ERES PASSWORD: 5000mn
Books to Buy:
The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, vol. 1, ed. Robert Silverberg
Octavia Butler, The Parable of the Sower
Jeff Vandermeer, Annihalation
Posting groups:
Group One: Clara Bass, Aria Bowden, Danny Chen, Kennedy Coleman, Johnny Hobart, Nathaniel Klein, Griffin Knapp
Group Two: Joseph Levine, Adonis Luna, Henry Mooers, Anthony Petrosinelli, Graham Rainsby, Sam Rinzler
Group Three: Ben Barry, Austin Cashwell, Jasmine Chau, Erick Felix, Adam Guo
Group Four: Will Koch, Natalie Meyer, Jacob Morton, Elise Park, Colin Paskewitz, Chase Royer
Reading and Assignments:
I Intro and Origins
Week 1
Th 2/25
1) Watch Leave it to Roll-Oh (1940; about 8 minutes long)
2) Make your first post (see links immediately below)
3) Look through course site.
Post with your Group: [1][2][3][4]
To find your group, look in the list at the top of the schedule. If you need directions on how to post, click here or on the “Posting with Your Group” tab in the menu at the top of this page. All posts over the semester, including this one, should be up on the site by midnight on the relevant day.
F 2/26 Zoom Discussion [Section Y: 11:30-12:20] [Section Z: 1:50-2:40]
Week 2 Foundations and the Pulp Era: Space Opera and Hard SF
T 3/2 Stories in The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, vol 1, ed Robert Silverberg.
• Stanley Weinbaum, “A Martian Odyssey,” 1934 (at Project Gutenberg) and “The Parasite Planet (at Project Gutenberg), 1935”
Slides/Lecture: Science Fiction, Pulp Magazines, and Alternative Worlds
Post with your Group: [1][2][3][4]
Th 3/4 Hard Sci Fi and the “Golden Age” Stories in The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, vol 1, ed. Robert Silverberg.
• Tom Godwin, “The Cold Equations,” 1954
• Robert Heinlein, “The Roads Must Roll,” 1940
• Lester Del Rey, “Helen O’Loy,” 1938
“John Campbell was a Fucking Fascist”: Astounding Stories and SF in the “Golden Age”
Post with your Group: [1][2][3][4]
F 3/5 Zoom Discussion [Section Y: 11:30-12:20] [Section Z: 1:50-2:40]
II– ALIEN INVADERS
Week 3 Martians and Panic in Depression-era Manhattan
T 3/9 Orson Welles, War of the Worlds, 1938. (Radio Theater)
Listen to the recorded broadcast at this link: Mercury Theater, War of the Worlds (Scroll and you’ll find it.)
• Script of the Broadcast for reading along (optional)
Slides/Lecture: War of the Worlds: Mass Media, Panic, and Mechanized War
• ”Radio Listeners in Panic, Taking War Drama as Fact,” New York Times, October 31, 1938. p. 1.
No posts today. Work on recording for next class.
Th 3/11
Write and record a short (250-400 words) radio play in which the speaker witnesses an Alien invasion of the earth. This could be a monologue, with just one person speaking. You could also speak in multiple voices yourself or call on a friend or two to record with you. This is NOT meant to be slapstick. You can use your phone or whatever recording device you prefer. Work in a serious voice.
Upload your recording via Google drive: [1][2][3][4]
F 3/12 Zoom Discussion–We’ll listen to some of the recordings. [Section Y: 11:30-12:20] [Section Z: 1:50-2:40]
Unit III–Cold War SF: Dystopia, Consumerism, and the Bomb
Week 4
T 3/16 Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451 This links to a PDF of the short novel (158 p.). If you prefer a hard copy or other electronic formats, they’re available from Amazon, among other places, for about ten dollars.
Slides/Lecture: Fahrenheit 451: Dystopia, Consumerism, Nuclear Families, and the Bomb
Post with your Group: [1][2][3][4]
Th 3/18 Movie: Watch Stanley Kubrick, Doctor Strangelove (1964). (The link will take you to a standard resolution version I posted in Panopto, Middlebury’s video server. It’s free, but you’ll have to be logged in to the College network. You can stream a higher quality version on Amazon, Google Play, etc. for $3.99)
Slides/Lecture: Learning to Love the Bomb: Satire, SF, and Nuclear Armageddon
Post with your Group: [1][2][3][4]
F 3/19 Zoom Discussion [Section Y: 11:30-12:20] [Section Z: 1:50-2:40]
Week 5
T 3/23 Kurt Vonnegut, “Harrison Bergeron” (1961) and “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow” 1953)( (eres)
Slides/Lecture: “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow”: Bombs, Corporate Consumerism, and Visions of the Future
Post with your Group: [1][2][3][4]
Unit IV–Science Fiction and the New Wave
Th 3/25 James Tiptree, Jr., “The Women Men Don’t See,” 1973 and “Houston, Houston, Do You Read?” 1976. (eres)
Slides/Lecture: Two Blurs on a Plane: Blindness, Vision, and Gender in “The Women Men Don’t See”
Post with your Group: [1][2][3][4]
F 3/26 Zoom Discussion [Section Y: 11:30-12:20] [Section Z: 1:50-2:40]
Week 6
T 3/30 Samuel Delany, “Aye, and Gomorrah” (eres) and Ursula LeGuin, “Nine Lives” and “The Question of Sex,” (1969). “The Question of Sex” is a chapter from The Left Hand of Darkness, Leguin’s most widely revered novel. It details human contact with an extraterrestial population in which the sexual and reproductive anatomy of individuals shifts spontaneously back and forth between something like male and female. In this chapter, a narrator tries to understand and report on the social and personal consequences for inhabitants of Gethen.
