The Nowhere Bible : Utopia, Dystopia, Science Fiction.
- 1st ed.
- 1 online resource (220 pages)
- Studies of the Bible and Its Reception (SBR) Series ; v.4 .
- Studies of the Bible and Its Reception (SBR) Series .
Intro -- Preface -- Contents -- 1 Fragmented Allusions -- 2 Texts and Concepts -- 2.1 Utopia, dystopia, science fiction -- 2.2 Utopian thought, utopian and science fiction theory -- 2.3 Social sciences and philosophy -- 2.4 Bible -- 2.5 Bible as utopia -- 3 Utopia as an Ideal Type -- 3.1 The problem with defining utopia, dystopia, and science fiction -- 3.2 Ideals and ideal type -- 3.3 Max Weber and beyond -- 3.4 Family resemblances and anachronisms -- 3.5 Using an ideal type to read utopia in the Bible -- 3.6 The concept of utopia for use with the Bible -- 3.7 Creation and disruption of links between fiction and reality -- 3.8 The impact of dating a utopia -- 3.9 Features of literary utopias: fiction, history, place -- 3.9.1 Realistic proposal or fiction -- 3.9.2 Religion versus utopia -- 3.9.3 The utopian pun -- 4 Utopia and Reality -- 4.1 "Zero Worlds" -- 4.2 Relationship between the fiction and the author's reality -- 4.2 Perceiving different utopias -- 4.3 Can utopias be understood without the reality behind them? -- 4.4 Reverse-engineering utopia -- 4.4.1 Game rules -- 4.4.2 The abstraction's independent meaning -- 4.4.3 Retrograde analysis of utopia -- 5 Numbers 13 and Its Reception Read as Utopia and Dystopia -- 5.1 Reality and utopia in William Bradford's reading of Numbers 13 -- 5.1.1 Reading Numbers 13 as utopian blueprint -- 5.1.2 Utopia into history: Cotton Mather reads Bradford and Numbers 13 -- 5.1.3 Estranged biblical utopia -- 5.2 Reality or utopia in maps: Numbers, Ezekiel, and scholarly reception -- 5.2.1 Functions of fictional maps -- 5.2.2 Some biblical utopian maps -- 5.2.3 The map of Numbers 13:17-26: A utopian map? -- a All of the land or part of the land? -- b Returning elsewhere? (vv.25.26) -- c Difficult representation -- d Paran or Kadesh -- e Ṣin and Rĕḥōb, Lĕbōʾ-Ḥămāt -- f Negeb and Ḥebrôn -- g ʾEškōl. h The telescope effect -- I Elevated narrators -- j Moving narrators -- k Interviewing omniscient locals -- l Moving protagonists, encounter with locals, and consequences of exploration in Numbers 13 -- 5.3 Ezekiel's utopian boundaries and Numbers' boundaries -- 5.4 Implications -- 6 Utopia and Dystopia -- 6.1 Utopia, dystopia, anti-utopia -- 6.1.1 Utopia -- 6.1.2 Dystopia -- 6.1.3 Anti-utopia -- 6.1.4 Form criticism? -- 6.2 Ambiguous utopian and dystopian images in Numbers 13 -- 6.2.1 Fortified cities: asset and threat -- 6.2.2 Eating and being eaten -- 6.2.3 Giants' grapes -- 6.2.4 Escaping coercion -- 6.2.5 YHWH as utopian/dystopian leader -- 6.3 Simultaneous utopia and dystopia -- 6.3.1 Cyclical relationship of utopias and dystopias -- 6.3.2 Simultaneous "Ustopia" -- 6.3.3 Neutral spaces -- 6.3.4 Utopian readers -- 6.4 Excursus: Fantasy -- 6.4.1 Elements of the fantastic -- 6.4.2 World-building the Promised Land -- 7 Science Fiction and the Bible -- 7.1 The strange text -- 7.2 Science fiction theory and the Bible -- 7.2.1 Darko Suvin: the "novum" -- 7.2.2 Raymond Williams: types of transformations -- 7.2.3 Margaret Atwood: mythological questions -- 7.2.4 Eric Rabkin: the narrative world -- 7.2.5 Roland Boer: alternate world -- 7.2.6 Discontinuities -- 7.3 Science fiction in Numbers 13: disposable characters, cyborgs, and first contact -- 7.3.1 Red Shirts -- 7.3.2 Nephilim as cyborgs -- 7.3.3 First contact -- 7.4 A known yet unknown stranger -- 8 Afterthoughts -- 8.1 Reading with and as utopia -- 8.2 Reading with and as science fiction -- Bibliography -- Index.
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9783110414172
Bible. -- Numbers, XIII -- Criticism, interpretation, etc. Religion and geography.