Verticalities of the Imagination: Futurity and the Contemporary in Urban Science Fiction

Through more than a century of history, from H. G. Wells, the dystopian classics like Fritz Lang’s 1927 film Metropolis and J. G. Ballard’s 1975 novel High Rise, to the iconic cyberpunk films of Blade Runner (1982) or The Matrix (1999), the image of the radically verticalized cityscape has so dominated science fiction as to be almost a cliche. In such a context, this essay reflects on how vertical imaginaries in urban science fiction intersect with the politics and contestations of the fast-verticalising cities around the world.