Technology in Cross-Cultural Mythology: Western and Non-Western

paper presented at the Conference of the Society for Literature, Science, and the Arts, Kitchener, Ontario, Canada, September 24, 2011. An expanded, improved version is forthcoming in September, 2012 in the book:" Humanity and Technology: Critical Insights," Ed. Carol Colatrella. The link above leads to the book's webpage.

What is really significant when we look at technology in the ancient world is that technology is not limited to Classical mythology. Rather, its presence in those stories coincides in important ways with its appearance in other types of fictional and non-fictional accounts, and not just in Western literature, but in the literature of other cultures as well. These other accounts include quasi-mythological tales like The Iliad, tales from ancient cultures in India and China, and non-fictional accounts of real instances of technological innovation by ancient inventors. The devices made by ancient Greek engineers—such as the Antikythera mechanism, or the devices of Ctsebius and Hero of Alexandria, and Philon of Byzantium—are especially notable because they reflect, and are reflected by, the various fictional accounts. Chief in importance among technological innovations that appear in all three realms (stories, myths, and reality) are automata, especially humanoid automata. Their main significance is their ability to enhance and project the power and status of their makers or owners, who were sometimes the same individuals.

Do Medieval and Renaissance Androids Presage the Posthuman?

Published in the refereed, online journal: CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture 12.3 (2010) (Purdue University). Available at: http://docs.lib.purdue.edu/clcweb/vol12/iss3/3/

In his article "Do Medieval and Renaissance Androids Presage the Posthuman?" Kevin LaGrandeur analyzes the relationships between literary images of artificial humans associated with medieval alchemists and alchemy, their modified reemergence in the Renaissance, and how such androids may forecast the idea of a posthuman subjectivity that is connected with their present-day descendents. For example, the talking brass heads in Robert Greene's two Renaissance plays, The Honorable History of Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay and Alphonsus, Prince of Aragon have their roots in Arabic sources, and the former derives specifically from legends concerning the thirteenth-century alchemist and philosopher Roger Bacon. These early instances of the artificial anthropoid also anticipate, in a broad sense, the kinds of philosophical issues regarding subjectivity that cyborgs bring up for our "posthuman" society. For instance, the literature of the earlier era represents a fear that humans will be diminished-all of the creators in the fictional literature examined are in danger of losing control of their creations, and thus of having their agency called into dispute.

"The Persistent Peril of the Artificial Slave"

Published in the journal Science Fiction Studies, vol. 38.2 (July, 2011): pp. 232-252. The link below leads to the abstract on the journal's website.

This article surveys and analyzes the pre-industrial history of artificial humanoid servants and their historical persistence. The idea of artificial slaves—and questions about their tractability—is present not only in the literature of modern times but also extends all the way back to ancient Greek sources; and it is present in the literature and oral history of the Middle Ages and Renaissance as well. Furthermore, at each of these intervals, this idea is connected with an emotional paradox: the joy of self-enhancement is counterpoised with the anxiety of self-displacement that comes with distribution of agency. The idea of rebellious and dangerous artificial slaves is an archetype that spans Western history and persists not only in the pre-modern and modern imaginations, via stories about rebellious AI servants, but also in ancient scientific accounts and in modern systems theory, which is the basis for real AI.

"The Talking Brass Head as a Symbol of Dangerous Knowledge in Friar Bacon and in Alphonsus, King of Aragon"

This article is a re-publication. It was selected for inclusion in the Gale Library Reference Series titled Literature Criticism From 1400-1800, vol. 185. Ed. Lawrence J. Trudeau. Detroit: 2011. The link will take you to a preview of the article.

How Aristotle’s "Politics" Exhibits Ambivalence Toward Slavery

published in CALIPSO, 4.1 (Spring 2010): http://myweb.brooklyn.liu.edu/mcuonzo/AristotleSlavery.htm

There are numerous indications in his own writing that Aristotle may not have been completely convinced of his own arguments in support of slavery.  One example is the fact that, in his _Politics_, he ponders the possibility of creating artificial slaves, such as looms that would operate themselves.  It is clear upon careful reading that he ponders this because of the dangers that human slaves present.  But, besides this, there is also his ambivalence about the propriety of enslaving certain classes of people, and his difficulty explaining how some humans can be considered “natural” slaves.  Indeed, the very need to defend the idea that “natural slaves” exist points to qualms about his compatriots’, and perhaps about his, views of slavery.

