Writing as Shamanic Consciousness in DainaChaviano＇s Fables of an Extraterrestrial Grandmother

Chaviano＇s Fables of an Extraterrestrial Grandmother is a pioneering Cuban science fiction novel with four interconnected plots that manifest their separate worlds--the Havana of Ana, the protagonist writer, the Neolithic Celtic world of Merlin and Stonehenge, Faidir, the planet of Ijj e and the winged psyches with three eyes, and Rybel, the world of Ana＇s character Arlena, the ＂jumen＂ on the run in an alien planet after being wrecked in a space ship---through Ana＇s writing. Ana uses mental exercises and automatic writing to temporarily regress to a pre-rational state of consciousness where these parallel universes interpenetrate and cross in the locus of her subconscious. Writing for her is a form of possession that withdraws her fi＇om her immediate reality into a visionary state resembling that of a shaman. She is a writer being invented and written by her own characters. Her stories are not fictions, but already existing realities, and she is a channel by which they are able to manifest their existence through her writing. This science fiction vision of worlds within worlds suggests another origin of science fiction in the ancient literary genre of Menippean satire, a type of fiction that appeals to highly cosmopolitan, alienated readers who seek to renew contact with the sources of consciousness from which technological and social change have alienated them.

Petrogenesis of Early Cretaceous hornblende gabbro in Khanka Massif: evidence from geochronology and geochemistry

The authors report zircon U-Pb geochronological, whole-rock geochemical and zircon Lu-Hf isotope data for the hornblende gabbro within the Khanka Massif, with the aim of constraining its formation time and petrogenesis. The zircon U-Pb dating shows that 206 pb^238 Pb ages of zircons from the hornblende gabbro range from 120 to 129 Ma, yielding a weighted mean age of 123±2 Ma, i.e., the Early Cretaceous. The hornblende gabbro has SiO2 of 44.77%-46.58% and belongs to the tholeiitie series on FeOt/MgO-SiO2 diagram. It dis-plays a right-inclined REE pattern with （La/Yb）N ratios of 3.44 to 4.42. The trace element spidergram shows that they are enriched in large ion lithophile elements （LILE） such as Rb, Th, U, K and Pb, and depleted in high field strength elements （HFSE） such as Nb, Ta, Ti and P, indicating an affinity to arc igneous rocks. The ettf（t） values of zircons vary from -2.6 to ＋ 3.9 and Hf model ages （TDM1 ） range from 622 to 883 Ma. These geochemical characteristics indicate that primary magma of the hornblende gabbro could be derived from partial melting of young mantle material acereted during the Neoproterozoie. Combined with the Early Creta-ceous igneous rock assemblages in NE Asia. It is concluded that the hornblende gabbro formed in an active con-tinental margin related to the westward subduction of the Paleo-Paeific Plate beneath the Khanka Massif.

Merlin and Stonehenge in Daina Chaviano＇s Fables of an Extraterrestrial Grandmother

When Merlin first appears in Chaviano＇s Fables of an Extraterrestrial Grandmother as the wizard Soio, he reflects the imagination of Ana, the adolescent protagonist of the science fiction novel as she is in the process of writing the very novel the reader is reading. Later she will discover that her fictional creations are not the invention of her imagination but exist autonomously in parallel universes and are using her as a vehicle of inter-dimensional travel through time and space. Soio/Merlin gazes into his crystal ball, a microcosm that gathers the space-time energy fields of the parallel universes, and sees visions of the protagonists whose modes of existence are real in one and fictional in another parallel universe. Merlin is a Druid in exile from the Neolithic world of Celtic Britain who has crossed over from earthly life to existence in Rybel, a parallel universe. He had crossed over by lining up the Stone of the Past and the Mirror of the Future at the great circle of Stonehenge. The stone circle functioned as an astronomical observatory. Stonehenge is a microcosm, a circle that reflects and coordinates the larger circle of the universe, symbolized and embodied in the sphere or crystal ball that Merlin transmits to Ana in the form of the novel being read. All the characters are trying to coordinate dimensions of space and time in order to fly from one parallel universe to another. Chaviano emphasizes crossing boundaries of time and space. Her characters live in one world but belonging to another, yearn to make contact with the forces of the universe that will bring them home. Chaviano＇s use of the Merlin legend is original and takes into account archaeological evidence about the Celts, Druids, and Stonehenge.

南游记

话说唐僧师徒四人去西天取经凯旋归来后，过了两千年的安稳日子，2650年春节刚过，又踏上了去南极的路。

New macroalgal fossils of the Kaili Biota in Guizhou Province, China

The Kaili Biota of Jianhe County, Guizhou Province is found in a Burgess Shale type of deposits, and as such it provides a key fossil record for studying biotic differentiation following the Cambrian explosion. Macroalgae represent several important groups of primary producers and yet have not been well studied. Here, we report two new forms of macroalgae from the Kaili Biota, including a new genus and species and an indeterminate genus and species. The new genus and species, Parallelphyton tipica, is a heterotrichous alga with thalli composed of a prostrate cardinal axis, and parallel bundles of erect trichomes on the axis. The bifurcation of the trichomes is somewhat similar to the living heterotrichous Fritschiella （Chlorophyta）, representing ＂architectonic differentiation＂ only known in higher plants as an adaptation to terrestri~ conditions. The indeterminate genus and species consists of an arched, thick, cylindrical major shaft and irregularly spaced, curved lateral branches attached to the major shaft and subdivided into subbranches. The characteristics of the thick and strong major shaft and the lateral branch subdivided branches are analogous to the dichotomous branching of Psilophyton in Protopteridophyta. Thus, the differentiation of the thalli in these two algal forms represents the expression of properties of some higher metaphytes, indicating that the eco- logical differentiation of the macroalgae was well underway at the time of the Kaili Biota.