Hajirah Safdar ,,,,,.docx

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Hajirah Safdar Advanced Stylistics Second Semester Dr. Rubina Kamran MS English Literature 19-Dec-2018 

Popular scientific style and science fiction; a comparative study.

Style is usually a distinctive manner of presentation both in writing and in speech. Every poet, writer or orator has a unique way of communicating ideas and feeling with his audience. According to Thomas S. Kane “style is a pattern of linguistic features distinguishing one piece of writing from another, or one category of writing from another” for example the distinction between Augustan poetry and the poetry of romantic era with its focus on thought and emotion rather on form and rhyming couplets which the former strictly followed in their poetry as in Alexander Pope’s The Rape Of Lock whereas latter experiments with multiple new techniques and topics like Wordsworth and Coleridge. The style of writing poetry differs from that of writing prose; it does not need rhyme, rhythm or meter but it still employs multiple stylistic devices to create the discourse and also applies defamiliarizing devices to bring freshness and newness into their text. Prose has multiple genres; scientific style, popular science and science fiction are probably the most famous genres of present times. They have their own rules and standards to create a text and discourse which sets them distinctly apart from other genres as well as from each other. Although as a text and discourse it follows basic rules of writing but their

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features, devices, form, function and purpose set them apart. This paper will define and differentiate between these three kinds of writing styles that is a pure scientific writing style used for science papers for example the text book of biology or chemistry, then the Popular science writing style like articles presented in its magazines and its purposes, finally science fiction its constituents, devices and functions. Finally it will apply stylistic analysis on two texts from popular science and science fiction. In a research article by Blanka Frydrychova Klimova “Scientific prose style and its Specifics” she draws on the theories of multiple linguists to show how linguistic approaches differ from one and other due to their particular purposes she says that Halliday, McIntosh and Strevens (1964) distinguish language variation according to ‘user’ (relatively permanent) and ‘to use’. The first type is called ‘dialect’, the second ‘register’. Registers usually vary according to the context and purpose of the language used and the relation the language user has with the audience. It is defined by three dimensions: field of discourse (relation between the form and the context), mode of discourse (spoken versus written language) and style of discourse/tenor of discourse (the social relations between the participants in language activity/distinction between formality and informality of discourse). As the definition suggests style of any writing depends on its user, how he wants to use it and the function or purpose of the writing. According to her scientific prose style “is to provide factual and precise information, which must be clear, concise, unambiguous and explicit. There is no space for any redundant, repetitive and unimportant information. The target audience is a relatively small group of professionals who are well acquainted with the issue in question.” For examples the results of an experiment on atoms it need to be according to the purpose to educate and let others knows of their newest discoveries it has to use the certain terminology from its field of science and unlike fiction which uses

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defamiliarizing devices to create suspense or tension the scientific style avoids it. It uses the clearest language, without ambiguity and straight to the point argument. It is always written formally, objectively, impersonally and its text is predominantly written in third person to avoid biasness and subjectivity. This style only allows the writer’s subjective view in conclusion the rest is based on the facts and figures that he found and presented objectively. The audience or readers of this style are mostly limited group of people well aware of the study at hand for this reason they usually do not need to explain their specific terminology and its background. It never uses metaphors, similes or other figurative language. These characteristics, functions and the implied audience make this pure scientific writing style different from the ‘popular science’ and ‘science fiction’. An article published in the magazine “Nature” in 1928 describes “Popular Science” as “there is a general lay interest in the march of science and very laudable attempts have been made and continue to be made, to keep the populace informed of the trends of its progress, its rates, its directions, its practical effects, and something of the spirit permeating its body of serving men and women”, this is the very purpose of popular science that it makes the science of laboratories, its accomplishments and finding to the general public for example the advancement in medicine, the development of MRI need to be connected to the populace to inform them about how was it developed, its functions and uses in the most simple words. Unlike its parent genre scientific style’s audience is not limited to the highly educated science researchers but the populace who want to be informed about science, its progress and its practical uses in the their lives. The article says that “the material must not be inaccurate, yet it must be indefinite, it must be attractive but not sensational, dignified but not highbrow” the topic and the finding of such article must be correct to its scientific discovery but it should be presented as argumentative, it

