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  • Revising Reality: How Sequels, Remakes, Retcons, and Rejects Explain the World

    Revising Reality by Gavaler, Chris; Goldberg, Nat;

    How Sequels, Remakes, Retcons, and Rejects Explain the World

      • GET 20% OFF

      • The discount is only available for 'Alert of Favourite Topics' newsletter recipients.
      • Publisher's listprice GBP 17.99
      • The price is estimated because at the time of ordering we do not know what conversion rates will apply to HUF / product currency when the book arrives. In case HUF is weaker, the price increases slightly, in case HUF is stronger, the price goes lower slightly.

        8 594 Ft (8 185 Ft + 5% VAT)
      • Discount 20% (cc. 1 719 Ft off)
      • Discounted price 6 875 Ft (6 548 Ft + 5% VAT)

    8 594 Ft

    db

    Availability

    Estimated delivery time: In stock at the publisher, but not at Prospero's office. Delivery time approx. 3-5 weeks.
    Not in stock at Prospero.

    Why don't you give exact delivery time?

    Delivery time is estimated on our previous experiences. We give estimations only, because we order from outside Hungary, and the delivery time mainly depends on how quickly the publisher supplies the book. Faster or slower deliveries both happen, but we do our best to supply as quickly as possible.

    Long description:

    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.

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    Table of Contents:

    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

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