scholarly journals Amusing Ourselves until (Dis)appearing in La invención de Morel by Adolfo Bioy Casares

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
pp. 72-78
Author(s):  
Santiago Sevilla-Vallejo
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Human Preference ◽  
Adolfo Bioy Casares ◽  
The Way

La invención de Morel  reflect on how the use of technologies could be fascinating and dangerous at the same time; and the way the island seems to be a space of freedom while it is actually a place of prison and death. La invención de Morel presents a utopian situation that transforms into a dystopia. Characters, especially the narrator, project their desires along with the holograms, but they are deceived without realizing about their loss of reality. The novel uses phantasy and science fiction resources to reflect about the way humans self-imprison. This is studied by analogy to the effects of technologies in today's society. In this sense, the novel by Adolfo Bioy Casares is about a menace due to the human preference of imaginary life over real one. 

The Novel Theology of H. G. Wells

2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 104-123
Author(s):  
Stuart Bell
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
Jesus Christ ◽  
The Novel ◽  
British Army ◽  
Rebecca West ◽  
The Way

Abstract “Lambeth Palace is my Washpot. Over Fulham have I cast my breeches.” So declared the novelist and secularist H. G. Wells in a letter to his mistress, Rebecca West, in May 1917. His claim was that, because of him, Britain was “full of theological discussion” and theological books were “selling like hot cakes”. He was lunching with liberal churchmen and dining with bishops. Certainly, the first of the books published during Wells’s short “religious period”, the novel Mr. Britling Sees It Through, had sold very well on both sides of the Atlantic and made Wells financially secure. Geoffrey Studdert Kennedy (“Woodbine Willie”) wrote that, “Everyone ought to read Mr. H. G. Wells’s great novel, Mr. Britling Sees It Through. It is a gallant and illuminating attempt to state the question, and to answer it. His thought has brought him to a very real and living faith in God revealed in Jesus Christ, and has also brought relief to many troubled minds among the officers of the British Army.” Yet, Wells’s God was explicitly a finite God, and his theology was far from orthodox. How can we account for his boast and for the clerical affirmation which he certainly did receive? This article examines and re-evaluates previous accounts of the responses of clergy to Wells’s writing, correcting some narratives. It discusses the way in which many clergy used Mr. Britling as a means by which to engage in a populist way with the question of theodicy, and examines the letters which Wells received from several prominent clerics, locating their responses in the context of their own theological writings. This is shown to be key to understanding the reaction of writers such as Studdert Kennedy to Mr. Britling Sees It Through. Finally, an assessment is made of the veracity of Wells’s boasting to his mistress, concluding that his claims were somewhat exaggerated. “Lambeth Palace is my Washpot, Over Fulham have I cast my breeches.” Mit diesen Worten erklärte der literarisch außergewöhnlich erfolgreiche und entschieden säkular denkende, kirchenkritische Schriftsteller und Science-Fiction-Pionier Herbert George Wells seiner Geliebten, dass seinetwegen Großbritannien “full of theological discussion” sei. Nicht ohne Eitelkeit schrieb er es seinem im September 1916 mit Blick auf den Krieg geschriebenen und stark autobiographisch gefärbten Roman Mr. Britling Sees it Through von knapp 450 Seiten zu, dass theologische Bücher reißenden Absatz fänden. Auch war er stolz darauf, liberale Kleriker zum Lunch zu treffen und von Bischöfen zum abendlichen Dinner eingeladen zu werden. In einer kurzen Phase seines Lebens war – oder inszenierte sich – Wells als ein frommer, gläubiger Mensch. Sein damals veröffentlichter Roman Mr. Britling Sees It Through verkaufte sich sowohl in Nordamerika als auch im Heimatland so gut, dass der Autor nun definitiv finanziell gesichert war. Der anglikanische Priester und Dichter Geoffrey Studdert Kennedy, der im Ersten Weltkrieg Woodbine Willie genannt wurde, weil er verletzten und sterbenden Soldaten in den Phasen der Vorbereitung auf den Tod Woodbine-Zigaretten anbot, empfahl die Lektüre von Wells’ “great novel” Mr. Britling mit den Worten: “It is a gallant and illuminating attempt to state the question, and to answer it. His thought has brought him to a very real and living faith in God revealed in Jesus Christ, and has also brought relief to many troubled minds among the officers of the British Army.” Allerdings war H. G. Wells’ Gott ein durchaus endlicher Gott, und seine Theologie war alles andere als orthodox. Wie lassen sich dennoch seine evidente Prahlerei und die emphatische Zustimmung zu seinem Roman in den britischen Klerikereliten erklären? Im Aufsatz werden zunächst einige ältere Deutungen der Zustimmung führender Kleriker zu Wells’ Roman untersucht und einige der dabei leitenden Deutungsmuster kritisch infrage gestellt. Deutlich wird, dass nicht wenige anglikanische Geistliche Mr. Britling dazu nutzten, um höchst populistisch das umstrittene Theodizeeproblem anzusprechen. Auch werden die Briefe prominenter Geistlicher an Wells analysiert, mit Blick auf ihre eigenen Publikationen. Diese Reaktionen haben stark Studdert Kennedys Haltung zu Mr. Britling Sees It Through beeinflusst. Besonders aufrichtig war Wells mit Blick auf sich selbst allerdings nicht. Die Selbstinszenierung gegenüber seiner Geliebten war einfach nur peinliche Übertreibung.

