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\"Once a book-loving English major, Casey lands a job at a top ad agency that highly values her ability to tell a good story. Her best friend thinks she's a sellout, but Casey tells herself that she's just paying the bills ... When her hard-to-please boss assigns her to a top-secret campaign that pairs literary authors with corporations hungry for upmarket cachet, Casey is both excited and skeptical. But as she crisscrosses America, wooing her former idols, she's shocked at how quickly they compromise their integrity ... Casey can no longer ignore her own nagging doubts about the human cost of her success. By the time the year's biggest book festival rolls around in Las Vegas, it will take every ounce of Casey's moxie to undo the damageand, hopefully, save her own soul\"--Amazon.com.

Although speculative fiction has been variously defined as a subgenre of science fiction, a distinct genre, or a super-category for all non-mimetic genres, I am particularly interested in the notion that it explores the possible, without necessarily relying heavily on technological or scientific details, but rather extrapolates from philosophical or political realities and expands their scope. Judith Merril gives us a strong and productive definition here: 'a special sort of contemporary writing which makes use of fantastic or inventive elements to comment on, or speculate about, society, humanity, life, the cosmos, reality. And any other topic under the general heading of philosophy' (Merril 1967: 3). But I would also propose that speculative fiction might be thought of as a mode of writing. This would be analogous to the way in which elegy is not a poetic form, but a poetic mode, in which certain kinds of dynamics are played out and explored. In the examples that follow, I argue that this is what takes place. But I also argue that speculative fictions which explore women's reproductive rights have distinct approaches to speculation, and that they can, on being read closely, help us to further define the mode of speculative fiction.There are two further elements to the definition of speculative fiction which I would like to propose. One comes from the etymology of the word 'speculate' itself, which can be traced back to the following roots: speculari ('to spy out' or 'to examine'); specularis ('like a mirror'); and specula ('watchtower'). All three of these imply looking at what already exists in reality, but either examining it closely or watching from a distance, as it comes towards us or moves away. I want to bear these dynamics in mind as a way of thinking about speculative fiction. The second set of definitions that are very useful relate to Darko Suvin's notion of the novum and his concept of cognitive estrangement'. Whilst Suvin's discussion could be considered dated, it remains a seminal set of conceptual frameworks for thinking about science fiction and speculative fiction. Taking his cue from the Russian Formalists, he proposes cognitive estrangement as vital to science fiction: 'SF is, then, a literary genre whose necessity and sufficient conditions are the presence and interaction of estrangement and cognition, and whose main formal device is an imaginative framework alternative to the author's empirical environment (Suvin 1979: 6-7; italics in original). Suvin also proposes the term novum or 'strange newness' as an element of any science fiction (4). This estrangement is at least partly about presenting the world in such a way that even elements of it that already exist seem unfamiliar and, thus, draws attention to them. For speculative fiction which explores reproduction, I would like to offer a different slant on these concepts. Maternal dystopias offer the reader a bodily estrangement as well as a cognitive one, where the reproductive body becomes a site of estrangement both to the characters and their readers. I would also offer the notion of the verum as a slightly different version of the novum, not 'new strangeness' but 'true strangeness' of the already known. This is a deliberately political proposal in that it pertains to disempowered groups and refers to a truth that is already obvious, but culturally neglected. Again, this relates very closely to the maternal dystopian texts I will discuss, and signals that they will not contain strong elements of unknown or new science or any great detail in terms of unrealistic world building.

This article will critically appraise the extent to which new developments in the fields of reproductive technology are shown to impact female bodily autonomy and reproductive choice in Eva Hoffman’s novel The Secret. The Secret pushes its readers towards the more pressing and urgent questions arising from ongoing developments within the field of NRT and human cloning in a neoliberal climate. The novel cautions that, ultimately, the individual right to reproductive choice is never completely free; an awareness of external influences and a consideration of possible repercussions is integral to responsible decision-making in the context of NRT and cloning. However, the novel moves towards a possible reconceptualization of NRTs as part of the evolutionary progress of humankind. In returning to the body and biopolitical figurations, this article sees the novel’s protagonist, Iris, and her emergent cyborg identity as a manifestation of Haraway’s monstrous cyborg replete with possibility.

Species-old unease about the essential role played by decomposition in the bodily processes of death and life was complemented for the Victorians, as for us today, by an emergent concern with the fragility and mutability of the self. Literature from the period responded to this modern ambivalence in ways both direct and oblique—and most creatively when acknowledging that the authorial work of composition depended on, and remained in turn subject to, aesthetic processes of breakdown and recycling, transformation and decay. Examples from prose fiction (Bulwer-Lytton, Dickens) and nonfiction (Mill, Carlyle, Pater) frame analyses of poetry (Tennyson, Swinburne, Browning, Hardy) where the topic is analysis itself—that is, decomposition—brought into dialectical synthesis with the integrative character of artistic form.

In “Lord of the Flies,” William Golding integrates the living conditions of human beings into the relationship of the community of destiny between man and nature and reveals the neglect of ecological morality in the modern Western ethical value system with modernity as the core, showing a postmodern ecological ethics consciousness beyond modernity. The novel embodies the ecological integrity of the nonbinary opposition between man and nature, criticizes anthropocentrism and technological rationality that destroy the ecological integrity, and points out that modern science and technology have led to greater ecological disasters due to the lack of ecological ethics. Ecological morality that respects nature and the harmonious coexistence of man and nature is advocated. The forward-looking ecological ethics consciousness contained in the novel is especially thought-provoking in today’s serious ecological problems and lack of ecological ethics. This paper will use ecological psychology as a new interdisciplinary research field to study the relationship between man and nature and open up new horizons and research methods. In this way, we will solve the growing ecological and environmental crisis.