Slides/Lecture: The SF New Wave: Spacers, Frelks, and Sexual Shifters
Post with your Group: [1][2][3][4]
Th 4/1 Watch: Denis Villeneuve, Arrival, 2016
No posts. Groups prepare for scene presentations
F 4/2 Zoom Discussion: Scene Presentations/Discussion [Section Y: 11:30-12:20] (Clara Bass, Aria Bowden, Danny Chen, Johnny Hobart,) [Section Z: 1:50-2:40] (Ben Barry, Austin Cashwell, Jasmine Chau, Sam Rinzler, Eli Biletch)
Week 7
T 4/6 Watch: Ridley Scott, Alien, 1979
Slides/Lecture: Alien: The SF New Wave Meets the Hollywood Blockbuster
Post with your Group: [1][2][3][4]
Th 4/8 SPRING BREAK!
F 4/9 SPRING BREAK!
UNIT V– Posthuman Worlds: Cyborgs, Selfhood, and Technology
Week 8
T 4/13 Philip K. Dick, “Minority Report,” and “We Can Remember it for you Wholesale” (eres)
Slides/Lecture: Living in Philip Dick’s Future
Post with your Group: [1][2][3][4]
Th 4/15 Ridley Scott, Blade Runner. (Linkis to the the director’s cut on Panopto. If you watch it elsewhwere, WATCH ONLY VERSION LABELED AS “DIRECTOR’S CUT” OR “FINAL CUT.”)
Slides/Lecture: “More Human than Human”: Replicants, Race, and the Retro-Future of Los Angeles
Post with Your Group: [1][2][3][4]
F 3/26 Zoom Discussion [Section Y: 11:30-12:20] [Section Z: 1:50-2:40]
Week 9
T 4/20 William Gibson, “Johnny Mnemonic” and “Burning Chrome”
Slides/Lecture: Digital Frankensteins: Cyberpunk and the Posthuman
Post with your Group: [1][2][3][4]
Th 4/22 Watch: Alex Garland, Ex Machina (2014)
No Posts: Groups prepare scenes
F 4/23 Zoom Discussion: Scene Presentations [Section Y: 11:30-12:20] (Kennedy Coleman, Nathaniel Klein, Griffin Knapp, Joey Levine, Thea Noun) [Section Z: 1:50-2:40] (Erick Felix, Will Koch, Natalie Meyer)
Unit VI–Climate and Social Disaster
Week 10
T 4/27 Octavia Butler, Parable of the Sower, 1993 (first half)
Slides/Lecture: Black SF, Octavia Butler, and Racial Metaphors
Post with your Group: [1][2][3][4]
Th 4/29 Octavia Butler, Parable of the Sower, 1993 (second half)
Slides/Lecture: Earthseed, Late Capitalism, and Utopian Possibility
Post with your Group [1][2][3][4]
F 4/30 Zoom Discussion: [Section Y: 11:30-12:20] [Section Z: 1:50-2:40]
Week 11
T 5/4 Paolo Bacigalupi, “The Calorie Man” (2005) and “The People of Sand and Slag” (2004)
Slides/Lecture: Sand, Slag, and Climate Fiction
Post with your Group [1][2][3][4]
Th 5/6 Watch: Alfonso Cuaron, Children of Men (2006)
Cultural Decrepitude and Late Capitalism in Children of Men
Post with your Group [1][2][3][4]
F 5/7 Zoom Discussion: [Section Y: 11:30-12:20] [Section Z: 1:50-2:40]
Week 12
T 5/11 SPRING SYMPOSIUM
Th 5/13 Watch: George Miller, Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) (Available on Amazon, Youtube, etc. I’m not able to upload this film.)
No Posts: Groups prepare for scene Presentations/Discussions
F 5/14 Zoom: Scene Presentations/Discussions [Section Y: 11:30-12:20] (Adonis Luna, Henry Mooers, Anthony Petrosinelli, Graham Rainsby, Adam Guo) [Section Z: 1:50-2:40] (Jacob Morton, Elise Park, Colin Paskewitz, Chase Royer)
Week 13
T 5/18 Jeff Vandermeer, Annihilation (2014) (optional/recommended)
Th Watch: Alex Garland, Annihilation (2018)
Slides/Lecture: Annihilation: Destruction, Transformation, and the Uncanny
Post with Your Group: [1][2][3][4]
F Zoom Discussions: [Section Y: 11:30-12:20] [Section Z: 1:50-2:40]