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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)
Mythological backgrounds in Sheri S. Tepper's fiction
Title
Mythological backgrounds in Sheri S. Tepper's fiction.
Creator
Carroll, Lonna Pomeroy., Florida Atlantic University, Collins, Robert A.
Abstract/Description
Sheri S. Tepper, using postmodern literary techniques, utilizes ancient story forms to examine our contemporary world in three science fiction novels. Classical Greek mythology in the form of a parodic drama, "Iphigenia at Ilium" is intricately woven into The Gate to Women's Country. European fairy tale characters become metaphors for a postmodern world threatened by overpopulation and the loss of magic in Beauty. An American Indian fable, featuring Coyote, provides the mythic paradigm for A...
Show moreSheri S. Tepper, using postmodern literary techniques, utilizes ancient story forms to examine our contemporary world in three science fiction novels. Classical Greek mythology in the form of a parodic drama, "Iphigenia at Ilium" is intricately woven into The Gate to Women's Country. European fairy tale characters become metaphors for a postmodern world threatened by overpopulation and the loss of magic in Beauty. An American Indian fable, featuring Coyote, provides the mythic paradigm for A Plague of Angels. Each ancient story form is re-worked into Tepper's postmodernist fiction giving a new slant to familiar stories that highlight Tepper's feminist, ecological themes: of the folly of war, the threat of overpopulation, and mankind's interconnectedness to all living creatures.
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Date Issued
1996
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/15317
Subject Headings
Tepper, Sheri S--Criticism and interpretation, Mythology in literature, Science fiction--History and criticism, Fantastic literature--History and criticism
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)
Would Lord Running Clam wear Wubfur slippers? The ethical imperative of empathy in the alternate ecologies of Philip K. Dick
Title
Would Lord Running Clam wear Wubfur slippers? The ethical imperative of empathy in the alternate ecologies of Philip K. Dick.
Creator
Aaronson, Russell S., Florida Atlantic University, Collins, Robert A., Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
Abstract/Description
Although critics have observed Philip K. Dick's references to empathy throughout his novels, short stories, and essays, no analysis has attempted to examine the role of empathy in his writings. In contrast to the element of ratiocination (or logical extrapolation) widely considered to be the hallmark of science fiction, Dick's fictions are held together by the value they primarily place not on reason, but on an empathic understanding of our actions and their effects upon the lives of other...
Show moreAlthough critics have observed Philip K. Dick's references to empathy throughout his novels, short stories, and essays, no analysis has attempted to examine the role of empathy in his writings. In contrast to the element of ratiocination (or logical extrapolation) widely considered to be the hallmark of science fiction, Dick's fictions are held together by the value they primarily place not on reason, but on an empathic understanding of our actions and their effects upon the lives of other entities. Using two early short stories ("Beyond Lies the Wub" and "Roog"), two non-Earth ecologies (Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep and Dr. Bloodmoney). I will demonstrate that Dick's works are united by an ethical imperative to understand the thoughts and emotions of others, human and nonhuman alike.
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Date Issued
1996
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/15339
Subject Headings
Dick, Philip K--Criticism and interpretation, Dick, Philip K--Ethics, Empathy in literature, Science fiction--History and criticism
Format
Document (PDF)
Strange time
Title
Strange time: block universes and strange loop phenomena in two novels by Kurt Vonnegut.
Creator
Altomare, Francis C., Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
Abstract/Description
Einsteinian relativity forever altered our understanding of the metaphysics of time. This study considers how this scientific theory affects the formulation of time in postmodern narratives as a necessary step toward understanding the relationship between empirical science and literary art. Two novels by Kurt Vonnegut, The Sirens of Titan and Slaughterhouse-Five, exemplify this synthesis. Close readings of these texts reveal an underlying temporal scheme deeply informed by relativity....
