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The defeat of the Anthropocene The social and environmental agencies in the literature of Philip K. Dick, Frank Herbert and Ayn Rand
Full text linkThe dissertation focuses on the speculative science fiction genre in order to put into a thematic and ideological discourse three authors, Philip K. Dick (1928-1982), Ayn Rand (1905-1982) and Frank Herbert (1920-1986). In spite of the fact that they were active largely during the same period, their literary works, philosophy and approach to their craft tends to be varied; they coincide in some cases and heavily diverge in others. They witnessed the events of World War Two, although at slightly different ages, lived through the paranoid and fear-inducing climate of the Cold War and contemplated the socio-political spheres of their historical period. In their writings, they reflected on various themes that would later become important academic points of analysis. However, my dissertation is not about how they might be perceived as prophetic or avant-garde, although they certainly problematized various subject matters ahead of their time. The discourse I want to establish is not based on what the intertextuality tells us today, but rather focus on the motives that made them write on those thematic nodes in the ‘60 and ’70.
My work is divided into two main sections. The first focuses on the analysis of the dystopian elements, the representation of the socio-political and economic themes depicted by the three authors in the respective fictional realities of their literary works. The second part is concerned with the ecological and ecocritical viewpoints that the novels present. The ecocritical perspective intertwines with the dystopian part because of how it problematizes the social and political aspects related to the environmental issues.
The quintessential leitmotifs that dominate Philip K. Dick’s fictional worlds are the usage of drugs, theological and ontological contemplation and the falsehood of reality. These three themes intertwine and permeate constantly within his world building, characters and plots. In his critique, he reflected on politics, economics and mass media, or technology more in general. Dick creates a divide between the lower and upper echelons of society, usually based on financial status; the resulting political system, in similar cases, always results into some form or other of authoritarianism. His texts, as such, veil a certain sense of discontent towards a manipulative form of government, which in most cases is either revealed to be corrupt or is just openly unjust. This overwhelming sense of dissatisfaction, which in the best of cases can be forgotten by the fictional characters through the use of drugs, also derives from the awareness of the futility of trying to change or fight the system.
Dune, Frank Herbert’s magnum opus, on the other hand lends itself to an analysis of complex environmental, economic and political ecosystems. The saga is, for all intents and purposes, an ecological novel; it takes into account the phenomena that shape an entire ecosphere, from the macroscopic level to the global scale. These aspects however are not isolated, but intertwine with the socio-political dimensions of the fictional characters living, not only on the desert planet where most of the plot events take place, but in the entire galaxy as well. Herbert achieves this by creating a delicate equilibrium based on the economy of melange, a spice extracted from the planet of Dune and the only resource that enables space travel. As soon as a despot radically changes this status quo, then all of the previously established socio-political equilibriums crumble. Ultimately, Herbert uses his protagonists, heroes-become-tyrants, to create a cautionary message about the dangers correlated with the cult of personality, its prophets and its heroes. His critique points not only towards the fallacy of the hero and the prophet, but towards the fallacy of those who blindly follow them just as easily.
Finally, the misuse of power in a seemingly totalitarian regime, as well as the concept of blindly following a leader, is also taken into account by Ayn Rand. In Anthem, this is achieved by reverting society to a primitive form where political agents use the oblivion accompanying said regression to take control over the entire population. It is up to the protagonist to understand that he in fact can detach himself from these political machinations through the use of his own reason. Individuality and critical thinking, as such, become quintessential in Rand’s critique. In Atlas Shrugged it is a particular form of greedy capitalism that puts into motion the entirety of the plot. In this case, it is once again through reason and detachment from the social imposed behaviour that the protagonists are able to fight back. Furthermore, in Atlas Shrugged, the solution reached by the ‘men of the mind’ is to simply go on strike and let the technological infrastructure crumble. Ultimately, Rand creates a severe brain drain, where the intellectual human capital has detached itself from the social reality, and by doing so, reclaimed its right to be treated justly.
In all of these cases, it is only because of the potential of speculative science fiction that it becomes possible to trace a link between the fictional and the real world. Through a process of estrangement, the reader experiences both displacement and recognition simultaneously; this is achieved because of a dialectical interaction between a familiar dimension and an alienating one, fundamental mechanism in the narratological construction of the science fiction genre.
Philip K. Dick saw, more than most of his generation, not only the shifts in civilization, but the complex interactions between economics, politics and technology within the social connective tissue. His texts may be considered somewhat pessimistic, or at the very least cynical or nihilistic, but it is important where does this general point of view originates. There is a certain fear, similar to an anxious form of dread, in the visions of not only Philip K. Dick, but Frank Herbert and Ayn Rand as well (although admittedly in a diminished degree). In part this attitude of bleak uncertainly towards the future is routed deeply into their socio-political and historical dimension, but goes beyond that. The grim and pessimist outlook towards the future is not because of society as a whole, but rather because of how it can be manipulated; their fear regards the abuse of power and, to a degree, how technology can facilitate this.
