• Name

• Major
  
• Favorite science fiction
  
• (broadly defined: includes movies, television, etc.)

• What is science fiction?
  
• How does it function as a social critique?
  
• Why should we read science fiction?

How do you define "science fiction"?

From Dictionary.com:

science fiction   1. A literary or cinematic genre in which fantasy,

typically based on speculative scientific discoveries or developments,

environmental changes, space travel, or life on other planets, forms part of the plot or background.

2. literary fantasy involving the imagined impact of science on society

From OED: Imaginative fiction based on postulated scientific discoveries

or spectacular environmental changes, freq. set in the future or on other planets

and involving space or time travel. (first used in 1851)

Review of L. 3

A. Why read SF (II)?

From Isaac Asimov, “The Influence of Science Fiction,” Gold: the Final Science Fiction Collection. NY: HarperPrism, 1995. 219-23.

-    SF “accepts the fact of change, the inevitability of change” (220)

-    If enough people read SF and come to accept change,

“government leaders can plan for change in the hope of meeting something

other than stolid resistance from the public” (221)

-    By stirring people’s imagination (about flying to the moon, for example)

SF writers prepare people to support such ventures in real life

-    Encourages people to study science (& imagine its applications)

URSULA K. LE GUIN: SF is modern mythology.

like the Virgin Mary or the State (77--?).

B. Student Questions on P. K. Dick:

1.    In “The Fair Game,” why is the protagonist singled out?

2.    Is PKD man’s weaknesses consist of money, food, women,

and self-righteousness?

3.    Can the end of “Fair Game” be seen as an explanation for sacrifice?

4.    Is “The Hanging Stranger” anti religious?

5.    Is “The Hanging Stranger” a social commentary?

6.    In both stories, there is a pseudo-Cassandra figure.

Why is this figure important in SF?

7.    What influences has PKD had in other SF?

8.    What do the familial relationships in these stories mean?

--> [Common question]: What does the SF motif of being watched (by an eye, aliens, etc.) mean?

C. Religion and SF:

- the SF story as a parable ("The Fair Game")

- L. Ron Hubbard and Scientology ("The Turning Wheel")

- G/god and alien power (Dangerous Visions)

Review:

What SF is responsible for in Bacon’s New Atlantis (1627)?

Medication, Telephones, etc.

Rational Social Structure

→ Science as Positive Force: Difference to Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1818)

Qualities of good SF writing:

-    degree of reality / sound science

-    shock value / element of surprise

-    abrupt endings that are thought provoking

-    plot complexity

-    social commentary

-    imaginative / descriptive

-    stylistic

NB: Creative option

Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann (1776-1822)

-    Government official, musician, illustrator, writer, and drinker

-    Born 1776 in Königsburg (once capital of Prussia, annexed by Russians and renamed Kalingrad, between Lithuania and Poland: birthplace also of KANT)

-    Father was a lawyer and he became one too for a time

-    Got syphilis from his lover

-    Worked in the theater (composing music, operas) and wrote novellas

• Cagliostro and the Freemasons: http://freemasonry.bcy.ca/biography/esoterica/cagliostro_a/cagliostro_a.html
  

Review:

Purpose of Questions: 1) Forum to dialogue about your concern (and confusion); 2) Student-centered classroom; 3) Helps you learn to formulate your own interpretive stances, which is a powerful tool for writing essays

Student Questions:

1.    What are the SF elements in “Sandman”?

Can obsession be considered an SF trait?

2.    What’s the purpose of the letters in the beginning?

Is the narrator reliable?

3.    What do they do with the hands and legs in the beg.?

4.    Who is the “Old Man” (282)?

5.    Where do Olympia’s eyes come from?

6.    What do the eyes symbolize? Oedipus?

7.    Why does the spyglass trigger N.’s madness?

8.    Why does he attempt to kill Klara?

9.    Is Nathanael a robot?

More Questions:

Edward T.: Why did Hoffmann choose to title the novella “The Sandman” instead of something having to do more with alchemy or automatons?

Lisa: Why couldn’t Nathanael see Olympia’s defects when all the others could?