Digital Images and Classical Persuasion

published in "Eloquent Images," Eds. Mary Hocks and Michelle Kendrick (MIT Press, 2003) pp. 117-136. Read it online at: http://www.uni.edu/fabos/seminar/readings/La%20Grandeur_Digital%20Images.pdf

In the latter half of the 1990s the digital
image became prevalent, easy to manipulate, and consequently, easy to recontextualize,
meaning that now just about any image is available to any computer user for any occasion. To use Bolter's terminology, the "interpenetration" of textual and pictorial space in digital environments, especially on the Web, has increased
markedly, so that the predominance of the digital image now rivals that of the digital word. Indeed, a number of thinkers have noted the digital image's ascendancy in communicating
information via the computer. But how are we to think about, to analyze the rhetorical dimensions of these images? This essay focuses on using classical rhetoric 'as a way of
thinking about the persuasive power of computer-based images.

The Talking Brass Head As a Symbol of Dangerous Knowledge In Friar Bacon and In Alphonsus, King of Aragon

Published in "English Studies" (1999) 5, pp. 408-422

Decoding the Propaganda of Terrorism and Hate Websites

Pulished in "Criticism.com" 2005; available at: http://www.criticism.com/md/terrorism-on-web.php

Using Electronic Discussion to Teach Literary Analysis

In "Computers and Texts" 12 (July, 1996); available at: http://users.ox.ac.uk/~ctitext2/publish/comtxt/ct12/lagrand.html

There are numerous avenues for engaging in electronic discussion. The classroom practice I shall describe below could be done on the Internet via environments known as MOO's or MUD's, which are accessible to anyone via 'virtual classrooms' on the Internet (one I have used, because it is big, and easy to access, is the University of Texas Internet site called Diversity University). In my classes I was not involved in distance learning, and so was not seeking a surrogate for oral discussion, but a means of enhancing it. Hence, rather than using an Internet site, I used an ENFI program installed on our Local Area Network (LAN), and I brought my students to the computer lab for some of our discussions of literature.

BRASENOSE COLLEGE'S BRASS HEAD AND GREENE'S FRIAR BACON

published in "Notes and Queries" 47.1 (March, 2000): 48-50

Hyper-Textbooks (note: see p. 70 of document)

published in: Complicating Binaries: Exploring Tensions in Technical and Scientific Communication. Ed. Ann Blakeslee. Proceedings of the Council for Programs in Technical and Scientific Communication Conference, Oct. 2002, Utah State University. Logan, UT: CPTSC (2003): 70-72.

Splicing Ourselves Into the Machine: Electronic Communities, Systems Theory, and Composition Studies.

Published in: ERIC, March, 1998: ED 410 563.

Computer mediated communication (CMC) tends to erase power structures because such communication somehow undermines or escapes discursive limits. Online discussions seem to promote rhetorical experimentation on the part of the participants. Finding a way to explain disparities between electronic discussion and oral discussion has proven difficult. Those in composition studies have tried to theorize CMC by reference to postmodern theory, but another form of theory that might help in the investigation of the nature of online communities derives from cybernetics and from information theory. Cybernetics' wider implications have led to the advent of a second-order cybernetics or systems theory--self-organizing, self-making, or autopoietic. Reflexivity provides an implicit reason for the difficulty of controlling electronic class discussion. Third wave cybernetics can be used in conjunction with social applications of systems theory to think about what happens when machines, teachers, and students are all "spliced" into one grand system. It seems that traditional approaches to class discussion with the instructor controlling the flow and order make it natural for teachers to view electronic communities as the early cyberneticists did, as allopoietic mechanisms whose goals can be set and observed. Though control of a system with multiple, dynamic elements may be somewhat difficult, a lack of control does not, in terms of systems theory, preclude an instructor's valuable involvement in an online community.

Aporia and the Emptied Teacher: Deconstruction and the Unraveling of (Con)" Texts"

Androgyny and Linguistic Power In Gascoigne's the Steele Glass

Published in Texas Studies in Literature and Language 37 (1995): 344-61. Available at: http://freessays.0catch.com/gasclagrand.html

This article discusses how George Gascoigne used an androgynous persona in his poetry to try to recover his lost social status at Elizabeth's court.

Nexus and Stage: Computer-Assisted Class Discussion and the First-Year English Course

published in the journal "Computers and the Humanities" 35 (2001): 351-59.

Section Four, "Recursive Use of ENFI Transcripts Helps Students Write about Literature," gives specific, useful suggestions about how to make online discussions an effective component of a literature class. The article also offers a short list of particular chat software features essential for good discussion.

Graphics, Design and Technical Communication: Exploring Disciplinary Boundaries.

available at: http://www.cptsc.org/pro/2001.pdf

The Tropology of Self-(Re) Fashioning In the Writing of George Gascoigne

The" I-Thou" Relationship, and the Montaignian" Essai": Toward a Multicultural Rhetoric.