Little Brother

Original Essay:

Little Brother is a great example of the use of Science Fiction to expound upon the political fears of the time. Doctorow uses specific temporal and physical settings to emphasise this sense of fear. The fears of the 20th and 21st Century, as shown by Doctorow, are those of personal liberty and the role of government in society. By creating a dystopian near future, the author has been able to sketch out why he has these fears.

Doctorow shows how the framework of the society we have created can be allowed to control us instead of enabling our freedom. Little Brother also shows how humanity, in general, doesn’t react until it affects us personally, as well as how easily we, in general, can be hoodwinked into accepting these changes. Although the themes in this novel would have worked equally well in another setting, the use of modern day America helps create an immediacy that would lack if he had used fantastical location. In the same way, by placing the time of the work as ‘almost now’, has the same effect that would not have been achieved in, for example, a setting of Nazi Germany.

By using science fiction to elaborate on and expand on his own fears, Doctorow is following clearly in the footsteps of other science fiction authors, such as Mary Shelley to Ray Bradbury and beyond. Each has used the fears of their time to create statement, yet without the politics of the day getting overly involved. Doctorow uses both personal fears, such as in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, and the socio-political fears as found in Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles, to create a chilling novel that is not 'pure' Science Fiction, and yet isn't NOT Science Fiction either. Little Brother returns to the roots of Science Fiction by allowing Doctorow to use the story as a vehicle to explain a theory to his readers.

Works cited:

Little Brother / Cory Doctorow [epub version]
Future Politics [website]

Edited and updated essay:

To be added later

Left Hand of Darkness

Original Essay:

LeGuin uses dualism almost constantly within The Left Hand of Darkness, except in regards to gender. There are two main nations, two political outlooks, two religions and even two main types of weather (snow and rain), but only one gender. This contrast makes the androgyny of the people of Gethen more striking. In their long trek over the glaciers, Estraven and Ai find another pair of opposites which are coexisting – that of fire and ice. The title then adds two other opposites implicitly into the story – that of left and right, with that of light and dark. Finally she compares the singular and uniquely created Gethen with the multitude of the Ekumen.

In other instances, LeGuin carefully sets up opposites, not all of which match our predefined notions, for example, war is contrasted to civilisation instead of peace, and therefore, she says, civilisation is not the opposite of 'primitiveness'. Instead, she suggests that these two ideas, civilisation and primitiveness, are "degrees of the same thing", and thus to lack one of these is not to throw Existence out of balance, but is just a level of difference. This idea of difference is also explored by Ai and Estraven, who discuss whether there truly is a difference between a Gethen 'wholeness' and a Hainish 'dualism'.

Through these pairings, as well as through the non-opposite of androgyny, LeGuin’s own personal philosophy shows through. LeGuin’s believe in Taoism led to her writing a story where the male and female are in perpetual balance. Difference is not in opposition to balance, but necessary to it. The lines recited by Estraven from 'Tomer's Lay', states that the left hand of darkness is Light, and Dark is the right hand of light, echoing closely the Taoist concept of Yin and Yang. As Estraven says near the end, "Duality is essential, isn't it? So long as there is myself and the other".

Works cited:

The Left Hand of Darkness / Ursula le Guin
Challenging destiny"Review of Feminist SF (Part 1 of 2)" / James Schellenberg
Fantastic visions: On the necessity of feminist utopian narrative / Tracie Anne Welser [University of South Florida MA thesis, Dept of Women’s Studies, 2005]
On Violence, Utopia, Ethic and Sex: The Left Hand of Darkness, The Word for World Is Forest, The Dispossessed, and Related Short Fiction / Science Fiction Research Association
Analysis of Ursula K. LeGuin's The Left Hand Of Darkness/ Rebecca Rass
The feminine and the Tao: an interview with Ursula K. LeGuin / Brenda Peterson
Catastrophe of Language in "Herland" and "The Left Hand of Darkness" / Alparslan Nas

Edited and updated essay:

To be added later

Bradbury - The Martian Chronicles

Original Essay:

Original essay unsubmitted as start of college term meant zero free time... This is an issue I will have to figure out how to manage better next year!