The three authors end up creating fictional worlds where the main antagonizing element is the oppression perpetuated by a socio-political hierarchy. Their protagonists end up either needing (or even having to realize the need in the first place) to react against the repressive conditions they face. Given how these novels start or build up from a situation of utter discontent and, in many cases, the ending does not necessarily provide a resolution to their situation, or a positive outcome altogether, the guiding leitmotif that has been emphasised through my analysis is the theme of defeat. Ayn Rand, Frank Herbert and Philip K. Dick ultimately faced the nature of late capitalism and, through their texts, it is possible to perceive a certain sense of uneasiness when confronted with the what if scenarios that stem from it. If this is a reflection of their perception of their own society, and if it is possibly a line of reasoning that is still ongoing, then I would argue that it is worth revisiting the literary examples that touched on it. For this reason the Ayn Rand, Frank Herbert and Philip K. Dick have been chosen for my investigation
La ecopoesía etnocultural en Leonel Lienlaf: interpretaciones ecocríticas en algunas de sus poesías
No full textThis article will analyse from an ecocritical perspective poems written by Mapuche poet Leonel Lienlaf. Several poems from Se ha despertado el ave de mi corazón (autotranslated into Spanish by the author) will be examined to underline the importance of the intricate connection between human and nature. The symbolic dimension used by the author intertwines with the ethnocultural dimension of the mapuches, which will however remain of secondary importance for the investigation. The article aims to emphasize the centrality of communication between nature and the human that Lienlaf conveys through his poems, one that ultimately becomes a coexistence with the enviroment.Este artículo analiza la poesía de Leonel Lienlaf, poeta mapuche, desde una óptica ecocrítica. Para ello, se toman varias poesías del poemario Se ha despertado el ave de mi corazón (autotraducidas al español por el autor) con el fin de subrayar la importancia de la relación hombre-naturaleza. La dimensión simbólica utilizada por el autor se conecta directamente con la dimensión etnocultural del pueblo mapuche que, si bien no es el objeto principal del análisis, será igualmente importante considerarla. El artículo quiere destacar el diálogo con la naturaleza queLienlaf pone de manifiesto en sus poesías y que se convierte, en última instancia, en una coexistencia con el medio ambiente.
La ecopoesía etnocultural en Leonel Lienlaf: interpretaciones ecocríticas en algunas de sus poesías
No full textThis article will analyse from an ecocritical perspective poems written by Mapuche poet Leonel Lienlaf. Several poems from Se ha despertado el ave de mi corazón (autotranslated into Spanish by the author) will be examined to underline the importance of the intricate connection between human and nature. The symbolic dimension used by the author intertwines with the ethnocultural dimension of the mapuches, which will however remain of secondary importance for the investigation. The article aims to emphasize the centrality of communication between nature and the human that Lienlaf conveys through his poems, one that ultimately becomes a coexistence with the enviroment.Este artículo analiza la poesía de Leonel Lienlaf, poeta mapuche, desde una óptica ecocrítica. Para ello, se toman varias poesías del poemario Se ha despertado el ave de mi corazón (autotraducidas al español por el autor) con el fin de subrayar la importancia de la relación hombre-naturaleza. La dimensión simbólica utilizada por el autor se conecta directamente con la dimensión etnocultural del pueblo mapuche que, si bien no es el objeto principal del análisis, será igualmente importante considerarla. El artículo quiere destacar el diálogo con la naturaleza que Lienlaf pone de manifiesto en sus poesías y que se convierte, en última instancia, en una coexistencia con el medio ambiente
La ecopoesía etnocultural en Leonel Lienlaf: interpretaciones ecocríticas en algunas de sus poesías
Full text linkThis article will analyse from an ecocritical perspective poems written by Mapuche poet Leonel Lienlaf. Several poems from Se ha despertado el ave de mi corazón (autotranslated into Spanish by the author) will be examined to underline the importance of the intricate connection between human and nature. The symbolic dimension used by the author intertwines with the ethnocultural dimension of the mapuches, which will however remain of secondary importance for the investigation. The article aims to emphasize the centrality of communication between nature and the human that Lienlaf conveys through his poems, one that ultimately becomes a coexistence with the enviroment.Este artículo analiza la poesía de Leonel Lienlaf, poeta mapuche, desde una óptica ecocrítica. Para ello, se toman varias poesías del poemario Se ha despertado el ave de mi corazón (autotraducidas al español por el autor) con el fin de subrayar la importancia de la relación hombre-naturaleza. La dimensión simbólica utilizada por el autor se conecta directamente con la dimensión etnocultural del pueblo mapuche que, si bien no es el objeto principal del análisis, será igualmente importante considerarla. El artículo quiere destacar el diálogo con la naturaleza queLienlaf pone de manifiesto en sus poesías y que se convierte, en última instancia, en una coexistencia con el medio ambiente.
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
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