[SFRA-L] pseudoscience fiction?

[Joshua ~Sha~ LaBare]

For my part, Jeffrey Ford's The Physiognomy comes to mind.  It's not 
that the protagonist doesn't at first seem to believe in his technique, 
but he definitely comes to see that it is pseudoscience, and of course 
the whole thing is in conversation with 19th century U.S. American race 
science as well.
On a related note, I also can't help but think of Twain's Pudd'nhead 
Wilson, in which the "real" science of fingerprinting - then very new - 
trumps the pseudoscience of physiognomy/phrenology.  (This novel has 
always seemed like a work of sf to me...)
remain in light,
Sha

On 9/3/2011 4:13 PM, Robert Crossley wrote:
>
> Tim,
>
>                 There's a delightful short story by H. G. Wells that 
> is almost, if not quite, in the ballpark.  "The New Accelerator" is 
> about a professor who invents a drug that speeds up physical movement 
> and allows the person who ingests it to make mischief with impunity 
> because he cannot be detected.  The scientist and the narrator who 
> experiments with this superamphetamine are not exactly frauds, but 
> they are utterly unscrupulous and decide to mass-produce the drug 
> without any ethical concern about its potential abuses.  The 
> descriptions of what happens under the influence of the drug are quite 
> funny and the story as a whole works as a pointed fable about the 
> misuses of science.  Wells's satire would fit comfortably with the 
> Canon's Yeoman's Tale, I think.
>
> Bob Crossley
>
> *From:*sfra-l-bounces at charlemagne.cddc.vt.edu 
> [mailto:sfra-l-bounces at charlemagne.cddc.vt.edu] *On Behalf Of *aevans2 
> tds.net
> *Sent:* Saturday, September 03, 2011 2:55 PM
> *To:* Tim Miller
> *Cc:* sfra-l at wiz.cath.vt.edu
> *Subject:* Re: [SFRA-L] pseudoscience fiction?
>
> Tim,
>
> I'm not sure this one would count, but Jules Verne wrote a 
> delightfully satiric little piece called "The Humbug" (published 
> posthumously in French in 1910 and in English in 1996 in the /Jules 
> Verne Encyclopedia/) that portrays an American huckster named Hopkins 
> who claims to have unearthed the bones of a giant prehistoric man over 
> 100 feet tall in upper-state New York. Although not a real scientist 
> himself, this P.T. Barnum-like character pretends an expertise in the 
> field and takes advantage of a gullible public's interest in 
> paleontology to cash in on this "discovery."  Here's short quote 
> describing one of his marketing strategies:
>
> "He devised a course of studies in 'skeletology' in which he quoted 
> Cuvier, Blumenbach, Backland, Link, Stemberg, Brongniart, and hundred 
> other paleontologists. His courses were so well attended and so highly 
> applauded that one day two people were crushed to death at the door.
>    Needless to say, Mr. Hopkins arranged magnificent funerals for 
> them. [...]"
>
> Best,
> Art
>
> On Sat, Sep 3, 2011 at 2:36 AM, Tim Miller <tmille17 at nd.edu 
> <mailto:tmille17 at nd.edu>> wrote:
>
> Hello all,
>
> I'm looking for a few examples of what we might call "pseudoscience 
> fiction," by which I don't simply mean SF with bad science -- we all 
> know how much of that exists. Instead, I'm looking for stories that 
> feature either sciences or (more likely?) individual scientists that 
> turn out to be frauds. Specifically, I'm wondering about possible 
> analogues for Chaucer's _Canon Yeoman's Tale_, the story of an 
> alchemist who bilks an acquaintance after persuading him that his new 
> (bogus) science can create precious metals ("the secret can be yours 
> for one low payment!"). I suppose I'm asking whether there is a 
> substantial literature of specifically _scientific_ scams, confidence 
> games, etc., although a suitable piece of "pseudoscience fiction" 
> could also take the form of, say, a satire on string theory by a 
> non-believer.
>
> Thanks!
>
> Tim
>
>
> -- 
> Timothy S. Miller
> Department of English
> University of Notre Dame
> 356 O'Shaughnessy Hall
> Notre Dame, IN 46556
> tmille17 at nd.edu <mailto:tmille17 at nd.edu>
>
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