The Shrinking Man
E197014
The Shrinking Man is a science fiction novel by Richard Matheson that follows a man who begins to shrink uncontrollably after exposure to a mysterious mist, exploring themes of identity, survival, and existential terror.
All labels observed (2)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| The Shrinking Man canonical | 3 |
| The Incredible Shrinking Man | 2 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T1753783 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: The Shrinking Man Context triple: [Richard Matheson, notableWork, The Shrinking Man]
-
A.
The Invisible Man
The Invisible Man is a classic science fiction novel by H. G. Wells about a scientist who discovers how to become invisible but descends into madness and violence as a result.
-
B.
In the Shadow of Man
In the Shadow of Man is Jane Goodall’s influential 1971 book that chronicles her pioneering field research on wild chimpanzees in Tanzania and helped transform our understanding of primate behavior and human evolution.
-
C.
Door into the Dark
Door into the Dark is a 1969 poetry collection by Irish Nobel laureate Seamus Heaney that deepens his exploration of rural life, memory, and identity through richly textured, earthy verse.
-
D.
The Machine Stops
The Machine Stops is a 1909 dystopian science fiction short story depicting a future society utterly dependent on an all-controlling technological system and the consequences when it fails.
-
E.
The Beast with Five Fingers
The Beast with Five Fingers is a 1946 atmospheric horror film in which Peter Lorre stars in a macabre tale about a disembodied hand terrorizing a secluded Italian mansion.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: The Shrinking Man Target entity description: The Shrinking Man is a science fiction novel by Richard Matheson that follows a man who begins to shrink uncontrollably after exposure to a mysterious mist, exploring themes of identity, survival, and existential terror.
-
A.
The Invisible Man
The Invisible Man is a classic science fiction novel by H. G. Wells about a scientist who discovers how to become invisible but descends into madness and violence as a result.
-
B.
In the Shadow of Man
In the Shadow of Man is Jane Goodall’s influential 1971 book that chronicles her pioneering field research on wild chimpanzees in Tanzania and helped transform our understanding of primate behavior and human evolution.
-
C.
Door into the Dark
Door into the Dark is a 1969 poetry collection by Irish Nobel laureate Seamus Heaney that deepens his exploration of rural life, memory, and identity through richly textured, earthy verse.
-
D.
The Machine Stops
The Machine Stops is a 1909 dystopian science fiction short story depicting a future society utterly dependent on an all-controlling technological system and the consequences when it fails.
-
E.
The Beast with Five Fingers
The Beast with Five Fingers is a 1946 atmospheric horror film in which Peter Lorre stars in a macabre tale about a disembodied hand terrorizing a secluded Italian mansion.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (48)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
novel
ⓘ
science fiction novel ⓘ |
| adaptedAs |
The Incredible Shrinking Man (screenplay)
ⓘ
surface form:
The Incredible Shrinking Man
|
| author | Richard Matheson ⓘ |
| causeOfShrinkingInPlot | exposure to a radioactive or mysterious mist ⓘ |
| centralTheme |
alienation
ⓘ
existential terror ⓘ human insignificance ⓘ identity ⓘ masculinity ⓘ survival ⓘ |
| conflictType |
man versus environment
ⓘ
man versus self ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| endingCharacteristic | open-ended and philosophical ⓘ |
| exploresConcept |
scale and perception
ⓘ
what constitutes human significance ⓘ |
| filmAdaptationDirector | Jack Arnold ⓘ |
| filmAdaptationReleaseYear | 1957 ⓘ |
| filmAdaptationScreenwriter |
Richard Alan Simmons
ⓘ
Richard Matheson ⓘ |
| filmAdaptationTitle |
The Shrinking Man
self-linksurface differs
ⓘ
surface form:
The Incredible Shrinking Man
|
| genre |
horror fiction
ⓘ
science fiction ⓘ |
| hasAlternateEditionTitle |
The Incredible Shrinking Man (screenplay)
ⓘ
surface form:
The Incredible Shrinking Man
|
| hasAntagonisticForce |
natural world
ⓘ
spider in the basement ⓘ |
| hasMainCharacter | Scott Carey ⓘ |
| hasSubject |
changing gender roles
ⓘ
fear of loss of control ⓘ marital strain under crisis ⓘ |
| influenced | later body-transformation narratives in science fiction ⓘ |
| literaryMovement | mid-20th-century American science fiction ⓘ |
| mediaType | print ⓘ |
| motif |
changing physical scale
ⓘ
domestic space turned hostile ⓘ |
| narrativePerspective | third-person ⓘ |
| narrativeStructure | chronological with interspersed flashbacks ⓘ |
| notableFor |
detailed depiction of changing scale and environment
ⓘ
psychological depth in science fiction ⓘ |
| originalLanguage | English ⓘ |
| plotSummary | A man begins to shrink uncontrollably after exposure to a mysterious mist and must struggle to survive as he becomes smaller and smaller. ⓘ |
| protagonist | Scott Carey ⓘ |
| publicationYear | 1956 ⓘ |
| publisher | Gold Medal Books ⓘ |
| setting |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| timePeriodOfSetting | contemporary to 1950s America ⓘ |
| workOf | Richard Matheson ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: The Shrinking Man Description of subject: The Shrinking Man is a science fiction novel by Richard Matheson that follows a man who begins to shrink uncontrollably after exposure to a mysterious mist, exploring themes of identity, survival, and existential terror.
Referenced by (5)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
this entity surface form:
The Incredible Shrinking Man
subject surface form:
Richard Matheson
this entity surface form:
The Incredible Shrinking Man