The Artificial Paradise: Science Fiction and American Reality

The Artificial Paradise shows how American science fiction is a powerful purveyor of cultural myths that reveals our attitudes toward nature, technology, and the pursuit of happiness. Sharona Ben-Tov sees science fiction as a national mode of thinking that seeks to replace nature with technological worlds - paradoxically in the hope of regaining a mythic, magical American Eden. Ben-Tov discusses sci-fi classics like Dune, The Dispossessed, Neuromancer, Vonnegut's fiction, and the Aliens movie in relation to ancient and modern myths of nature; to scientific projects like the atom bomb, Strategic Defense Initiative, robotics, and virtual reality; and to cultural psychology.