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should attract readers towards it for example the researches done on cars make them attractive for their consumers so they read the specifications and also its advancement, it addresses not just the high but all population. Popular science writing style introduces general public to the intricacies of science while using not a scientific language the common language and styles of everyday usage to make it easier to grasp and understand this style might use metaphor, simile or an analogy to connect the idea more comprehensively to the reader. This style makes science easier to understand and does a service to science itself with enlightening more people to the advancement of the society as a whole. Science fiction is a distinct genre in writing and in filmography which usually uses scientific advancement in its stories but the writers of it are not confined within it. The writers or makers envision the development; it develops its own technologies, gives their own facts and creates the whole new futurist world. This style is not bound within the narrow scope of present and discovered like its two former counterparts as they can only write about the set rules, discovered species or new natural laws, sci-fi being the fictional stories and no claim of its being real or true to science develops its own science, facts and technologies they present a future mostly dominated by science and its advancement for example I Robot, tells the story of future where men would be overcome by robots because of its advancement they resemble humans in their conquest of free will, compassion and need for savior the film makes its own history and provides facts that explain the phenomenon. In an article written by Paul Di Filippo “A Science Fiction Fantasy” he says, “Technology and science fiction, however, went hand in hand, the literature serving as a playful and entertaining, utopian laboratory to explicate and inspire the modern, scientific path of progress” the advent of technology and its uses mark the science fiction of today. Mostly set in future world this style of writing portrays the future generations in

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grip of technology some gives the utopian future while most like “Blade Runner” shows the dystopian world where science and technology has blurred the lines between humans and manmade man’s look alike replicants who show more humanity and concern than human beings themselves. Science fiction also show the effects and outcome of the madness that these obsessions bring with them for example in the story Rappaccini’s Daughter Hawthorne depicts the obsession to develop science while sacrificing humanity at its service. Science fiction shows the advancement of machines but at the same time it depicts the decline of the very humans that created it. Flippo in the article states that after the end of war a stability, happiness and new technologies came and “science fiction was the perfect embodiment of it, eventually coming to dominate the literary world as it still does to this day”. Popular science and science fiction are two distinct writing styles former although based on scientific knowledge and facts still employ literary devices and ordinary ways of communication to communicate their ideas but it is still embedded in the factual knowledge of science whereas science fiction as the word ‘fiction’ suggests is the imaginary tale, a futuristic world created solely out of its creator mind and imagination. Dorothy Scarborough in her essay “Science and supernatural” says, “advance in science has had its reflection in supernatural fiction and each phase of research contributes plot material, while some of the elements once considered wholly of the devil are now scientific” as in ancient stories the new was always related to magic to explain the phenomenon in modern times it is changed, now it is science that defines a new thing. As one of the first critics of science fiction she states that science has taken the place of magic in modern fiction like in old literature it was the magic carpet on which Aladdin could fly it had magic because it was unable to explain it with facts but in present time it the spaceships as in Star Trek that the science developed in which man could fly to other galaxies the modern

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fantasy differs from old fiction because they relied on magical godmothers as in Cindrella and now they believe in the power of science and its technologies like the time machine in Time Traveller and other movies as she says, “Science not only furnishes extraordinary situations for curdling tales, but it is an excellent hook to hang supernatural tales upon, for it gives an excuse for believing anything, however incredible.” Everything is made plausible in a science fiction through science whereas it was magic in old times that was used to make unbelievable believable. Dr. Beshero-Bondar, Associate Prof. of English, University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg defines sci-fi as, “Science fiction is a time-sensitive subject in literature. Usually futuristic, science fiction speculates about alternative ways of life made possible by technological change, and hence has sometimes been called "speculative fiction." Like fantasy, and often associated with it, science fiction envisions alternative worlds with believably consistent rules and structures, set apart somehow from the ordinary or familiar world of our time and place. Distinct from fantasy, however, science fiction reflects on technology to consider how it might transform the conditions of our existence and change what it means to be human. "Sci Fi" is the genre that considers what strange new beings we might become-what mechanical forms we might invent for our bodies, what networks and systems might nourish or tap our life energies, and what machine shells might contain our souls." Dr. Bondar states that science fiction is different from fantasy because fantasy creates a complete world of its own like Harry Potter series there is magic in it but it is also a pure fantasy while science fiction stems out of reality of science he asserts that this kind of style uses the already

