ARTS/SCIENCE PROGRAMME

 

 

 

SCIENCE FICTION

 

 

 

 

 

Autumn 2001

 

 

 

Course Tutor:  Esther MacCallum-Stewart.

 

 

 

The course will investigate different types of science fiction over the last century. Using a variety of media, we will examine how and why attitudes, themes and the perceptions of science fiction have changed.  How far does it rely on scientific fact? How do visions of science fiction permeate and change our society? To what extent has science fiction become reality, and how willing are we to believe in it?  

 

We will be exploring science fiction thematically, in order to examine the ways it can be used and understood:

 

 

• In the Beginning.  (Frankenstein, The Time Machine)
• Just What Do You Think You’re Doing, Dave? Computers, droids and other synthetic people. (Clarke, Gibson, Fritz Lang’s Metropolis)
• Nature Finds A Way : From Darwin to Jurassic Park
• A Better Way of Living : Utopias.  (Orwell, Huxley, Futurama)
• There Is No Spoon :  Paranoid Fears or Fact? (Philip K Dick, The Matrix, Twelve Monkeys)
• I Want to Believe : Paranormal Activity.  (The X-Files, Wyndham)
• Spice!  Space Opera and Politics.  (Dune, Iain M. Bank’s Culture novels)
• This “Earth” Thing : Star Trek and the American Dream.
• Do, Or Do Not…. Religion and Mythology.  (The Star Wars Trilogy)
• One Ring To Rule Them. Lord Of The Rings; fantasy, history and cinema.
• Doctor, Look!  Women in Science Fiction. (Le Guin, The Abyss, Danger Girl)
• In Space, No One Can Hear You Scream : Monster Movies and Potboilers – Science Fiction? (Crichton, Alien, Pitch Black)
• The Best At What I Do : Spandex and Superheroes. (Batman, The X-Men, Judge Dredd)
• Brain the Size of A Planet : Humour. (Adams, Red Dwarf, Galaxy Quest)

 

 

PRE-COURSE ACTIVITY

 

What are your own definitions of science fiction? Think about the books, television programmes, films or comics you have read. What aspects of science fiction do you enjoy? What irritates you most? What are the most important elements of each?

 

Watch or read a series which is long-running e.g. Star Trek, Dr Who, Spiderman  or The Dune saga. Consider the history of the time. Does this influence the attitudes and themes of episodes or chapters? (Consider historical events like the two World Wars, the Sixties and the Thatcher Years, and important scientific or medical achievements since 1900) How has this series changed overall?

 

Read a book or comic which has been remade as a film or TV series e.g. 2001, Lord Of the Rings, Jurassic Park or Superman. Compare the two. Which do you prefer, and why? In the film, what would you change, given the chance?

 

 

 

General aims 

 

To determine what is meant by “science fiction”, and to understand how it functions as a genre.

 

To investigate science fiction in scientific, social and historical contexts. How does science fiction shape contemporary science, or is it shaped by it? Is it entirely constrained by cultural and historical understanding, or does it provide subversive and highly original ideas and narratives?

 

To determine whether there are some instances when science fiction is merely a medium for a different type of narrative, or alternatively if other narratives can cross the boundaries to become science fiction.

 

Objectives/Learning outcomes

 

By the end of the course, I hope you will be able to:

 

1.      Appreciate the science fiction of the last 100 years.

 

2.      Recognise the differences between styles – written, televisual and cinematic.

 

3.      Evaluate the significance of science fiction in the Twentieth Century.

 

4.      Assess the ability of science fiction to tackle social, political and cultural issues.

 

5.      Contextualise the different areas of science fiction and the objectives of each through comparison and criticism.

 

6.      Commmunicate your knowledge and understanding to others through discussion, short oral presentations and essays, and in turn to appreciate and think constructively about the opinions of others.

 

7.      Recognise the value of using and criticising primary and secondary sources within your work.

 

8.      Understand each topic as dealing, like Science, with “facts” and “evidence” set into an interpretative framework.

 

9.      Enjoy the study of science fiction and see it as a beneficial and useful tool in your science studies.

 

 

 

 

 

This course has twelve two hour seminars in consecutive weeks.

 

In the first part of the year, these are as follows:

 

Autumn Term:   Weeks two to ten (commencing 16^th October)

Spring Term:     Weeks one to three(commencing 8^th January)

 

 

 

E-Mail: [email protected]

 

Anyone who needs help or has any problems with the course should come and see me at the end of class or e-mail me afterwards, and we will arrange a time to meet.

 

I will usually communicate with you out of class through e-mail, and there will also be a weekly mailshot giving you details of websites and resources that may be useful. Please get used to looking in your Inboxes for messages.

 

 

 

 

Please try to stick to these ground rules to help our group activity and to allow you to make as much progress as possible

 

·          Turn up on time.

·          Do the set preparation, and tell me if you haven’t.

·          If you have to miss a meeting, please let me know in advance.

·          Remember that there are severe penalties for work not completed on time. Make sure you are aware of deadlines.

 

General rules for smooth running of seminars.

I want everyone to agree to these rules so that we can get the most from each seminar.

 

·          Don’t interrupt people when they are speaking - do as you would be done by.

·          Be willing to join in the discussion.

·          Actively encourage everyone to join in discussion; don’t force anyone out.

·          Don’t dominate and overpower others. You may feel strongly about. something, but there is no reason to hit everyone over the head with it. We are aiming for consensus not confrontation. Remember that you do not have to agree with someone’s opinion to have a valid and interesting discussion with them.

·          If you want to criticise, criticise people’s ideas rather than them personally.

·          Be supportive and encourage one another - no-one should feel intimidated when expressing their views.

·          Don’t be afraid to say you don’t know, or don’t understand something. Often this is a productive way to progress!

·          Above all, have respect for everyone in the group, including yourself.

 

 

 

Your assessment will come from a variety of assignments, all set during the course

 

2 oral presentations, (5 minutes each)                                                    20 %

2 short essays, (1000 -1500 words)                                                     30 %

Long essay (2000-3000 words)                                                            30 %

Seminar skills                                                                                        20 %

 

·          You should make every effort to deliver on these coursework assignments, as there are strict penalties for late or non-submission

 

·          You will receive written confirmation of your coursework marks on feedback sheets. You should discuss this with me, and take up any points that concern you right away. It is your responsibility to keep all your coursework until the end of the academic year, in case queries arise at the end of year examination board meetings.

 

There is a University Policy on the release of marks that contribute to classification

 

·          All marks for your Arts/science course are provisional and subject to ratification by the Arts/Science Sub Board

 

·          Marks are not appealable until ratification. Appeals may not be made against academic judgement, but only on the grounds of impropriety of process

 

 

Oral presentations

 

You will be expected to make two oral presentations to the group. These should be 5 minutes long. You should take note of the feedback on the first presentation to help you in preparing the second one.

 

Presentations will be assessed on the following criteria, as set out more fully on the feedback sheet overleaf. You will receive prompt assessment and feedback on your presentations, and always within the week.

 

Content - research                                20

Content - opinions, analysis                   20

Structure, clarity                                   20

Presentation skills                                 20

Use of suitable visual aids, handouts      10

Stimulating and handling discussion        10

 

This gives a maximum of 100 marks for each oral presentation.

 

If you are scheduled for a presentation, please make every attempt to deliver. The talks help to break the ice in a seminar, and to get everyone talking about the topic. If you cannot do your talk, you must provide satisfactory supporting evidence for your absence or you will forfeit marks. Please remember that it will not be easy, and may not be possible, to re‑schedule your missed talk in our busy programme. It may also be that you will need to work up another topic, as the time for the original one will have passed.

 

Oral Presentation Grade Descriptions

 

%	Grade	Descriptor
85- 100	1*	Outstandingly well prepared, confidently and clearly delivered, at a pace and style which suits the needs of the audience. Difficult or subtle points put across with conviction. Excellent use of the time available, and of any visual aids. Answers to questions well-fielded.
70-84	1	Thorough and comprehensive preparation, clearly delivered and well-directed towards the audience. Very good use of time and of any visual aids. Answers to questions well-fielded.
60-69	2	Well prepared and delivered, appropriate to the audience. Good use of time and any visual aids, with competent answers to questions.
50-59	3	Good preparation and delivery, related to the needs of the audience. The main ideas covered competently. Some weaknesses in time management, or in answers to some of the questions, but shows a sound knowledge of the subject matter.
40-49	4	Adequate preparation and delivery, several ideas explained competently, if perhaps briefly. Questions answered and understood, at least in part. Fair knowledge of the field
30-39	5	Acceptable preparation and delivery, some main points covered, but too little time spent on them. Inadequacies in key respects.
15-29	6	Inadequate preparation and delivery, some main points of relevance given, but presented in an unconvincing or muddled fashion. Little evidence of relevant knowledge beyond the content of the presentation.
0-14	6*	Little or no evidence of preparation, poor presentation with almost nothing of relevance.

 

 

ARTS/SCIENCE SCHEME ORAL PRESENTATION

ASSESSMENT AND FEEDBACK

 

STUDENT.............................................................................DATE......................................

 

TOPIC...................................................................................ASSESSOR............................

 

                                                                                                            mark    max

                                                excellent           adequate          poor

1  Content, Research,     o       o       o     o     o     ­­­___      20

Appropriate quantity, breadth

2  Content, opinions                     o       o       o     o     o     ­­­___      20

Appropriate balance of opinion with facts, development of argument

2  Structure, clarity                      o       o       o     o     o     ­­­___      20

Introduction, development, conclusion

3  Presentation skills                    o       o       o     o     o     ­­­___      20

Engagement with audience, voice liveliness, pace, variety, eye contact

4  Use of visual aids                     o       o       o     o     o     ­­­___      10

Clarity, relevance, timing, helpfulness

6  Stimulating discussion               o       o       o     o     o     ­­­___      10

Encouraging and answering questions, directing discussion

                                                                                    TOTALS         ___      100

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Best features of the presentation:

 

 

 

 

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Suggestions for improvement next time:

 

 

Some tips for a good presentation

 

There is nothing worse than a boring lecture or seminar - no doubt you have sat through many! Think about what made them boring, and try not to repeat those mistakes. Making it interesting involves more than thorough research of your material. Here are some things to think about when you are giving your presentation.

 

·          Structure

            Make sure that your talk has a beginning, a middle and an end. Begin with an overview of what you are going to say, say it, then finish by summarising the important points, aspects or issues.

 

·          Remember your audience! 

            Engage your audience’s attention. Try not to read out a prepared text. Make up crib cards (5x3 index cards are very much better than messy A4 pages) with just enough information on them to jog your memory about what you want to say. The best crib cards are the ones you give the audience - overheads, handouts and other visual aids. You should aim to look up at your audience most of the time, and give the impression that you are thinking while you are talking. Eye contact is very important - don’t focus just on one or two individuals, involve everyone. By all means ask questions of the audience, but keep to ones that will yield short replies, so that you are not drawn into discussion before you are ready

 

·          Pace yourself 

            There is a limit to how much information people can absorb in one session. Beware of over-preparing and then rushing through your material. Time yourself at home, bearing in mind the time you need for using video clips, or for questions and answers. Have a practice on a willing flat-mate. Vary your voice pitch and pace. Limit your evidence if you have too much (film clips, photographs etc.). These can always be used later in class.

 

·          Smile!

