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I am canceling class on March 27th because of the demonstration against the “one-size-fits-all” changes to the education system at the provincial legislature in Fredericton. I hope buses will be organized; if not, there will be cars going up.
I posted a pile o’ links to my other blog, and there is a ton of activity on Facebook around the issue.
We will discuss the readings on imperialism the following week, and both Simon’s presentation and the due date for the final paper have been postponed one week as well (thank you Simon!).
- Gregory Benford, “Exposures” (445-456): what do you make of the two sections of the story that deal with organized religion, the one a flashback to the protagonist’s youth and the other the conclusion of the story? Of the juxtaposition of the reading of the computer images with the protagonist’s domestic life?
- Greg Bear, “Schrödinger’s Plague” (477-484): so what would you have done? what do you think Dietrich and Krantz might have done?
- Howard Waldrop, “… the World, as we Know ‘t” (485-500): reflect on the title.
- Connie Willis, “Schwarzschild Radius” (689-704): is this as simple as a black hole being used as a metaphor for war?
- Paul Preuss, “Half-Life” (780-793): another story with WWI as an element; another story that compares the work of scientists to their domestic lives. This one is based on historical figures. What do you make of the coda? [And check out the image of Curie and family at Lisa W's]
- Michael Swanwick, “Periodic Table of Science Fiction“: wtf?
- Any commonalities here? in the ways in which scientific method is presented? themes? literary devices and tropes?
- the relationship between language and technology in David R. Bunch’s “2064, or Thereabouts” (93-97)
- here are some great images to complement William Gibson’s “The Gernsback Continuum” (457-465)
- James Patrick Kelly’s “Rat” (654-664): so, er, is he really a rat?
- Candas Jane Dorsey’s “(Learning About) Machine Sex” (746-761) and gender relations, human sexuality, human relationships, sexuality and technology
The big man began clapping his hands rhythmically. The piano took it up. Other people began to clap. “What I mean, are we alive here or just waiting for the wagon to pick us up? How’s that again, can’t hear you!”
Damon Knight, “The Handler” (Norton, 48)
“Where,” I cried, “is my own true love?”
Cordwainer Smith, “Alpha Ralpha Boulevard (Norton, 73)
“There can be no doubt,” Bishop FitzPatrick agrees, “that his election will bring a great many people of synthetic origin into the fold of the Church.”
Robert Silverberg, “Good News from the Vatican” (Norton, 246)
“Don’t be foolish,” I say, using a double-lock on her wrist, “he’s merely an exhibit, possibly an android, certainly hypnoprogrammed. He doesn’t even know we’re here; they wake up in a vat later.”
Barry N. Malzberg, “Making It All the Way into the Future on Gaxton Falls” (Norton, 315)
Shit, the ship said to itself.
Philip K. Dick, “Frozen Journey” (Norton, 386)
“Two of our opossums are missing.”
James Tiptree, Jr. “The Women Men Don’t See” (Norton, 279)
“I run lopsided,” he said, as if he apologized for more than that. “I throw my heels out or something.”
Molly Gloss, “Interlocking Pieces” (Norton, 576)
Charlie laughs again and goes off to his truck, whistling. He has a little bounce to his step. He’s still seeing it all, almost like it really had happened. Over his shoulder he calls to me, “They’re built like wimps. Or girls. All bone, no muscle. Even you must of seen that,” and his voice is cheerful. It doesn’t have any more anger in it, or hatred, or anything but a sort of friendliness. I hear him whistle some more, until the truck engine starts up and he peels out to the parking lot, laying rubber like a kid.
Nancy Kress, “Out of All Them Bright Stars” (Norton, 652)
“A test. It doesn’t matter what the old bitch chooses, whether she wants us destroyed or not. It’s like a laboratory experiment. They’re watching us to see how we act under pressure. If we do okay, if we don’t go all nuts, we’ll be asked to join some kind of galactic federation.”
Lisa Goldstein, “Midnight News” (Norton, 824)
Do not tell me about masculinity and femininity; do not tell me that enchanted frogs turn into princes, that frogesses under a spell turn into princesses. Why slander frogs? Princes and princesses are fools. They do nothing interesting in your stories. According to your history books, you passed through the stage of feudal social organization in Europe some time ago. Frogs, on the other hand, are covered with mucus, which they find delightful; they suffer agonies of passionate desire in the spring, in which the male will embrace a stick or your finger if he cannot get anything better; and they experience rapturous, metaphysical joy (of a froggy sort, to be sure) which shows plainly in their beautiful, chrysomberylline eyes.
How many princes or princesses can say as much?
Joanna Russ, “A Few Things I Know About Whileaway” (Norton, 348)
Last week we discussed a little bit of the history of the aliens in literature, and some of the uses to which they could be put. With that in mind, how are all things alien used in this week’s stories?
to consider for this week’s readings:
- Are these aliens “realistic,” in the sense of being plausible? If not, why not?
- How do the aliens function in these stories? there are many possibilities: as genuine attempts to create something “other”; figuratively; as projections; as plot devices; as ways to indicate something about humans; &c.
- What is the position of the aliens within the structure of each story (central; secondary; off-stage; &c.) and why?
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