Show moreEinsteinian relativity forever altered our understanding of the metaphysics of time. This study considers how this scientific theory affects the formulation of time in postmodern narratives as a necessary step toward understanding the relationship between empirical science and literary art. Two novels by Kurt Vonnegut, The Sirens of Titan and Slaughterhouse-Five, exemplify this synthesis. Close readings of these texts reveal an underlying temporal scheme deeply informed by relativity. Furthermore, this study explores how relativity manifests in these texts in light of the block universe concept, Gèodelian universes, and strange loop phenomena. Vonnegut's treatment of free will is also discussed. All of these considerations emphasize Vonnegut's role as a member of the Third Culture, an author who consciously bridges C.P. Snow's two cultures.
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Date Issued
2010
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/2684306
Subject Headings
Criticism and interpretation, Criticism and interpretation, Postmodernism (Literature), Literature and science, Science and the humanities in literature, Space and time in literature
Format
Document (PDF)
Diamonds and Ash: Class and Social Mobility in Seventeenth Century Cinderella
Title
Diamonds and Ash: Class and Social Mobility in Seventeenth Century Cinderella.
Creator
Diaz de Arce, Laura, Swanstrom, Elizabeth, Florida Atlantic University, Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
Abstract/Description
This thesis discusses the intersections of class and the lack of social mobility in three versions of Cinderella from the seventeenth century. The works covered are are Giambattista Basile's "La Gatta Cennerentola" ["The Cat Cinderella"] (c.1634), Charles Perrault's "La Petite Pantoufle de Verre" ["The Glass Slipper"] (1697), and Marie- Catherine D'Aulnoy's "Finette Cendrone" ["Clever Cinderella"] (1697). The seventeenth-century versions of Cinderella all reaffirm the existing class system....
Show moreThis thesis discusses the intersections of class and the lack of social mobility in three versions of Cinderella from the seventeenth century. The works covered are are Giambattista Basile's "La Gatta Cennerentola" ["The Cat Cinderella"] (c.1634), Charles Perrault's "La Petite Pantoufle de Verre" ["The Glass Slipper"] (1697), and Marie- Catherine D'Aulnoy's "Finette Cendrone" ["Clever Cinderella"] (1697). The seventeenth-century versions of Cinderella all reaffirm the existing class system. In each of these versions the message is that the ruling elite must maintain or regain to their status. We can see this by the ways in which the characters gain and lose status in their respective narratives. Ultimately, the early modern Cinderella story is one that supports a hereditary class system.
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Date Issued
2016
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00004585, http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00004585
Subject Headings
Basile, Giambattista,--1575-1632.--La gatta cennerentola--Criticism and interpretation., Perrault, Charles,--1628-1703.--Petite pantoufle de verre--Criticism and interpretation., Aulnoy,--Madame d'--(Marie-Catherine),--1650 or 1651-1705.--Finette cendrone--Criticism and interpretation., Fairy tales--17th century--Criticism and interpretation, Social classes in literature--17th century., Elite (Social sciences )--17th century--History and criticism.
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)
compass of human will in realism and fantasy
Title
The compass of human will in realism and fantasy: a reading of Sister Carrie and The King of Elfand's Daugher.
Creator
Stone, Tracy., Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
Abstract/Description
As realist and naturalist writers at the turn of the twentieth century adopted a scientific spirit of objectivity, they reflected the emphasis many contemporary scientific studies laid on the forces of the natural world in shaping the character, behavior, and ultimate destiny of man. In this literary mood of "pessimistic determinism," fantasy literature began to experience a resurgence, providing a marked contrast to naturalism's portrayal of the impotence of man to effect change in his...