A Compact Embodiment of Pluralities and Denial of Origins: Atwood’s The Year of The Flood

2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 141
Author(s):  
Rana Sağıroğlu
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
21St Century ◽  
Social Order ◽  
Margaret Atwood ◽  
Rapid Change ◽  
The Novel ◽  
The World ◽  
Narrative Techniques ◽  
Why Questions ◽  
Near Future

Margaret Atwood, one of the most spectacular authors of postmodern movement, achieved to unite debatable and in demand critical points of 21st century such as science fiction, postmodernism and ecocriticism in the novel The Year of The Flood written in 2009. The novel could be regarded as an ecocritical manifesto and a dystopic mirror against today’s degenerated world, tending to a superficial base to keep the already order in use, by moving away from the fundamental solution of all humanity: nature. Although Atwood does not want her works to be called science fiction, it is obvious that science fiction plays an introductory role and gives the novel a ground explaining all ‘why’ questions of the novel. However, Atwood is not unjust while claiming that her works are not science fiction because of the inevitable rapid change of 21st century world becoming addicted to technology, especially Internet. It is easily observed by the reader that what she fictionalises throughout the novel is quite close to possibility, and the world may witness in the near future what she creates in the novel as science fiction. Additionally, postmodernism serves to the novel as the answerer of ‘how’ questions: How the world embraces pluralities, how heterogeneous social order is needed, and how impossible to run the world by dichotomies of patriarchal social order anymore. And lastly, ecocriticism gives the answers of ‘why’ questions of the novel: Why humanity is in chaos, why humanity has organized the world according to its own needs as if there were no living creatures apart from humanity. Therefore, The Year of The Flood meets the reader as a compact embodiment of science fiction, postmodernism and ecocriticism not only with its theme, but also with its narrative techniques.

Diligent Notes on Laziness: Oblomov, Lenin and the Capitalization of Laziness

2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 243-258
Keyword(s):  
Psychiatric Hospital ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Work Analysis ◽  
Main Obstacle ◽  
Almost All ◽  
Russian Linguistic ◽  
The Way

The essay investigates the phenomenon of laziness by first analyzing the opposition between laziness and the good. Both utility and the good make reference to labor. This opposition between labor and laziness is pivotal in Oblomov, Ivan Goncharov’s famous novel written in 1859. It marks a radical transition from a feudal paradigm to a capitalistic one. The two main characters in the novel are Ilya Ilyich Oblomov, a Russian, and Andrey Ivanovich Stolz, a German, who together seem to personify the contradiction between laziness and labor. But the purpose of the essay is to deconstruct that opposition. In this connection, one can cite Kazimir Malevich, who maintained that laziness is the Mother of Perfection and is always unconsciously inherent in the conscious intent to work. Analysis of the Latin concepts of otium and negotium indicates that the laziness/labor opposition may be deconstructed as a dialectic between labor and its opposite. In other words, laziness does not stand in contradiction to labor but is instead its inseparable dialectical other. In the last part of the essay, the article considers the thinking of Anatoly Peregud, a poet who spent almost all his life in a psychiatric hospital. According to Peregud, Lenin derived his pseudonym from the Russian linguistic root “len” (laziness) in order to make laziness central to communism. For his part, Lenin saw Oblomov as an emblem of the main obstacle standing in the way of communism.

