Textual Analysis
The Hounds of Tindalos
The Hounds of Tindalos is a short science fiction story containing many and varied elements that have been long associated with the genre of science fiction. This essay will identify these elements, examining their placement within this short text and also the interchange of these elements with the characteristics of other genres, more specifically, horror. Belknap Long, the author, was clearly intent of incorporating the elements of horror within the genre of science fiction and this amalgamation of these two genres was a popular combination employed by future horror and SF writers. Perhaps the inclusion of horror within the SF genre is a comment in itself about perceptions of SF held by writers, the elements of horror being a cautionary warning to those in the science world.
Long’s main character is Halpin Chalmers, a self proclaimed “rebel and champion of originality and lost causes”. From the start it is clear there are present within this text some elements of the SF genre that seem to be in just about every SF story, beginning with the main character. Many writers have as their main characters people who are non-conformists, who wish to boldly go where no one has gone before and who are willing to take seemingly illogical and irrational risks in the hope of furthering makinds’ scientific discoveries. Chalmers is no exception in this as he willingly partakes in an ancient Chinese drug that is a known powerful hallucinogen in a bid to go back in time. There is of course the proverbial “wet blanket” in the shape of the narrator, known only as Frank, who believes his friend Chalmers to be quite mad, but who never-the-less agrees to aid his friend in his bizarre experiment despite the risks he is taking. Frank represents all those characters in SF stories who are the skeptics, the non believers, who have a solid faith in the science of the present, and who consider characters like Chalmers to be eccentric and bizarre.
The setting of The Hounds of Tindalos is in the late 1920’s and the location is Central Square. Chalmer’s apartment room is where most of the story takes place. The room is in keeping with Chalmer’s character as a rejector of modern science and one who is still entranced with the historical side of science and history preferring “illuminated manuscripts to automobiles and leering stone gargoyles to radios and adding machines”.
Frederic is very much alienated from the science of his day. He finds it obscure and frightening, involved in inhuman and ritualistic experiments, and motivated by goals that are fully detached from the needs of ordinary people. His dread and loathing of the coldness and ruthlessness of the aloof scientist come from the Gothic horror of writers like Edgar Allen Poe and Mary Shelley.
this, for once the suitors are gone Odysseus is free to reclaim is post in
Literature and film have always held a strange relationship with the idea of technological progress. On one hand, with the advent of the printing press and the refinements of motion picture technology that are continuing to this day, both literature and film owe a great deal of their success to the technological advancements that bring them to widespread audiences. Yet certain films and works of literature have also never shied away from portraying the dangers that a lust for such progress can bring with it. The modern output of science-fiction novels and films found its genesis in speculative ponderings on the effect such progress could hold for the every day population, and just as often as not those speculations were damning. Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein and Fritz Lang's silent film Metropolis are two such works that hold great importance in the overall canon of science-fiction in that they are both seen as the first of their kind. It is often said that Mary Shelley, with her authorship of Frankenstein, gave birth to the science-fiction novel, breathing it into life as Frankenstein does his monster, and Lang's Metropolis is certainly a candidate for the first genuine science-fiction film (though a case can be made for Georges Méliès' 1902 film Le Voyage Dans la Lune, his film was barely fifteen minutes long whereas Lang's film, with its near three-hour original length and its blending of both ideas and stunning visuals, is much closer to what we now consider a modern science-fiction film). Yet though both works are separated by the medium with which they're presented, not to mention a period of over two-hundred years between their respective releases, they present a shared warning about the dangers that man's need fo...
on to the next. She also got fired from her school teaching job as an
dangers to come, "Circe forsaw for us and shared with me,/ so let me tell her
Morgan, J. The biology of horror: gothic literature and film. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 2002.
Tibbetts, John C. The Gothic Imagination: Conversations on Fantasy, Horror, and Science Fiction in the Media. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011. Print.
It is said that this book is considered as one of the most famous horror novels, if not the most famous one. The Gothic descriptions in the novel are very prominent at the beginning. The portrayal of the countryside of Transylvania, of the ruined Dracula Castle, etc, all provide the effect of horror in the sense of spooky and gloomy atmosphere, which you can obtain close at hand. Everything is so obvious. The originally beautiful scenes are changed by the writer¡¯s magnification of some specific details which provide certain effect on the readers. All of the above reminds how one¡¯s personal feelings can alter their attitudes towards what they see or what they experience. Sometimes when you are sad, everything look so depressing. It is like the whole world is against you. The sunset could be a fantastic scene when you are filled with joy but an extra source of sorrow when you are not in the mood. Harker is separated from her lovely fianc¨¦e to meet some foreign count in the exotic and unknown eastern world.
Rose, Lois and Stephen. "The Shattered Ring: Science Fiction and the Quest for meaning." Contemporary Literary Criticism. Ed. Carolyn Riley. Detroit, MI: Gale Research Company, 1969. Vol. 3, 226-227.
Kornbluth, C. M. "The Failure of the Science Fiction Novel As Social Criticism." The Science Fiction Novel: Imagination and Social Criticism. (1969): 64-101.
from or from boys who want to act like men and show off in front of
In The Hound of the Baskervilles, various factors of Arthur Conan Doyle’s early life, popularity, perspective, and status were all expressed in multiple ways. Spiritualism played an crucial role in his life, greatly impacting his work, specifically “The Hound.” Additionally, his birthplace and upbringing, along with the time period, inveigled his writing. Furthermore, Doyle characterized the people in the story in along with real life scenarios.
The critical analysis of “Frankenstein” in Baldick’s article allowed a similar examination of “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas.” In the end I think it is safe to say that science fiction writing contains some of the authors own experiences whether directly or indirectly. Alternatively, science fiction stories can say something about the reader and that LeGuin wants the reader to look into their own fears of abandonment.
Jack Morgan, The Biology of Horror: Gothic Literature and Film (Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 2002) null03, Questia, Web, 29 May 2010.
In middle school, a student is faced with many social changes that affect success in school. The change from elementary school, where kids are mainly in one class with the same kids and teacher, to middle school, where students are rotating classes, teachers, and other students is a hard switch for some students. The relationship with their teachers isn’t as strong, due to the fact that they have multiple subjects. This makes it hard for students to get the attention they need. So that is why success in middle school is a strong indicator for success in high