literature and technology

         The Experience
        of Technology in
      Literature and Art

Image by Frank Edler

Henry Adams' The Dynamo and the Virgin ( Chapter XXV of Adams' The
Education of Henry Adams)

Resources for the Study of Willa Cather's Alexander's Bridge, Behind the
Singer Tower, and The Professor's House : for essays, papers, and articles about
Cather, see the Cather Home Page; especially Anna Giuliani's essay entitled The Destruction
of the Western Spirit by the Progress of Technology - a Look at Willa Cather's "Alexander's
Bridge" and "Behind the Singer Tower;" for additional resources, see Malcolm Cowley's 1926
article entitled LOST! A Lady. FOUND! An Artist! and a precis of Deborah Carlin's dissertation entitled "Reading Willa Cather: Problems and Poetics in the Late Fiction" (1987).

Resources for the Study of Stanley Kubrick's Production of Arthur C.
Clarke's 2001: A Space Odyssey: see Patrick J. Larkin's Kubrick Multimedia Film Guide
which includes images from the movie, links to web resources, and a link to a special issue of Wired magazine (issue 5.01,1997) celebrating the 30th anniversary of Hal and 2001 with Simon
Garfinkel's article Happy Birthday HAL, Jeff Greenwald's I Was a Teenage Centenarian (an
interview with Arthur C. Clarke at 80), and Paula Parisi's article The Intelligence Behind AI (on
Kubrick's new vision of thinking machines).

Resources for the Study of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness: Candice
Bradley's essay Africa and Africans in Conrad's Heart of Darkness; excerpts from Chinua
Achebe's An Image of Africa: Conrad's Heart of Darkness (see also Achebe's Commence-
ment Address at Bard College); Janet Stucken's Teaching Conrad's Heart of Darkness: A
Resource Page for Instructors; Richard Yatzeck's Marlowe's Lie; Mark Dintenfass' Heart of
Darkness; Lawrence University's Comments Page on the Heart of Darkness.

Brown University's The Victorian Web: Charles Dickens -- Social and
Political Contexts (The Dickens part of this web site includes sections on child labor, Dickens
and social class, economic contexts, the evolution of Victorian Capitalism and Great Expectations,etc.) For the complete text of Dickens' Hard Times, click here .

Resources for the Study of Futurism: a web site which includes many links to
Futurist manifestos by F.T. Marinetti, Umberto Boccioni, Carlo Carra, Luigi Russolo, Giacomo
Balla, and Gino Severini and a comprehensive list of essays on Futurism as well as links to Neo-
futurism; see also Russian Futurism as a related movement.

Resources for the Study of Allen Ginsberg's Howl (and Footnote to Howl):
Allen Ginsberg writes about Howl (from Teresa Davis); a brief background of Ginsberg (from
Sonya Feher); a web site for Ginsberg entitled Ashes & Blues which includes internet links on Ginsberg; J.C. Shakespeare's Ashcan Rantings and Kind King Light of Mind: Why the Beats
Still Matter; also a history of the readings of Howl starting with the first reading on Oct.13,1955)

Resources for the Study of Joseph Heller's Catch-22, Something Happened, etc: Barbara Gelb's interview with Joseph Heller (N.Y. Times Review of Books,
1994); Christopher Lehmann-Haupt's review of Joseph Heller's Closing Time; Mordecai
Richler's review of Joseph Heller's God Knows (N.Y.Times Review of Books,1984); David
Hart provides a background for the novel Catch-22 and the film made of it; Michiko Kakutani's
review of Joseph Heller's Now and Then: From Coney Island to Here (N.Y. Times Review of Books.)

John King's Welcome to the Unofficial Ernst Juenger Homepage: This is a
web site devoted to the German writer, soldier, scientist, political activist Ernst Juenger whose
philosophy and writing were shaped by the works of Nietzsche and his experiences of World War
I.. He saw Germany in the 20s and early 30s going through an unprecedented technological
transformation which would change the nature of human being into what we today would call a
cyborg (the worker-machine). This we site includes a biography of Juenger, a bibliography of
primary and secondary works, material on WWI, papers and reviews, other essays, links to
related sujects and authors.

D.H. Lawrence's Women in Love (especially Chapter XVII, The Industrial Magnate)
Other on-line works by Lawrence include Lady Chatterley's Lover, Sons and Lovers, and
The Rocking-Horse Winner (short story); there is also a selection of Lawrence's poetry on the
web compiled by Helen Croom / Vance Maverick. Essays on Lawrence include R.H. Albright's
A View on Lawrence and Danica Vukovic's Bonding and Separating of Female Characters in
Women in Love; web sites on Lawrence include Scarthin Books, Diane Ward's Aesthete's List,
and D.H.Lawrence Links. There is also the journal The D.H. Lawrence Review from the Univer-
sity of Texas, but no articles are listed on-line.

Resources for the Study of Diego Rivera's Murals at Rockefeller Center:
there is a pencil sketch that exists of a study that Rivera did in 1932 for the mural at Rockefeller Center; its subject was to be " human intelligence in control of the forces of nature." The murals were never finished, of course, because Nelson Rockefeller fired Rivera when he would not remove Lenin from the mural. Apparently, the mural was destroyed. In 1934, Rivera created
another version of the mural Man at the Crossroads for the national palace in Mexico. See the
Detroit Institute of Arts for other murals that Rivera painted. Margarita Nieto has an on-line essay
entitled David Alfaro Sequeiros and Diego Rivera. For a photograph of Rivera with Trotsky and
Andre Breton, see Alan Gullette's site on surrealist writers. For more on Frida Kahlo, see the
Frida Kahlo Home Page and Rogelio I. Ortiz Z.'s essay on Kahlo entitled Absolute Pain.

Resources for the Study of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein ( This site includes
Etexts and hypertexts of Mary Shelley's novel, links to works by Mary Wollstonecraft and
William Godwin as well as by Percy Shelley, information and reviews of various movies based
on the novel, and links to other resources for studying Mary Shelley; see also Jack Lynch's
(Univ.of Penn.) Early History of Electricity as a Context for Frankenstein; Michael Burgess' Self-identity of a cyborg: I am Frankenstein's monster ; see also Denise Wells' short biography
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley and essay Frankenstein; or the Modern Prometheus - A Realist
or Gothic Novel?; Orlin Damyanov's research paper Technology and Its Dangerous Effects
on Nature and Human Life as Perceived in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and Gibson's
Neuromancer; David Bockoven's essay Framing Narratives and the Sublime in Frankenstein;
Jessica M. Natale's essay Victor Frankenstein: The Absent Parent; The Creature: The
Abandoned Child; for an essay on one of Mary Shelley's later novels, see Daniel E. White's 'The
god undeified': Mary Shelley's Valperga, Italy, and the Aesthetic of Desire.

Resources for the Study of Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash: Mark Hughes'
web site includes excerpts from the novel; a glossary also exists for Snow Crash; see also
Michael Goldberg's interview with Neal Stephenson; Amazon.com's advertisement for the novel
includes short reviews and reader responses.

Resources for the Study of Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-five: Summaries
of, reviews of, and essays on Slaughterhouse-five and the movie made of it can be gotten at The Vonnegut Web, Chris Huber's VonnegutWeb, and A Kurt Vonnegut Homepage. All three sites also include links to biographies, interviews, and bibliographies. For additional essays, see Marek Vit's Kurt Vonnegut Essay Collection; see also Ray Boomhower's biograghical talk on Kurt
Vonnegut and Slaughterhouse-five.