Geology and literary fiction
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.21701/bolgeomin/134.1/004Keywords:
Geology, Literature, Mineralogy, Paleontology, Science-fictionAbstract
In this article the relations between geological sciences and literature of fiction, especially with science-fiction, are reviewed. The consolidation of geology as a scientific specialization in the first half of XIXth century attracted some writers of adventure and fantasy novels who used, among other topics, matters based on geological knowledge. Some of the most representative works in this field, published in the XIXth and XXth centuries, by authors as Jules Verne, Arthur Conan Doyle, Edgar Rice Burroughs, H. P. Lovecraft, Vladimir Obruchev, Arthur C. Clarke, George Gaylord Simpson and Sarah Andrews, are mentioned. Their contributions are divided in sections according to the aspects involved: the hollow Earth and the exploration of its inner part; the lost worlds (superficial, subterranean and extraterrestrial), inhabited by extinct animals; the prehistoric times and its antediluvian fauna; trips to other geological epochs, above all the Mesozoic times of the great dinosaurs; volcanoes, earthquakes and other natural disasters; and mines and mineral deposits. Finally, the geology of certain literary territories and the geologist, men or women, as a main character in fiction are also taken into account.
Downloads
References
Ashley, M. (1979). Los románticos olvidados. Nueva Dimensión, 112, 151-158.
Bergier, J. (1968). Lo mejor de la ciencia ficción rusa. Bruguera, 1968, 444 pp.
Bloomsbury, 254 pp.Malajov, A. (1973). Hacia el centro de la Tierra. Editorial Mir Moscú. 2ª edición, 254 pp.
Buckland, A. (2013). Novel Science: Fiction and the Invention of Nineteenth-Century Geology. The University of Chicago Press, 377 pp. https://doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226923635.001.0001
Campal Fernández, J. L. (1999). Hacia un elenco bibliográfico de la literatura de la mina. Boletín del Real Instituto de Estudios Asturianos, 53(154), 21-44.
Casado de Otaola, S. (2010). Naturaleza patria. Ciencia y sentimiento de la naturaleza en la España del regeneracionismo. Marcial Pons, 337 pp.
Clute, J., and Nicholls, P. (1993). The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction. Saint Martin's Press, 1370 pp.
Collins, P. (2020). A Quest to Discover America's First Science-Fiction Writer. The New Yorker, 28/11/2020, https://newyorker.com/books/page-turner/a-quest-to-discover-americas-first-science-fiction-writer
Collins, W. H. (1935). Geology and Literature. Bulletin of the Geological Society of America, 46, 355-374. https://doi.org/10.1130/GSAB-46-355
Debus, A. A. (2006). Dinosaurs in Fantastic Fiction: A Thematic Survey. McFarland, 220 pp.
Geikie, A. (1905). Landscape in History. Macmillan and Co., 352 pp.
Íñigo Fernández, L. E. (2017). Breve historia de la ciencia ficción. Nowtilus, 365 pp.
Klingaman, W. K., and Klingaman, N. P. (2013). The Year Without Summer: 1816 and the Volcano That Darkened the World and Changed History. St. Martin's Griffin, 351 pp.
Maddox, B. (2017). Reading the Rocks. How Victorians Geologists Discovered the Secret of Life.
Manguel, A., and Guadalupi, G. (1987). The Dictionary of Imaginary Places. Expanded Edition. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Publishers, 454 pp.
Martínez-García, B. (2018). Geología y literatura fantástica, ¿una buena relación? Tierra y Tecnología, 52, https://www.icog.es
Pangborn Jr., M. W. (1961). Geology and Geologists in Fiction. Journal of the Washington Academy of Sciences, 5(4), 49-53. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03050924
Pina, C. M., and Pimentel, C. (2019). Pequeña guía de minerales inexistentes. Ediciones Complutense, 100 pp.
Pina, C. M., and Pimentel, C. (2021). Pequeña guía de minerales inexistentes, Vol. II. Ediciones Complutense, 110 pp.
Sanz, J. L. (1999). Mitología de los dinosaurios. Taurus, 206 pp.
Sequeiros, L. (2001). El Geocosmos de Kircher. Un encuentro con la filosofía y con la teología desde la Naturaleza en el siglo XVII. Discurso inaugural del curso 2001-2002, Facultad de Teología de Granada, 135 pp.
Sigurdsson, H., and Lopes, R. M. C. (2015). Chapter 78. Volcanoes in Literature and Film (pp. 1345-1361). In: H. Sigurdsson, B. Houghton, S. McNutt, H. Rymer, J. Stix (Ed.). The Encyclopedia of Volcanoes. Academic Press. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-385938-9.00078-X
Stableford, B. (2006). Science Fact and Science Fiction. An Encyclopedia. Routledge, 755 pp. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203943588
Standish, D. (2006). Hollow Earth. Da Capo, 304 pp.
VV. AA. (1992). Dinosaurios. 2ª ed., Grijalbo, 350 pp.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2024 Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
© CSIC. Manuscripts published in both the printed and online versions of this Journal are the property of Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, and quoting this source is a requirement for any partial or full reproduction.
All contents of this electronic edition, except where otherwise noted, are distributed under a “Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International” (CC BY 4.0) License. You may read here the basic information and the legal text of the license. The indication of the CC BY 4.0 License must be expressly stated in this way when necessary.
Self-archiving in repositories, personal webpages or similar, of any version other than the published by the Editor, is not allowed.
