{"title":"Liz W Faber","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"computer-s-voice-book-liz-w-faber-9781517909765","title":"The Computer's Voice","description":"A deconstruction of gender through the voices of Siri, HAL 9000, and other computers that talk   Although computer-based personal assistants like Siri are increasingly ubiquitous, few users stop to ask what it means that some assistants are gendered female, others male. Why is Star Trek’s computer coded as female, while HAL 9000 in 2001: A Space Odyssey is heard as male? By examining how gender is built into these devices, author Liz W. Faber explores contentious questions around gender: its fundamental constructedness, the rigidity of the gender binary, and culturally situated attitudes on male and female embodiment.  Faber begins by considering talking spaceships like those in Star Trek, the film Dark Star, and the TV series Quark, revealing the ideologies that underlie space-age progress. She then moves on to an intrepid decade-by-decade investigation of computer voices, tracing the evolution from the masculine voices of the ’70s and ’80s to the feminine ones of the ’90s and ’00s. Faber ends her account in the present, with incisive looks at the film Her and Siri herself.  Going beyond current scholarship on robots and AI to focus on voice-interactive computers, The Computer’s Voice breaks new ground in questions surrounding media, technology, and gender. It makes important contributions to conversations around the gender gap and the increasing acceptance of transgender people.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":49736961786129,"sku":"NGR9781517909765","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50097354899729,"sku":"CIN1517909767VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50378661331217,"sku":"CIN1517909767G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1517909767.jpg?v=1764842582"},{"product_id":"robot-suicide-book-liz-w-faber-9781666910483","title":"Robot Suicide","description":"In Robot Suicide: Death, Identity, and AI in Science Fiction, Liz W Faber blends cultural studies, philosophy, sociology, and medical sciences to show how fictional robots hold up a mirror to our cultural perceptions about suicide and can help us rethink real-world policies regarding mental health. For decades, we've been asking whether we could make a robot live; but a new question is whether a living robot could make itself die. And if it could, how might we humans react? Suicide is a longstanding taboo in Western culture, particularly in relationship to mental health, marginalized identities, and individual choice. But science fiction offers us space to tackle the taboo by exploring whether and under what circumstances robots--as metaphorical stand-ins for humans--might choose to die. Faber looks at a broad range of science fiction, from classics like The Terminator franchise to recent hits like C. Robert Cargill's novel Sea of Rust.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":50464130760977,"sku":"NGR9781666910483","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50555078148369,"sku":"GOR013997120","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51688109113617,"sku":"NIN9781666910483","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52670766219537,"sku":"NLS9781666910483","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1666910481.jpg?v=1759402596"},{"product_id":"under-the-mistletoe-book-liz-w-faber-9781476693781","title":"Under the Mistletoe","description":"When you think of holiday romance in popular culture, you probably imagine the formulaic made-for-TV movies we all love to watch: a career gal moves from the big city to a small town, where she finds the love of her life and the true meaning of Christmas. Yet, as with so much of the romance genre, our favorite holiday movies, books, TV episodes, and plays are so much richer than the oft-derided formula. The 22 chapters in this volume turn a scholarly eye to one of our most beloved and under-examined subgenres, offering celebrations and criticisms alike of Christmas, New Year, Hanukkah, and Diwali romances.     This work includes voices from global scholars across an impressive breadth of disciplines: literature, history, theatre, media, gender and sexuality studies, sociology, psychology, anthropology, law, and victim studies. Readers will delight in celebrations of old classics like Christmas in Connecticut, new favorites like A Holly Jolly Diwali, and everything in between.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52683387109649,"sku":"NLS9781476693781","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9781476693781.jpg?v=1762320530"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/collections\/author-books-by-liz-w-faber.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}