My Spring 2012 Near-Future Science Fiction Schedule of Assignments

You can find my ENGL 216 syllabus at http://www.fredonia.edu/department/english/simon/sf3/, but just in case the Fredonia site ever goes down, here's the (insane) schedule of assignments for my Spring 2012 Near-Future Science Fiction course.  OK, maybe it's not as insane as it looks, at least for writing assignments:  in addition to ongoing participation on our discussion board, students have to write at least two critical essays (not all four listed!)

T 1/24 Introductions, Overview, Set-up.
Th 1/26 Near-Future? Science Fiction?

The Bad Old Century

T 1/31 Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four, Part One-Two (1-230)
Th 2/2 Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four, Part Three-Appendix (231-323)

T 2/7 Atwood, The Handmaid's Tale, Part I-XI (1-253)
Th 2/9 Atwood, The Handmaid's Tale, Part XII-Historical Notes (254-395)

T 2/14 Ishiguro, Never Let Me Go, Part One-Two (1-203)
Th 2/16 Ishiguro, Never Let Me Go, Part Three (204-288)

The Bad New Century

T 2/21 Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451, Part One-Two (1-110)
Th 2/23 Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451, Part Three-Coda (111-190)
F 2/24 CRITICAL ESSAY I due by 11:30 pm in CE Drop Box on course ANGEL site (attach as .rtf, .doc, .docx, or .pdf document, please).

T 2/28 Butler, Parable of the Sower, 2024-2026 (1-133)
Th 3/1 Butler, Parable of the Sower, 2027 (134-295)

T 3/6 MacLeod, The Execution Channel, Part One-Three (1-184)
Th 3/8 MacLeod, The Execution Channel, Part Four-Five (185-285)

M 3/12-F 3/16 SPRING BREAK: NO CLASSES.

The Corporate Century?

T 3/20 Brin, Earth, Part I-IV (1-218)
Th 3/22 Brin, Earth, Part V-VIII (219-481)
F 3/23 CRITICAL ESSAY II due by 11:30 pm in CE Drop Box on course ANGEL site (attach as .rtf, .doc, .docx, or .pdf document, please).

T 3/27 Brin, Earth, Part IX-Afterword (482-667)
Th 3/29 Stephenson, Snow Crash, Ch. 1-16 (1-138)

T 4/3 Stephenson, Snow Crash, Ch. 17-43 (138-325)
Th 4/5 Stephenson, Snow Crash, Ch. 44-71 (326-468)

T 4/10 Morgan, Market Forces, Prologue-File #3 (1-289)
Th 4/12 Morgan, Market Forces, File #4-#5 (290-441)
F 4/13 FINAL PROJECT PROPOSAL due by 11:30 pm on discussion forum on course ANGEL site (attach as .rtf, .doc, .docx, or .pdf document, please).

The Asian Century?

T 4/17 Gibson, Neuromancer, Part One-Three (1-156)
Th 4/19 Gibson, Neuromancer, Part Four-Coda (157-271)
F 4/20 CRITICAL ESSAY III due by 11:30 pm in CE Drop Box on course ANGEL site (attach as .rtf, .doc, .docx, or .pdf document, please).

T 4/24 McHugh, China Mountain Zhang, China Mountain-Homework (1-208)
Th 4/26 McHugh, China Mountain Zhang, Daoist Engineering-Three Fragrances (209-310)

T 5/1 Bacigalupi, The Windup Girl, Ch. 1-18 (1-182)
Th 5/3 Bacigalupi, The Windup Girl, Ch. 19-Epilogue (183-359); course evaluations
F 5/4 CRITICAL ESSAY IV due by 11:30 pm in CE Drop Box on course ANGEL site (attach as .rtf, .doc, .docx, or .pdf document, please).

TBA Final Project presentations
F 5/11 FINAL PROJECT due by 11:30 pm in FP Drop Box on course ANGEL site (attach as .rtf, .doc, .docx, or .pdf document, please).

Humanity

Like Neuromancer, China Mountain Zhang, Fahrenheit 451 and countless others, Parable of the Sower contains a common theme that helps to make science fiction such a human genre. Each of these novels depict a world in which massive organizations drastically oppress the individual. In Fahrenheit 451 for example, this overpowering force is represented by the government, while Parable of the Sower portrays it as organized religion. As the stories progress, they begin to express similar sentiments. Ultimately, they attempt to propose possible ways in which a single person can maintain their identity in a world that is dominated by authoritative figures. They comment on society's lack of interest in human beings as human beings and suggest that perhaps the fate of mankind belongs in the hands of man. I may as well go ahead and recommend The Stars My Destination. It is a late fifties sci-fi novel written by Alfred Bester and it deals with the same sort of material that we have been focusing on in class. It is also just really great.