            Seminars do not have to deadly serious. There will be a more positive group involvement if people are enjoying themselves. It is difficult to relax if you are feeling a bit nervous, but a smile or a laugh will create a more relaxed atmosphere. Remember that the audience is on your side - they chose this course, so they are interested in what you have to say. Try to make eye contact with everyone in the room while you are talking.

 

·          Give your audience something to look at.

            It is hard just to listen to someone. Provide some handouts (maybe a summary of your main points, crucial passages or some quotations). If you are using video clips, keep them to about 3-5 minutes - attention will begin to wander if they are longer. Do make sure that you know how to get the video working before you begin (bear in mind that MSU do not always give us the same one each week), and that the tape is wound to the point at which you want to start. If you are fiddling with the video, the audience will start to fidget - this is not good for your nerves! While the video is running you should still be looking at your audience, and a bit of commentary can work well.

 

·          Give your audience something to do

            Involve them in questions and answers either during or at the end of your talk. Ask ‘open’ questions that involve an opinion or discussion rather than ‘closed’ questions that just involve a right or wrong answer. A controversial point of view is often a good way to get discussion underway.

 

·          Give some follow-up suggestions

            There is a limit to what you will be able to cover. If your audience enjoyed your presentation they may want to follow it up themselves. Explain what you would have liked to include if you had had more time, and suggests books, films etc. that will be of interest.

 

·          Be flexible

            Things don’t always work out as planned. If you are way over everyone’s head or boring them to tears by going too fast, don’t just plod on regardless. Be aware of your audience’s reactions and be prepared to adjust.

 

·          You can improve

            It is not possible to give a brilliant presentation the first time you try, and I know that some of you have never done this before and are very nervous. However, you can learn to improve if you find out what went well and what needs to be changed. Be critical of yourself and others (in a positive and constructive way) and take note of the feedback from the group. Good luck!

 

 

Written work

 

You may not have written an essay, certainly not an “Arts” essay for quite a while. Do not worry. One of the objectives of this course is to help you improve your writing skills. If you are already an accomplished writer, you will be a great help to others in the group.

 

Written work will be assessed under these headings, set out overleaf in the marking/feedback sheet.

 

Content - research                                20

Content - analysis, opinions                   20

Originality                                             10

Sources, proper referencing                  15

Presentation - style                               20

Presentation - mechanics (grammar,

spelling etc.)                                         15

                                               

This gives a maximum of 100 marks for each piece of written work.

 

Please submit your essays on typed A4 paper printed on one side only. Remember that using a word processor gives you an opportunity to use the grammar and spelling checkers.

 

The first two pieces of work are answers to the questions set in the course document or in class. The final piece of work is an essay of 2-3000 words on a topic of your own choice - we will be talking about choice of topics later in the term.

 

We will talk about essay techniques during class, and there will be a handout about this, but try to remember the following pointers:

 

1.      Make sure you are answering the question, and that you have enough evidence to do so. Be careful not to overindulge however – the question “Discuss the role of Ripley in the Aliens films” does not require every single detail that you know about the films. Make sure whilst you are writing that you are still answering the question, and not drifting.

 

2.      The best way to stop yourself from doing this is planning the essay beforehand. If you have a good plan, you will write a good essay. Produce a list of key points and stick to them. Don’t just charge in and hope for the best!

 

3.      Make sure your argument flows from one point to the next. Don’t suddenly change tack without explaining why you are doing this.

 

4.      Support your argument with evidence – primary or secondary sources, quotations and examples. Reference or acknowledge these properly.

 

5.      Use correct grammar and punctuation. Use the spellchecker, although be wary of Americanisms or “alternative” suggestions to spellings.

 

6.      Get someone to check over your final draft before you give it in. Do this before printing a final copy.

 

7.      Do see me if you need help or advice. Also get other people in the group to give you feedback.

 

Plagiarism

 

This may be defined as submitting a piece of work, either in oral or written form, which is, in part, or as a whole, not the student’s own work, without giving appropriate credit to the correct source. If you are quoting directly, put the material into quotation marks so that this is clear. If you do not give a reference for a particular item, I will assume that it originates with you. The University imposes severe penalties for plagiarism. At minimum, you will lose all of your marks for the assignment. Tutors can easily spot published writing that is not your own.

 

The aim of the course is to make you a better reader and writer; you will not accomplish this by copying out the work of others.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Deadlines:

 

November 6^th (Week 5): 1^st Essay

December 4^th  (Week 8): 2^nd Essay

December 18^th (Week 10): Introduction Paragraph, Final Essay.

January 15^th  (Week 2, Spring Term): Final Essay Due

January 22^nd (Week 3, Spring Term): Combined Seminar Skills Assessment: Science Fiction and Humour

 

As of this year the entire University is operating a common policy in respect of work submitted late. If work is submitted up to 24 hours late, 10% is deducted from the mark (i.e. 60% becomes 50%). After that all marks are lost.

 

You will need to offer a very good, well-supported case to me, and to the Sub-Board for submitting work late without penalty. Get organised, and get help if you need it before it gets too late

 

Marks and Grades

 

The University’s standard mark/grade scale is set out below together with an exemplar description of the kind of essay that corresponds to each grade.

 

%	Class	Grade	Descriptor
85-100	I	1*	An excellent answer, well-written, logical and critical, showing originality, flair and a comprehensive understanding of the subject.
70-84	I	1	A very good and full account, showing appreciation of all the major points; well-written, critical and logical.
60 - 69	II i	2	A comprehensive answer, clear, accurate and coherent.
50 - 59	II ii	3	An adequate answer, mostly accurate but with some errors and omissions.
40 - 49	III	4	An incomplete answer, sparse information with substantial errors and omissions.
30 - 39	Pass	5	A deficient answer, giving a cursory account of  basic course material, with numerous errors and omissions and irrelevancies.
15-29	Fail	6	A very deficient answer, full of misconceptions, errors and irrelevancies.
5-14	Fail	6*	A totally inadequate answer.
0-4	Fail	6*	No relevant material

 

.
ARTS/SCIENCE SCHEME WRITTEN WORK

ASSESSMENT AND FEEDBACK

 

STUDENT.............................................................................DATE......................................

 

TOPIC...................................................................................ASSESSOR............................

 

                                                                                                            mark    max

                                                excellent           adequate          poor

1  Content, Research                   o       o       o     o     o     ­­­___      20

Appropriate quantity, breadth, use of relevant vocabulary

2  Content, Analysis                     o       o       o     o     o     ­­­___      20

Developing an argument, making point clearly

3  Originality                                o       o       o     o     o     ­­­___      10

4  Presentation                             o       o       o     o     o     ­­­___      20

Layout, readability, style

5  Presentation, mechanics           o       o       o     o     o     ­­­___      15

Technical accuracy, punctuation, etc.

6  Sources, proper referencing   o        o       o     o     o     ­­­___      15

                                                                        TOTAL                        ___      100

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Best features of the work:

 

 

 

 

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Suggestions for improvement next time:

 

Seminar skills

 

I will be looking for both quantity (it is not enough to contribute when your favourite topic is under discussion, and sit mute when it’s someone else’s enthusiasm) and quality (smiling, nodding and occasionally saying yes will not gain much credit!). Students sometimes say that grading this aspect of the course means that they feel under pressure to speak when they have nothing to say. I am not seeking talk for the sake of it, but if you have done the week’s reading and preparation, I hope that you will have some opinion on the material covered. The skills we are aiming to develop in this part of the course include

 

·          constructing an argument

 

·          supporting your argument with evidence

 

·          responding to other points of view

 

·          encouraging others to get involved

 

 

Group sessions

 

There are two of these to which everyone is expected to contribute (see the schedule for when they will happen). One of these will be under the topic Science Fiction and Humour; since humour is a very individual taste, I want everyone to bring along something they personally have found funny and share it with the group. Your contribution needs only to be 3-4 minutes long at most - it’s supposed to be fun, not an ordeal.

 

There will also be a session where I ask everyone to bring along the plan for their final essay, and to read out the first paragraph to the rest of the group - this is a session for constructive criticism, as well as the sharing of ideas. The idea is that it will allow you to go away and write a better essay than you would have done otherwise.

 

 

 

Each topic has one or two main texts; most of these are available to be signed out from the Arts/Science office (Chi 2R206). Please be sociable about this - we do not have unlimited copies, so return items promptly when you have finished with them. In some cases there are also copies in the main library. I have also given references to material on the Internet. If any of you does not have access to a video recorder, there is a fixed recorder in Chichester MS3, and a number available in the main library. DVD is an extremely useful format for science fiction material, but if you need to use one in class you must book in advance. Multi Region DVD players are not available.

 

Internet Resources

 

htpp://www.imdb.com. The Internet Movie Database – your first stop for quotes, pictures, synopsis, character profiles, teasers, spoilers, bloopers… A must for anyone writing film essays!

http://ebbs.english.vt.edu/20th/background.html (early online sci-fi texts)

http://www.yahoo.com//Arts/Humanities/Literature/genres/Science_Fiction_and_Fantasy/ (Good starting place to general sci-fi surfing)

http://www.umich.edu/~umfandsf/ More e-texts

http://www.aint-it-cool-news.com Scurrilous movie gossip. Good for cultural studies!

http://www.stationlink.com/pulpdom History of Pulp Magazines

 

 

Citing Internet Material/Help with Referencing Sites/Essay Techniques

 

http://www.cgrg.ohio-state.edu/interface/W96/page.html (internet citiations)

http://lisweb.curtin.edu.au/guides/handouts/harvard.html (How to use the Harvard System)

http://members.tripod.com/~lklivingston/essay/  (excellent site and links on how to write a good essay)

 

Search Engines and Other Resources.

 

http://www.google.com Google is the best general search engine on the web, and highly recommended if you are looking for a specific subject.

http://www.northernlight.com Northern Light is a specifically academic search engine, which has a series of different functions. It provides an archive for articles, books and journals available on the web. Some of these can be “purchased” online, and a hard copy or an e-mail will be sent to you on request. However, most of it is free, and can be either downloaded or viewed online.

http:///www.whatalovelywar.co.uk. This is my own personal site, where you can view copies of the course document, essay techniques handout, and notes on referencing handout. I am also in the process of developing online resources and links for this site. To access the site, click on the “science fiction” link at the bottom of the introductory page.

Week 1: What is Science Fiction?

 

In this week we will be introducing ourselves, going over the course guidelines, arranging deadlines, choosing topics, and allocating presentations. However, I want you to study the pre-course activities, and come with some ideas of what you consider science fiction. What are your favourite and least favourite books, series and films? Why is this? Are there some aspects of science fiction that you consider more “pure” than others? What was the last science fiction film you saw or book you read? Did you like it? If so, why?

 

Suggested Reading:

The main reading for this course is Science Fiction Cinema, From Outer Space to Cyberspace; King, G & Krzywinska, T, (Wallflower pub. 2000). This is an excellent book which covers the basics of how to approach science fiction critically, and recommended for anyone wanting to write an essay later in the term on films.

 

General Quotes.