Edited and updated essay:

To be added later

Burroughs & Gilman

Original Essay:

A Princess of Mars was both written and set in times of distinct change. The story shows this sense of transformation through dichotomies without definite answers. The structure itself also forms a transition point, beginning with the epistolary style of the 19th Century and the Gothic horror scene in the cave, leading into the modern Scientific-based fiction of the main story. In particular, Burroughs' descriptions of races is transitional, and needs more interpretation than a simple labelling.

On Earth, Carter doesn't show the stereotypical view that all 'Indians' are bad, mentioning having spent time living with the Sioux. However he shows a fear, potentially justified, of the Apache warriors which is in keeping with the time the story is set.

When Carter describes his Green Martian captors as 'savages', it is a technically accurate description as they are indeed 'fierce and violent'. Yet he also acknowledges that other attitudes exist within the Thark. Burroughs' tentative dealing with the communal natures of Thark society was in part due to the contradictory prevailing political attitudes towards events in the Russian Empire at the time he was writing. This is also shown in his portrayal of women, who are both powerful and powerless in all societies on Barsoom.

The Red Martians are portrayed as the "good" race and are set up oppositionally to the Thark, being imperial not communal, 'civilised' rather than 'savage'. Yet it is also made clear that neither are mammalian like humans. This could be interpreted a way of showing that humanity isn't limited to and one race or species, but is instead something that is demonstrated in characters possessing an attitude of tolerance, compassion or caring. Although still viewing the Barsoom races as wholes, he remains able to see them also as individuals when not indirect combat with them.

Thus it can be said that A Princess of Mars is a story written in transition from the Victorian to the Modern world, which itself marks a change from the Gothic novel into Science Fiction.

Works cited:

Dictionary.com definition of Savage
Edgar Rice Burroughs' Martian novels as an early paradigm of racial toleration by Ronnie W. Faulkner
A Princess of Mars / Edgar Rice Burroughs [etext from Project Guttenberg]

Edited and updated essay:

To be added later

H.G. Wells

Original Essay:

The Invisible Man, The Island of Dr. Moreau, and The Country of the Blind, all cover the themes of alienation and the Otherness and show the different ways in which man can react to them. The three stories demonstrate an arc from stagnation (Griffin) to evolution (Prendick), via the intermediate state of Nunez.

In the three stories the Other's initial reactions and subsequent development are influenced by how the character became alienated from their Society. Griffin became 'Other' through his own actions, whereas Prendick and Nunez become Other through accidents which cast them away from their own worlds. Griffin embraces his otherness completely, which causes him to react hostilely towards those who are now alien to him. In comparison, both Prendick and Nunez, whilst initially hostile and superior to the alien situations in which they find themselves, allow themselves to change and adapt to the new societies they find themself within, whilst retaining their sense of self. Prendick and Nunez gave themselves room to act, react, and develop by not actively creating their situations. This latitude allows both men to settle into living with their new alien societies, but then to seize opportunities to attempt to leave. However, Nunez's depth of assimilation into his adopted society leads to doubts over the success of his escape. Nunez has lost his 'civilised' self, and thus lacks sufficient Otherness now to leave fully. The self-created Other, Griffin, marks the opposite end of the scale from Prendick. Griffin remains unable to progress from his state of alienation because he chooses to remain Other, and it is only on his death that he is able to cease to be Other.

Each story also shows how a man can chose to operate without conscience if he feels above justice in his society. Griffin choses to remain Other, viewing himself superior to Society. Nunez initially adopts this position on arriving in the 'Country of the Blind', but choses to assimilate for a place within Society. Prendick, in comparison, retains his moral guidelines and continues to show compassion for the beast-men rather than condoning their torture.

