“Concatenation” Spring 2018 Issue (England)

“Concatenation”, An Anglophone Non-Anglocentric SF Site : Spring 2018 “SF2 Concatenation”

Really ? Is it possible or is just science fiction ?

Reading almost any anglophone newspaper, magazine or site, etc., one has the impression that the anglos are living in a parallel universe, on a 100% Anglo-Saxon planet (in a solipsistic, autistic and autarchic way, infused with self-importance and a cocky imperial arrogance), not on Planet Earth were the native Anglophones (from which the so-called WASPS are nowadays less than 50%) are barely 5% from the total world population of 7,6 billion inhabitants.

Anglocentrism

Anglocentrism is the practice of viewing the world from English or Anglo-American perspective, with an implied belief, either consciously or subconsciously, in the preeminence of English or Anglo-American culture, centered and focused on the AngloSFere, especially in relation to any real historical or cultural influences :

Native speakers of English influenced by the unique prominence of English language, act differently than members of other cultural groups.

They take their own “superiority” for granted and allow it to unconsciously shape their subjective world views.

Native speakers of English language are uniquely less-likely to learn other languages, to feel the need to integrate with other cultures, or admit to and accommodate the existence of other cultures and civilisations on the planet Earth.

No need to learn a second language, because “everyone speaks English.”

Lack of respect of all other languages rights: “Why don’t they just learn English ?””

 

Concatenation” is just one a few exceptions, an English Language pro-Europeanist SF site is just a miracle (in favour of European co-operation and cultural interchange) in such a provincial and closed and nombrilist society as the England’s one (a 3% country :

When it comes to international literature, English language readers are the worst-served in the Western world.

Only 3% of the books published annually in England and other Anglophone countries are translated from another language; fiction’s slice is less than 1%.

This contrasts sharply with continental Europe: in France, 17% of books sold in 2015 were translations; in Germany, the figure was 12%, according to Literature Across Frontiers, a translation advocacy network.

Yet the bias for English language literature appears to be universal: two in three European translations are from English language, and about 40% of all novels published in France and especially in smaller European countries, the number of translations from English language can reach an incredible 80% of all translations.

Isn’t this the definition of cultural Imperialism ?

The obvious reason is that a lot of the “global” culture that everybody in the whole world consumes is American. That goes unnoticed in the anglophone countries where is no need to translate the sub-cultural US products.”

“Concatenation”: Spring 2018 “SF2 Concatenation”

Welcome to 2018 and the 200th anniversary of Science Fiction!

New up…

Most recently posted is our usual large-ish, spring season news page that has sections on film, books, TV, as well as the season’s forthcoming books listing of new titles (also and non-fiction) from the major imprints in the British Isles, many of which will soon be available elsewhere.

And then there is the news page’s science as well as science and SF interface section.

Additionally, there is another in our series by scientists who are also SF authors as to their science heroes born in the 20th century (so by-passing Darwin, Einstein etc).

We have SF convention reviews of the 2017 Worldcon as well as two conventions from Spain and two from Britain.

Plus there is our new diary page of national and international-level conventions as well as forthcoming SF/F/H films for 2018 (with some links to trailers).

All this and some 40 standalone SF/F/H and science & non-fiction book reviews. Full details below.

Forthcoming
Coming soon, mid-March, our first this year of our choices as to the best of last year’s Nature ‘Futures’ SF stories. As usual it is a one-page (PDF) short story that has either a bit of a twist and/or edge. We can’t give you a couple of lines teaser as we have yet to finish deciding on which of last year’s 51 stories we think are representative of the best.

Meanwhile, with luck you should find something to tickle your fancy below…

http://www.concatenation.org/

English will not be an official EU language after Brexit, says senior MEP, Danuta Hübner, the head of the European Parliament’s Constitutional Affairs Committee (AFCO), who warned  that English will not be one of the European Union’s official languages after Britain leaves the EU. No other EU country has English as their official language and so it could lose its status.

Over half of Euro-continentals (54%) are able to hold a conversation in at least one additional language, a quarter (25%) are able to speak at least two additional languages and one in ten (10%) are conversant in at least three.

The five most widely spoken foreign languages in continental Europe remain English (38%), French (12%), German (11%), Spanish (7%) and Russian (5%).

In UK the majority of the population (75%) do not know any foreign
languages.

In a fiercely competitive world, being born into an anglophone culture is not quite the blessing it may first appear.”

 

 

1 Comment

  1. The spring edition is even more European than usual with convention reviews from mainland Europe with SF convention views from Finland and two from Spain that together just outnumber the two convention reports from Britain.

    The news page also has an item on the forthcoming French Eurocon.

    Looking beyond Europe, a third of the 40 stand-alone fiction reviews are from N. American authors, and also in the mix is a Chinese SF collection of shorts and a Russian SF classic reviewed.

    The edition can be accessed at html://www.concatenation.org

    And if you want to spread the love on social media, the edition alert is at

    and also