Jasun F.: The story seems psychological. Does psychology count as science, thus making psychological stories a form of science fiction?

FREEWRITE: Summarize (5-10 sentences) what the uncanny is.

Review

The uncanny: OED 4b.—“Partaking of a supernatural character; mysterious, weird, uncomfortably strange or unfamiliar”

(From unheimlich or “not familiar): That which frightens because it reminds you of something familiar but is strangely not the same. Freud says this familiarity stems from repressed emotions in the unconscious. Elements include:

-    doubles, repetition

-    robots, automatons

-    a focus on the eyes

Our Understanding of PK Dick:

-    uses irony

-    family is often dismissed or left behind by the protagonist

-    concepts of alien relate to the uncanny (insects, robots masquerading as humans)

Review--Student Questions

Golden Man

1.    How is an entire evolutionary step possible in one generation
(even with mutation)?

2.    According to PKD, who is responsible for the procreation of the new species--men
or women? How would feminists read this story?

3.    Why are people so afraid of change (and progress)?
4.    Doesn’t Chris’ “choice” about his future suggest sentience?
How does he feel so many emotions if he doesn’t have a brain?

5. How is “Sales Pitch” a commentary on today’s consumerism?

6. Does Ed Morris in "Sales Pitch" have the same relation to his wife as Charles
has to his mother in “Father Thing”?

General:

-    Do the stories reflect PKD’s fear of insects?
-    Sometimes humans win and sometimes non-humans win.
Does the fate of the character go along with the message of the story?

Other Questions not addressed in class:

[Many]  Is the prediction about the inundation of advertising in "Sales Pitch" accurate?

Jessica: Why is Morris powerless to the fasrod's initial sales pitch? Can he physically remove the robot? or is his struggle purely intellectual/psychological?

Michael:  In "Golden Man" and "Sales Pitch," readers find themselves in a more futuristic version of earth. Is SF that deals with the future different from SF that takes place in a present setting? Does it serve a different purpose?

Patrick: In what ways is "The Golden Man" like the story of Adam and Eve?

Student Questions

1.    Who or what is the Benefactor? What’s going on in

that scene?

2.    (James) What does D-503’s dream mean?

(Nicole) What do they mean about dreams on p. 66?

3.    (Nicole) Why do the poems for the Integral contain

elements of surprise? (47)

4.    (Maureen) Is I—330 real, or is she a plant?

5.    (Dennis) What are some of the Biblical allusions?

(Eliz.) What do the other religious references mean?

6.    (Rhiannon) What’s the Table? (12)

7.    (Efren) Are the Guardian Angels working for the Benefactor

or the numbers?

8. (Edw.G.) Why doesn’t D-503 shave his arms?

Other student Ques:

Rhiannon: How does the rest of the population manage to suppress all the feelings associated with “having a soul”?

Jessica: Why does the narrator describe the Integral with human characteristics (81-2)?

Edward K. and T.: What role do imagination and creativity play in the One State?

[Many] What population (re. nationality, ethnicity) is in the One State?

Review

Women represent female archetypes/stereotypes: U: mother; I-330: promiscuous [fig. of whore]; O-90: child-like [virgin]

Positive Utopian Aspects of the One State:

-    Free love / regulated sex

-    free healthcare, food, clothes

-    no money or competition

-    no crime

-    sense of community

Negative Dystopian Aspects of the One State:

-    Free love / regulated sex

-    No families

-    No vice allowed

-    No spontaneity, fun

-    Monotony, too regimented, prison-like

-    Frequent executions

-    No nature or variety in food

Review

Student Questions:

1.    Why do the MEPHI identify as anti-Christians?

2.    What place does a holiday like U.D. have in this society?

How is it like Easter?

3.    Is D-503 a descendent of the MEPHI? Is this why she chooses him?

Similarities of the One State to Christianity

-    missionaries (Integral)

-    belief in infallible authority (Benefactor)

-    Guardian Angels

-    Myth of Progress (Garden of Eden > Second Paradise)

-    “peaceful” existence

Review (Ques. About why utopias eradicate family)

-    shared ownership of people
-    individual no longer important: allegiance to society, not small group of people
-    uniform standards for “conditioning”
-    less differentiated population

Student Questions

1.    How does the government classify people before conditioning?
2.    Are lives similar to slavery?
3.    How does the society force them to behave like infants? (94)
4.    How do they view imagination and individuality?
5.    Is Mustapha Mond like a religious leader?
6.    Why aren’t there schizophrenics running around?
7.    How can they clone so much without mutations?