The author has the right to claim or disclaim a work as his own (authorship) and to safeguard the work from distortion, mutilation, and other amendments that would be prejudicial to his or her reputation or honour (integrity).10 Based on moral rights, an author can prevent others from passing offhis or her work as theirs or he or she can block usage of a work, such as in parody, which he or she feels will prejudice his or her honour.11 The purpose of this article is to elucidate the extent to which Sharia law knew or developed means protecting moral rights.12 The article approaches this subject not only historically but also analytically. [...]the article concludes with a set of conclusions. Copyright is about protecting and respecting human thought and creativity, which are valued in Islam.26 In upholding this right, one is protecting human society and the basis of its development.27 Therefore, copyright goes beyond positive law, being fundamental in Sharia law. Early Muslim-Arab society continued the practices of the pre-Islamic period and even broadened them.46 Sharia law includes several considerations whose effects are similar to those of modern intellectual property laws.47 For example, the Caliphs - religious and political leaders who are successors of the Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w)-\"would buy books they considered important and make copies of them after paying an adequate compensation to the author.

The Internet revolution in 1990, followed by the data-driven and information revolution, has transformed the world as we know it. Nowadays, what seam to be 10 to 20 years ago, a science fiction idea (i.e., machines dominating the world) is seen as possible. This revolution also brought a need for new regulatory practices where user trust and artificial Intelligence (AI) discourse has a central role. This work aims to clarify some misconceptions about user trust in AI discourse and fight the tendency to design vulnerable interactions that lead to further breaches of trust, both real and perceived. Findings illustrate the lack of clarity in understanding user trust and its effects on computer science, especially in measuring user trust characteristics. It argues for clarifying those notions to avoid possible trust gaps and misinterpretations in AI adoption and appropriation.

This Note will explore the state of electronic monitoring (EM) in the United States' federal, state, and local justice systems, specifically critiquing the relationship between the government and private corporations in administering these services. Although EM is often thought of as a positive alternative to incarceration, there are severe and negative costs associated with it. The most alarming of those costs is the loss of privacy lived by thousands in the United States. Evolving technologies are making it easier for data to be collected and used to further persecute those in the justice system, arguably in ways that extend beyond justifiable purposes of that system. Few laws protect justice-involved people from being overly surveilled, and government agencies routinely fail to safeguard the privacy of those being monitored. Public corrections agencies relinquish their power to private corporations to implement monitoring practices and collect personal data with limited oversight. Because of the risks associated with the privatization of EM, the government contracts governing the use of EM within the justice system must include standardized requirements and protections to avoid abuses and mitigate the risks identified in this Note. In contracting with private vendors to facilitate EM services, government agencies should implement the European Union General Data Protection Regulation. Adoption of these provisions would ensure that EM of justice-involved individuals is accomplished in a way that fosters cooperation between private corporations and the government and appropriately regulates the management of private data.

Situationists (e.g., Doris in Lack of character: personality and moral behavior, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2002 ; Harman in Proc Aristot Soc 99:315–331, 1999 . https://doi.org/10.2307/4545312 ), with reference to empirical work in psychology, have called into question the predictive and explanatory power of character traits and on this basis have criticized the empirical adequacy of moral virtue. More recently, Alfano (Philos Q 62(247):223–249, 2012 ; Character as moral fiction, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2013 ) has extended the situationist critique from virtue ethics to virtue epistemology. On the line he advances, virtue responsibilism—the view that intellectual character traits play an important part in traditional and untraditional epistemological inquiries—is criticized as empirically inadequate in light of the extent to which individuals are shown to be susceptible to seemingly trivial and epistemically irrelevant situational influences. Alfano’s attempted redeployment of the situationist challenge to virtue responsibilism is on closer inspection not as straightforward as he claims. It is granted that the empirical adequacy of virtue responsibilism will be eventually threatened if it can be shown that virtuous motivation is, in light of situational factors, causally ineffective. As it turns out, various psychological studies which situationists have overlooked, suggest that virtuous motivation is causally efficacious in a way that favours the position of the virtue responsibilist over the situationist. In the first part of this paper, I outline the hard core of virtue theory: both a rich motivation requirement, and a commitment to the inherent relation between virtue and a good life; then I assess whether these are undermined by situationist criticism. I address the confusion of the existing debate, and the conclusion drawn is that virtue theory ultimately remains unscathed. In the second part of my paper I defend the empirical adequacy of virtue theory based on self-determination theory. When we afford closer attention to studies on the orientation of our motivation, it becomes clear how the dynamics of our motivation have a tremendous influence on desirable behavioural outcomes: a good life.

Looking at two short stories from Dilman Dila’s critically acclaimed short story collection, A Killing in the Sun (2014), I explore the controversial use of DDT in rural Uganda as a site of ecoambiguity. My close reading of “The Leafy Man” and “The Yellow People” illumines various paradoxes around the consumption of internationally sponsored insecticide and its subsequent cost to local society. These paradoxes contradict the Manichean thinking of earlier forms of postcolonial nationalism and self-determined nativist thought. I argue that by identifying ecoambiguity as a more appropriate tenor for insecticide usage in Uganda, Dila’s short stories grapple with the realities of the neoliberal African state that must remain open to ambiguity and reconfigurations of the human, as it attempts to come to terms with, and potentially alleviate, local ecodegradation in a global economy.