The Castle of Otranto

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Horace Walpole
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Literary Genre ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Gothic Fiction ◽  
English Novel ◽  
Game Changer ◽  
The Way ◽  
The Grotesque

‘Look, my lord! See heaven itself declares against your impious intentions’ The Castle of Otranto (1764) is the first supernatural English novel and one of the most influential works of Gothic fiction. It inaugurated a literary genre that will be forever associated with the effects that Walpole pioneered. Professing to be a translation of a mysterious Italian tale from the darkest Middle Ages, the novel tells of Manfred, prince of Otranto, whose fear of an ancient prophecy sets him on a course of destruction. After the grotesque death of his only son, Conrad, on his wedding day, Manfred determines to marry the bride–to–be. The virgin Isabella flees through a castle riddled with secret passages. Chilling coincidences, ghostly visitations, arcane revelations, and violent combat combine in a heady mix that terrified the novel's first readers. In this new edition Nick Groom examines the reasons for its extraordinary impact and the Gothic culture from which it sprang. The Castle of Otranto was a game-changer, and Walpole the writer who paved the way for modern horror exponents.

scholarly journals Becoming a Crorepati: From Glocal TV Game to Grobal Fiction

2020 ◽  
Vol 73 (3) ◽  
pp. 497-520
Author(s):  
Nicola Pozza
Keyword(s):  
Effective Means ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Cultural Products ◽  
Slumdog Millionaire ◽  
Interactive Nature ◽  
Tv Show ◽  
Shed Light ◽  
The Way

AbstractNumerous studies have dealt with the process of globalization and its various cultural products. Three such cultural products illustrate this process: Vikas Swarup’s novel Q and A (2005), the TV quiz show Kaun banega crorepati? (Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?), and Danny Boyle’s film Slumdog Millionaire (2008). The novel, the TV show and the film have so far been studied separately. Juxtaposing and comparing Q and A, Kaun banega crorepati, and Slumdog Millionaire provides an effective means to shed light on the dialogic and interactive nature of the process of globalization. It is argued through this case study that an analysis of their place of production, language and content, helps clarify the derivative concepts of “glocalization” and “grobalization” with regard to the way(s) contemporary cultural products respond to globalization.

An Improved Mathematical Model of Galton Board With Velocity-Dependent Restitution

2017 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Auni Aslah Mat Daud
Keyword(s):  
Mathematical Model ◽  
Random Walk ◽  
Symbolic Dynamics ◽  
Coefficient Of Restitution ◽  
Dynamics Analysis ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Francis Galton ◽  
The Way

A Galton board is an instrument invented in 1873 by Francis Galton (1822–1911). It is a box with a glass front and many horizontal nails or pins embedded in the back and a funnel. Galton and many modern statisticians claimed that a lead ball descending to the bottom of the Galton board would display random walk. In this study, a new mathematical model of Galton board is developed, to further improve three very recently proposed models. The novel contribution of this paper is the introduction of the velocity-dependent coefficient of restitution. The developed model is then analyzed using symbolic dynamics. The results of the symbolic dynamics analysis prove that the developed Galton board model does not behave the way Galton envisaged.

Harriet Martineau’s Epistemology of Gossip

2014 ◽  
Vol 69 (2) ◽  
pp. 175-207
Author(s):  
Kristen A. Pond
Keyword(s):  
Ways Of Knowing ◽  
Main Function ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Domestic Novel ◽  
Forms Of Knowledge ◽  
The Way

Kristen A. Pond, “Harriet Martineau’s Epistemology of Gossip” (pp. 175–207) This essay is a fresh examination of Harriet Martineau’s only domestic novel, Deerbrook (1838). Though the novel seems like an interruption to those writings considered more typical of the author, and more successful, this essay traces the way in which Deerbrook’s preoccupation with epistemology connects it in important ways to the rest of Martineau’s oeuvre. While in most of her writing Martineau gives preference to what the Victorians considered to be empirical and rational ways of knowing, in Deerbrook she focuses on more typically feminized knowledge forms that rely on speculation and intuition, in particular the discourse of gossip. This essay argues that gossip’s main function in Deerbrook is not as plot device or didactic warning; rather, it functions as an epistemological category that challenges Enlightenment presumptions to certain knowledge. Read as a source of knowledge rather than a female vice, gossip becomes the tool through which Martineau raises the possibility of alternative forms of knowledge that might counter, or at least complicate, assumptions about what constitutes certain truth and right knowledge.

scholarly journals Disfluencies signal reference to novel objects for adults but not children

2017 ◽  
Vol 45 (3) ◽  
pp. 581-609 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah J. OWENS ◽  
Justine M. THACKER ◽  
Susan A. GRAHAM
Keyword(s):  
Young Children ◽  
Spoken Language ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Novel Object ◽  
Filled Pauses ◽  
Novel Objects ◽  
Novel Targets ◽  
The Way ◽  
Familiar Objects

