ABSTRACT
Archer's Goon, a witty and intricate fantasy by Diana Wynne Jones, can be read as a parable about the contemporary condition of science fiction (SF). The relationship between printed SF and the sci-fi of film or television or political rhetoric is a complex negotiation whereby certain images are rejected while others are simplified, intensified, and redirected. The information about orbits, antibodies, or relativistic effects that is an important feature of much SF devolves in sci-fi into mere technobabble. The rivalry between Protestant and Catholic was played out through ritualized dramas such as exorcism, condemned by Protestant clergyman Samuel Harsnett as a dialogue between devils. The alternative history of SF involves writers exploring what happens to society, consciousness, emotion, and identity when those things are rethought by scientific investigation and remade through technology.