 

“SF is our world dislocated by some kind of mental effort on the part of the authors, our world transformed into that which it is not, or is not yet…There must be a coherent idea involved in this dislocation; that is the dislocation must be a conceptual one, not merely a trivial or bizarre one - this is the essence of science fiction…a convulsive shock in the reader’s mind, the shock of disrecognition”

 

Philip K. Dick

 

“Science fiction is about thought experiments, the worlds of “if”. If the world were changed in some way, then what would happen would be....  No true SF fan believes the world necessarily will be changed in that way - such illusions are for “mundanes”, SF fandom’s dismissive tag for the rest of humanity. That is why fans have no time for people who believe in UFOs or astrology. SF is not about belief, but suspension of disbelief”

 

Ian Stewart, New Scientist, 20 Jan 1996.

 

“When you ask the Common Reader what science fiction is, the answer is likely to include ideas or images from a list of items or elements (often derived from film rather than fiction) such as:

 the future

“futuristic” science, technology, weaponry, cities, etc.

spaceships, space voyages

time machines, time travel

other worlds

alien beings

monsters

robots

mutants

parapsychology

mad scientists

 

The Common Reader who has actually read science fiction might add complex non-formulaic patterns such as :

 

alternative history, alternate or parallel worlds

thought experiments in physiology

psychology, physics, etc.

experimental models of society”

 

Ursula LeGuin, in The Norton Book of Science Fiction

 

“This genre asks big philosophical questions about what it is to be a human being in the late 20th century. It asks what is real, what is human, where we are going. It asks questions which most fiction writers can’t ask. It can be deeply intellectual”

 

Andy Butler, Hull University

 

“Sturgeon’s Law:

Ninety percent of everything is crud

 

Corollary 1:

The existence of immense quantities of trash in science fiction is admitted and regretted; but it is no more unnatural than the existence of trash anywhere.

 

Corollary 2:

The best science fiction is as good as the best fiction in any field.”

 

Theodore Sturgeon, 1958

 

  “Science fiction, like all genres, is a ‘leaky’ and relatively unstable category that borrows from and informs other genres. Like Frankenstein’s creature, it is a hybrid, the body of which is composed of parts of other discourses and texts. A number of recent Hollywood blockbusters might be defined as science fiction, for example, but also as a somewhat fuzzy mixture of science fiction and action-adventure, often with doses of disaster, romance and comedy thrown in for good measure. We might talk about some kind of ‘gravitational pull’ around certain core themes and styles, but these are always open to negotiation and change.”

(King & Krzywinska, 2000:11).

 

 “Science fiction is the one branch of literature that accepts the fact of change, the inevitability of change. Without the initial assumption that there will be change, there is o such thing as science fiction, for nothing is science fiction unless it includes events played out against a social or physical background significantly different from our own.

(Gold, Asimov, 1980: 286/7)

 

Week 2: In the Beginning – Mary Shelley and H G Wells

 

Speakers:       

 

Since they have volunteered to go first, please don’t give them a hard time

 

Modern science fiction is said to begin with the publication of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, or a Modern Prometheus in 1818. Shelley was in her late teens when she wrote the novel, yet the story contains a huge amount of different themes and ideas still relevant today. This durability can be seen through countless reworkings, from Kenneth Brannagh and Hammer Horror, to the Goosebumps series of children’s books and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Wells was also a pioneer of his time, and books such as The War Of The Worlds (1898) and The Time Machine(1895) drew visionary pictures which fascinated and terrified their audiences. 40 years later, the Orson Wells radio version of War of The Worlds caused mass panic across America when it was first broadcast. Both authors wrote at times when society was changing rapidly. For Shelley, The Romantic Era was a period of intellectual upheaval, promoting new thoughts about women, society, and science. Wells too belonged to an age where technology and science were developing rapidly. However despite these advances, underlying the ideas of progress and liberation were fears that these developments were dangerous and alarming, a concern reflected in both books.

Shelley and Wells were responsible for many of the central themes of science fiction:

The monster and it’s maker, time travel, degeneration of the human species, fears that technology will take over, the mad (?) scientist, alien invasion, and the self-sacrificing hero.

 

Main texts

Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus, Mary Shelley, (PF79700 Fra, see also V 0952/3, V1040; http://www.umich.edu/~umfandsf/other/ebooks/frank10.txt,

http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/modeng/modengS.browse.html)

Nightmare - the Birth of Horror; Frankenstein (A/S office)

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (A/S office)

The Time Machine H.G. Wells (A/S office, PF 86600 Tim, http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/modeng/modengW.browse.html   http://www.umich.edu/~umfandsf/other/ebooks/timem10.txt)

 

Related material

The X-Files - A post-modern Prometheus

Any of the 116 filmed versions of Frankenstein! One is on the same tape as the programme about it mentioned above. 

The War of The Worlds, H.G. Wells (A/S office, PF86600, V0582, http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/modeng/modengW.browse.html

http://www.umich.edu/~umfandsf/class/sf/books/wotw)

The Island of Dr. Moreau, H.G. Wells (PF 86600 Isl, http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/modeng/modengW.browse.html; http://www.umich.edu/~umfandsf/other/ebooks/dmoro10.txt)

movie, A/S office

The Invisible Man H.G. Wells (PF 86600 Inv, http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/modeng/modengW.browse.html; http://wiretap.spies.com/ftp.items/Library/classic/invisman.txt)

The First Men in the Moon, H.G. Wells (PF 86600 Fir, http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/modeng/modengW.browse.html)

Bookmark biography of Wells (V2526/2527)

The Professor Challenger Stories (The Lost World, The Poison Belt, the Land of Mist, the Disintegration Machine, When the World Screamed) (PF85903; http://www.umich.edu/~umfandsf/other/ebooks/lostw10.txt)

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Robert Louis Stevenson, PF85000; V2666, V1079

The History of Mr. Wells, Michael Foot, PF86601 Foo

Shadows of the Future: H.G. Wells, Science Fiction and Prophecy, Patrick Parruder, PF86601 Par

Frankenstein’s Footsteps: Science, Genetics and Popular Culture, Jon Turney, 1998, Q930 Tur

 

Discussion Topics/Essay Questions

 

·          Identify some of the descendants of the classic texts of Wells or Shelley. How and why do you think that these classic stories developed in the way that they did?

 

·          To what extent did Frankenstein’s monster become the archetype of monsters for the first half of the twentieth century?

 

·          How have cultural concerns affected the changing nature of Frankenstein monsters?

 

·           Who is the greater monster, the Morlocks, the Eloi, or the Traveller? (Use examples to demonstrate your argument).

 

·          Look again at Wells’ views on eugenics in the context of the Eloi and the Morlocks of The Time Machine.

 

Quotes.

 

“Science as the creator of monsters is the myth on which Mary Shelley founded science fiction early in the nineteenth century, and a continuing theme. In the middle of this century, our Frankenstein was usually atomic war and its spawn of hideous and/or supernaturally gifted mutants.

           

H.G.Wells’ Scientific Romances and a number of his short stories set an intellectual, ethical and aesthetic standard that serious science fiction still honors. His themes are far too complex to go into here, but it is worth noting that practically everybody’s idea of what a time machine is comes from The Time Machine, and that the themes and imagery of that tale and of The War of the Worlds and The Invisible Man have been reworked right through the twentieth century without wearing out at all. Freud invented the unconscious; Wells put the Morlocks into it; even the Marxists couldn’t get them out.” (Ursula LeGuin’s introduction to the Norton Book of Science Fiction)

 

“Later on I wrote a fantasy called The Time Machine in which a machine

travels through time. It was entirely fantasy, and the reader was bluffed past

the essential impossibility of the proposition entirely for the sake of the story....”

 

H.G. Wells, The Conquest of Time.

 

“Frankenstein was a mixture of Mary’s personal traumas, her concern that Percy Shelley’s overreaching could lead to disaster, her reading of Paradise Lost and attempts to make contact with her parents - William Godwin who had disowned her, and Mary Wollstonecroft, who had died giving birth to her - plus her understanding of the then current debates about “vitalism” and the origin of the life principle itself”

 

“Over time, though, Frankenstein has turned into a reworking of Faust and an allegory of the social responsibility of science”

 

Christopher Frayling, Sunday Times, 8 December 1996.

 

“Shelley intuited the power of a threat that would come to seem graver as time went by. In a world where industrial and technological change was already apparent, one sphere of existence was exempt. the natural world, although it could be reshaped by physical onslaught on the land, was not yet open to technological manipulation. the forms and varieties of creatures, the hierarchy of species, the biological imperatives of existence, were fixed points in a changing world”

 

Jon Turney, Times Higher, 3 April 1998

 

 

 

Week 3: Robots, Androids and Computers

 

This is a major topic for “hard” science fiction with its focus on scientific exploration and innovation, but it also feeds strongly into popular imagination with the daunting concept of technology out of control. Isaac Asimov’s I, Robot is one of the major influences in this genre. This sets out “The Laws of Robotics” that ensure that robots behave benevolently. However, the idea of goodness is a problem; whose view of what is good for an individual or for humanity do we accept? Does the robot technology make for ultimate happiness, or does it trap humanity into a childlike state, ultimately unable to take responsibility for its own progress? This is explored in many of the later Asimov robot stories. Extending this genre is the android, providing both benevolent (Data, C3P0, R2D2) and malevolent (Alien, The Terminator) characters. As well as technical differences between robots and androids, the androids are often better developed characters, but is this because writers wish to humanise their behaviour rather than investigate technological development? The development of artificial intelligences has also become a popular subject: Hal in 2001; A Space Odyssey, Wintermute of Neuromancer, and the ships of the Culture.

 

Main Texts

Asimovs Laws of Robotics, (short story handouts)

Clarke, C. 2001, A Space Odyssey. Harper Collins,1968 . (A/S office; V0976, V3251, V4070)

Gibson, W. Neuromancer, Penguin, 1983.

 

Related Material

Robots and Empire, Isaac Asimov (A/S office)

The Culture Series of Iain Banks: Consider Phlebas, The Player Of Games, Use Of Weapons, Excess ion, Look To Windward, (Orbit, 2000.)

The robot books of Isaac Asimov Caves of Steel (PZ1 Sci (Asi)), The Naked Sun (PZ1 Sci (Asi)), I, Robot (PH9002, PZ1 Sci (Asi)), The Complete Robot (PH92002), The Robots of Dawn, also A/S office.

The Measure of a Man, The Best of Both Worlds, I, Borg, Descent (ST TNG)

Dreadnought (STV)

The Terminator (A/S office; V3202, V4075), Terminator 2; Judgement Day (A/S office; V3203)

The Terminator, BFI Film Classics, S. French and J. Cameron, 1966 (PN1997 Cam)

Bladerunner (A/S office; V1383)

The Robots of Death, The Android Invasion (Dr. Who)

Gridiron, Philip Kerr, 1995

Westworld (A/S office)

Robocop (A/S office)

Metropolis (A/S office), V2345

Bicentennial Man

 

Discussion Topics/Essay Questions.

 

·          Asimov views robots as benevolent, but does not see their existence as beneficial to man. How does he resolve this paradox?

 

·          The drones and minds of the Culture are regarded as “sentient”. Do we really understand what this means? How do we view sentience in relation to robots, androids, computers, cyborgs?

 

·          To what extent do robots like C3P0 or Data reflect human desires to “tame” intelligence?

 

·          Collect examples of “the machines take over/run out of control” stories. What do they have in common, and how do they differ?

 

·           Are Wintermute’s attempts to reinvent itself as a living entity symptomatic of                  our own paranoia about future technologies?

 

·           “The sixth member of the crew cared for none of these things, for it was not human.” (Asimov, 2001: 106). Is Hal really a member of the crew?

