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Academic to put sci-fi in spotlight at festival
A University of the Sunshine Coast academic who has just finished a science fiction novel about a futuristic catastrophe will be a presenter at the Noosa Longweekend Festival 2010.
Greg Nash, 38, who lectures in Communication at USC, is delighted to have been invited to speak at the prestigious 10-day festival of theatre, literature, music, dance, film, visual arts and cuisine.
His presentation, “Avatar, aliens and Arthur C Clarke”, will be at the Noosa Arts Theatre from 2pm on Thursday 24 June.
For his recently-submitted USC Doctorate of Creative Arts, Mr Nash spent four years researching how science fiction relates to existing societies, and writing his first, as-yet unpublished, novel “Assimilating Eden”.
Written as a history book from the 25th century, the collated documents look back on the discovery of a new planet called Eden in the 23rd century and the impacts on that planet’s indigenous people.
In it, he coins the word “xegenocide” meaning mass killing of non-human sentient beings.
Mr Nash said the genre of science fiction could both reflect society’s past and teach lessons for its future.
“However, my research found a lot of sci-fi has a hero-driven plot so it omits the bad stuff we can learn from, like the introduction of disease to indigenous communities,” he said.
“Readers of science fiction are therefore being desensitised to the potential for negative consequences in real life, especially as rocket scientists plan more expeditions into space.”
Mr Nash, who graduated from USC with first-class Honours in 2006, said his inclusion in the Noosa festival reflected the diverse expertise available to the University’s Communication and Creative Writing students.
“It’s also exciting to be discussing science fiction, which has a huge fan base but is often hidden from the mainstream,” he said.
— Julie Gatehouse