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present and developed technologies to build his new world to show more advancement that might happen in the near future for example in a short story “The Machine Stops” by E. M. Forster the story shows a futuristic world where man is confined in a box governed and maintained by machines. The story is set in future times where machines have become selfsufficient and humans grown completely dependent upon machines even to breathe and sleep, “The chair, like the music, was worked by machinery”. The story opens with a direct address to the reader as, “Imagine, if you can,” to create the direct communication between the text, language, tone and its magic” the write by asking the reader to ‘imagine’ might be implying that he wants an active participation of the reader towards the story to grasp the complete meaning and also to point out the fact that it is an imagined story not a real one but the ‘you’ could also imply someone in the story some absent character that the write imagined like the device of apostrophe which creates a defamiliarizing effect in reader and suspense as to the identity of the second person being addressed as Halliday said that “second person in literary writing from the conventional second person in that it refers to an addressee who is not the receiver”. The story sets the rhetorical questions or the conflicts that the story will solve through its visualization and actualization. By putting it at the starts it creates the suspense and tension in readers to read and know more about the story this way the discourse makes itself more appealing to the reader. He says, “a small room, hexagonal in shape, like the cell of a bee”, the story is depicting the new setting which is not familiar with like a ‘hexagonal shaped room’ this is to make this world different from our own but to make the idea plausible to reader the narrator uses a simile with we are very well familiar and also to enrich the narrative with identifiable imagery. The narrator refers to himself as “my meditation” that creates further suspense as to if the narrator is part of story or not but as Halliday suggested that “the first person pronoun in these extracts is not the

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conventional one but is somehow compounded with the third person to create a unique kind of reference”, the ‘me’ in the story might refer to someone observing outside the frame or it could also be a machine which is present like an omnipresent god so the first pronoun is amalgam of first and third person which can also be an object. The story gradually takes the reader closer to the setting and the subjects involved in it as it says, “in the armchair there sits a swaddled lump of flesh — a woman, about five feet high, with a face as white as a fungus. It is to her that the little room belongs.” The close observation is shown to bring the reader closer to the situation and the punctuation mark of long dash suggest something hidden, confused or something that I difficult to present like the presence of an all-compassing machine is hard to describe as human beings have not yet experienced this kind of dominance from technology his verbal expression “swaddled lump of flesh –“ this precision of the inhuman dead thing just a piece of meat acts as the modifier as it adds more meaning to the state of a human being “a woman” which is as dead as dead meat which has no feelings, emotions or humanity she is like a dead body or an object that does not have any agency like the men and women in the story who does not use their abilities to perform their daily routines but the machines does all the work all the humans do is to press a ‘bottom’. The narrator uses another literary device a simile “as white as fungus” these devices are not mere ornament in the text but they work as meaning making they add meaning to it and tells more about the story itself. The narrator creates patterns in the opening with his imagery, modifiers and other literary devices which it would use in the rest of the story to add depth to the meaning and depth. The pattern of comparing human to inhuman senseless things as flesh and fungus will be broadened through the whole story and humans as object governed by machines will be explored in the rest of story. The opening uses also the narrative technique of foregrounding to show the hidden presence of machine and technology as “The chair, like the

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music, was worked by machinery and it rolled her” its status as god and man’s inability. Invisible advanced technology creates mystery and suspense as how has it developed to this length that it is governing humans and also the suspense at how this dominance will end. The narrator uses fiction and literary devices to create the meaning but he uses them in a particular way with the inclusion of scientific elements makes it suspenseful. The narrator’s axis of selection and axis of combination makes the style of scientific fiction different from other styles. The language and its figurative devices make it a discourse that connects with the reader to give them the wholistic meaning. She connects with others through machine, even to be alone and talk to her son “She touched the isolation knob, so that no one else could speak to her.”, he ‘Kuno’ is the only person who is conscious of the dominance of technology and sets out to explore the earth to escape from it. She delivers her lecture through screen and avoids every direct connection or communication with real persons because machine only wants them to focus on ‘ideas’ and no practical thing to change or replace their dominance. The actual dialogues uttered by them are short for example, “Who is it?” and “Be quick!” she called, her irritation returning. “Be quick, Kuno; here I am in the dark wasting my time.”, the form might be suggesting their short attention span, their lack of concern for fellow humans and inability to practice their free-will. The dialogue also engages the readers to create a complete discourse. Kuno her only son is taken by machine to look after him he wants to free himself from the machines as he says, “I want to see you not through the Machine,” said Kuno. “I want to speak to you not through the wearisome Machine.”, he symbolizes the figure of rebellion in the society like in normal societies he has a foresight which is also revealed through his action as well he knows that the real person is different from what he is looking through a machine. But her mother shows the blind faith in it as she says, “You mustn’t say anything against the