 

Quotes.

 

Asimovs Laws of Robotics:

1. A robot may not injure a human being, or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.

2. A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.

3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

From Handbook of Robotics, 56th Edition, 2058 A.D., as quoted in I, Robot. (1950, Doubleday)

In Robots and Empire (ch. 63, 1985, Doubleday), the "Zeroth Law" is extrapolated, and the other Three Laws modified accordingly

 0. A robot may not injure humanity or, through inaction, allow humanity to come to harm.

Source:http://www.clark.net/pub/edseiler/WWW/asimov_FAQ.html#series13

(2001)

 

“By the time I was in my late teens and already a hardened science fiction reader, I had read many robot stories and found that they fell into two classes.

 

In the first class there was Robot-as-Menace. I don’t have to explain that overmuch. Such stories were a mixture of ‘clank-clank’ and aarghh’ and ‘There are some things man was not meant to know.’ After a while they palled dreadfully and I couldn’t stand them.

 

In the second class (a much smaller one) there was Robot-as-Pathos. In such stories the robots were lovable and were usually put upon by cruel human beings. These charmed me. In late 1938 two such stories hit the stands that particularly impressed me. One was a short story by Eando Biner entitled ‘I, Robot’ about a saintly robot named Adam Link; another was a story by Lester del Rey, entitled ‘Helen O’Loy’ that touched me with its portrayal of a robot that was everything a loyal wife should be.

 

When, therefore, on June 10, 1939 (yes, I do keep meticulous records), I sat down to write my first robot story, there was no question that I fully intended to write a Robot‑as‑Pathos story. I wrote ‘Robbie,’ about a robot nurse and a little girl and love and a prejudiced mother and a weak father and a broken heart and a tearful reunion. (It originally appeared under the title - one I hated - of ‘Strange Playfellow.’)

 

But something odd happened as I wrote this first story. I managed to get a dim vision of a robot as neither Menace nor Pathos. I began to think of robots as industrial products built by matter‑of‑fact engineers. They were built with safety features so they weren’t menaces, and they were fashioned for certain jobs so that no pathos was necessarily involved.

           

As I continued to write robot stories, this notion of carefully engineered industrial robots permeated my stories more and more until the whole character of robot stories in serious printed science fiction changed - not only that of my own stories, but oof just about everybody’s.

           

That made me feel good and for many years, decades even, I went about freely admitting that I was ‘the father of the modern robot story.’”

 

 Introduction, The Complete Robot, (Asimov, 1982).

 

“The computer is of course another piece of science fiction which became real and ate the world”

 

From Ursula Le Guin’s introduction to the Norton Book of Science Fiction

 

“In 1950 he (Alan Turing) derived the Turing test for machine intelligence. Essentially this would involve a human being talking, probably via a keyboard, to a machine and to another human. If after a reasonable period of time, he could not tell the difference, then we would be obliged to credit the machine with intelligence. This is a morally significant assumption. It means we do not need evidence of the machine’s “inner mind”, we can work on the basis of only what it does. Normally I credit other people with minds because I believe I have one. But this is a statement of faith. The only truly scientific test is behaviour, and so a machine that passes Turing’s test must be regarded as intelligent and presumably therefore, a moral agent. there is no evidence of inferiority”

 

“A recent episode of Star Trek covered this ground rather elegantly by staging a trial to establish whether the android Data had rights. Significantly, the baddie was the man who said he hadn’t and the goodie - Captain Picard - was the one who said he had. There is an odd reversal of values going on here, in which the devotedly liberal Picard wants to extend morality to machines. Once he would have been Aldous Huxley or G K Chesterton, attacking the mindlessness of technocratic culture. Now he is a starship captain who sees that androids have feelings too.”

 

Bryan Appleyard, Sunday Times, 11 May 1997

 

 Nature Finds a Way - Science and Scientists.

 

Science fiction presents an arena in which science and scientific development can be taken to it’s furthest reaches, and yet why is it that scientists themselves are shown in such a negative light? The geek with thinning hair and poor eyesight inevitably steps down for the muscular hero to save the day, and scientists are usually seen as crazy, overzealous and out of touch with the “real” world of emotions and human relationships. Although science fiction is responsible for the ideas for some of the greatest developments in technology, (recently the internet, mobile phones and palm tops), scientific advancement is portrayed as dangerous, often wildly out of control, and rarely advantageous to the human race. Beneficial science and scientists are rare, seen as a “magical” saviour if at all.

 

Genetic technology is one of the most controversial areas both in and out of science fiction. Whereas the discovery of DNA was seen as a great leap forwards, the concept of cloning and genetically engineered tissues is one which brings great unease, especially with the underlying social concerns of cloning. These worries are far from new: degeneration of the species was a Victorian preoccupation, followed by the eugenics movement and the Holocaust. With these terrifying and horrific events in our past, and the dominant layman fear that science is “complicated”, is it ever possible to present science and scientist in a positive way?

 

Main Texts:

For this week, we are going to focus on the films and novels of Michael Crichton. I want you to try to read at least one of his books – they are extremely easy to get into and should not take too long. Most have been made into a film; watch this and compare the two. Numerous copies are available in the A/S office

 

Pick one of the following:

 

Jurassic Park (A/S office, V3222) (1991:Random House)

The Lost World (A/S office)

Westworld (A/S office)

Sphere (A/S office)

Timeline (2000:Random House)

The Andromeda Strain (A/S office) (1987: Macmillian)

The Terminal Man (A/S office)

 

Further Resources:

 

(Scientists)

The Matrix (A/S office)

Swordfish

(Genetics)

The Island of Dr. Moreau, H.G. Wells (A/S office in collected vol, PF 86600 Isi)

Gattaca (A/S office)

Planet of the Apes, Beneath the Planet of the Apes (A/S office)

Space Seed; Star Trek (TOS)

The Masterpiece Society, Unnatural Selection; Star Trek (TNG)

 

 

 

Discussion Topics

 

·          How do you view the characterisation of the scientists in Crichton’s novels? Are they appealing or realistic? Does the author identify with them?

 

·          In Jurassic Park, what is the dramatic function of the children? Is the film preaching the message that scientists should not mess with things they do not understand? Is the impact lessened by having scientists as heroes as well as villains?

 

·          Examine your own views of genetic engineering - curing genetic illness, ensuring a healthy foetus by IVF, animal chimeras, animal clones, cloning of human tissue, transgenic transplants, GMOs - where do you draw the line? Are your ffeelings ethically or culturally determined (can you tell the difference anyway)? How do/would your grandparents or great-grandparents have felt about this?

 

Essay Questions.

 

• Compare the character of Alan Grant in the book Jurassic Park, and the film. Why do you think that his relationship to the children was altered?
• The science of Jurassic Park is nonsense, isn’t it? (you can substitute any of the other books to answer this question if you want to)
• Are the historians of Timeline nothing more than scientists in disguise? What about Andre Marek? Is he a hero or a history geek?
• Do you think that Sphere is a better book or film? Why?
• Why should nerds be presented in such a negative light? After all, what threat do they represent?
• Why is it important that Neo in The Matrix knows Kung-Fu? Do you think that there is room for the scientist-action hero in popular culture?

 

 

Quotes:

 

1.      Scientists.

 

“I found the cure for cancer, but I lost it!”

(Sean Connery, Medicine Man, 1992)

 

“With the exception of the superficial characters of much of science fiction, the dominant picture has been of scientists who recapitulate the unflattering stereotypes of earlier centuries - the evil scientists, the stupid scientists, the inhuman scientists - or as a particularly twentieth century contribution, the scientists who has lost control over his discovery”

 

Rosylynn D. Haynes in From Faust to Strangelove; Representations of the Scientists in Western Literature, 1995.

 

“On they march, the fictional scientists. The best are well intentioned but misguided. Some are simply intent on knowledge, blind to the consequences. The worst are striving for power over nature, or world domination. They are murderers, madmen, monster-makers. Intellectually obsessed, morally and emotionally crippled, and politically naive, they threaten to reduce us to their level. Dr. Frankenstein, Dr. Moreau, Dr. Caligari, Dr. Jekyll, Dr. Strangelove and their innumerable fictional progeny, all point accusing fingers at the real world of science.”

 

Jon Turney, Times Higher, June 1995.

 

“Like Sidney Stratton (The Man in the White Suit) and Bowles-Ottery (A Jolly Bad Fellow) the main characteristic of these (film) scientists is that they are outsiders. This is true even of the generally favourable representations, such as that of Barnes Wallis in The Dambusters. As a result of this and their obsession with their work, scientists are often shown as lacking social skills and an understanding of how the world works. This is very evident in The Man in the White Suit, and in the scientists played by Kenneth Williams in Carry on Nurse.”

 

Bob Jones, Chemistry in Britain, Dec 1996, page 35.

 

“Spock is dangerous because he elevates the cult of the rational and dismisses the role of emotion. Real scientists don’t lack emotion, nor are they detached from normal human values. The danger is that this stereotype is very off-putting, especially to young people”

 

Prof. Helen Haste, Univ. of Bath, BA meeting 1997

 

“Because it is fun... People like Rupert Murdoch and Paul McCartney have appeared in the Simpsons. I think it is time a scientist was seen. Scientists have a better public image in America. Here they are ignored or portrayed as stereotypes, but in America you can have films like Good Will Hunting. So I was happy to show that science can also have street cred”

 

Steven Hawking, on his appearance in The Simpsons. The Sunday Times, 1999

 

“Television drama’s relationship with science is unhappy, unlike its successful alliance with lawyers, the police and doctors. Scientists are either a bit dotty (think Dr Who), bad (think the Frankenstein-like Charles dance cloning human beings in First Born) or just plain boring old brilliant. They are never mediocre, incompetent, avaricious, envious or even - horror of horrors - normal”

 

Gerard Gilbert, The Independent, 18/1/99

 

“Michael Crichton, scriptwriter and director, once taught anthropology at Cambridge, but wore his learning lightly here; yet this yarn has proved to be more influential and durable than we might have thought. It gave the old standard technophobic “what if the machines take over” story a new twist by suggesting that we deserve no better: Westworld was created to service and defuse our basest desires, and we can hardly complain if these desires get thrown in our face. It’s no surprise that Crichton went on to write Jurassic Park - a similar idea but without Westworld’s deft touch.

 

2.      Genetics etc…

 

“Augescunt aliae gentes, aliae minuuntur,

Inque brevi spatio mutantur saecla animantum

Et quasi cursores vitai lampada tradunt”

 

Some races increase, others are reduced,

And in a short while the generations of living creatures are changed

And like runners relay the torch of life

 

Lucretius 94-55 BC

 

“If we measured success by longevity, then dinosaurs must rank as the number one success story in the history of land life. Not only did the dinosaurs exercise an airtight monopoly as large land animals, they kept their commanding position for an extraordinary span of time-130 million years. Our own human species is no more than a hundred thousand years old. And our own zoological class, the Mammalia, the clan of warm-blooded furry creatures, has ruled the land ecosystem for only seventy million years. True the dinosaurs are extinct, but we ought to be careful in judging them inferior to our own kind. Who can say that the human system will last another thousand years, let alone a hundred million? Who can predict that our Class Mammalia will rule for another hundred thousand millennia?”

