Chemistry Reference
In-Depth Information
opposed by dystopian projections from opponents (
e.g.
dangers like the
moral degeneration of society, genetic selection, and the loss of individu-
ality). In the subsequent discourse the new knowledge and social values
are gradually accommodated to each other.
In 39% of the films in our sample, real scientific fields are depicted at
a fictional level of development; in additional 14% of the films, fictional
fields of science are shown. Only less than half (47%) of the movies deal
with a non-fictional area of science. For chemistry this is by and large the
same.
If one looks at the kinds of subject matters of the fictional or semi-
fictional sciences, it is apparent that the projections of the future associ-
ated with them are mostly dystopias or at least highly ambivalent utopias.
Roughly a third of the movies in the sample deal with artificial, super-
natural, human, animal, or extraterrestrial life forms, cloning, reanima-
tion, or immortality. If illness and cure are added to this category the
share is even larger (by 5%). The utopian or dystopian views about sci-
ence are clearly dominated by concerns about the manipulation of human
and animal life. These concerns are focused primarily on medical re-
search, as we saw above. But we can infer that chemistry has its share of
attention.
3.10
Authenticity
Films are made to capture the imagination of the audience. Illusion is the
essence of fiction film, and yet filmmakers mostly try hard to create
plausible plots and representations, to render their products authentic in
order to have impact on the public. Just a little more than a quarter of all
chemistry movies are depicted as non-authentic, only about a fifth are
comedies and satires. A look at
The Nutty Professor
shows that not even
these are just funny.
The authenticity is obviously enhanced when gadgets and technolo-
gies are shown that look familiar to the viewer. Chemistry is often pre-
sented in conjunction with familiar instruments. As Schummer and Spec-
tor have shown some of these are iconographic for the representation of
science as a whole like the chemist holding up a flask and gazing at it
(Schummer & Spector 2007).
