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Ubiquitous entropy and heat death in Philip K. Dick and Pamela Zoline
Title
Ubiquitous entropy and heat death in Philip K. Dick and Pamela Zoline.
Creator
Kasdorf, Krista., Florida Atlantic University, Scroggins, Mark
Abstract/Description
My scientifically informed readings of Philip K. Dick's Ubik (1969) and Pamela Zoline's "The Heat Death of the Universe" (1967) consider entropy's multifarious meanings from both thermodynamics and information theory. Additionally, rather than relying upon overarching assumptions about the texts' cultural moment, I explore each fiction's presentation of entropy as negative or positive. For Dick, the loss of female mothering accelerates the heat death of late-capitalistic society, with entropy...
Show moreMy scientifically informed readings of Philip K. Dick's Ubik (1969) and Pamela Zoline's "The Heat Death of the Universe" (1967) consider entropy's multifarious meanings from both thermodynamics and information theory. Additionally, rather than relying upon overarching assumptions about the texts' cultural moment, I explore each fiction's presentation of entropy as negative or positive. For Dick, the loss of female mothering accelerates the heat death of late-capitalistic society, with entropy a negative, destructive force. Zoline, however, recognizes the injurious ramifications of entrapping women within the gender role of self-sacrificing wife/mother; her protagonist purposefully accelerates entropy production to destroy such a closed system.
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Date Issued
2006
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/13359
Subject Headings
Entropy (Information theory), Literature and science, Science fiction, American--History and criticism, Dick, Philip K--Criticism and interpretation, Zoline, Pamela,--1941---Criticism and interpretation
Format
Document (PDF)
Religious violence in Frank Herbert's Dune series
Title
Religious violence in Frank Herbert's Dune series.
Creator
Howard, Kenton Taylor., Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
Abstract/Description
This thesis examines the first two novels of Frank Herbert's Dune series, Dune and Dune Messiah, in order to consider these two novels from the framework of postcolonial theory and analyze how religious violence becomes a source of subjugation, military power, and colonialism within the works. The three chapters of this thesis chart the creation of a colonial project through epistemic violence, physical power, and cultural control enabled by religion. This thesis argues that, in the Dune...
Show moreThis thesis examines the first two novels of Frank Herbert's Dune series, Dune and Dune Messiah, in order to consider these two novels from the framework of postcolonial theory and analyze how religious violence becomes a source of subjugation, military power, and colonialism within the works. The three chapters of this thesis chart the creation of a colonial project through epistemic violence, physical power, and cultural control enabled by religion. This thesis argues that, in the Dune novels, religious violence functions as a colonial project that closely resembles the goals of real-world colonial enterprises, and the failure to manage this colonial project by those who initiated it shows that the effects of colonial projects based on religious violence are dangerous and uncontrollable.
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Date Issued
2012
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/3355558
Subject Headings
Criticism and interpretation, Criticism and interpretation, Science fiction, American, Criticism and interpretation, Dune (Imaginary place), Violence, Religious aspects, Violence in literature
Format
Document (PDF)
Hope on the horizon
Title
Hope on the horizon: Mordecai Roshwald, Cordwainer Smith, and James Tiptree, Jr. look into the future.
Creator
Ebert, Valorie., Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
Abstract/Description
This project considers the future, and the hope for humanity within three dystopian science fiction works : Mordecai Roshwald's Level 7, Cordwainer Smith's "The Dead Lady of Clown Town," and James Tiptree, Jr.,'s "The GIrl Who Was Plugged In". There are many aspects and different manifestations of hope in science fiction, even in authors who show readers the darkest side of human nature and what will become of humans, and by default earth, if an effort is not made to change the world's...
Show moreThis project considers the future, and the hope for humanity within three dystopian science fiction works : Mordecai Roshwald's Level 7, Cordwainer Smith's "The Dead Lady of Clown Town," and James Tiptree, Jr.,'s "The GIrl Who Was Plugged In". There are many aspects and different manifestations of hope in science fiction, even in authors who show readers the darkest side of human nature and what will become of humans, and by default earth, if an effort is not made to change the world's direction. Though some dystopian stories show horrible possible futures, there is an underlying hope within these stories that the story will change readers' thinking about how the future might unfold. It is because there is a chance to save the world that science-fiction-authors tell stories about disasters, destruction, and post apocalyptic scenarios. It is within the hopeless story lines that hope for humanity manifests itself.
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Date Issued
2012
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/3355566
Subject Headings
Criticism and interpretation, Criticism and interpretation, Criticism and interpretation, Speculative fiction, American, Criticism and interpretation, Science fiction, American, Criticism and interpretation, Literature and science, Criticism and interpretation, Dystopias in literature
Format
Document (PDF)