 

“Humans are proud of themselves. The guiding principle of the modern age is “Man is the measure of all things.” And our bodies have excited physiologists and philosophers to a profound awe of the basic mammalian design. But the history of the dinosaurs should teach us some humility. The basic equipment of our mammal class-warm bodies clothed in fur, milk-producing breasts to nourish out young-is quite ancient. These mammalian hallmarks are as old as the dinosaurs themselves. Indeed the Class Mammalia emerged, fully defined in the world ecosystems just as the Dinosauria began their spectacular expansion. If our fundamental mammalian mode of adaptation was superior to the dinosaurs’, then history should record the meteoric rise of the mammals and the eclipse of the dinosaurs. Our own Class Mammalia did not seize the dominant position in life on land. Instead the mammal clan was but one of many separate evolutionary families that succeeded as species only by taking refuge in small body size during the Age of the Dinosaurs. As long as there were dinosaurs, a full 130 million years, remember, the warm-blooded league of furry mammals produced no species bigger that a cat. When the first dinosaur quarry was opened in 1822 at Stonesfield, England, quarry men found the one-ton Megalosaurus and a tiny mammal.”

 

Robert T Bakker, The Dinosaur Heresies

 

“Your work is to survive. Neither his kind, nor his kind of thinking will survive long. They are the crown of creation; they are ambition fulfilled - they have nowhere to go. But life is change, that is how it differs from the rocks, change is its very nature. Who, then were the recent lords of creation, that they should expect to remain unchanged?

           

The living form defies change at its peril; if it does not adapt it will be broken. the idea of a completed man is the supreme vanity; the finished image is a sacrilegious myth”

 

“Sometime there will come a day when we ourselves shall have to give place to a new thing. Very certainly we shall struggle against the inevitable, just as these remnants of the Old People do. We shall try with all our strength to grind it back into the earth form which it is emerging, for treachery to one’s own species must always seem a crime. We shall force it to prove itself, and when it does we shall go; as by the same process these are going.”

 

“The essential quality of life is living; the essential quality of living is change; change is evolution and we are part of it.”

 

John Wyndham, The Chrysalids

 

“One of the apparent paradoxes of the eugenics movement is that it always flourishes in self-confident countries which are growing richer, and not in poor and desperate ones. It arose in America in the early years of the century, then became strongest in Protestant countries of northern Europe as they became rich. Now eugenics thinking flourishes in such places as Singapore, where there are special incentives for people with degrees to have children.

 

What these places have in common is a strong and justified sense of the importance of cultural values in their own success. They are rich because they are harder working and smarter than the competition. They also have a confidence in their own institutions. They believe government can make things better. They end up believing that the hopeless should not breed”

 

Andrew Brown, Sunday Times, 1997.

 

 

A Better Way of Living - Utopias

 

When Thomas More wrote Utopia in 1715, he put a name to visionary creations of the perfect society. But “utopia” is the Greek for “nowhere”, suggesting that he thought his fictional creation could never exist. Science fiction creates one of the best forum for utopias, as it enables the author to envisage entirely new lives and civilisations. And yet we seem unable to visualise our own perfect worlds, and few authors deal with them, preferring instead the technological or political possibilities of dystopias.

 

Dysfunctional, destructive and doomed worlds seem to be the order of the day, often set in either future or parallel times. In these dark places, the planet is long destroyed physically (the darkness and bad weather of Blade Runner, the Apocalypses of the Terminator films and THX 1138) or through social controls gone wrong (1984, Brave New World, Twelve Monkeys). More recently, these catastrophic predictions have been replaced by milder, but no less pessimistic visions. Futurama, Earth, Final Conflict and Starship Troopers all offer visions which have underlying tensions and problems in each society – lack of morality, threats of fascism and the environmental crisis all providing points of concern. 

 

Main Texts:

Futurama

Blade Runner (video in A/S office, based on Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, Philip K. Dick (P21 Sci Dic)

1984 (book and/or movie, PF90300 Nin, PF90301 Cal, V1461)

 

Related Texts:

Brave New World, Aldous Huxley (A/S office, PF89400 Bra)

Blade Runner, Bukatman, S (BFI Modern Classics:1997)

A Canticle For Leibowitz, Walter M.Miller Jnr.

The Handmaids Tale, Margaret Atwood. (A/S office, PR.6051.T77H3)

The Faber Book of Utopias; Edited John Carey (HC 4100 Fab)

The Time Machine, H.G. Wells (A/S office, V3491)

The Dispossessed Ursula LeGuin, 1974 (PH 92906)

Erewhon Revisited, Samuel Butler, 1901 (PF 83500 Ere, PG3022 Edw)

Solyent Green (A/S office)

Logan’s Run (A/S office; PZ1 Sci(Nol))

Zardoz (A/S office)

THX-1138

Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury (A/S office, PH92001, PZ Sci Bra, V1287)

Time’s Arrow; Star Trek TNG

Mad Max Trilogy (A/S office)

Rollerball, Westworld, The Running Man, Total Recall (A/S office)

A Clockwork Orange, Anthony Burgess (PF91710, Audio R4336, N1661)

http://www.users.interport.net/~regulus/pkd

http://www.stim.com/Stim-x/0896August/Automedia/pkdick.html

http://www.devo.com/bladerunner/blade_runner.html

http://jrowse.mtx.net/pkd/pkd.html

 

 

 

 

Discussion Topics

 

·          1984 has been described as a dystopian novel. To what extent do you see it as satire, prophecy or blueprint? What does it have to say to the contemporary reader about the conflict between the individual and the state?

 

·          Many future dystopias of the Cold war era were set in a world after a nuclear holocaust, or some other disaster which acted as a metaphor for this. Post Cold War, what are our fears, and how are they reflected in fiction?

 

·                    Utopias and dystopias are very often presented in plausible settings, involving not-too-distant futures rather than an exaggerated fantasy world. Often these dates have passed (e.g. 1984 and 2001AD). Why is this? Does our imagination stretch further, or are we just pessimists? If so, do you think our own pessimism is self-perpetuating – will our future be dim because we wish it so?

 

·                    Consider examples of authoritarian and anarchic future societies; are current utopian writers reacting against global capitalism?

 

Essay Questions:

 

• How does a science fiction setting make Futurama a more subversive version of The Simpsons?
• Do you think the world of 1984 is possible?
• What dystopian elements do you see in Futurama? Why?
• What themes link the worlds of 1984 and Blade Runner?
• Why is the individual so important in dystopian visions?
• The Directors Cut of Blade Runner makes it clear that Deckard is a replicant. Why is this so important?
• Is the future depicted in Star Trek utopian? If that is the case, why spend so much time visiting other places? What about villains such as the Klingons and the Borg?

 

Quotes:

 

Utopia noun 1 An imagined place or state of perfection esp with regard to laws, government and social conditions. 2. an impractical scheme for social or political improvement.

 

(The New Penguin English Dictionary, ed. Allen, R: Penguin, 2000)

 

 “In other 'republics' practically everyone knows that, if he doesn't look out for himself, he'll starve to death, however prosperous his country may be. He's therefore compelled to give his own interests priority over those of the public; that is, of other people. But in Utopia, where everything's under public ownership, no one has any fear of going short, as long as the public storehouses are full. Everyone gets a fair share, so there are never any poor men or beggars. Nobody owns anything, but everyone is rich - for what greater wealth can there be than cheerfulness, peace of mind, and freedom from anxiety?”

 

 (Thomas More, Utopia, 1715:128)

 

             For some time, however, Utopia writers have been faced by the increasingly awkward problem, where on earth to put their undiscovered countries? Lord Lytton solved it in The Coming Race (1871) by not putting his Utopia on earth at all, but under it. While investigating a charred and jagged chasm in a new shaft of a mine, an engineer is surprised to see a row of street-lamps leading away into the distance…

Another solution is to distance your Utopia, not in space, but in time. Since Plato, nobody has been so retrogressive as to place it in the past, but it is often placed in the future. One gets there either by dreaming (News From Nowhere), or by over-sleeping (Looking Backward, and H. G. Well’s When the Sleeper Wakes, 1899), or by operating a special apparatus (H. G. Well’s The Time Machine, 1895), or by an involuntary exchange of bodies with some unscrupulous member of posterity (John Whydham’s Pillar To Post, 1956): or else one is not a visitor at all but a permanent resident, like the bearded heroine of Evelyn Waugh’s Love Among the Ruins (1953)

          In the last resort, Utopias and Dystopias can always be located on another planet.

 

(Paul Turner, Introduction to Thomas More’s Utopia, Penguin: 1965)

 

 “The book is a warning of the possibilities of the police state brought to perfection, where power is the only thing that counts, where the past is constantly being modified to fit the present, where the official language, ‘Newspeak’, progressively narrows the range of ideas and independent thought, and where ‘Doublethink’ becomes a necessary habit of mind. It is a society dominated by slogans - ‘War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is Strength’ - and controlled by compulsory worship of the head of the party, Big Brother. The novel had an extraordinary impact, and many of its phrases and coinages (including its title) passed into the common language, although the precise implication of Orwell’s warning (and it was a warning rather than a prophecy) have been subjected to many political interpretations”

 

From The Oxford Companion to English Literature on 1984

 

“If Scott could have patented the Blade Runner look, the acid-rain-washed garbage-filled alleys, its melange of Japanese and Mayan monumental architecture, its wonderful gadgets casually dropped into the background texture, he could have bought Shepperton studios from the proceeds of that film alone. Future film historians will build careers tracking its influence, through Batman to Seven, via The X‑Files and the forthcoming American Gothic. At one point in the mid 1980s there was hardly a single video on MTV that was not ripping off the Blade Runner, blue-light chiaroscuro.”

 

John Harlow, Sunday Times 1996

 

“A film like Bladerunner…describes how genetically engineered “replicants”, the workers, the entertainers, and soldiers of the future, have begun to rebel against their servile position, deny their less-than-human status, and steal back to earth to mingle with their human models. There they are hunted down and exterminated by futuristic bounty hunters or “blade runners” like Rick Deckard. Yet the bounty hunter faces a difficult task. For he must put aside any human compunction, and on order automatically and unfeelingly kill these beings, practically indistinguishable from the human, whose chief crime is to have asserted their humanity; in effect he must act not humanely but almost robotically - that is mechanically and unfeelingly. While Deckard, a “cold fish” seems well suited to the task, that nature makes him a model of modern schizophrenic behavior, both the force of control and a version of the very thing he is supposed to control.”

 

J.P. Telotte, Replications: A Robotic History of the Science Fiction Film,  1995.

 

 

 There is No Spoon - Paranoid Fears or Fact?

 

Following on from the ideas of dystopian living come the panics about conspiracy and deceit. How much do we control the world in which we live? As a species we are inquisitive, but often this makes us distrustful. Many visions of science fiction prey upon this, representing not only the future but the present as deceitful and unreliable. The suggestion that all might not be as it seems is a disturbingly regular occurrence, from the subjugated human species in The Matrix, to the endless conspiracies of The X-Files.

 

Explorations of the subconscious have usually been cast in Freudian terms, the relationship between the conscious and the unconscious mind. Our unconscious is curiously collective - we all believe in the same sort of dragons (or do we?), if we see ghosts they are often wear white sheets and cause the temperature to fall, and most of the aliens who abduct us in the late twentieth century are of the “small grey” variety (why didn’t X‑Files try for a bit of originality here?).In the same way, our beliefs about conspiracies appear very uniform - Is this inherent to our humanity (the Jungian view) or have cultural icons become so pervasive that we cannot get them out of our subconscious?