Works cited:

H.G. Wells / The Invisible Man [eText]
H.G. Wells / The Island of Dr. Moreau [eText]
H.G. Wells / The Land of the Blind, and other stories [eText]
(All texts at University of Adelaide)
Philip Holt "H.G. Wells and the Ring of Gyges" Science Fiction Studies, Vol. 19, Pt 2, No. 57 (July 1992)

Edited and updated essay:

To be added later

Poe & Hawthorne

(This was a very poor essay submitted to enable me to complete the Peer Review section.)

Original Essay:

Both Poe and Hawthorne wrote stories that have echoes of the morality tales retold by the Brothers Grimm.  Where these authors particularly vary from the older morality tales is by a lack of provision of a happy ending. In some ways this harks back to earlier, less sanitised versions of the Grimm's tales, but with additions from the more modern Gothic sensibilities of Shelley and Stoker.

In The Birthmark, Hawthorne shows a character, Aylmer, who tries to take over the role of the creator. This is specifically alluded to when the narrator talks of the jealousy of "our great creative Mother" who will not permit "on no account to make". Aylmer is punished for his temerity in presuming to remove the imperfection Nature has placed on Georgiana's cheek. In this moral tale, however, when he is punished through the loss of Georgiana, there is no potential for her return of he repents. Hawthorne's moral tales are final and complete in their decisions, and once you have trod the path, there is no way to regain that lost innocence.

Works cited:

Twice-Told Tales / Nathaniel Hawthorne [Project Guttenberg edition]
The Portable Poe / Edgar Allen Poe
Children's and Household Tales / Brothers Grimm, trans. Lucy Crane
The Hard Facts of the Grimm's Fairy Tales / Maria Tatar

Edited and updated essay:

To be added later

Frankenstein

Original Essay:

Frankenstein was written as a horror in the Gothic style, and uses themes of entwined love and fear throughout.

The young Victor has a fear of not knowing which drives him to his love of study, and ultimately to create his monster. This act of creation has been interpreted as symbolic of a fear of pregnancy, or of the usurption of the right of procreation. Shelley herself associated maternity with fear and death, due to her mother dying in childbirth, and her own loss of her first child. On seeing his creation, Victor does not feel maternal love, but fear.

The monster in many ways, is the physical symbol of societal fear. He is the embodiment of Victor's lack of respect for natural creation. Yet although the monster exemplifies fear, the incident with the blind man in Ch.12 shows how the monster is not fear, but is feared due to external reasons. He creates fear by others' perceptions of him as monstrous. Fear is externally placed upon him and makes him into a monster. As the monster comes to perceive himself as an outsider and as one unloved by his 'parent', the fear and lack of love he receives from others drives him to seek vengeance on his creator - the one who should have loved unconditionally. The fear that others place upon him is the fulcrum for the monster becoming monstrous.

Although he tries please Victor, and then to create his own family for love, the monster remains a symbolic absence of (parental) love. Since the monster cannot have love, fear is all that is left: "If I cannot inspire love, I will cause fear!" (Ch.17). The monster tries to interpret his lack as power, saying "I am fearless, and therefore powerful." (Ch.20), yet he remains intrinsically linked to his 'father'. Once Victor dies, the monster also seeks death.

Works cited:

Frankenstein / Mary Shelley
The value of fright / Arthur Patterson [http://www.watershedonline.ca/literature/frankenstein/Frintro.html]
Frankenstein as Prometheus / Christopher Smith
On Shelley's Use of Nature Imagery / Bill Williams
The monster within: Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and a patient's fears of childbirth and mothering / B.R. Almond (IntJPsychoanal. 1998 Aug;79 ( Pt 4):775-86.)
The Enlightenment [Year 1 course] / University of Essex (1996/97) [Mary Woolstencraft & Mary Shelley]

Edited and updated essay:

