Bøger af Patrick Parrinder

H.G. Wells - inventor of the concept of the time machine and the phrase the shape of things to come - described his life's work as one of critical anticipation. This book unravels the complex layers of meaning in The Time Machine, and shows how, throughout his life, he sought to exploit the potential of literary and cultural prophecy in new ways. Described by John Middleton Murry as the last prophet of bourgeois Europe, he was its first futurologist.

One of the great paradoxes of modern times is that the more scientists understand the natural world, the more we discover that our everyday beliefs about it are wrong. Astronomy, in particular, is one of the most misunderstood scientific disciplines.With the participation of thousands of undergraduate students, Neil F. Comins has identified and classified, by origin and topic, over 1,700 commonly held misconceptions. Heavenly Errors provides access to all of them and explores many, including: * Black holes suck in everything around them.* The Sun shines by burning gas.* Comets have tails trailing behind them.* The Moon alone causes tides.* Mercury, the closest planet to the Sun, is the hottest planet.In the course of correcting these errors, he explains that some occur through the prevalence of pseudosciences such as astrology and UFO-logy and some enter the public conscience through the bad astronomy of Star Trek, Star Wars, and other science-fiction movies. Perhaps most important, Professor Comins presents the reader with the methods for identifying and replacing incorrect ideas -- tools with which to probe erroneous notions so that we can begin to question for ourselves...and to think more like scientists

This book, first published in 1979, presents a portrait of science fiction as a distinct form of serious and creative literature. Contributors are drawn from Britain, America and Europe, and range from well-known academic critics to young novelists. The essays establish the common properties of science fiction writing, and assess the history and significance of a field in which critical judgements have often been unreliable. The material ranges from the earliest imaginative journeys to the moon, to later developments of British, American and European science fiction.

This book offers pioneering insights into Wells's contribution to 20th century European literature and to modern political ideas, including the idea of European union.

Scientific progress is usually seen as a precondition of modern utopias, but science and utopia are frequently at odds. Ranging from Galileo's observations with the telescope to current ideas of the post-human and the human-animal boundary, this study brings a fresh perspective to the paradoxes of utopian thinking since Plato.

This book is an original and well-informed survey of the whole of Joyce's work. It offers close readings of his early writings such as Dubliners, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and an extended examination of his masterpiece, Ulysses.