 

Main Texts:

The X-Files

The Matrix (A/S office)

We Can Remember it for you Wholesale (handout)

Total Recall (A/S office)

 

Discussion Questions:

 

• Do you want to believe? To what extent are you willing to follow ideas of conspiracy and concealment? Do you think situations like those in The Matrix and We Can Remember it for you Wholesale could happen, or do you consider them too far-fetched? What about The X-Files, which gives a more recognisable series of deceptions?

 

• Plots such as The Matrix, The X-Files and Total Recall revolve around dead ends and inversions: the idea that the truth “might not be” what we think it is. How far can this idea be taken (think about all three plots)? Is there a point at which the author should stop twisting the tale?

 

Essay Questions:

 

• Does the X-Files, with it’s repeated false endings and conspiracy over conspiracy, help or hinder your beliefs?
• Is Quant merely dreaming of wish-fulfilment? What about the ending?
• Is Conspiracy Theory an entirely Millennial preoccupation?
• Which is better, the Matrix or the reality?

 

 

 

Quotes:

 

“The question is why do people want and need to believe all this. The more we know and understand about the natural world, the more people flock to the supernatural. The more we know about astronomy, the more people rush to astrology. As we roll back the frontiers of medicine and cure ever more diseases, more people plunge into homeopathy, reflexology, and a host of other non‑scientific treatments, although I’ve seen little evidence of their healing power.”

 

“But we do need to participate in the rational thought processes that science springs from. It makes no sense to live in an intellectual world constructed by reason, when our beliefs are stuck in the Middle Ages.”

 

Polly Toynbee, Radio Times, 1996

 

“Everybody likes to think that one more piece will complete the jigsaw, that, one day, it will all fall into place. And for young adolescents it seems the most obvious truth. They do feel there is a secret - sex - being withheld from them by a conspiracy of adults. Mulder’s aliens and psi-forces are early-teen metaphors for unimaginable delights and intimacies. But any idle browser of Freud could say as much, and there is more, much more to be said about the X-Files and dozens of other contemporary phenomena. New age mysticism, alternative medicine, dabbling in horoscopes and necromancy, the American-led pursuit of authenticity and self-realisation, the naturalistic spiritualities arising from environmentalism, even the fierce desire of Prince Charles to defend some transcendent truth are all symptoms of the pressing contemporary need to find something more in the world than the glib finalities of mainstream science”

 

Brian Appleyard, Sunday Times, 13 October 1996

 

 

“There is no a priori reason for thinking that, when we discover the truth, it will prove interesting”

 

C.I. Lewis, American philosopher.

 

“How do we account for the current paranormal vogue in the popular media? Perhaps it has something to do with the millennium - in which case it’s depressing to realise that the millennium is still three years away. Less portentously, it may be an attempt to cash in on the success of the X‑Files. This is fiction, and therefore defensible as pure entertainment.

 

A fair defence you might think. But soap operas, cop series and the like are justly criticised if, week after week, the ram home the same prejudice or bias. Each week the X-Files poses a mystery and offers two rival kinds of explanation, the rational theory and the paranormal theory. And, week after week, the rational explanation loses. But it is only fiction, a bit of fun, why get so hot under the collar?

 

Imagine a crime series in which, every week there is a white suspect and a black suspect. And every week, lo and behold, the black one turns out to have done it. Unpardonable, of course. And my point is that you could not defend it by saying: “But it’s only fiction, only entertainment”.

 

Let’s not go back to a dark age of superstition and unreason, a world in which every time you lose your keys you suspect poltergeists, demons or alien abduction. There is certainly nothing impossible about alien abduction in UFOs. One day it might happen. But it should be kept as an explanation of last resort.”

(Richard Dawkins, Dimbleby lecture, November 1996).

Spice! Space Opera and Politics

 

We are going to spend a couple of weeks on this subject, firstly talking about space opera in terms of politics, and secondly looking at it’s implications through Star Trek.

Space Opera is massively popular in, cinematic and televisial forms, but has few literary links other than spin-off novels and comics. Fans of space opera are also extremely industrious; one result of this is the massive amount of information available on the internet. Critics often rubbish space opera as simplistic, crude, however in doing so, they overlook the effect these series have upon popular culture and thought.

 

The first week looks at the implications of this social phenomenon. Many series present very specific moral and social attitudes; are they right in doing so? Two writers demonstrate this clearly: the first being the overtly socialist world of the Iain M Bank’s Culture, in which people live in an apparently Utopic civilisation. The second is more specific, and comes from the Frank Herbert series Dune.

 

Main Texts:

Dune. (Royal Dinner Scene). You will be getting this as a handout, and it will be available on the website. DO NOT watch the film instead – this scene is not included, and Dune was also rightly slated as one of the worst films ever made. Miscreants in this respect will be forced to memorise all of Sting’s lines from the film –  beware!

 

The Culture Novels: Iain Banks,  (Orbit)

Consider Phlebas, 1987

The Player of Games 1988

Use Of Weapons

Excession

Look To Windward

A Few Brief Notes on the Culture.

 

Against A Dark Background. (Not a Culture Novel, but still investigates the political system.)

 

Secondary Texts:

Stargate SG-1

Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

The Final Fantasy Games

V

Babylon 5

Farscape

Dr Who

Blake’s 7

 

Discussion Topics and Essay Questions

 

• What do you consider the key elements to a successful space opera?
• Are there places that space opera cannot “boldly go?”
• Iain Banks writes about a very specific society, yet many of his stories are set outside The Culture, or concern its dissidents. Is this necessary?

 

•  Are Bank’s endings “happy?” What about Gurgeh, Horza or Diziet Sma – are they sympathetic characters to the reader, but villains of the Culture itself?

 

• Look at the dinner scene from Dune. What is the focus and aim of this scene? Is a clear message given out? How does it contextualise the rest of the novel? 

 

• Discuss the role of socialism in Iain Banks’ Culture novels.

 

• Why was Dune so poorly adapted by David Lynch? Do you think that the new serialisation will meet with the same end?

 

• How does Herbert treat the individual in Dune?

 

• Why are space opera books so long?

 

Quotes:

 

(1)  Style and Mood staunchly traditional

(2)  Hitherto unknown places to explore

(3)  Continuity between Past and Future

(4)  Tremendous sphere of space/time

(5)  A pinch of reality inflated with melodrama

(6)  A seasoning of screwy ideas

(7)  Heady escapist stuff

(8)  Charging on with little regard for logic or literacy

(9)  Often throwing off great images, excitements, aspirations

(10) The Earth should be in peril

(11) There must be a quest

(12) There must be a man to match the mighty hour

(13) That man must confront aliens and exotic creatures

(14) Space must flow past the ports like wine from a pitcher

(15) Blood must run down the palace steps

(16) Ships must launch out into the louring dark

(17) There must be a woman fairer than the skies

(18) There must be a villain darker than a Black Hole

(19) All must come right in the end

(20) The future in space, seen mistily through the eyes of yesterday

 

Brian W. Aldiss, in his anthology "Space Opera" [Garden City NY: Doubleday, 1974]

Source: http://www.magicdragon.com/UltimateSF/thisthat.html#utopia

 

This Earth Thing… Star Trek and the American Dream.

 

Continuing with Space Opera, we will be looking specifically at Star Trek as a social phenomenon. In particular, we will be investigating the historical development of the series, from Shatner to Seven of Nine. Star Trek is one of the most long-lived science fiction series, and has been through several incarnations since it’s birth. From the first inter-racial kiss, to the introduction of a female captain, the show has dealt with every political, social and scientific concern it can lay its hands on. Despite this, it still works to a strongly formulaic plot, and arguably extols one point of view; that of the American, middle-class white male. Along with Independence Day, we will be discussing the validity of this statement.

 

Main Texts:

 

Star Trek; all four series, and all of the eight films – try to watch one program from at least two of the series if you can.

Independence Day (A/S office)

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

 

Discussion Topics

 

• Consider the enemies of the Star Trek world, in particular the Klingons, Ferengi, Cardassians, Q, and the Borg. What specific threats do they represent? Why in later series do the programmes introduce alliance with these races?
• Many space operas have some “paranormal” character (Spock in Star Trek, Troi in TNG, Odo in DS9, Kes, Tuvok in STV, “the force” in Star Wars, Talia, Lyta in Babylon 5, a telepathic race in Space Precinct, etc.). Is this a method of introducing “magic” to the story? Is it a device for getting out of tight corners in the plot?
•  Can Worf and Data, the true aliens of the Enterprise crew in ST:TNG be regarded as metaphors for the absorption/acculturation of the alien into western (American) society?

 

Essay Questions:

• Taking one series (Star Trek, TNG, DS9, Voyager), discuss how American social concerns and history affect plots, characterisation or social interaction.
• Given the chance, which Star Trek character would you push out of the airlock first? Justify this statement in the context of cultural and social dynamics between the crew and the audience.
• Compare and contrast the following characters:

 

Spock and Seven of Nine or Tuvok

Kirk and Janeway or Sisko

Worf and the Klingons in TOS

 

 

• Is Independence Day racist and anti-Semitic, or just over-eager to be politically correct?
• Discuss the presentation of American suburban life in Buffy The Vampire Slayer.

 

 

Quotes:

 

“Not surprisingly, then in early Star Trek history, critics and fans alike hailed the original Star Trek series as the first televised science fiction program to offer a positive view of the future. They credited Star Trek with bringing the first mass female audience to the genre. they lauded it for featuring the first televised interracial kiss. Indeed, Star Trek: The Next Generation even prophesied an end to the cold war by declaring peace between Klingon and human cultures, offered the cyborg as a model for new constructions of human subjectivity, and elevated psychology to the status of a hard science by bringing a counsellor to join the likes of science, weapons, military, engineering, and communication specialists. It placed at least one woman - however short-lived - in the non-traditional role of Security Chief. And Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Voyager have finally put women and people of color at the top of the chain of command, at the top of Star Trek’s self‑created hierarchy”

 

Taylor Harrison, Sarah Projansky, Kent A‑Ono, Elyce Rae Helford, in Enterprise Zones: Critical Positions on Star Trek, Westview Press, 1996.

 

 

“Why did you agree to the cameo role in ST:TNG?”

 

“I enjoy Star Trek and think that science fiction serves a useful purpose of expanding the imagination. Although we may not yet be able to boldly go where no man (or woman) has gone before, we can do so in the mind. Science and science fiction stimulate each other. the script that the Star Trek producers provided for my brief scene was good and the actual filming in the Paramount studios in Los Angeles was fun. But I won’t be giving up the day job quite yet.”

 

Stephen Hawking, Radio Times, 17-23 Feb 1996

 

“At the end of the movie Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991), Admiral James T. Kirk specifies the Enterprise’s course as “second star to the right and straight on ‘til morning”. Like the Lost Boys of Never Neverland, in James M Barrie’s Peter Pan, ST’s principal characters and narrative structure never really grow up. A large portion of ST’s psychological agenda is invested in the maintenance of sameness, most explicitly manifest in the fact that the starship Enterprise, as symbolic of this self-enclosed, hermetic, stasis opens and closes every episode of the original series except one. Although this type of closure reflects traditional television narrative conventions, the image of the Enterprise is crucial to Star Trek’s reveries of home as unblemished, ever-available and immutable.”

