Roger Zelazny: In Connections To The World
Seeing what’s been happening in the United States recently, the things that people wrote about today don't really relate to the current happening is the U.S. While, back then the things authors wrote about could make connections to what was happening.Take Roger Zelazny’s writing for instance. Even though his books were science fiction books they were still something that was close to reality. People could make connections to actual happenings. Zelazny made his books connect to what was actually happening in the world but not making it seem like the harsh reality of what it actually was. Some things were totally made up and had nothing to do with anything that was actually happening, but some things
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did make a correlation to what was happening.
Zelazny made a way for things that no one would ever really relate to things that actually happen in the world relate to things that actually went on. Some of Zelazny’s book include “Lord of Light”, this book relates to a real life topic like space travel. This is one of many ways Zelazny found a way for his science fiction books that are meant to seem fake, have something that is realistic about it. Zelazny also had other books that related to real world experiences. His books may not be referring to actual happening that are current events, but they are still realistic and not just bottom line science fiction. He added different aspects to science fiction. Another one of his books include “Nine Princes in Amber”. This is one of his books that are on the more realistic side of things. On the other hand, he does write some books that don't relate anything to the real world. Books like this include “Creatures of The Light and Darkness”, this story is based in the far future with only humans of many worlds. Some of these humans have god like powers, while some of them are gods. Zelazny gave an example of how different science fiction can be on many levels. As being an author of novels as well
Zelazny paved a path of diversity in his writing. Roger Zelazny was an American poet and writer of fantasy and science fiction books. He was also the author of novels as well. Zelazny was best known for his popular series, “The Chronicles of Amber”. Zelazny was born May 13, 1937. In his lifetime, he wrote around 45 books in his entire career. Throughout his life, Zelazny grew up in Cleveland, Ohio. Zelazny had a wide variety of writing and also writing styles. His writing of science fiction books made the unreal seem real in some cases. Zelazny was able to keep a balance in his writing of fantasy. Zelazny chose to keep writing easy but still entertaining to the outside world. “I find fantasy easier to write. If I’m going to write science fiction, I spend a lot more time thinking up justifications. I can write fantasy without thinking as much. I like to balance things out: a certain amount of fantasy and a certain amount of science fiction.” He found it much easier to write science fiction books without them strictly being just science fiction. He gave all of his books a nice balance between science fiction and fantasy. This made his writing much more appealing to his readers.
... to foretell of a dystopian America that has eerily similar qualities to current- day- America even though he wrote this book over sixty years ago. Just as the novel predicts, People are becoming buried in their technology, leaving books and social interactions lower on peoples’ priority list. They want to have the latest technology to make it seem like they live a successful life. People have turned towards the technology obsessively in order to have fun entertainment and feel happy. Medication consumption is higher than ever and humans are addicted to fast- paced actions that provide them with their coveted entertainment. America is changing, moving towards an alarming technological dystopia just as the America in the novel did.
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.
There is something about the timing of the book. America in 1959 was at a crossroads; it was still recovering from the second World War and the ensuing economic boom. The country was
An author depicts certain elements of a historical time period in his or her novel by incorporating literary elements. Upton Sinclair, the author of the novel ,The Jungle, was a Socialist who supported the rights of the working class in America’s economy. He lived during the time of the American Industrial Revolution when the lower class of the society were poverty-stricken while the upper class were wealthy and corrupt. He had observed the meat-packing factories of Chicago and incorporated the knowledge he had learned into his novel. In writing this novel, Sinclair’s goal was to expose the harsh conditions in American factories (“Upton Sinclair”). The novel takes place during the early 1900s in Chicago were a working immigrant man named Jurgis
...ader with an opportunity to experience a culture that no longer exists, or is yet to come. A look at the layout of classical narratives from the beginning of America to the present describes and relives the lives of so many individuals. In providing this glimpse into the past or the future, narratives shape the readers perspective of that time period, leaving the reader with a specific viewpoint on the history of American culture.