To be added later

Bram Stoker / Dracula

Original Essay:

Dracula is a Gothic novel strongly influenced by the Enlightenment aesthetic of the Sublime. This is particularly noticable through Stoker's depiction of the weather, in itself a common theme in the Sublime.
Stoker typically shows the weather like a symbolic character, using it to produce atmosphere and emotions in an almost cinematic way. Both good and bad weather are used in this way. The weather can also provide a neutrality, particularly in depictions of the night. As in most horror tropes, the night is implicitly a time of danger, so unless there is need of a additional emphasis Stoker doesn't use his extra character.
Dracula opens in Budapest with Jonathan enjoying pleasant weather` a literary symbol of calm before the storm. However, as Jonathan progresses towards the Castle, the weather becomes increasingly intense, helping to increase the tension in the reader.By the time Jonathan arrives at the path, the weather has become a dramatic thunderstorm.
In Whitby this sequence of calm then storm is repeated. The neutrally pleasant weather at the beginning allows Lucy and Mina to enjoy walks along the clifftops. Before the storm hits the beautiful sunset is used to emphasise an ending of life before. The horror of the storm that blows up to bring Dracula ashore is shocking even to Whitby, which is used to dramatic storms. After the storm is over, Mina notes that 'big, grim-looking waves' remain in the harbour as calm has not truly returned once Dracula is there.
The weather then remains grey, until the quest to destroy Dracula. The weather is good when the quest is going well, such as when waiting in the park in Piccadilly for the locksmith, and earlier after Lucy's final death. The weather is then neutrally grey until the final snowstorm. This storm is like a protagonist fighting against the heroes until they finally destroy Dracula, allowing the metaphorical sun to return.

Works cited:

Personal knowledge - Whitby faces north, and the next land one hits would be the Arctic so it is particularly subject to intense storms.
The Sublime. The Enlightenment [Year 1 core course] / University of Essex (1996/97)
Dracula / Bram Stoker [University of Adelaide etext)
"Sublime" in Glossary of Literary Gothic Terms / Douglass H. Thomson

Edited and updated essay:

To be added later

Lewis Carroll

Original Essay:

In both Alice stories we are exploring ourselves through Alice. The fantasy world is used here to parody the real world while also retaining distance from it. Alice is empowered to view from the outside a world with the same morals and ettiquette as her own, yet different. This lets her question and discover for herself what is right and wrong. The incidents allow her to experience an adult world intellectually through role reversal and imposed absurdity. In this way the stories bridge the gap between the moral and educational tales for children that came before Alice, and the Children's literature we have now.
The incident in Alice with the Mouse in the pool of tears shows why Alice should be careful with what she says, as statements can hurt unintentionally. Later at the court of the Queen of Hearts Alice views injustice, and is able to explore this, first from the point of view of the fearful underdog, trying not to anger the Queen during the croquet match; then later at the Trial, questioning events and openly disagreeing with the monarchs. This event also carries a lesson on learning to speak, showing circumspect phrasing can help achieve a goal.

With Through the Looking Glass, the whole tale is Alice exploring her place in the world as she strives to become Queen. Tweedledum and Tweedledee are used to remind Alice again why she has manners - reiterating the lessons from Alice.

Both stories only run as long as Alice has control of her learning. In both, once she loses control, descending into anger, respectively at "You're nothing but a pack of cards!", and "I'll shake you into a kitten!", she wakes up.

It is only about personal learning - we are also learning with Alice. Carroll doesn't judge, as is shown when he asks us "Which do you think it was?", at the end of Through the Looking Glass.