 

Ilsa J. Bick in Enterprise Zones: Critical Positions on Star Trek, Westview Press, 1996.
A Long Time Ago… Star Wars, Myth and Religion.

 

Along with Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Star Wars helped to bring science fiction to the attention of Hollywood, producing a one of the first blockbusters and marketing it not on product placement, but on product sales. But beneath this cynical perspective lies a trilogy which successfully captured the imagination of a generation. How did this happen? The Star Wars trilogy has been labelled many things; Western, fairytale, a remake of the Seven Samurai in space, and reworking of Arthurian myth. Yet at heart it is a deceptively simple story; a young man travels a rite of passage with the aid of his friends, defeats his nemesis with the aid of magic, and in doing so saves the world.

 

Main Texts:

The Star Wars Trilogy:

Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi (A/S office)

The Phantom Menace

The Seven Samurai

 

Secondary Texts:

 

Joseph Campbell, The Hero With A Thousand Faces (Fontana: 1993)

Geoff King & Tanya Krzywinska, Science Fiction Cinema, (Wallflower Publications:2000) (case study of The Phantom Menace)

http://www.theforce.net

Troops (at www.theforce.net)

Any of the Star Wars novels or graphic novels

 

Discussion Topics:

 

• Why is it so easy to label the Star Wars Trilogy with so many different brushes? Do you think it really belongs to the domain of science fiction?

 

• Think of the roles of each character. In what ways do they support the traditional patterns of myths? Is there any challenge to these positions?

 

• What are your reactions to Darth Vader and Anakin Skywalker? Is either a sympathetic figure? Do you think there are any attempts to create sympathy or otherwise with Anakin in The Phantom Menace?

 

• What is The Force? How does it influence each film in turn?

 

•  What do you think about the introduction of midi-chlorines in The Phantom Menace?

 

• Luke was originally plotted as a girl. Would this have been successful? If so/not, why/not?

 

• Do you consider the prequel a worthy follow-up to the Phantom Menace? What about the new characters (in particular, Anakin, Amidala, Jar Jar Binks and the young Obi-Wan)?

 

 

Essay Questions:

• Is Star Wars a Western?
• Do you think Star Wars deserves its fame?
• What is the Dramatic Function of the Droids?
• Discuss the myth structure of the Star Wars Trilogy.
• What is the Force, and what is its narrative purpose in the Trilogy? Discuss with specific references to religions and belief systems.

 

Quotes:

 

“The extreme popularity of a Hollywood film such as Star Wars derives not so much from any fixed message it may be said to convey, or any single response it aims to provoke, but from the multiplicity of meanings that can be extracted from it, and from the multiple uses it can be put to. Referring to the Soviet Union as an ’evil empire’ or labelling Reagan’s missile defence programme  ‘Star Wars’ are two such uses, which may mobilise any of the meanings previously attached to the film or the term, and may also add new meanings to the existing repertory”

 

Peter Kramer, History Today, March 1999, pp41-47

 

“The actors are wallpaper, the jokes are juvenile, there’s no romance, and the dialogue lands with the thud of a computer instruction manual. But it’s useless to criticise the visual astonishment that is Star Wars”

 

Rolling Stone, May 1999

 

“The Jedi outfits are the ritual garb of a religious warrior order. Their lightsabers combine the qualities of ancient and futuristic, the sword and the hi-tech buzz. Qui-Gon’s pony tail and Obi-Wan’s position as an apprentice further encourage a reading in terms of the Samurai tradition.”

 

King. G & Krzywinska, T, Science Fiction Cinema, (Wallflower Publishing: 2000)

 

RANDAL: All right, Vader’s boss…

DANTE: The Emperor.

RANDAL: Right, the Emperor. Now the Emperor is kind of a spiritual figure, yes?

DANTE: How do you mean?

RANDAL: Well, he’s like the pope for the dark side of the Force. He’s a holy man; a shaman, kind of, albeit an evil one.

DANTE: I guess.

RANDAL: Now, he’s in charge of the Empire. The Imperial government is under his control. And the entire galaxy is under Imperial Rule.

DANTE: Yeah.

RANDAL: then wouldn’t that logically mean that it’s a theocracy?  If the head of the Empire is a priest of some sort, then it stands to reason that the government is therefore one based on religion.

DANTE: It would stand to reason, yes.

RANDAL: Hence, the Empire was a fascist theocracy, and the rebel forces were therefore battling religious persecution.

DANTE: More or less.

REANDAL: The only problem is that at no point in the series did I ever hear Leia or any of the rebels declare a particular religious belief.

 

Clerks, Kevin Smith, (Faber & Faber: 1997)

 

“Throughout the inhabited world, in all times and under every circumstance, the myths of man have flourished; and they have been the living inspiration of whatever else may have appeared out of the activities of the human body and mind. It would not be too much to say that myth is the secret opening through which the inexhaustible energies of the cosmos pour into human cultural manifestation. Religions, philosophies, arts, the social forms of primitive and historical man, prime discoveries in science and technology, the very dreams that blister sleep, boil up from the basic, magic ring of myth.”(Joseph Campbell: The Hero with a Thousand Faces,)

 

  One Ring To Rule Them… Lord of the Rings.

 

This Christmas sees the release of one of the most eagerly anticipated films of the fantasy/science fiction genre. The first part of The Lord Of The Rings will in many ways mark a turning point in the popular reception of fantasy stories, finally bringing Tolkiens masterpiece complete to the big screen.

 

It is important to realise that Lord of the Rings was one of the first of its kind. Written by Oxford Don and Anglo-Saxon linguist John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (1892-1973), the novel plus its prequel The Hobbit have aroused a great deal of critical debate. Amongst these are claims that the different races and wars within the books are a reflection of concurrent events – including the Great War 1914-18 and the Holocaust. These ideas were strongly denied by Tolkien himself, but the time taken to produce the book does suggest that these elements may have bee unintentionally absorbed and reproduced.

 

Accompanied by a trip to the film, we will be putting our new found critical skills to the test. Does Lord Of the Rings succeed as a film, and how does it achieve this? What differences are there between text and film; are these necessary or intrusive?

 

Main Texts.

 

J.R.R Tolkien, The Lord Of The Rings

                        The Hobbit

The Lord Of the Rings Part 1 (The Fellowship of the Ring), dir.Peter Jackson, Prod New Line Cinema, 2001

 

Secondary Resources:

 

The Lord of the Rings, dir Ralph Bakshi, Fantasy Films,1978

Patrick Curry: Defending Middle-Earth :Tolkien :myth and modernity, 1998, Harper Collins (PF 89210 Cur)

Tom Shippey, J.R.R. Tolkien: Author of the Century, 2000, Harper Collins
 

 

The Tolkien Information page (the most comprehensive listing of online Tolkien resources. http://www.csclub.uwaterloo.ca/u/relipper/tolkien/rootpage.html

Essay Questions

 

• Does The Lord Of The Rings provide an historical overview of the early Twentieth Century?
• Discuss the importance of riddles and problem solving in The Hobbit
• Is The Lord of The Rings outdated as fantasy literature?
• Compare the roles of Frodo and Smeagol (Gollum) in The Lord of the Rings
• How does the conversion to film affect understandings of The Lord of the Rings?

 

The Best I am At what I Do – Comics.

 

Lurking even further below the science fiction text in terms of credibility is the science fiction comic. Men in Spandex, exaggerated bosoms and biceps, and a general idea that comics are for kids is an image that still persists. But on the big screen, comics are cash cows: adaptations such as The X-Men, Batman, The Mask and Superman, or comics as theme: Unbreakable, Mallrats, Chasing Amy are both popular and lucrative.

 

 Like any genre, comics have not been static in scope, quality or subject matter. The 1950’s EC comics sparked a moral panic linked strongly to the fears of Maccarthyism, and characters such as Superman, Spiderman and The X-Men all have direct links with social concerns. These apparently clear cut heroes were followed by bleaker criticism in the 1980’s, with the publication of Watchmen, V for Vendetta, and The Dark Knight Returns.

 

Main Texts:

Handout:(Uncanny X-Men)

Handout: (Amazing Fantasy, Uncanny X-Men, Witchblade,)

Watchmen (PN6728.W3.Moo)

The Dark Knight Returns

 

Akira (Film or G/N)

 

Secondary Texts:]

(since it would be impractical to recommend individual issues here, all the comics titles listed are available as graphic novels, or I have copies that can be borrowed.)

 

 Shirow, Masamune : Ghost in The Shell, Appleseed

Any of the X-Men comics.

Adam Warren: Titans: Scissors, Paper Stone

Batman/Batman Returns (A/S Office)

The Uncanny X-Men

Wolverine

Spiderman

Batman

 

The many Lives of the Batman: critical approaches to a superhero and his media ed. R.E. Pearson and W. Urrico, Routledge (PN6725)

Scott McCloud, Understanding Comics, (Harper Collins, 1993)

 

Discussion Topics:

 

• Why are the roles portrayed in comics so pronounced (e.g hero, villain, helper)? Does the idea of a team of superheroes help to diffuse and change this, or merely make each character more restricted?

 

• What is your personal reaction to comics? Do you think they are rubbish? Do you enjoy the films, but not the comics themselves?

 

• Examine the changing style and presentation of Watchmen, V for Vendetta and The Dark Knight Returns. How does this influence your reading of the narrative?

 

Essay Questions:

 

• “With great power comes great responsibility”. Do comics follow this creed wisely?
• What is so disturbing about The Dark Knight Returns or Watchmen?
• Is Batman a science fiction character?
• Look at the copy of Uncanny X-Men we studied in class. What are the problems and successes of this issue?

 

Quotes:

 

“I’m very well versed in science fiction and science fact. I used to read the first science fiction books, and I began to learn about the universe and take it seriously…I began to realise what a wonderful and awesome place the universe is, and that helped me in comics because I was looking for the awesome”

Jack Kirby, (Artist for The Fantastic Four, The X-Men , the Incredible Hulk, Spiderman) Comics Journal no. 134: pp92, Feb 1990.

 

“Comics offers tremendous resources to all writers and artists: faithfulness, control, a chance to be heard far and wide without fear of compromise…

It offers range and versatility with all the potential imagery of film and painting plus the intimacy of the written word…

And all that’s needed is the desire to be heard…

The will to learn…

…and the ability to see.”

 

Scott McCloud, Understanding Comics, p212-3 (Harper Collins:1993)

 

 The new X-Men (1980 onwards) had an engaging level of psychological depth, as well as a complexity that ensured that readers would have to buy every issue to know what was going on: the story lines could sometimes last years. This continuity allowed for the title to ‘speak’ to its readership. The X-Men were complete personalities whose mutancy could be viewed as a metaphor for adolescence, race or sexuality. The fact that they fell in love, fell out, got married, gave birth and above all, experienced discrimination from prejudiced humans only added to their appeal”

 

Sabin, Comics, Comix and Graphic Novels p.159 (Phiadon:1996)

 

 

 

 

Doctor, Look! Women in Sci-Fi.

 

Political systems and utopian imaginations have given us many different interpretations of how the future should look. However, sometimes our social understanding traps in our own time, lending very specific attitudes, assumptions and inventions to what we create. Science fiction has often demonstrated this, sometimes deliberately, often unconsciously. However, it also has a freedom to move beyond these confines. One of the main ways this has happened is in the projection of women. Moving from the screaming captives of the beginning of the century, science fiction is now responsible for some of the strongest and earliest female characters, particularly in film and television. Heroes such as Linda Hamilton (Terminator), and Sigourney Weaver (Alien) have provided strong and lasting images that challenge traditional roles. Star Trek has also been a forerunner in this respect, introducing female characters in positions of command (Captain Janeway), military roles (Tasha Yar), and the emotional disassociation usually attributed to men (Seven of Nine).

