NEBULA4.2, June 2007 A nebula could have been so many astronomical entities: a black hole, a supermassive black hole, a white hole, a syzygy, a neutron star, a white dwarf, a red giant.Nebula becomes a nebula because it exemplifies and embodies the dual pulsations of explosion and implosion; the scattering of matter limitlessly through a galaxy and its concentration in a point of pure density; the expansion and dissolution of objects lodged precariously in a space simultaneously supporting their mass and swallowing them up. In a nebula, matter of all ilks detonates, consumed by the fiery passion of an excess energy which no spatial limit can hope to absorb.Nebula 4.2also contains its fair share of concatenations, some of them aesthetic, others political, all of them resonant with contemporary cultural, philosophical, textual and visual concerns. Genres redefine themselves through the international coming out/coming in story, the interactive feature film, the poeticization of post-60s rock n roll, and anarcho-Taoist approaches to feminist science fiction.By their side, other constellations burst into flames: politically, a post-Oslo Palestine articulates the necessity of self-determination in the wake of colonial bellicosity, and a manifesto of technological existentialism enters the cyborg fray with a fresh perspective on the moral relevance of corporeal modification. Enjoy these fluctuations and make them yours.