Works cited:

Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass / Lewis Carroll
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland / Lewis Carroll [Kindle ed.]
Through the Looking Glass / Lewis Carroll [Kindle ed.]
Lenny's Alice in Wonderland [site] / Lenny de Rooy (used to discount the drug theory regarding dreams)
How Lewis Carroll invented Alice in Wonderland / Heather Driscoll-Woodford (for understanding why Carroll wrote the books)

Edited and updated essay:

To be added later

Brothers Grimm essay

Original Essay:

Grimm's Brother and Sister struck me initially as being very similar to the Russian skazka collected by A.N. Afanas'ev, Sister Alionushka, Brother Ivanuska. The similar tales from different cultures points me to the universal aspect of this tale - the Cycle of Life.

Water, which I would associate with Life, is a motif which recurs at two major points. Brother's thirst at the beginning is emphasised and his impetuousness in drinking the 'wrong' water is the cause of his transformation into a passive Fawn - maybe a punishment for pre-empting movement in the lifecycle. Water is then the place where Sister (as Queen) is murdered and then preserved (to wait for the Male agent).

The second aspect that caught my attention was the woman's role being attributable to a stage in the Lifecycle, referring to the three aspects of Maiden, Mother, and Crone. At the start, Sister is the Maiden and her Step-mother (Witch) is Mother, and there is no explicit Crone (it could be interpreted as the dead mother). The Witch leaves Sister alone until as Queen, Sister is pushing the Witch forward from Mother to Crone. The Witch's Daughter is introduced as the new Maiden, but wishes to change her role without the male agent.

Men have the roles of agents - enabling women to move onto the next stage in their lifecycles. They are not active in their own right, but only as agents for the change of the women in the tale. However women who try to move without them are punished.

To me all the Grimm tales have an underlying moral, and this one seems to me to be saying 'Do not usurp a position in the Lifecycle' - life carries on and we must move with it, but also "Accept your role and don't try to move yourself"

Sources:

Grimm —Children's and Household Tales (Lucy Crane translation with Walter Crane illustrations)

Edited and updated essay:

To be added later

Sci Fi & Fantasy essay thoughts...

Now that the Sci Fi and Fantasy literature course has finished, I'm planning to write up and expand my original essays, where possible and where inclination remains... For the sake of balance and honesty, I'm including all my essays as submitted, despite some being frankly abysmal! This course has been exceptionally useful for me in re-teaching me how to balance my work and study lives - something you don't realise you've forgotten until you start again!

One odd thing that really irritated me after a while - having to specifically state that I was using British English so that I wasn't marked down by other peer reviewers for not using American spellings. Trivial but exasperating since both versions are pretty much universally accepted in universities both sides of the Atlantic.

1. The Brothers Grimm — Children's and Household Tales (Lucy Crane translation with Walter Crane illustrations)
Essay

2. Lewis Carroll — Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass
Essay

3. Stoker — Dracula
Essay

4. Shelley — Frankenstein
Essay

5. Edgar Allen Poe & Nathaniel Hawthorne
Essay

6. Wells — The Island of Dr. Moreau, The Invisible Man, "The Country of the Blind," "The Star"
Essay

7. Burroughs & Gilman — A Princess of Mars & Herland
Essay

8. Bradbury — The Martian Chronicles
Missed essay

9. LeGuin — The Left Hand of Darkness
Essay

10. Doctorow — Little Brother
Essay

Couple of interesting articles

Just putting my head up above the parapet briefly. The sheer madness of signing up to lots of the MOOC courses through Coursera has strained my time management to the limit, but now that two have finished, I can relax a little and enjoy the last two.

So, to show I'm still alive!:

A Point Of View: What is history's role in society?

and

Sima Qian: China's 'grand historian' by Carrie Gracie

Both BBC articles.

Plans

1. Write up some of my Science Fiction and Fantasy essays in more depth than I could do in 320 words.
2. Read the last few SFF stories that I didn't manage to do at the time (Wells, Hawthorne and Poe)
3. Finish and publish my Leeds thoughts
4. Do some armour research I have been asked to do!
5. Complete formal applications to MA courses, with the contingency of doing the Advanced Diploma with Oxford if I need to do a 'conversion course' after all this time...