The Philosophy of J.J. Abrams

Contents

Contents Introduction 1 Patricia Brace and Robert Arp Scene 1: Identity Issues “Grey Matters”: Personal Identity in the Fringe Universe(s) 13 A. P. Taylor and Justin Donhauser Person of Interest: The Machine, Gilles Deleuze, and a Thousand Plateaus of Identity 33 Franklin Allaire Are J. J. Abrams’s “Leading Ladies” Really Feminist Role Models? 47 Cynthia Jones Scene 2: Memento Mori The End Is Nigh: Armageddon and the Meaning of Life Found through Death 61 Ashley Barkman The Fear of Bones: On the Dread of Space and Death 71 Jerry S. Piven and Jeffrey E. Stephenson Do We All Need to Get Shot in the Head? Regarding Henry, Nicholas Wolterstorff, and Ethical Transformation 89 Adam Barkman Scene 3: Moral Matters Fringe and “If Science Can Do It, Then Science Ought to Do It” 101 Phil Smolenski and Charlene Elsby An Inconsistent Triad? Competing Ethics in Star Trek into Darkness 117 Jason T. Eberl The Monster and the Mensch 131 Randall E. Auxier Scene 4: Friends and Family Abrams, Aristotle, and Alternate Worlds: Finding Friendship in the Final Frontier 151 Joseph J. Foy Heroic Love and Its Inversion in the Parent-Child Relationship in Abrams’s Star Trek 163 Charles Taliaferro and Emilie Judge-Becker You Can’t Choose Your Family: Impartial Morality and Personal Obligations in Alias 173 Brendan Shea Scene 5: Metaphysically Speaking Is Abrams’s Star Trek a Star Trek Film? 189 Daniel Whiting Determinism, Free Will, and Moral Responsibility in Alias 205 Vishal Garg Finding Directions by Indirection: The Island as a Blank Slate 221 Elly Vintiadis and Spyros D. Petrounakos Scene 6: Your Logic Is Flawless You Can’t Change the Past: The Philosophy of Time Travel in Star Trek and Lost 237 Andrew Fyfe Rabbit’s Feet, Hatches, and Monsters: Mysteries vs. Questions in J. J. Abrams’s Stories 255 Paul DiRado Scene 7: Considering Cloverfield Monsters of the World, Unite! Cloverfield, Capital, and Ecological Crisis 271 Jeff Ewing Cloverfield, Super 8, and the Morality of Terrorism 293 Robert Arp and Patricia Brace Scene 8: Talkin’ ’Bout a Revolution A Place for Revolutions in Revolution? Marxism, Feminism, and the Monroe Republic 315 Jeff Ewing A Light in the Darkness: Ethical Reflections on Revolution 339 Michael Versteeg and Adam Barkman Acknowledgments 359 List of Contributors 361 Index 365 ...