| Description |
x, 214 pages ; 24 cm |
| Contents |
Pt. 1. "But what am I, then?" Chasing Personal Essences across National Literatures -- 1. Ural Mountains-Rome-London -- 2. Essentialism, Functionalism, and Cognitive Psychology -- 3. Possible Evolutionary Origins of Essentialist Thinking -- 4. "A bullet's a bullet's a bullet!" -- 5. Talk to the Door Politely or Tickle It in Exactly the Right Place -- 6. Resisting Essentialism -- 7. The Ever-Receding "Essence" of Sosia -- 8. Identical Twins and Theater -- 9. How Is Mr. Darcy Different from Colin Firth? -- 10. Looking for the Real Mademoiselle -- 11. "Mahatma Gandhi: war!" "But he was a pacifist." "Right! War!" -- Pt. 2. Why Robots Go Astray, or The Cognitive Foundations of the Frankenstein Complex -- 1. What Is the Frankenstein Complex? -- 2. On Zygoons, Thricklers, and Kerpas -- 3. Theory of Mind -- 4. Theory of Mind and Categorization: Preliminary Implications -- 5. Concepts That Resist Categorization -- 6. ... and the Stories They Make Possible -- 7. The Stories That Can Be Told about a Talking Needle -- 8. Asimov's "The Bicentennial Man" -- 9. Cognitive Construction of "Undoubted Facts": "The Bicentennial Man" and the Logic of Essentialism -- 10. Made to Rebel -- 11. Why Phyllis Is Still a Robot -- 12. ... and Why Rei Toei Is Not -- 13. More Human Than Thou (Piercy's He, She and It) -- 14. Made to Pray -- 15. Made to Serve. Made to Obey. Made to Break Hearts -- Pt. 3. Some Species of Nonsense -- 1. How Nonsense Makes Sense in The Hunting of the Snark -- 2. "Strings of Impossibilia" and What They Tell Us about the Value of Nonsense -- 3. "Painters of the Unimaginable," or More about Really Strange Concepts -- Conclusion: Almost beyond Fiction |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references and index |
| Subject |
Fantasy fiction -- History and criticism.
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Doubles in literature.
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Mistaken identity in literature.
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Robots in literature.
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Essentialism (Philosophy)
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| LC no. |
2007047748 |
| ISBN |
9780801887062 (hardcover : alk. paper) |
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0801887062 (hardcover : alk. paper) |
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9780801887079 (paperback: alk. paper) |
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0801887070 (paperback: alk. paper) |
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