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Fiction skeptic books?

kittynh

Penultimate Amazing
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I have a friend that enjoyed reading Josephine Tey's "Daughter of Time".

This person needs more skepticism, and he's not interested in non fiction... but he did actually learn a lot from the mystery novel.

Any suggestions for a good list of FICTION books that help pass on the skeptic message?

It would be great to have a list, plenty of non fictions lists out there, what about fiction?
 
Define skepticism in fiction. In a world where gods and magic exist, it's irrational to reject them. There was an okay fantasy series I read a while back called "The Dragon Nimbus" that delved into this to some extent--traditional magic had certain rules, and a mage realized that those rules were not actually true. This is an application of rational principles, though the conclusion is pure magic.

The Terry Pratchet novels, particularly the Granny Weatherwax and Night Watch books, are also pretty good too. "Hogfather" takes an opposing view, which is interesting.
 
Ted Kosmatka wrote a book called "Prophet of Bones" about an archaeologist in an alternate timeline where creationism is the scientific norm and dissenting views are squashed. The geology of the world is exactly like ours, so any fossils that are discovered have to be shoehorned into a 6000 year old world. The story hinges on the discovery of the H. floriensis fossils in that timeline. It's a pretty good read and also features a number of skeptical ideas.
 
Professor Yaffle said:
Christopher Brookmyre has a few books/stories that tackle sceptical material: Attack of the Unsinkable Rubber Ducks - concerning mediums; and Not The End of the World - involving apocalyptic right wing christians. And a short story called place b. with a nice little experiment on homeopathy.

http://www.quackometer.net/blog/2013/02/homeopathic-quality-control-its-nonexistent.html
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Seconded and to add Pandaemonium and the best use of the word parsimony ever in a novel.
 
Sherlock Holmes. The prototype rational thinker of fiction. In "The Sussex Vampire" he specifically addresses the issues of mysticism versus skeptical investigation.
 
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Pope130 said:
Sherlock Holmes. The prototype rational thinker of fiction.
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You mean the drug addict established by the guy who believed in fairies? ;) He may be the prototype, but that doesn't necessarily mean he's any good. I'm not necessarily saying it's BAD, eitherr--Akri tends to get mad at me when I do that. :D I'm just saying that I'd be careful with this one.
 
Pope130 said:
Sherlock Holmes. The prototype rational thinker of fiction.
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"When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be an argument from personal incredulity."
 
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Short OT pedantry: Holmes isn't the prototype rational thinker of fiction. Depending upon whose analysis you prefer, and whether you care to cross genres (short story v. novel), that honor belongs to Francis Blake in Wilkie Collins' The Moonstone (also Sergeant Cuff in the same novel, though he does not solve the crime) or to Poe's C. Auguste Dupin in Murder in the Rue Morgue, The Mystery of Marie Roget, and The Purloined Letter.
 
Back on topic: The works I mentioned above are all worth a read both for the skeptical nature of the detectives and for the literary significance of the stories:

The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins
Murder in the Rue Morgue, The Mystery of Marie Roget, and The Purloined Letter by Edgar Allen Poe.
 
Garrette said:
Short OT pedantry: Holmes isn't the prototype rational thinker of fiction. Depending upon whose analysis you prefer, and whether you care to cross genres (short story v. novel), that honor belongs to Francis Blake in Wilkie Collins' The Moonstone (also Sergeant Cuff in the same novel, though he does not solve the crime) or to Poe's C. Auguste Dupin in Murder in the Rue Morgue, The Mystery of Marie Roget, and The Purloined Letter.
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As I recall, Doyelle credited Poe with the invention of the detective story.

However, in the interest of pedantry, I must point out that the Ur example and the archetype/prototype aren't necessarily the same thing. Doyelle based his works off Poe's ideas, but most people, when asked for a famous fictional detective, point to Holmes. Holmes is the one that stands out in everyone's minds. Poe had a bit of trouble with his detective because at the time forensics was very, very new.
 
Dinwar said:
As I recall, Doyelle credited Poe with the invention of the detective story.

