“Diabolic rays” in the novel of M.A. Bulgakov “The Fatal Eggs”: about one modern literary topic in science fiction of the 1920s

Neophilology ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 548-556
Author(s):  
Vladimir V. Kolchanov
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
Science And Technology ◽  
Modern Science ◽  
Central Place ◽  
Human Mind ◽  
October Revolution ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Social Transformations ◽  
Old Russian ◽  
The Road

Science fiction literature of the 1920s connected with the topic of heat rays is studied. Begun in the novel of Herbert George Wells “The War of the Worlds” (1897) and in the novel of A.F. Ossendowski “Brig “Horror” (1913), in the decade after October Revolution it became more widely distributed. In each work heat rays got its name: “death rays” in the novel of H. Dominik (1921), “violet rays” in the novel of V.P. Kataev “The Island of Erendorf” (1924), “red ray”, or “life ray” in the novel of M.A. Bulgakov “The Fatal Eggs” (1924), heat rays in the novel of A.N. Tolstoy “The Garin Death Ray” (1926–1927), “orange ray” in the novel of A.F. Paley “Gulfstream” (1927). In all literary works, including pre-revolutionary ones (except for the last one – “Gulfstream”), the heat ray played an extremely negative role in the development of humanity and civilization. The Martians were the first to use weapons to destroy humanity, then the ray fell into the hands of brilliant scientists. The ray, created by brilliant scientists, most often end up in the hands of self-interested and obsessed people, and Russian writers brought a serious doubt to the scientistic aspirations of the human mind. This theme ran parallel to the road of modern re-search and discoveries in the field of science and technology: in the world laser weapons were be-ing developed as weapons of mass destruction for the future wars of a planetary scale. In the So-viet press, it was “baptized” as the “diabolic rays”, and most important – they tried to implement into the field of social transformations in society, which brought the October Revolution, plans on establishing a socialist system on the entire planet. The central place is given for the novel M.A. Bulgakov’s “The Fatal Eggs”, which absorbed not only the achievements of modern science and technology, not just fantasies of writers – predecessors and contemporaries, but also allusions on the occult motifs in literature and culture: black magic of doctor Faust from the drama-miracle play of J.W. Goethe “Faust”, spells from the “Egyptian Book of the Dead”, old Russian ritual “Troyetsyplyatnitsa”, the egg motif “ad ovo”. Numerous occult details in the story tell about the mechanism of the “red ray”.

Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
Modern Science ◽  
Lord Byron ◽  
Mary Wollstonecraft ◽  
William Godwin ◽  
Gothic Literature ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Ghost Stories ◽  
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley ◽  
Story Writing

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley conceived of the central idea for Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus—most often referred to simply as Frankenstein—during the summer of 1816 while vacationing on Lake Geneva in Switzerland. It is her first and most famous novel. Although the assertion is debatable, some scholars have argued that Frankenstein is the first work of modern science fiction. Shelley was inspired to write Frankenstein in response to a “ghost story” writing contest between herself, Percy Shelley, Percy Shelley’s physician and friend John Polidori, and Lord Byron, who were trapped indoors reading German ghost stories as the result of inclement weather. Polidori’s contribution to this contest, “The Vampyre: A Tale” (1819), influenced the development of Gothic literature. According to Shelley, she drew inspiration from a nightmare she had, which she attributed to discussions she overheard between Percy and Byron regarding experiments with electricity and animation. Shelley began working on the novel when she returned home to England in September, and the book’s first edition was published anonymously in 1818. Shelley’s father William Godwin made minor revisions for a second edition in 1821; and Shelley herself made more substantial changes for the third edition in 1831. The story is told through an epistolary frame, and follows Victor Frankenstein, a university student of the “unhallowed arts” who assembles, animates, and abandons an unnamed human-like creature. The creature goes on to haunt his creator both literally and metaphorically. Over the past two hundred years, the story has been widely influential, and re-interpreted in various forms of culture and media. In literary studies, scholars have discussed which edition of the text is the “truest” to Mary Shelley’s intended vision. The novel has been analyzed for its messages about human pride and hubris, the pursuit of knowledge, the nature/nurture question, as put forth by Rousseau, ethical questions in medicine and science, and family, gender, and reproduction, among other topics.

scholarly journals De wereld als sciencefictionroman. Over De goede zoon van Rob van Essen

2021 ◽  
Vol 59 (3) ◽  
pp. 227-242
Author(s):  
Erica van Boven
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
Central Place ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Reading Experience ◽  
Award Winning ◽  
The Rich ◽  
Everyday Reality ◽  
Insight Into

