{"id":265,"date":"2009-03-24T10:34:08","date_gmt":"2009-03-24T14:34:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dennisdanvers.com\/?p=265"},"modified":"2009-03-24T21:35:02","modified_gmt":"2009-03-25T01:35:02","slug":"summer-classes%e2%80%94science-fiction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/dennisdanvers.com\/?p=265","title":{"rendered":"Summer classes\u00e2\u20ac\u201dScience Fiction"},"content":{"rendered":"

Once again I’ll be teaching two classes at Virginia Commonwealth University this summer.\u00c2\u00a0 The first one is Science Fiction<\/strong> May 18-June 18, Monday-Thursday, 10:30 am-12:45 pm.\u00c2\u00a0 I’m teaching a completely new reading list this year.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s still an historical survey from the fifties to the present, but it’s also a thematic selection centered around war in some way or other.\u00c2\u00a0 The reading list is\u00e2\u20ac\u201d<\/p>\n

Robert Heinlein, Starship Troopers<\/em><\/p>\n

Philip K. Dick, The Man in the High Castle<\/em><\/p>\n

Joe Haldeman, The Forever War<\/em><\/p>\n

William Gibson, Count Zero<\/em><\/p>\n

Cory Doctorow, Little Brother<\/em><\/p>\n

Rereading the Heinlein with the prospect of teaching it, I almost chickened out several times before turning in the book order.\u00c2\u00a0 This is one right wing book, but it’s a good book.\u00c2\u00a0 My biggest fear is that it will bore students, since it’s no action thriller.\u00c2\u00a0 But if the ideas don’t piss you off at least once, you’re not paying attention.\u00c2\u00a0 Dick was an obvious choice to represent the alternate history approach to the war theme, and an sf course without Dick isn’t one I’m teaching.\u00c2\u00a0 Haldeman’s brilliant answer to Heinlein is one of the best sf novels ever written.\u00c2\u00a0 Joe has agreed to address any sticky questions the class might confront along the way.\u00c2\u00a0 Gibson’s Count Zero<\/em> is one of my favorite sf novels and the best of The Neuromancer<\/em> trilogy.\u00c2\u00a0 His depiction of corporate warfare in a world where nations are more or less irrelevant is convincing, influential, and possibly prescient.\u00c2\u00a0 Last year, I instituted a policy whereby the book representing the current state of sf would be the one that ignited the biggest critical and mainstream buzz.\u00c2\u00a0 The Road<\/em> was an obvious choice last year and would’ve been a logical choice this year if that didn’t mean I’d have to reread it for the sixth time, and I’m just not cheerful enough these days to face that prospect.\u00c2\u00a0 Doctorow’s Little Brother<\/em> won’t likely be Oprahized, but it’s certainly got buzz, and the course wouldn’t be complete without that war we all know and love, the War on Terrorism.\u00c2\u00a0 Doctorow is always interesting.\u00c2\u00a0 Films will be Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Dr. Strangelove, Star Wars <\/em>(1977), The Terminator, <\/em>and Children of Men.\u00c2\u00a0 Terminator<\/em> in light of the interesting TV series it’s evolved into, as well as its use of the time travel theme so often a companion to war themed sf, made it an obvious choice for the eighties, the governator and all.\u00c2\u00a0 The tough choice was Star Wars.<\/em>\u00c2\u00a0 I remember teaching the Bible in world survey classes back in Texas.\u00c2\u00a0 I fear it could be like that.\u00c2\u00a0 To me it’s Flash Gordon<\/em> meets Parzival<\/em>, but to some it was a cinematic miracle.\u00c2\u00a0 I’ll never forget seeing the thing for the first time at a Texas drive in, starry skies backed by starry skies.\u00c2\u00a0 After the second (and best) film, the franchise steadily erodes in quality to me, but their influence is enormous.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Once again I’ll be teaching two classes at Virginia Commonwealth University this summer.\u00c2\u00a0 The first one is Science Fiction May 18-June 18, Monday-Thursday, 10:30 am-12:45 pm.\u00c2\u00a0 I’m teaching a completely new reading list this year.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s still an historical survey … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-teaching"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/dennisdanvers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/dennisdanvers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/dennisdanvers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/dennisdanvers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/dennisdanvers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=265"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/dennisdanvers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/dennisdanvers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/dennisdanvers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/dennisdanvers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}