Chaos Theory, Asimov's Foundations and Robots, and Herbert's Dune

Chaos Theory, Asimov's Foundations and Robots, and Herbert's Dune
Author: Donald Palumbo
Publisher: Praeger
Total Pages: 264
Release: 2002-12-30
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN:

Isaac Asimov and Frank Herbert remain two of the most popular and influential science fiction writers of the 20th century. Each is a master structuralist whose works succeed in large part through the careful mirroring of concepts at every narrative level. While the fiction of Herbert and Asimov has attracted scholarly attention, science itself is a crucial element that is almost completely ignored in critical assessments of science fiction as literature. Because the works of Asimov and Herbert are grounded in scientific premises, an appreciation of their literary structure depends on an understanding of the scientific concepts informing them. This book examines Herbert's Dune series and Asimov's Foundation trilogy and robot stories from the perspective of chaos theory to elucidate the structure of their works. Chaos theory is the study of orderly patterns in turbulent, dynamic, or erratic systems. The order of these systems stems from the interdependence of numerous interlocking events or components. These may take the form of fractal structures, in which similar but not necessarily identical structures are replicated across the same scale and increasingly smaller scales. This book argues that in drawing upon apparently chaotic natural and scientific systems, Herbert and Asimov created fractal narrative structures in their works.

An Asimov Companion

An Asimov Companion
Author: Donald E. Palumbo
Publisher: McFarland
Total Pages: 195
Release: 2016-05-05
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 0786498234

A prolific author, Isaac Asimov is most admired for his science fiction, including his collection of short stories I, Robot and his Robot, Empire and Foundation series novels. While each of these narratives takes place in a different fictional universe, Asimov asserted at the end of his career that he had, with his last Robot and Foundation novels, unified them into one coherent metaseries. This reference work identifies and describes all of the characters, locales, artifacts, concepts and institutions in Asimov's metaseries. Mimicking the style of The Encyclopedia Galactica, the fictional compendium of all human knowledge that features prominently in the Foundation series, this encyclopedia is an invaluable companion to Asimov's science fiction oeuvre.

Frank Herbert's "Dune"

Frank Herbert's
Author: Kara Kennedy
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 120
Release: 2022-09-30
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 3031139356

This book offers a critical study of Frank Herbert’s Dune (1965), the world’s bestselling science fiction novel. Kara Kennedy discusses the novel’s exploration of politics and religion, its influential ecological messages, the focus on the human mind and consciousness, the complex nature of the archetypal hero, and the depiction of women’s influence and control. In Dune, Herbert demonstrated that sophistication, complexity, and a multi-layered world with three-dimensional characters could sit comfortably within the science fiction genre. Underneath its deceptively simple storyline sits a wealth of historical and philosophical contexts and influences that make it a rich masterpiece open to multiple interpretations. Kennedy’s study shows the continuing relevance of the novel in the 21st century due to its classic themes and its concerns about the future of humanity, as well as the ongoing nature of issues such as ecological disruption and conflicts over resources and religion.

The Role of Science Fiction

The Role of Science Fiction
Author: Stefan Weihampel
Publisher: Diplomica Verlag
Total Pages: 113
Release: 2008-07
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 3836660067

In "The role of Science Fiction in selected works of Isaac Asimov and Kurt Vonnegut" the author elaborates upon important similarities and differences between the use of science fiction motives in selected works of Isaac Asimov and Kurt Vonnegut. The analysis includes Asimov's Foundation and Robots and Empire and Vonnegut's Sirens of Titan and Galapagos.

The Orientalist Semiotics of »Dune«

The Orientalist Semiotics of »Dune«
Author: Frank Jacob
Publisher: Büchner-Verlag
Total Pages: 119
Release: 2022-03-30
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 3963178515

Frank Herbert's »Dune« (1965) is considered to be one of the most successful Science Fiction novels of the 20th century. It introduces its readers to a future universe, in which the production of the most valuable resource of the universe – ›spice‹ – is only possible on one vast desert planet called Arrakis. »Dune« offers many different motifs, including a hero that eventually turns into a superhuman being. However, the novel is also rich of orientalist semiotics and relates to a sign system existent when Herbert wrote his book. Frank Jacob discusses these semiotics in detail and shows how much of »Lawrence of Arabia« is present in the story's plot.

Discovering Dune

Discovering Dune
Author: Dominic J. Nardi
Publisher: McFarland
Total Pages: 285
Release: 2022-08-04
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1476682011

Frank Herbert's Dune is one of the most well-known science fiction novels of all time, and it is often revered alongside time-honored classics like The Lord of the Rings. Unlike Tolkien's work, the Dune series has received remarkably little academic attention. This collection includes fourteen new essays from various academic disciplines--including philosophy, political science, disability studies, Islamic theology, environmental studies, and Byzantine history--that examine all six of Herbert's Dune books. As a compendium, it asserts that a multidisciplinary approach to the texts can lead to fresh discoveries. Also included in this collection are an introduction by Tim O'Reilly, who authored one of the first critical appraisals of Herbert's writings in 1981, and a comprehensive bibliography of essential primary and secondary sources.