Abstract Rob van Essen’s award-winning novel The good son (2018) offers its readers a puzzling reading experience. It contains a tangle of storylines and seems to lack head or tail. This contribution aims to discover composition and meaning by analyzing various aspects provided by the novel itself: timeline, plot, science fiction, ideas, poetica. This approach provides insight into the rich reservoir of meanings, whereby the importance of imagination and creation appears to have a central place. The novel, which can be labelled as a dystopian science fiction novel, as well as a novel of ideas or a novel of poetics, wants us to become aware of the mysteriousness of everyday reality. Nederlandstalig abstract Rob van Essens bekroonde roman De goede zoon (2018) biedt de lezers een verwarrende leeservaring. De roman bevat een wirwar aan verhaallijnen en heeft op het eerste gezicht nauwelijks samenhang. In deze bijdrage wordt geprobeerd compositie en betekenis te ontdekken door middel van een analyse van verschillende aspecten die uit de roman zelf naar voren komen: tijdsverloop, plot, sciencefiction, ideeën, poëtica. Daarmee ontstaat inzicht in een rijk reservoir aan betekenissen waarin het belang van scheppen en verbeelden een centrale plaats heeft. De roman, die beschouwd kan worden als een dystopische sciencefictionroman maar ook als een ideeënroman of een poëticale roman, lijkt ons te willen doordringen van de raadselachtigheid van de alledaagse werkelijkheid.

scholarly journals Enabling Science Fiction

2021 ◽  
pp. 399
Author(s):  
Camilla Hrdy ◽  
Daniel Brean
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
Real World ◽  
Science And Technology ◽  
Human Mind ◽  
Time Travel ◽  
Patent Law ◽  
Patent System ◽  
Literary Genre ◽  
Minimum Standard ◽  
Perpetual Motion

Patent law promotes innovation by giving inventors 20-year-long exclusive rights to their inventions. To be patented, however, an invention must be “enabled,” meaning the inventor must describe it in enough detail to teach others how to make and use the invention at the time the patent is filed. When inventions are not enabled, like a perpetual motion machine or a time travel device, they are derided as “mere science fiction”—products of the human mind, or the daydreams of armchair scientists, that are not suitable for the patent system. This Article argues that, in fact, the literary genre of science fiction has its own unique—albeit far laxer—enablement requirement. Since the genre’s origins, fans have demanded that the inventions depicted in science fiction meet a minimum standard of scientific plausibility. Otherwise, the material is denigrated as lazy hand-waving or, worse, “mere fantasy.” Taking this insight further, the Article argues that, just as patents positively affect the progress of science and technology by teaching others how to make and use real inventions, so too can science fiction, by stimulating scientists’ imagination about what sorts of technologies might one day be possible. Thus, like patents, science fiction can have real world impacts for the development of science and technology. Indeed, the Article reveals that this trajectory—from science fiction to science reality—can be seen in the patent record itself, with several famous patents tracing their origins to works of science fiction.

scholarly journals The Uninhibited Evolution of the Human Persona: A Transhumanistic Study of Anil Menon’s The Beast with Nine Billion Feet

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 27-35
Author(s):  
Narendiran S ◽  
Bhuvaneswari R
Keyword(s):  
Young Adults ◽  
Genetic Engineering ◽  
Science Fiction ◽  
Science And Technology ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Human Race ◽  
Moral Issues ◽  
Philosophical Movement ◽  
Multiple Challenges ◽  
Growth Of Science

Debates on intuition about transformed humankind in the future have led to the conception of transhumanism. It is a new philosophical movement to express the ideology that humanism will evolve by employing science and technology. Supporters of transhumanism believe that scientific aid in the evolution of humans will take them beyond the bounds of physical and mental limitations; eventually, it will make them immortals. The influence of transhumanism in literature has given birth to seminal works of art, particularly science fiction. Anil Menon’s The Beast with Nine Billion Feet is one such novel which sprang out the moral issues due to the rapid growth of science and technology affecting social, cultural, and political scenarios in India. The story is about genetic engineering and its impact on the socio-political problems. In addition to unfolding the threats and opportunities of transhumanism, the novel also touches on the issues of young adults like acquiring autonomy and finding their true identity. This study attempts to bring out the trepidation and chaos resultant of the period of transition and the multiple challenges and threats to the human race.

Cognitive psychology

2020 ◽  
pp. 201-234
Author(s):  
Gavin Miller
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Psychology ◽  
Science Fiction ◽  
Human Mind ◽  
The Body ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Language And Thought ◽  
Noam Chomsky ◽  
Perceived Reality ◽  
Foundational Work ◽  
The Mind