Apocalypses Then, Again

Just a quick follow-up to my previous post. One way of thinking about the multiple apocalypses in the science fiction we've been reading so far this semester is to consider the dominant literary mode in which the authors choose to write, what consequences it has on their representation of pre- and post-apocalyptic life, and what connections it might have to the historical era in which they were writing. So what do you make of the following list:

Earth Abides: American primitivism
Fahrenheit 451: American pastoralism
Neuromancer: the American sublime
China Mountain Zhang: American beauty (or is it urbanism?)
Parable of the Sower: American realism

Do you agree I've got the dominant literary mode of each work pegged? Or is it reductive to try to isolate one mode for each--after all, each has multiple strands and participates in multiple traditions--so maybe it would make more sense to try to analyze the relations between the various literary modes in each work before trying to compare and contrast across works and time periods. But then the complexity of the task starts to risk being paralyzing rather than invigorating. We have to start somewhere. Why not keep it simple at first?

Apocalypses Then

As we come to the close of the "Distortions of the Present" unit of the course, it would be worth reviewing the different imagined futuristic apocalypses in the five novels we've read, comparing and contrasting them, relating them to their authors' times and our own, all the while digging into the etymology of "apocalypse" and traditions of apocalyptic and post-apocalytpic writing. Given how sick I am, though, I am in no condition to do this today. So this will just have to be a semi-open thread! Students can feel free to comment here or on the course discussion board; everyone else, have at it here!

Significant Distortions?

Today I have seen two websites that really made me think, are Gibson and Bradbury really distorting the present or are they just writing a contemporary fiction piece?

When we think about distorting something in class we rarely think about distorting animals. However i was browsing the internet today and came across something quite interesting. You remember the metal hound that attacked Montag in 451, right? Well take that concept one step further and you have this: http://www.behance.net/LisaBlack

Also i found something that related to the Gibson's concepts of feeling through the direct interactions of two people's nervous systems. Introducing iCyborg: http://www.kevinwarwick.com/ICyborg.htm

If you look at all four of the distorted animals you'll find that some of them are really quite shocking, and that one of them actually has moving parts. Even thinking about the possibilities Warwick has presented is shocking and awe inspiring. While looking at this some of you might seem a little uneasy or even angry. This then begs the question, is the technology that Bradbury and Gibson present in these novels really that far in the future? While it is impossible to find a working mechanical dog that functions in the ways that Bradbury's does, we do have a blueprint for a creating one in Lisa Black's artwork. And while we cannot currently interact between computers in our current state, Warwick believes that we do have the ability and the technology to interact with them if we only try.

Interesting stuff, huh?

~UV~

Notes on Fahrenheit 451

Here's something I posted at Citizen of Somewhere Else not too long ago. To make up for monopolizing the panel I was on with Professor Parsons, I've encouraged him to consider the first hour of class tomorrow all his!

***

My university is participating in the Chautauqua/Cattaraugus counties' version of The Big Read, with their focus on Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451. As the last person in the department to teach our Science Fiction course, I'll be contributing to a panel discussion on "Fahrenheit 451 as Novel" with my colleague Dustin Parsons early this afternoon. The goal is to get the audience thinking and talking, so I'm aiming for short and sweet.

Here's my talk's outline (with page numbers keyed to the 50th Anniversary Edition):

I. Where It Comes From

• A. History: Fascism, McCarthyism, The Great Depression (132, 150-154), the Bomb (158-162)
  
• B. Literature: Dystopias, American Pastoralism (140-145, 157), World Literature (150-153), The Martian Chronicles (Grand Master Edition 31, 108, 180)
  

II. How It Is Relevant Today

• A. Postmodernism and New Media: Entertainment (81-82, 84, 87), Information (61), Knowledge (105-108), Wisdom (75, 82-86, 163-165)
  
• B. Democracy and Capitalism: Mass Culture (54-55, 89, 108), Diversity (57-60), War (73-74, 87, 158-162)
  

Here are some suggestions for further reading. First, a few novels:

• Samuel R. Delany, The Einstein Intersection (1967)
  
• William Gibson, Neuromancer (1984)
  
• Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid's Tale (1985)
  
• Leslie Marmon Silko, Almanac of the Dead (1991)
  
• Octavia Butler, Parable of the Sower (1993)
  

Then, a few links:

• Paul Brians from Washington State University on Bradbury and the dystopian tradition;
  
• Amy E. Boyle Johnston in LA Weekly on misinterpretations of Fahrenheit 451;
  
• Cory Doctorow responds to Bradbury's comments on winning the Pulitzer, as reported by Johnston;
  
• Anthony Lappe reports on a tough question he asked Bradbury at a recent Comic-Con;
  
• Bradbury biographer Sam Weller weighs in on the controversy;
  
• Robert Blechman looks at Bradbury's statements from another angle;
  
• Karen Stearns explains why she and a colleague at SUNY Cortland organized their Big Read event around Fahrenheit 451;
  
• My colleague Chris Taverna is planning to blog Fahrenheit 451, at least when his newborn allows him to [Update: like today!];
  
• And of course check out The Big Read Blog.