Jeff Noon's "Vurt"

Jeff Noon's
Author: Andrew C. Wenaus
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 139
Release: 2022-08-01
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 3031070291

This book offers an examination of Jeff Noon’s iconoclastic debut novel, Vurt (1993). In this first book-length study of the novel, which includes an extended interview with Noon, Wenaus considers how Vurt complicates the process of literary canonization, its constructivist relationship to genre, its violent and oneiric setting of Manchester, its use of the Orphic myth as an archetype for the practice of literary collage and musical remix, and how the structural paradoxes of chaos and fractal geometry inform the novel’s content, form, and theme. Finally, Wenaus makes the case for Vurt’s ongoing relevance in the 21st century, an era increasingly characterized by neuro-totalitarianism, psychopolitics, and digital surveillance. With Vurt, Noon begins his project of rupturing feedback loops of control by breaking narrative habits and embracing the contingent and unpredictable. An inventive, energetic, and heartbreaking novel, Vurt is also an optimistic and heartfelt call for artists to actively create open futures.

Chaos and Cosmos

Chaos and Cosmos
Author: Heidi C. M. Scott
Publisher: Penn State Press
Total Pages: 222
Release: 2015-01-14
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 0271064293

In Chaos and Cosmos, Heidi Scott integrates literary readings with contemporary ecological methods to investigate two essential and contrasting paradigms of nature that scientific ecology continues to debate: chaos and balance. Ecological literature of the Romantic and Victorian eras uses environmental chaos and the figure of the balanced microcosm as tropes essential to understanding natural patterns, and these eras were the first to reflect upon the ecological degradations of the Industrial Revolution. Chaos and Cosmos contends that the seed of imagination that would enable a scientist to study a lake as a microcosmic world at the formal, empirical level was sown by Romantic and Victorian poets who consciously drew a sphere around their perceptions in order to make sense of spots of time and place amid the globalizing modern world. This study’s interest goes beyond likening literary tropes to scientific aesthetics; it aims to theorize the interdisciplinary history of the concepts that underlie our scientific understanding of modern nature. Paradigmatic ecological ideas such as ecosystems, succession dynamics, punctuated equilibrium, and climate change are shown to have a literary foundation that preceded their status as theories in science. This book represents an elevation of the prospects of ecocriticism toward fully developed interdisciplinary potentials of literary ecology.

Dune and Philosophy

Dune and Philosophy
Author: Jeffery Nicholas
Publisher: Open Court
Total Pages: 246
Release: 2011-04-12
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0812697278

Frank Herbert’s Dune is the biggest-selling science fiction story of all time; the original book and its numerous sequels have transported millions of readers into the alternate reality of the Duniverse. Dune and Philosophy raises intriguing questions about the Duniverse in ways that will be instantly meaningful to fans. Those well-known characters—Paul Atreides, Baron Harkkonen, Duncan Idaho, Stilgar, the Bene Gesserit witches—come alive again in this fearless philosophical probing of some of life’s most basic questions. Dune presents us with a vast world in which fanaticism is merciless and history is made by the interplay of ruthless conspiracies. Computers have long been outlawed, so that the abilities of human beings are developed to an almost supernatural level. The intergalactic empire controlled by a privileged aristocracy raises all the old questions of human interaction in a strange yet weirdly familiar setting. Do secret conspiracies direct the future course of human political evolution? Can manipulation of the gene pool create a godlike individual? Are strife and bloodshed essential to progress? Can we know so much about the future that we lose the power to make a difference? Does reliance on valuable resources—such as “spice,” oil, and water—place us at the mercy of those who can destroy those resources? When gholas are reconstructed from the cells of dead people and given those people’s memories, is the ghola the dead person resurrected? Can the exploitation of religion for political ends be reduced to a technique? Fans of Dune will trek through the desert of the Duniverse seeing answers to these and other questions.

Dune and Philosophy

Dune and Philosophy
Author: Jeffery Nicholas
Publisher: Open Court Publishing
Total Pages: 246
Release: 2011
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 0812697154

Frank Herbert's Dune is the biggest-selling science fiction story of all time; the original book and its numerous sequels have transported millions of readers into the alternate reality of the Duniverse. Dune and Philosophy raises intriguing questions about the Duniverse in ways that will be instantly meaningful to fans. Those well-known characters--Paul Atreides, Baron Harkkonen, Duncan Idaho, Stilgar, the Bene Gesserit witches--come alive again in this fearless philosophical probing of some of life's most basic questions. Dune presents us with a vast world in which fanaticism is merciless and history is made by the interplay of ruthless conspiracies. Computers have long been outlawed, so that the abilities of human beings are developed to an almost supernatural level. The intergalactic empire controlled by a privileged aristocracy raises all the old questions of human interaction in a strange yet weirdly familiar setting. Do secret conspiracies direct the future course of human political evolution? Can manipulation of the gene pool create a godlike individual? Are strife and bloodshed essential to progress? Can we know so much about the future that we lose the power to make a difference? Does reliance on valuable resources--such as "spice," oil, and water--place us at the mercy of those who can destroy those resources? When gholas are reconstructed from the cells of dead people and given those people's memories, is the ghola the dead person resurrected? Can the exploitation of religion for political ends be reduced to a technique? Philosophers who are fans of Dune will trek through the desert of the Duniverse seeing answers to these and other questions.