This chapter explores the entanglement of cognitive psychology with science fiction, but avoids familiar motifs from post-cyberpunk fiction. The beginnings of cognitive psychology are traced to the foundational work of figures such as George Miller and Noam Chomsky, subsequently codified into a self-conscious school by Ulrich Neisser. Jack Finney’s classic narrative, The Body Snatchers (1955), draws upon earlier proto-cognitivist discourses to contend, often quite didactically, that the human mind typically operates as a biased, limited capacity information processor. With this psychological and political thesis, the novel explores possible personal, political and aesthetic strategies that might free the human mind from its stereotypes and blind spots. The unsettling of everyday perception in The Body Snatchers is systematically generalized by the linguistic novums of Ian Watson’s The Embedding (1973), Samuel Delany’s Babel-17 (1966), and Ted Chiang’s ‘Story of Your Life’ (1998), which imagine that language (and thought) is fundamentally constructive of perceived reality. These stories ask broader, cosmological questions about the nature and accessibility of ultimate reality – with Watson’s novel ultimately proposing a mystical riposte to cognitivism’s model of the mind.

scholarly journals HOW TO USE WRITERS' PIECES OF ART – POPULARIZERS OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF SOFT SKILLS OF ENGINEERING STUDENTS

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (13) ◽  
pp. 68-75
Author(s):  
Olena M. Tyron
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Soft Skills ◽  
Science And Technology ◽  
The United States ◽  
Human Mind ◽  
Research And Innovation ◽  
Works Of Art ◽  
Fiction Writers ◽  
The Individual

Fiction writers who are engaged in science is a phenomenon. We studied this phenomenon to gain new opportunities for the development of soft skills in students of technical specialties and to widen the possibility of popularizing scientific achievements. The chronological boundaries of the study cover the period of XVIII – the first half of XX century; geographical boundaries cover Europe, the United Kingdom and the United States. The relevance of the study is related to the relevance of popularizing science among students of technical specialties, as well as the development of soft skills through writing stories about scientific discoveries, fostering interest in reading fiction about science and technology. The purpose of the study was to find psychological and informational material that will affect the emotional sphere of the student's personality and motivate him to write and read works of art about research and innovation. The ability to use research on the role of writers as promoters of science and technology depends on how we provide information about their works. In this regard, we offer a psychological technique to impress readers of scientific stories, i.e. the effect of “wow” as a combination of the factor “wow” and the halo effect. Stories about science affect different areas of human activity. They are used to address environmental, medical, political and other issues. The information material of the study confirms the following: if scientists and inventors do not demonstrate the consequences of their inventions and discoveries, it leads to erroneous assumptions, causes alarm in society and affects the mind of the individual. We studied the nature of writers' connection to science and sought answers to the question of whether writing works of art and the ability to do research could be equal aspects of an individual's abilities. The results of the study prove that these abilities predominate in only one area of activity. We also support the view that writers can be impartial promoters of science and technology. However, we propose this idea for discussion because writers demonstrate more the ethical side of the interaction between science and the human mind than they disseminate scientific facts. The further development of the study will be related to the study of the influence of science fiction on consciousness, namely how science fiction informs the reader about the current state of the world and draws attention to the changes we must make as a species.

Economic Analysis and Governance Countermeasure of Overload and Out-of-Gauge on the Highway

2014 ◽  
Vol 989-994 ◽  
pp. 5124-5127 ◽  
Author(s):  
Li Jun Zhou
Keyword(s):  
Economic Analysis ◽  
Science And Technology ◽  
Modern Science ◽  
The Road ◽  
The Social ◽  
Long Time ◽  
Market Management ◽  
Fundamental Reason ◽  
Intensive Development

With the development of highway transport, the social harms caused by overload and out-of-gauge on the highway become prominent. Though it is banned for a long time, it continues to exist. The article conducts the research that the most fundamental reason for the overload and out-of-gauge is that the transport operators pursue to maximize benefits from the perspective of economy. Then such five countermeasures for solving the overload and out-of-gauge transport shall be put forward: changing the punishment mode of overload, reforming multi-sectoral administration pattern, taking the road of intensive development, strengthening transport vehicles market management and making full use of modern science and technology.

A Study of Memory and Psychological Defense Mechanism in Julian Barnes’s The Sense of an Ending

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hossein Aliakbari Harehdasht ◽  
Zahra Ekbatäni
Keyword(s):  
Defense Mechanisms ◽  
Defense Mechanism ◽  
Human Mind ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Psychological Defense ◽  
Julian Barnes ◽  
Self Image

In The Sense of an Ending, Julian Barnes portrays the mysterious workings of the human mind as it distorts facts towards the end of a self-image that one can live with. The protagonist in the novel deploys certain psychological defense mechanisms in order to protect himself from feelings of anxiety, only to experience even more profound anxiety due to his excessive use of them. The significance of the present paper lies in its novel view of the book. So far, the critique on the novel has mainly been focused on the workings of time on memory; however, the present paper investigates how psychological defense mechanisms blur the protagonist’s perception of reality and distort his memories. This paper also attempts to attract scholarly interest in the study of psychological defense mechanisms in the study of The Sense of an Ending which has so far been to the best of our knowledge overlooked

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.

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