Show moreAs realist and naturalist writers at the turn of the twentieth century adopted a scientific spirit of objectivity, they reflected the emphasis many contemporary scientific studies laid on the forces of the natural world in shaping the character, behavior, and ultimate destiny of man. In this literary mood of "pessimistic determinism," fantasy literature began to experience a resurgence, providing a marked contrast to naturalism's portrayal of the impotence of man to effect change in his circumstances. I examine fantasy's restoration of efficacy to the human will through a study of two representative works of the opposing genres: Theodore Dreiser's Sister Carrie and Lord Dunsany's The King of Elfland's Daughter. As I demonstrate, the former naturalistic novel emphasizes the impotence of its characters in the face of powerful natural world, while the latter contemporary fantasy novel uniquely showcases man's ability to effect change in his world and his destiny.
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Date Issued
2009
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/221950
Subject Headings
Criticism and interpretation, Criticism and interpretation, Realism in literature, Naturalism in literature, Literature and science, Life change events in literature, Fantasy fiction, English, Criticism and interpretation
Format
Document (PDF)
post-apocalyptic, the cyborg, and the passage of time
Title
The post-apocalyptic, the cyborg, and the passage of time: a reading of the parallels of science fiction and the works of Samuel Beckett.
Creator
Pancho, Aaron., Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
Abstract/Description
This study is an examination of the several themes and conventions of science fiction that seem to appear in the texts of Samuel Beckett. Expectedly, many of the texts produced by both science fiction and Beckett just before, during, and immediately after World War II share similar concerns; though perhaps less expectedly, these two relatively unlike bodies of work can be used to help better understand and illuminate one another. In Waiting for Godot, nuclear anxieties shed light on the play...
Show moreThis study is an examination of the several themes and conventions of science fiction that seem to appear in the texts of Samuel Beckett. Expectedly, many of the texts produced by both science fiction and Beckett just before, during, and immediately after World War II share similar concerns; though perhaps less expectedly, these two relatively unlike bodies of work can be used to help better understand and illuminate one another. In Waiting for Godot, nuclear anxieties shed light on the play's apparent post-apocalyptic landscape and the profound emptiness that permeates the stage. In Molloy, Hugh Kenner uses Centaur imagery to explain the title character's Cartesian relationship with his bicycle; however, contemporary sensibilities at the time of the novel's publication suggests a cyborg reading of the Molloy/bicycle hybrid can also be productive. And in Krapp's Last Tape, the tape recorder serves as a figurative time machine, which allows readers to consider the ways technology continues to allow for the capture of time and subsequent reflection.
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Date Issued
2011
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/3318674
Subject Headings
Criticism and interpretation, Criticism and interpretation, Criticism and interpretation, Cybernetics in literature, Cyborgs in literature, Literature and science
Format
Document (PDF)
Divine alchemy in Paradise Lost
Title
Divine alchemy in Paradise Lost.
Creator
Rutherford, Andrea J., Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
Abstract/Description
This study examines the themes of alchemy and transformation in Paradise Lost and seventeenth-century thought. Beginning with an overvieiw of the historical roots of alchemy, this study analyzes the ancient, underlying philosophical concepts that marital union produces the birth of the soul and that destruction is necessary for this birth. Alchemical references identified in Paradise Lost include animal lore and direct alchemical images, which demonstrate Milton's knowledge of alchemy and his...
Show moreThis study examines the themes of alchemy and transformation in Paradise Lost and seventeenth-century thought. Beginning with an overvieiw of the historical roots of alchemy, this study analyzes the ancient, underlying philosophical concepts that marital union produces the birth of the soul and that destruction is necessary for this birth. Alchemical references identified in Paradise Lost include animal lore and direct alchemical images, which demonstrate Milton's knowledge of alchemy and his deliberate use of the alchemical metaphor. These themes support the proposal that Milton, a Christian humanist, uses alchemy as a metaphor described in this study as "divine alchemy," which begins with his belief that Christians, inheriting original sin, must submit themselves to a transformative process similar to transmutation to restore right reason and, ultimately, achieve salvation.
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Date Issued
2012
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/3358963
Subject Headings
Criticism and interpretation, Influence, Knowledge, Science, Symbolism in literature, Science in literature, Literature and science, History
Format
Document (PDF)