This would explain why, in the mid-80s, Cronenberg embarked on his first studio picture, and his first (and so far only) remake. Although Cronenberg wasn’t happy with all of it (“I thought the characters were awful, the dialogue trite and the ending bad”), he immediately saw how it would fit with his “body-oriented, very body-conscious” style of filmmaking. Nevertheless, Playboy rejected even speculative short stories that failed to conform to its editorial point of view.“My God, the writer has really rethought and reunderstood it” was Cronenberg’s reaction on reading Pogue’s script. Threats to this identity reemerge through science-fiction narratives, which allow readers to obtain a cool and estranged perspective on otherwise disturbing ideas and emotions.

Like Foucault’s author function, the editor function represents a position of legal, moral, and authorial responsibility that binds together disparate elements into a single, legible identity. Drawing on Michel Foucault and the history of the book, this article uses the example of Hefner to theorize the editorial subject. Thus, the magazine describes female characters such as Clarisse, the “girl next door” in Fahrenheit 451, and Janet Pilgrim, the first girl-next-door Playmate, as media technologies operated by men. Women and other supposedly vulnerable readers were excluded from its audience, appearing instead as instruments for masculine self-contemplation. This claim allowed the magazine to manage public and legal perceptions of its readership, a move that helped Playboy skirt censorship while courting advertisers. During this period, Hefner purported to be the living embodiment of the Playboy enterprise, as well as its target audience. In addition to offering close readings of Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury and “The Fly” by George Langelaan, this essay demonstrates that Playboy editor and publisher Hugh Hefner himself was a science-fictional figure, representing the fantasy of a human merging with a media network.

Through an examination of some of the science-fiction stories published in Playboy magazine from 1953 to 1973, this essay shows that futuristic narratives were integral to the magazine’s editorial sensibility, which suggested that intimate life should be governed by the cool rationality of scientific management. Texto completo no disponible (Saber más.

Localización: American literature: A journal of literary history, criticism and bibliography, ISSN 0002-9831, Vol.

The Fly by George Langelaan