How Charlie made children hate him: fantasy and reality in stories for small children -- The three lives of Superman -- and everybody else -- Mystery of the amateur detectives: the early days of the Hardy boys -- Giving Horatio Alger goosebumps, or, from Hardy boys to hapless boys: the changing ethos of juveline series fiction -- From the back of the head to beyond the moon: the novel and film This island Earth -- Opposing war, exploiting war: the troubled pacifism of Star trek -- Even better than the real thing: advertising, music videos, postmodernism, and (eventually) science fiction -- Legends of the fall: going not particularly far Behind the music -- Hollywood strikes a pose: seven tales of triumph, treachery, and travail in old Tinseltown -- In defense of stone tablets: Isaac Asimov explains why science fiction is skeptical about "new information technologies" -- Partial derivatives: popular misinterpretations of H.G. Wells's The time machine.