ENG 2140 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Pzl P.11, John Durham Peters, Thought Experiment
22 Jan 2018
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Document Summary
Left hand of darkness deals with how we communicate with boundaries here gender, culture. Le guin is part of new wave of science fiction in the 60s. Attach a theory of what is science fiction. Le guin says what she is doing is thought experiment not predicting future at all. John durham peters speaking into the air (history of the idea of communication) Communication requires a physical medium: oral conversation, manuscript, print, radio, digital etc. Communication takes place between the poles of solipsism and telepathy. Telepathy: the impossible dream of immediate, mind-to-mind contact: medium-free, instantaneous communication, perfect communication. Solipsism: the fear that my words will never fully reach another mind: the impossibility of communication. Inability to grasp reality outside of own existence. Communication is constrained by cultural, ethnic, racial, gender, species differences: requires acculturated understanding, technology a part of a wider social system. Communication is never complete: all messages retain some ambiguity, opacity, confusion: always slight gap.
