Lonely Stardust: Two Plays, a Speech, and Eight Essays

“We need struggle and serendipity,” Andrea Hairston recently proclaimed. “We are cyborgs, animals incorporating our tools/technology into our bodies and altering/creating the universe we inhabit and that produces us. Story is one of our most powerful, world changing, universe altering technologies!”
Lonely Stardust: Two Plays, a Speech, and Eight Essays brings us the text of nine marvelous works of scholarly performance as well as two works of drama in which the fantastic shows us the way through despair. In several of the pieces here, Hairston’s sharp, visionary eye examines Hollywood blockbusters and finds a great deal to think about, even as she impatiently slices through hackneyed received views that do popular culture and its fans no favors. Taken together, these essays and plays broadcast a message of hope and intelligence that defiantly insists that our ability and desire to tell stories defines our humanity and is one of our most valuable resources.
Reviews
“The common denominator in Hairston's diverse interests is that they all elevate the art of storytelling. Her new works continue an ongoing exploration of science, art and culture, and how we use them to navigate life and our sense of the world. Part meditation, part contemplation, part invitation, her work is infused with what Hairston has come to see as a few fundamental, interconnected truths: that our stories define us, not everything can be explained and play is critical to our survival.”
—“The Enchantment of Imagining,” Jane Falla, Insight, July 18, 2014
“MORE THAN ANYTHING, Dr. Andrea Hairston's collection from Aqueduct Press reflects the force and influence of narrative, even cheesy narratives. Through her essays, her Guest of Honor speech at WisCon 36, and two of her plays, Dr. Hairston shows us how different narratives lend power to different perspectives. It’s not every day that we get a collection that includes movie reviews and the scripts for plays, but Aqueduct was wise in putting these together. They form a cohesive whole, and illuminate multiple facets of this award winning author.... The fact that Hairston is able to get as much meaning and mileage out of an (otherwise forgettable) sf thriller such as Source Code as she does out of the work of Bertold Brecht is the sign of an intellect both wide-ranging and playful. Reading these essays makes me appreciate her storytelling all the more, and I’d encourage more authors to put together collections of this kind.”
—Los Angeles Review of Books, Karen Burnham, Sept 22, 2014