Engineering Fiction

by Rosalind Williams

The title of this essay is intended to have a double meaning. First, it refers to the way in which engineering methods may be applied to the construction of literary fiction. Second, the title alludes to the story line of engineering told as part of the larger story of human history. In the modern age, the controlling “fiction” of engineering, in this sense, is that of Progress. In the words of Francis Bacon (in the mouth of Salomon, in New Atlantis), progress is defined by “the enlarging of the bounds of human empire, to the effecting of all things possible”.

17 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 30, 2013