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essay on pseudoscience
essay on pseudoscience
essay on pseudoscience
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Abe Kobo was involved in a critical discussion on science fiction when it started to be popular in the early 1960s. In this article, Abe argues that “pseudo-science is a huge pillar that supports science fiction world” (28). He details that the characteristics of pseudo-science in SF allow its readers to find their wonder on its description rather than to doubt whether it is true or not, which is a way of literature. In such a way, pseudo-science could become a creative feature as hypothesis helping to make the story intriguing. It was interesting to see how Abe details the aesthetics of pseudo-science in relation to everydayness: he emphasizes that scientific hypothesis in the literature could make everyday unstable and shows it strange.
Darko Suvin defines science fiction as "a literary genre whose necessary and sufficient conditions are the presence and interaction of estrangement and cognition, and whose main formal device" (Suvin 7-8) is a fictional "novum . . . a totalizing phenomenon or relationship" (Suvin 64), "locus and/or dramatis personae . . . radically or at least significantly" alternative to the author's empirical environment "simultaneously perceived as not impossible within the cognitive (cosmological and anthropological) norms of the author's epoch" (Suvin viii). Unlike fantasy, science fiction is set in a realistic world, but one strange, alien. Only there are limits to how alien another world, another culture, can be, and it is the interface between those two realms that can give science fiction its power, by making us look back at ourselves from its skewed perspective.
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...
“Horror and science fiction tend to present radically opposite interpretations of what may look like comparable situations.” (Kawin, 1981.) Bruce Kawin helps the reader to understand how a story in the genre of science fiction could be adapted, or bastardized if you like, into a horror. This is similar to the film adaptation of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Both “Frankenstein” (1931) and “Bride of Frankenstein” (1935) portrayed characters and events differently than Shelley would have desired. Her novel had many deeper implications than the movie portrayed.
Aliens, robots, rockets, shrunken heads that talk, and planets being sold, are some sort of science. It also adds in science references and terms dealing with space, like the...
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.
The Best Science Fiction of the Twentieth Century. Ed. Orson Scott Card. New York: The Berkley Publishing Group, 2001. 212-217.
Science fiction writing began in the early 1800’s as a reaction to the growth in science and technology. The genre is characterized by its intellectual excitement, high adventure, and its making of the fantastic possible. Due to the nature of science fiction, film has become an essential piece to its popularity. Science fiction films have been popular since the earliest silent clips because of the outlandish visuals and creative fictional story lines that capture an audience’s attention. Under the guise of this popular platform writers relay political, social and philosophical messages to their audience. The popular 1931 version of Frankenstein, based on Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein, depicts an anti-exploration and anti-intellectual philosophy. In Frankenstein there is criticisms for the immoral behavior that is involved with progresses, the natural tendency for humanity to attempt to be greater than God and the pursuit of knowledge.
If imagination is the lifeblood of literature, then each new scientific advance which extends our scope of the universe is as fruitful to the poet as to the astronomer.
Butler, Marilyn. "Frankenstein and Radical Science." Reprinted in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. Norton Critical Edition. 1993; New York: W. W. Norton, 1996. 302-313.
13. Frankenstein: a science-fiction novel or a scientific fiction? [Online], (2001). Available: http://gala.univ-perp.fr [Accessed: 25th April 2005].
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.
While reading George Saunders’ Short story collection, In Persuasion Nation, it is easy to see that Saunders is using literary fiction with a hint of science fiction to convey a central message in each of his short stories. Saunders offers us a glimpse into a possible sad and scary future. Saunders’ loony characters play a huge role in the final production of a meaningful message. The protagonist is often the most morally sound of the characters, so this gives the reader a closer connection with them. Another factor in determining the way Saunders’ message is conveyed is the ridiculous unpredictableness of the plot. While the reader understands the message it makes it seem less scary or serious when the moral of the story is coated with humor. The use of outlandish story elements show the use of science fiction in his stories, but each story serves an intricate subject and this fundamentally shows Saunders’ rhetorical meaning. In Saunders’ short stories, Jon and My Flamboyant Grandson, the protagonists are well-developed characters that are easily relatable. The way Saunders separates the relation between reader and character is by placing them in the possible future. Because they live in an alternate universe these characters are also somewhat of an unreliable source for information; we cannot truly grasp what is happening in their minds. Saunders characterizes his protagonists as having better morals and a more clear thought process than the supporting characters by the way these characters either think, speak, or act.
Demarcation between science and non-science or pseudo science is particularly important in scientific education, as it determines, for almost every member of our society, what they will accept as true regarding science, particularly creationism and evolution. Having public ...
Science Fiction Studies , Vol. 33, No. 1, Technoculture and Science Fiction (Mar., 2006), pp. 89-108
In this argumentative essay written by Dr. Ron Kline a pediatrician who wrote his essay titled “A Scientist: I am the enemy”. The article gives an insight on how animal research has helped many people and shine a light on the benefits of animal research. Ron Kline is the director of bone marrow transplants at the University of Louisville. Furthermore, the essay explains his thoughts and his own reasons for his love of medical research. In addition, the essay include the opposing side of the argument which has a lot feedback from activist groups that think that animal research is horrible.