Current Search: Dick, Philip K--Criticism and interpretation (x) » Scroggins, Mark (x)
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Title
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Ubiquitous entropy and heat death in Philip K. Dick and Pamela Zoline.
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Creator
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Kasdorf, Krista., Florida Atlantic University, Scroggins, Mark
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Abstract/Description
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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
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2006
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PURL
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http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/13359
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Subject Headings
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Entropy (Information theory), Literature and science, Science fiction, American--History and criticism, Dick, Philip K--Criticism and interpretation, Zoline, Pamela,--1941---Criticism and interpretation
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Format
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Document (PDF)