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Machine.”, it is a religious thing that his saying anything against it would be like a blasphemy committed against god or a holy thing it shows the deterioration of religion and man’s faith in God. The narrator’s concern with this decline is voiced by Kuno when he says, “You talk as if a god had made the Machine,” cried the other. “I believe that you pray to it when you are unhappy. Men made it, do not forget that. Great men, but men. The Machine is much, but it is not everything. I see something like you in this plate, but I do not see you. I hear something like you through this telephone, but I do not hear you. That is why I want you to come.”, he knows that machine does not convey the real thing and it is not everything. His mother does pray to the machine book as “O Machine” like bible whenever she is facing some trouble or fear. The machine decided that Kuno cannot have children and no one can go above in the real earth because machines has taken away man’s ability to survive on earth and Kuno has to use scientific technology like breather to even breathe on mother earth, respirator and other technologies, the story’s setting in future world, the dystopian outlook and its presentation in story through language devices makes science fiction a distinct style with its focus on technology and its effects on human beings. The narrator engages the reader’s attention to bring in the whole meaning bringing him to an active participation in not only its narrative but also to reflect upon their own dependency on science and technology. The story sets its tone, imagery and pattern in conceptualization with its opening chapter “The Air-Ship” that he develops in visualization state in second part “The Mending Apparatus” where Kuno goes out of the machine to explore earth and meet other humans in reality as he tells his mother, “Because I have seen her in the twilight—because she came to my help when I called — because she, too, was entangled by the worms, and, luckier than I, was killed by one of them piercing her throat.” and its end in “The Homeless” actualization with the destruction of machine and man’s return to its natural habitat,

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as they say “Oh, to-morrow—some fool will start the Machine again, to-morrow.”, “Never,” said Kuno, “never. Humanity has learnt its lesson.” The narrator has given his vision about the development of technology and left it open-ended for future generations to think for their own good. Every chapter title sets the pattern it would follow as in the first “Air-ship” it hints on the travel of Vashti on an air ship, it the second Kuno finds out about the manipulation of machine’s “Mending Apparatus” and finally they end up being “Homeless” because of the collapse of machine. The chapter titles’ significance and value can be understood with their respective reference to the context of their preceding details. An article in Nature while describing popular science says that this style developed due to “a general lay interest in the march of science and very laudable attempts have been made and continue to be made to keep the populace informed of the trends of its progress, its rates, its direction, its practical effects and something of the spirit permeating its serving men and women” with this definition it is suggested that popular science writing is a style directed towards the people who want to know the progress in science. It also suggests some of its salient features as the first one is that “the material must not be inaccurate” it should be true to the scientific knowledge as in an article “Dust to dust: How Earth’s most advanced observatory is unraveling our origins” in the journal Popular Science. It is shown by the title that it does not belong to the category of sci-fi as it is pointing towards something existing in the real world that it is a text of popular science writing style created as a discourse to communicate scientific developments with general populace. The audience that this discourse targets is not limited to one group but the larger population so the language of this text has to be according to its purpose of communicating with laymen as the article in Nature states that “it must not be presented in its native language, but in that of everyday speech”, in the article by Charles Wood in the journal

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“Popular Science” Dust to Dust: he begins his text with the metaphor of “large dishes pointed towards sky” for the antennas and machines that man created to solve the mystery surrounding earth, by bringing in the words that are used in everyday situation and the reader’s familiarity with them adds to the meaning, understanding and the literary devices makes the scientific knowledge into a discourse inviting readers to read it more and develop their understanding of it. The Nature states that the most primary feature of popular science text is that “it should not be inaccurate yet it must necessarily be indefinite, it must be attractive but not sensational, dignified but not high-brow”, the present popular science text by Charlie Wood under analysis fulfills this criteria as the material it has taken is accurate as he says, “the extreme environment hasn’t stopped nearly two dozen countries from coming together to build the most ambitious astronomical tool on the planet.” The material that he takes is accurate, present and developed by the modern researchers, its language is that of everyday usage but there is an element of formal discourse which precedes with set rules of formal writing style but what marks it different from pure scientific writing style is its usage of metaphors or figurative language to give detailed images to the reader and also it does not follow the scientific style as it is not describing the experiment but communicating the knowledge that science has produced. It differs from science fiction in multiple ways as well as the information that it gives is not produced by himself but by the scientific researches and it tells about the present development in present times whereas science fiction mostly goes beyond the present, set in future with taking present development and technology to the next level and tries to create awareness about the present obsession with technology as in Robot and Frank that shows man’s total dependence on robots. The topic is “attractive” as its title states “Dust to dust: How Earth’s most advanced observatory is unraveling our origins” it does arouse suspense but avoids sensationalism and it keeps it argumentative. The