Although some may claim that American Literature is based on the audience and setting, those two elements do not transition between times. The setting and audience of present time has evolved in a sense that there are certain expectations. It is mainly based on the future and development. The setting has changed as well in terms of geography and people. The cultural allusions of the past may be unknown to today’s audience, therefore it would not pertain significance. American literature should reproduce timeless elements such as themes and gender roles.
For example, during the Great Depression, a hard time for many, people were seeking distractions from their troubles, and such brought on a focus on escapist and humor themes. Furthermore, as mentioned previously, literary pieces focused on the lack of progress and the want of a simpler, more pure lifestyle as was once had. Literary periods have come and gone; romanticism, for example, filled with poetry and idealisms, with artistic expression that wouldn’t have been as tolerable in earlier times, or naturalism, which found expression almost completely in the novel, concerned with searching and discovering the causes for a person’s actions or beliefs (2). Literature has changed and developed, just as our society and our history have.
This book was written at a time of change in the world of fiction as a
In the 1950s, authors tended to follow common themes, these themes were summed up in an art called postmodernism. Postmodernism took place after the Cold War, themes changed drastically, and boundaries were broken down. Postmodern authors defined themselves by “avoiding traditional closure of themes or situations” (Postmodernism). Postmodernism tends to play with the mind, and give a new meaning to things, “Postmodern art often makes it a point of demonstrating in an obvious way the instability of meaning (Clayton)”. What makes postmodernism most unique is its unpredictable nature and “think o...
Throughout the twentieth century a wide variety of novels began to hit the shelves of bookstores in America. Books written about anything from dystopian futures to memoirs of recent years past filled the bookshelves of Americans during the time period. Historical fiction seems to be the most significant of these genres, however, as it teaches people of the past to educate them for a better future. Men learn from their past mistakes, and when man’s mistakes are told as tales, one is more inclined to listen if the story entertains him. This is why historical fiction contributes the most to the combined literary effort of the twentieth century.
it parallels present day society in the U.S. in many ways. Yet at the same time,
Attempting to make sense of the altering world around them, the authors of the Lost Generation tried looking for new ways of thinking. Because of this reaction, it caused a turning point in American Literature. The works that developed from the aftermath reflected the cynicism and disillusionment experienced during the war. Because of these new ide...
Written in 1926, the novel itself has been heralded as the greatest of accomplishments and is a staple of the modernist literary era. It is a story based upon many of his own experiences, traveling the world with his friends and family a few years after World War I. Disenchantment with the allure of the United States was something very widely felt with contemporary youth, and it is one of the main themes of the book along with lost love, lust, guilt, nature, heroism, masculinity, femininity, and disability. In 1926, these sentiments and themes had the so-called “lost-generation” clamoring with appreciation. However, along with the applause came an equal amount of scathing criticism.
On Hedges side there are references to reality TV programs like “Survivor” while in Ames’s there are novels such as “Feed” by Matthew Tobin Anderson and “The Hunger Games” by Suzanne Collins. Each example of pop culture is very different with unique audiences. Many young adults enjoy watching reality TV and pretending that what they see is real, but most young adults don't fixate upon these shows. These pithy TV shows are for pure enjoyment and they are not trying to convey a deeper meaning. Novels such as “The Hunger Games” try to have the reader think more deeply about their government and country. Novels like this force the reader to ask if they are involved in trying to make the world a better place as much as they can. Some audiences who watch survivor may think that the world should be more like the TV show, and some readers who read The Hunger Games might think that we should have a more dictatorial government. For the most part I think that the pop culture that Ames is referencing to, is geared toward a more intellectually invested group of young adults. The pop culture that Hedges references is more focused on the lowest common
Literary Responses to culture shock gave us “mainstream” or “highbrow” stories that focused on the chaotic events of our time, with characters that intertwined with it. Also came the style of “commercial” or “lowbrow” fiction, which focused more on events and the plots instead of the characters