AbstractSpeech disfluencies can guide the ways in which listeners interpret spoken language. Here, we examined whether three-year-olds, five-year-olds, and adults use filled pauses to anticipate that a speaker is likely to refer to a novel object. Across three experiments, participants were presented with pairs of novel and familiar objects and heard a speaker refer to one of the objects using a fluent (“Look at the ball/lep!”) or disfluent (“Look at thee uh ball/lep!”) expression. The salience of the speaker's unfamiliarity with the novel referents, and the way in which the speaker referred to the novel referents (i.e., a noun vs. a description) varied across experiments. Three- and five-year-olds successfully identified familiar and novel targets, but only adults’ looking patterns reflected increased looks to novel objects in the presence of a disfluency. Together, these findings demonstrate that adults, but not young children, use filled pauses to anticipate reference to novel objects.

Recreating Experience in Nigerian Fiction: Camillus Ukah’s Sweet Things and the Politics of its Production

2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Solomon Awuzie
Keyword(s):  
Postcolonial Literature ◽  
Third Generation ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Creative Activity ◽  
Nigerian Literature ◽  
The Way

This article contends that, in the same way as some postcolonial literature, the latter third generation Nigerian literature is a product of the writer’s experience. When the writer does not reproduce his sociopolitical experience, he reshapes his expectations into literature. The writer manipulates his experience into creative activity that fulfils his innate desire – this is the same desire which he is ordinarily unable to achieve in reality. This article argues further that even though the literature is a product of the writer’s experience, it is harmless and beneficent. Using Camillus Ukah’s Sweet Things as a representative text of the fiction produced by a latter third generation Nigerian literature writer, emphasis is made on the way in which Camillus Ukah has recreated his experience. It concludes that through the novel, Ukah expresses his bitterness towards a certain matrimonial experience that is of his particular concern.

THE INFLUENCE OF THE ARCHETYPE OF THE WAY ON THE FORMATION OF THE PERSONALITY IN THE NOVEL PAPER TOWNS BY JOHN GREEN

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (97) ◽  
pp. 9-28
Author(s):  
Наталія Юріївна Бондар
Keyword(s):  
Skin Color ◽  
Growing Up ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Historical Method ◽  
Holistic Analysis ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Metaphorical Extension ◽  
Short Time ◽  
Good And Evil ◽  
The Way

The article deals with the influence of the archetype of the way on the formation of the personality in the novel Paper Towns by John Green. The purpose of this article is to determine the originality of the image of an American teenager and to identify the influence of the archetype of the way on the formation of the personality, as well as to consider the archetype of the way as a real path of the character in the novel Paper Towns by John Green, taking into account the individual author’s interpretation. This object of research has been chosen because through it one can comprehend the specifics of the psychology of a teenager and define the artistic features that distinguish the author’s stylistics and worldview. The comprehensive research methodology has been used in the work: the synthesis of the comparative historical method, holistic analysis, elements of mythopoetic and hermeneutic methods. In the novel Paper Towns by John Green mythopoetic consciousness presupposes ontological ambivalent intentions in the archetype of the child / teenager (good and evil children). The metaphorical extension of the archetype of the child / teenager has been revealed in this article. All the images of teenagers are given in the development, on the way to growing up. The originality of the archetype of the way here lies in the fact that it merges with the concepts of Space and Chaos, confirming the idea of the unity of mankind. The metaphors themselves are also peculiar, associated with the archetype of the way: inanimate strings, gradually turning into living blades of grass, intertwined with roots with all that exists. During the search for Margo, Quentin grows up significantly, becomes more tolerant to their friends, and he learns to take responsibility for him. The image of Margo is the image of a rebel against any lack of freedom that it is inevitable in the “golden cage”. It is also revealed how Quentin is influenced by the new world opened during his trips, and his personal environment: for example, Radar opens his eyes to the fact that he does not need to demand too much from others. Both Margo is changed (from a “paper” girl – to a real one) and Ben and Radar are changed (false interests go into the background; everyone learns to expose himself to risks and troubles for the sake of friendship and human salvation). Ben and Radar are also shown in the development, in a short time they learn to understand each other and distinguish false values from true ones. These changes occur with all the teenagers, regardless of their skin color and nationality, and such an interpretation of the insignificance of formal differences is also a new word of the author.

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