When the first edition of David Madden's A Primer of the Novel: For Readers and Writers was published more than twenty-five years ago, there were no other books of its kind available. Since then, many authors and editors have produced works that attempt the same comprehensive coverage of the genre. However, these works tend to be either written solely for writers or solely for readers. More often than not, those written for readers tend to be aimed at advanced students or critics of the novel. In this revised edition, David Madden, Charles Bane and Sean Flory have produced an updated work that is intended for a general readership including writers, teachers, and students who are just being introduced to the genre. This unique handbook provides a definition and history of the novel, a description of early narratives, and a discussion of critical approaches to this literary form. A Primer of the Novel also identifies terms, definitions, commentary, and examples in the form of quotations for almost 50 types of novels and 15 artistic techniques. A chronology of narrative in general and of the novel in particular—from 850 B. C. to the present—is also included, along with indexes to authors, titles, novel types and techniques, as well as a selective bibliography of criticism. Although all novel types present in the first edition are still represented, many have become more clearly defined. This revised edition also cites several types of novels that did not appear in the first edition, such as the graphic novel and the novel of Magical Realism. As well as keeping all of the original examples from representative texts, the authors have added new examples of more recent works. While this book was conceived for a general audience, it will be a valuable resource for students, teachers, and libraries. It may be used in any English literature courses at any level, including graduate, and is suited for creative writing courses as well. With its clear and immediately accessible features, this handbo

There are a lot of people that are worried about artificial intelligence, where artificial intelligence is commonly regarded as the science of making machines do things that would require intelligence if performed by humans. Primarily, they think that the adoption of that technology will cause them to lose their jobs, and they will not have anywhere to go for employment. The computer will be doing everything from scrubbing the floor to running an investment bank, and all that is in between. These are primarily educated people who thought they were okay for their entire life. And, it’s not like the bookkeeping and word processing jobs of years ago. It’s everything. Really everything. To boot, you hear statements like, “That could be true that you might lose your job, unless you know AI,” where the acronym AI stands for the two terrible words, artificial intelligence. It is something to worry about, even though deep down, you probably realize it isn’t going to be true. Somehow, the government will take of it. AI stands for Artificial Intelligence, as I said, and we will use those two letters throughout this volume. AI books are simply hard to read, and authors like to throw around unfamiliar terms like neuron, cognitive science, and Singularity, and sooner or later, they will end up with some math, and there are many people that don’t like math. They could do math if they need to, but they prefer not to. Moreover, it is hard to remember the subject when it is just thrown at you, like you should love it to death. This book uses dialog to ease the pain. The first book is an easy-to-read novel with AI thrown in when appropriate, or it is an AI book with the novel thrown in when the AI is getting sketchy. You can share their misgivings. We have added something more to help you with the subject matter of the first book. We have included a supplemental book. The second book is a pure and simple AI Primer, and we mean really simple, when you like what you’ve read about AI in the technical/novel first part, and you want to get into it more fully. There is another option. You could read the Primer first and then read the novel part for enjoyment and to find out how the people in the first book are getting along with AI. You will be surprised. The volume, that is both books, is a good bargain that you could share with your family or give to a friend. The books contain no violence, no sex, and no bad language, and is suitable to readers of all ages. I hope you enjoy it!

In Thinking without Thinking in the Victorian Novel, Vanessa L. Ryan demonstrates how both the form and the experience of reading novels played an important role in ongoing debates about the nature of consciousness during the Victorian era. Revolutionary developments in science during the mid- and late nineteenth century—including the discoveries and writings of Herbert Spencer, William Carpenter, and George Henry Lewes—had a vital impact on fiction writers of the time. Wilkie Collins, George Eliot, George Meredith, and Henry James read contributions in what we now call cognitive science that asked, "what is the mind?" These Victorian fiction writers took a crucial step, asking how we experience our minds, how that experience relates to our behavior and questions of responsibility, how we can gain control over our mental reflexes, and finally how fiction plays a special role in understanding and training our minds. Victorian fiction writers focus not only on the question of how the mind works but also on how it seems to work and how we ought to make it work. Ryan shows how the novelistic emphasis on dynamic processes and functions—on the activity of the mind, rather than its structure or essence—can also be seen in some of the most exciting and comprehensive scientific revisions of the understanding of "thinking" in the Victorian period. This book studies the way in which the mind in the nineteenth-century view is embedded not just in the body but also in behavior, in social structures, and finally in fiction.

This book emerged out of contributions to a bilingual conference that was organised at the Institut du Monde Anglophone and the Bibliothque Sainte-Barbe in Paris on December 5 and 6, 2008. The conference was entitled "Indigenous Minority Languages in Ireland: A Comparative Perspective," translated into French as: "Les langues regionales et minoritaires en Irlande: Perspectives croisies."

As the first book-length study of emergent Pakistani speculative fiction written in English, this critical work explores the ways in which contemporary Pakistani authors extend the genre in new directions by challenging the cognitive majoritarianism (usually Western) in this field. Responding to the recent Afro science fiction movement that has spurred non-Western writers to seek a democratization of the broader genre of speculative fiction, Pakistani writers have incorporated elements from djinn mythology, Qur'anic eschatology, "Desi" (South Asian) traditions, local folklore, and Islamic feminisms in their narratives to encourage familiarity with alternative world views. In five chapters, this book analyzes fiction by several established Pakistani authors as well as emerging writers to highlight the literary value of these contemporary works in reconciling competing cognitive approaches, blurring the dividing line between "possibilities" and "impossibilities" in envisioning humanity’s collective future, and anticipating the future of human rights in these envisioned worlds.