 

Main Texts:

 

Alien, Aliens, Alien 3, Alien Resurrection (A/S office)

The Abyss. (directors cut if possible)

Tomb Raider.

Danger Girl (Scott Campbell, Cliffhanger 1999-2000) (handout)

Atwood, M. The Handmaids Tale. (A/S office)

 

Secondary Fiction.

 

Ursula Le Guin, The Left Hand of Darkness (A/S office)

Terminator/Terminator 2 (A/S office V3202 V4070)

Barbarella (A/S Office)

 Iain Banks, Against a Dark Background.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Dark Angel

 

Discussion Topics:

 

• Look at the changing roles of women in science fiction. What trends, if any, do you notice?

 

• Female writers such as Le Guin, Atwood and Anne MacCaffrey often use their fiction to explore ideas of feminism in another society. Do you think this is a positive action, or merely makes them more isolated as writers in the predominantly male environment of science fiction?

 

• Look at some of the lead female characters in science fiction e.g Buffy, Sarah Connor, Ripley, Offred (The Handmaid’s Tale) and Leela (Futurama). What positive and negative attributes do you see in their representation? How do they compare with the men in each programme/film/book. What about so-called “sidekicks?” (Willow, Tara in Buffy), Dr Who’s assistants, secondary characters in Space Operas, Trillian (The Hitchhiker’s Guide to The Galaxy). How do their roles differ?

 

Essay Questions:

 

• Examine the changing role of Ripley in the Alien films. Do you agree with the way her character develops?
• “The bitch is back” Why are female characters often presented so aggressively?
• In Alien, Pitch Black and Starship Troopers, the central female character is a pilot. Is this intentionally sexist, or merely a plot device?
• Why is the female superheroine becoming such a popular subject? (Dark Angel, Buffy, Tomb Raider, Xena)
• Is Tomb Raider a sexist film?

 

Quotes:

 

Look across the years and only two sorts of female characters emerge: the feeble drips and the mad overcompensating toughies. Among the latter were Sigourney Weaver in the Alien films and the wonderfully absurd cavewoman Leela from Dr. Who. Among the drippies we may count, from the 1930s, Dale Arden, Flash Gordon’s girlfriend; all female leads in every 1950s sci-fi drama; the vast majority of Doctor Who’s assistants; plus the female members of Captain Kirk’s crew in Star Trek”.

 

Isobel Gordon, The Daily Telegraph,  8/5/99

 

“ The original Alien was a standing-up for the notion that one brave, resourceful woman might defeat the terror and that she could rise above the intrigue of a robot and a devious Company. There was also the clear awareness that knowledge was not necessarily worthwhile for it’s own sake: for if an alien existed in the universe, maybe it was best eliminated, rather than brought home for study. In that sense, Ripley is an old-fashioned soldier who would rather kill te enemy than risk understanding it. That so decent and unshakeable a young American woman laid claim to that duty was striking: at a profound level the film said, trust common sense, not technology, advanced knowledge, or the rarefied claims of science.”

 

David Thomson, The Alien Quartet p.70. (Bloomsbury, 1998)

 

“Appearing in different versions across the three films, Ripley functions as a sort of reference point for the contemporary female action hero. In Fincher’s version, Ripley’s is a decidedly butch body, an androgynous body pregnant with an alien infant. The contradictory articulation of a female body which is masculine, a body that is simultaneously maternal and destructive is symptomatic that the butch/androgynous/tomboy action heroine brings with her associations of same sex desire, suggesting a lesbian body.”

 

Yvonne Tasker, Working Girls, Gender and Sexuality in Popular Cinema, p.71 (Routledge, 1998)

 

“When I first started thinking about it (The Handmaids Tale), I thought it was such a wacko idea I wrote it with some trepidation. It could have been the worst failure you could possibly imagine. I was afraid people would say it was stupid, silly. There was also the risk it would be thought feminist propaganda of the most outrageous kind, which was not really what I intended. I was more interested in totalitarian systems, an interest I’ve had for a long time. I used to read Second World War stuff in the cellar when I was twelve or thirteen, for instance.”

 

Margaret Atwood: Conversations, p.70 (ed. Earl G. Ingersoll, Ontario Press, 1990)
Where the Wild Things Are: Monsters, Aliens, and Creeping Horrors.

 

Aliens and monsters have been one of the most persistent themes in science fiction. From Alien to alien sightings, the idea of other species is one which fascinates and horrifies us. There is a wide spectrum of fictional scenarios dealing with contact with aliens, from the benign to the malevolent. From Wells’ War of The Worlds, to Independence Day, aliens have been invaders and destroyers, yet they have also been inquisitive (Close Encounters, The Abyss), cooperative (Star Trek, Babylon 5), and sometimes merely childish or mistaken (ET). During the 1950’s, the ethical and political dilemmas of the American imagination in particular meant that the idea of other life in the stars gave rise to a great deal of discussion and fear. Comics and pulp fiction of the time both reassured and terrified their audiences with images of bug-eyed aliens, flying saucers and fearsome slimes.

 

Nowadays the advancement of special effects, both computerised and prosthetic, means that we have far more scope for our creatures and companions. They no longer need to be governed by the same laws of physics as ours (the flying aliens of Pitch Black, the water manipulating entities of The Abyss), yet despite this, we still persist with threatening monster beasts, or humanoid contemporaries who are cooperative and intellectually similar.

 

In this class we will be looking at the following two categories of aliens:

 

“Real” aliens and first contact:

Close Encounters of the Third Kind, (A/S office)

 Sphere,

 First Contact (Jodie Foster),

 The Abyss,

 The X-Files.

E.T. (A/S office)

 

Monsters:

 Alien, (all four films) (A/S office)

 Pitch Black, (also recommended is the website at www.pitchblack.com)

 Godzilla (American/Japanese anime/film versions),

 Jurassic Park. (A/S office)

 EC Comics: The Vault of Fear, Tales Of Horror, Fantastic Tales.

Starship Troopers (A/S office)

 

 Discussion Questions:

 

• Do you believe in Aliens, if so/not, why?

 

• In Sphere, the reaction to First Contact is predicted as “abject terror”. How can we reconcile our bug eyed-monsters with our friendly ET’s? Is there a way around our fear of the unknown?

 

• In literature that deals with empathy for aliens, the meeting of each party is often depicted as a pseudo-religious experience. Is it possible that an alien might not inspire this sentiment? What alternative understandings are possible in cinematic and literary terms (for example, could stories be written about a ‘stupid’ alien race)?

 

• What makes a good monster movie/book? Should this really be classified as science fiction, or is it just a convenient medium for horror/adventure/chase themes?

 

  Essay Questions:

 

• Why is Alien a horror film, and Aliens a monster movie?
• Do monster movies have any place in science fiction?
• Trace the development of alien encounters in literature/film/television through the changing history of the Twentieth century.
• Discuss the role of women in monster stories.

 

Quotes:

 

1.Abduction and Alien Encounters.

 

“More than a million Britons believe that they have been abducted by aliens and taken on rides across space and time, and more than half the population has awoken from sleep to sense a strange presence in the room, Sue Blackmore, a British psychologist, claimed yesterday. She says that these and scores of so-called paranormal experiences - including out-of-body sensations and the sighting of ghosts - could be explained as unusual electrical activity in key areas of the brain”

 

The Times, 1997

 

“For some reason it’s become acceptable, even trendy now, for people to talk about their belief in aliens, or admit experiences. A few years ago they would have been confined to an institution. The anti-government message is also timely. They’ve hidden things from us for years, but now people are starting to go ‘Hey, wait a second’”.

 

Gillian Anderson, Radio Times, July 1996.

 

“A ninth-century bishop of Lyons called Agobard was once asked to sentence a group of prisoners who had been clapped in irons by his flock. The prisoners were suspected of falling from a “sky ship”, which carried off local crops to a kingdom in the clouds called Magonia. Agobard released them, condemning instead “those senseless fools who believe in the reality of such absurd things”. Then he sat down and wrote A book against False Opinions Concerning Thunder and Lightning, in which believers in Magonia were denounced as “mad and blind”.

 

Eleven hundred years later, relations between UFO believers and their critics are no better. Reasoned debate is frequently drowned out by exchanges of abuse. In many ways, however, the tide has turned. If Agobard were alive today he would never make it into print. His flock, on the other hand, could make a fortune by writing about mass abductions by sky sailors.”

 

From Damian Thompson, The Times,  June 1997

 

2. Monsters!

 

“ The ‘good’ alien of science fiction sometimes takes on the patina of a kind of God figure. Klaatu in The Day the Earth Stod Still adopts the name Carpenter, ‘goes among the people, is killed, resurrected and ascends into the sky: clearly established as Christ-like. A similar pattern is formed in E.T., where the extra-terrestrial also has miraculous healing powers transferred through a glowing fingertip…the ‘bad’ alien is more like the devil, a figure literalised in Quatermass and the Pit; the film suggests that historical descriptions of Satan might have been based on the appearance of horned figures from Mars. Most aliens seem to line up fairly clearly on the ‘good’ or ‘bad’ sides of the equation.”

 

King, G, & Krzywinska,T Science Fiction Cinema, (Wallflower Pulications:2000)

 

“What the Beast said was quite good sense, though it was not what one might call intelligent conversation. But every day Beauty observed some new kindness in him, and as she became used to seeing him, she also became accustomed to his ugliness”

 

(Beauty and the Beast)

 

 

 

Speakers:       Everyone

 

Science Fiction and Humour

 

Other than in passing, humour in science fiction did not become at all common until the 1960s. Some of Asimov’s robot short stories are very funny, but deliberate fusion of the genres came much later. However, the 1980s and 1990s have seen an enormous rise in its popularity, both in respect of “tongue in cheek” scenes in longer narratives, and the cult followings for the anarchism of Terry Pratchett, Red Dwarf and Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. The quality of the snappy one-liner humour of the SF soaps has improved dramatically in recent years. Humour is, however, a very individual taste - I want everyone to bring along a story or scene they have found funny, but I don’t expect that we will all agree!

 

Main Texts

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams (A/S office and PF95211 Hit)

Galaxy Quest.

Red Dwarf (A/S office)

 

Related Material

Men in Black (A/S office)

Dr. Strangelove (A/S office)

Barbarella (A/S office)

Mars Attacks

Anything by Terry Pratchett

Anything that you personally found funny

Third Rock from the Sun

 

“Before Pratchett, the funny fantasy novel barely existed. At one of the question-and-answer sessions, he explained to some fans where his inspiration came from.

 

“The thing about fantasy novels”, he said, “was that the hero always has to go on some quest that involved travelling 3,000 miles, with every man’s hand against him, and at the end he had to throw a ring into a volcano. You never got a quest that involved just nipping next door...”

 

So Pratchett developed a new genre: fantasy that is constantly being undercut by reality. In Discworld, Death is - as you might imagine - a black-caped skeletal figure with a scythe. But he rides a white horse called Binky”

 

Mark Edwards, The Sunday Times, 7 July 1996