Joe,
If you don't know them already I would recommend two books in exploring
this idea:
Starring T. Rex!: Dinosaur Mythology and Popular Culture by Jose Luis
Sanz and
Dinosaurs in Fantastic Fiction: A Thematic Survey by Allen A. Debus
The first is useful; the second essential.
Sanz's book lists a number of recurrent themes:
Lost worlds
Survivors
Time travel
Future worlds
Exodinosaurs
Genetically engineered
Coexistence
Conflict
A much more satisfying and coherent read is Debus's treatment. He takes
an historic approach and identifies themes similar to Sanz but explores
them far more comprehensively:
Journey through time geographically (e.g. Journey to the Centre of the
Earth, Karel Zeman's Journey to the Beginning of Time)
Lost worlds (Doyle, Borroughs)
At War with Dinosaurs (Sanz's 'Conflict'; e.g. Capek's War with the Newts)
Cold war metaphors (Sanz's 'Survivors'; e.g. Gojira, Bradbury's The
Beast from 20,000 Fathoms)
Time-relativistic Dinosaurs (Time Travel; e.g. 'Sound of Thunder', 'Gun
for Dinosaur')
Dino-Trek (Sanz's 'Exodinosaurs'; e.g. McCaffrey's Dinosaur Planet)
Rise of the Raptor (Genetically engineered dinosaurs)
Living with Dinosaurs (e.g Dinotopia - Sanz's 'Coexistence') including
dinosauroids (e.g. Harrison's Eden series)
Hope this is useful.
Steve Walsh
At 01:03 PM 16/12/2007, you wrote:
Hi,
I'm looking into themes that have shown up in dinosaur science
fiction, like the genetic recovery idea from "Our Lady of the
Sauropods" and "Jurassic Park," or the "dinosaurs survived in a remote
places" theme that's shown up over and over again as in "Lost World,"
"The Valley of Gwangi," "Baby," "Dinosaur Summer". What are some of
the most impressive ideas in fiction regarding dinosaurs?
Thanks,
Joe
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