However, in the interest of pedantry, I must point out that the Ur example and the archetype/prototype aren't necessarily the same thing. Doyelle based his works off Poe's ideas, but most people, when asked for a famous fictional detective, point to Holmes. Holmes is the one that stands out in everyone's minds. Poe had a bit of trouble with his detective because at the time forensics was very, very new.
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I follow all of that. Where we part (and I grant I may be the one in error in doing the parting) is that I do not equate "archetype" and "prototype."

Example: The archetypal frontiersman in American fiction is the fictionalized version of Davy Crockett (or possibly the fictionalized version of Daniel Boone), but the prototype for the character was James Fenimore Cooper's Natty Bumppo. (It's not a perfect analogy as I am mixing fiction with fictionalized history, but it's the best I can do on short notice, and I think it gets the point across).
 
And finally, (really truly I mean it this time), in A Study in Scarlet, when Watson is observing and commenting upon his new found acquaintenance Holmes, he says "You remind me of Edgar Allen Poe's Dupin. I had no idea that such individuals did exist outside of stories.
 
Garrette said:
I follow all of that. Where we part (and I grant I may be the one in error in doing the parting) is that I do not equate "archetype" and "prototype."
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Yeah, I almost didn't post that post due to that issue. You may be right--it's very possible I'm confusing the concepts. :)
 
Also from Doyle (one "L"), see "The Mystery Of Sassassa Valley". Practical skeptic listens to a ghost story and sees the real processes that caused the observed phenomena.

ACD is an interesting man to me, in that he vividly portrayed a character who held positions that he, the author, disagreed with. When he did try to incorporate his own point of view, in the Challenger story "In The Land Of The Mists", the result was flat and unconvincing. Did he perhaps know that he was fooling himself with his spiritualist beliefs?
 
Wudang said:
Have you seen the new Scooby Doo movies? The monsters are real - evil spirits that possess people.
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ETA: I don't think that is the New Scooby Doo Movies. Those are the ones with celebrity guests from back in the early 70s (according to my Direct TV guide, the episode with Don Adams is 1973). I think you are talking about "What's New, Scooby Doo" which is the 2003 version. The 5 pm episode on HUB has the gang traveling into the future in the Mystery Machine.

But yeah, that blows.

The kids have a Scooby Doo book where all the "ghosts" are basically Shaggy and Scoopy's over-imagination. Or complete idiocy, as the case may be. For example, one of the stories is about the gang getting stuck in a snow storm on a ski mountain. The ghosts or whatever are just Daphne/Velma/Fred covered in snow. Or there is a blow-up water dragon that they think is a sea serpent. Or there is an evil looking beast that looks like a truck with a face. Because it is. But they think it is a monster.

The lamest is the apple thief. They are picking apples, but when they get to the end, all the apples are gone! The think it is a ghost apple thief. Somehow, they missed the hole in the bottom of their apple bucket.

My kids are 3 and 5, and even then, the response was, how stupid are they?

Even in the old Scooby Doo shows with the Globetrotters or whatever, Velma is like, "Don't they know that there's no such thing as ghosts?"
 
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In a burst of delicious irony, some of the best skeptical mysteries are G.K. Chesterton's Father Brown stories. Despite the author's and protagonist's devout religious beliefs, every one of the mysteries is solved via application of reason alone. As Father Brown himself explains, he never seeks a supernatural explanation for mysteries because he isn't superstitious.
 
Umberto Eco's Foucault's Pendulum seems to be a literary Dan Brown at first, but it transpires that spotting fake patterns and obsessions and sharpsooter's falacy (IIRC not explicitally named) are the real explanation.

Asked whether he had read the Brown novel, Eco replied:

I was obliged to read it because everybody was asking me about it. My answer is that Dan Brown is one of the characters in my novel Foucault’s Pendulum, which is about people who start believing in occult stuff.

– But you yourself seem interested in the kabbalah, alchemy and other occult practices explored in the novel.
No. In Foucault’s Pendulum I wrote the grotesque representation of these kind of people. So Dan Brown is one of my creatures
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One of Umberto Eco's more readable books, though not as much fun as The Name of the Rose
 
jimbob said:
Umberto Eco's Foucault's Pendulum seems to be a literary Dan Brown at first, but it transpires that spotting fake patterns and obsessions and sharpsooter's falacy (IIRC not explicitally named) are the real explanation.



One of Umberto Eco's more readable books, though not as much fun as The Name of the Rose
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Seconded, every comment.
 
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