. Its essential drama lies in that huge leap of scale.”
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Papers by Kálmán Matolcsy
The essay tracks down the cultural background of the seminal J-horror, Ringu, from the Japanese kaidan to the obscene dreams of 1980’s video technology. I argue that the quality of water in the film is primarily that of the chaos monster’s propensity to fertility, which in turn is conveyed to the virus-like replication capacity in video (resulting in the qualities of instantaneity, architectonics, and plasticity). The clash of cultural claustrophobia and the awful and awe-ful technology in biogenetic video provides a memetic transcription of Japanese mythology. (2007)
Drafts by Kálmán Matolcsy
The essay tracks down the cultural background of the seminal J-horror, Ringu, from the Japanese kaidan to the obscene dreams of 1980’s video technology. I argue that the quality of water in the film is primarily that of the chaos monster’s propensity to fertility, which in turn is conveyed to the virus-like replication capacity in video (resulting in the qualities of instantaneity, architectonics, and plasticity). The clash of cultural claustrophobia and the awful and awe-ful technology in biogenetic video provides a memetic transcription of Japanese mythology. (2007)