Other questions:

1.    What do they mean by pregnancy substitutes? What purpose do they serve? (Jamie)
2.    What do they mean by pneumatic? (Brandon)
3.    How did science such as eugenics influence Huxley? (Matthew, James, Liz)
4.    Does science shape politics, or do politics shape science in the World State? (James)
5.    Why hasn’t currency been phased out? In a society like this, the accumulation of wealth would seem a pointless endeavor and yet they’ve built their world around money. (Matthew)
6.    What other inconsistencies exist in the world state? (Many)
7.    Is Huxley intentionally trying to give us a feeling of disjointedness in his “montage” sequence (34-56), or does it attempt to explain the way the characters feel in their own world? (Edward G.)
8.    What is the significance of the sexual nursery rhymes (such as ‘Orgy-porgy’)? Is this critical of real nursery rhymes, which are meant for children but often overly violent and/or sexual? (Dennis)
9.    Why do both Zamyatin’s D-503 and Huxley’s Bernard have distinguishing physical characteristics that add to their uniqueness (hairy hands and small stature)? Is this necessary so the reader will have an easier time labeling them as individuals? (Edward T.)
10.    Why doesn’t Bernard take soma? (Many)
11.    How is the “Solidarity Service” similar to “Unanimity Day” in We? What effect is the ritual supposed to produce in the participants? (Jessica)
12.    Why is Bernard so attracted to Lenina even though she embodies all the things he hates about society? (Nicole B.)

Review (from Midterm)

Life without feeling or emotion =

-    animalistic
-    robots, against human nature
-    has no art, writing, music
-    technology would suffer (war)
-    without culture
-    no support system (friends, family)
-    without lessons from history

Question about literature, SF, and its writers may well resurface on the final exam . . .

REVIEW: More student Questions

[Jason + Efren] What’s the significance of the raven?

[Nicole + Jamie + Dennis + Brandon] Why does Hackworth include the reference to KFC?

[Brandon + Dennis] How does Stephenson comment on the trajectory of modern entertainment?

[Matthew] What does the use of diamond, both as a title and in the story, symbolize about this society?

[Stephen] Is Stephenson commenting on his own society like Huxley, or writing for a completely different reason?

Review

Discussion of art and literature in Stephenson: Atlantans (Vics) and Han value original works of art that takes time and labor to create

>> Can Diamond Age or any of the books we read this semester be considered “great literature”? Why or why not?

Considering Value in Literature:

-    Audience (who reads it, how many people read it, what class they are)

-    Originality (is this a singular, unique piece or a derivative of other works)?

Addendum Great literature:

-    writing style (symbolism)

-    endurance

-    reaction of audience (avant garde)

-    purpose: not commercial, subtle (not didactic)

Student Questions:

1.    What’s their education system? (Lisa)

2.    What is Stephenson saying about China and its future?

(Bernadette)

3.    How do Fiona and Elizabeth’s outcomes demonstrate the negative

effects of the Primer? (Jessica)

4.    What does Nell have to do to grow up? Will there be a sexual

awakening? (Dennis)

5.    How is the orgy like a baptism? (Maureen)

6.    How do Huxley, Zamyatin, and Stephenson each

predict technology’s effect on the nation state?

Other student Questions:

[Many] Why was Hackworth among the Drummers for 10 years?

[Many] Why does SF often feature promiscuity and orgies?

[James] What does the resurrection of the monarchy imply?

[Stephen + Dennis] What arguments is Stephenson making about race and class? [Lauren] Has Nell moved up in class now that she acts and talks like an Atlantan?

[Jamie] Why is the society of Diamond Age so accepting of the past, whereas history was taboo in We and Brave New World?

[Maureen and Valbone] Which genres does The Diamond Age resemble besides science fiction?