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scientific texts avoid idioms or any other terminology to avoid ambiguity, sci-fi uses these techniques to create depth and popular science uses it as in its tile “Dust to dust” is a Biblical allusion, to make science more interesting, understandable and useful to the people. Each genre uses the language and its devices for particular audience, purpose and to create the patterns to create discourse according to the need as Nature states another of fundamental aspect of popular science writing style that is “it must not be presented in its native language, but in that of everyday speech”, as the writer of this popular science text writes in common language that is easily understood for example, “Objects emit different types of light depending on their temperature, and the observatory’s antennas let it pick out objects that aren’t hot enough to shine like stars.”, he is not using any scientific terms for objects or antennas but putting it so that a layman would understand the things that he is talking about. He presents it as, “The story of dust is really the story of everything we can see” human beings like to listen to stories that’s why storytelling as an art existed in every culture so presenting it as one makes it more interesting and connects with us as he suggests that it is the story of everyone and everything that surrounds us. After conceptualizing the premise of the story the text takes the readers into visualizing where the concept develops and is presented to the reader with great precision and observation as, “Even without as much as a blade of grass in sight to help your brain calibrate size, the sprawling Array Operations Site looks huge.”, it connects with the reader and creates the accurate image for reader to visualize it with words as ‘blade of grass’ and ‘sprawling’ the text makes itself into a discourse which fully connects and communicates with its reader the defamilizing devices of simile “as blade” or the use of a modifier “sprawling” the text add meaning and value which signifies the particular phenomenon, “The first step in a dust grain’s journey from “fluffy sand” to a proper world depends as much on how it communes with its neighbors as it does on the disk

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at large” he gives close attention to the details, the personification of dust grain as traveling adds value and the adjective of ‘fluffy’ for sand takes the reader closer to the sensation of dust which is an inanimate object the devices and patterns makes it more significant. By foregrounding the purpose of the visit he sets his purpose of text and creates patterns according to it he then adds the comments of the researcher as to support his study and also to give the text its due credibility he quotes, “The motivating thing is to be in the place where it's happening,” Radiszcz says. “The Earth is like an oasis in the universe, and you can understand the value of humanity and the fragility that is life.”, like a researcher but the purpose of the two kinds of citation is different as in scientific study is to create a background knowledge whereas in this it is to make it more credible and giving the readers an insight in the views of the people working for science. Like other texts it also does not end abruptly but comes the full circle as it took us to visit a laboratory it concludes it with the reference to their work and also to the lives of workers as it states, “Between the altitude and the often nocturnal schedule, ALMA engineers have to get used to leading groggy lives, but participating in the unraveling of the Earth’s origin story makes the week-long shifts away from his family and the sleepless nights worthwhile.”, it states their mission and purpose clearly and also gives the image of their “groggy” lives. The scientific text avoids subjectivity whereas this text is a subjective observation as it ends with, “By the time Vidal sent me on my way back to the town of San Pedro, the Atacama desert’s local oasis, the sun was just starting to edge below the horizon as the Earth spun Chile away from its rays. I hopped in the rental car and slowly drove back down the mountainside, a thin cloud of dust swirling behind me.”

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The text involves an ordinary dialogue which refers to the writer directly it communicates with the reader by describing the surrounding, it give details of the place, time and situation to add significance and value to the text. The scientific text does not allow such detail it need to be exact while avoiding any personal details, whereas popular science writing style allows it to enrich their experiences with details and subjective observations it is not an objective study and it needs to communicate with its reader. Every genre has its own particular aspects, audiences which impact the writer’s use of style, language, literary devices and patterns. The text manipulate language and devices according to the purpose of their particular usage their choices are never random but always involve a deliberate planning and incorporation in the text to communicate with readers while being true to the story making it more enjoyable and reachable. Scientific text like chemistry’s textbooks, science fiction like Rappaccini’s Daugther or Flowers for Algernon and popular science text like Dust to Dust all belong to their respective genres all present their story according their purposes for example a scientific research paper is written to report the new development which communicates with particular people and uses a particular scientific objective style. Science fiction presents the imaginary developments of present day, it is directed towards the international audience it uses literary and figurative devices to create depth in its meanings like in Oblivion and Minority Report such texts uses a plethora of devices to defamiliarize, foregrounding and creating ambiguity to create suspense and mystery surrounding machines and man. Science and its developed technology is its basic feature which accounts for the new developments unlike ancient fictions which relied upon magic for the mystery element like Cindrella’s magical godmother and stepmother’s magic potion in Snow White now it is machine that governs and explains the mystery like in I, Robot it a robot Vicki that murders the

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human and creates horror and suspense. Popular science text like these two genre does employ their means as language and narrative styles but differs in its purpose and targeted audience. Its function is to communicate scientific progress to laymen and create an awareness of it while unlike sci-fi remaining true the facts of science, these three writing styles have similarities and differences according to their purpose and each has its own discourse to present.