83462 ENGL 3999.01 M 5:30-8 H/SS-218 – See the original course information flyer – Download Dropbox for additional course content

Metaphysical Science Fiction

This section of ENGL 3999 will look at science fiction from the latter half of the twentieth century that examines the limits of science, technology, and reason. Our selection “metaphysical science fiction” will be taken primarily from the new wave, cyberpunk, and post-cyberpunk authors and filmmakers that use science and technology as a catalyst for examining human spiritual yearnings and dilemmas. While much science fiction heralds a future of technically enhanced humanity, replete with robots, phasers, and space ships, our concern will be with the philosophical needs that science seems unable to address, especially when it relates to “human” identity and evolution. Authors and directors will include Asimov, Clarke, Dick, Herbert, Heinlein, Sterling, Stephenson, Gibson, Tiptree, Butler, Lem, Kubrick, Soderbergh, and others.

Required Materials

Michael Whelan - "Stranger in a Strange Land"

The following texts are required for this course, but will may not be available in the MSC bookstore. I have provided links to my preferred versions of the texts below, and I suggest you order them all during the first week of class. You must have a copy of the text with you during our classroom discussion of it; failure to have your copy of the text will mean your absence. See the reading schedule below for specific dates and reading assignments.

Supplementary Documents
At several points throughout the semester, your reading assignments will entail short stories, essays, and poems not included in the required texts above. These additional readings will be made available to you as PDFs. You will need to download them, print them or put them on your iPad, and bring them to class with you on the day we are covering them. Failure to do so will earn you an absence.

Pen and Paper
You should also bring an ink interface of some sort, as well as dead trees on which to take notes. Notes should not only reflect good listening skills, but individual interest in every topic discussed in class. You should not sit in class like you’re watching TV: learning requires active participation. Notes should be taken on lecture, discussion, and film viewings.

Networked Devices and Other Stuff
Materials, like cell phones, food, magazines, iPods, etc., should be left in your car. They are not needed for our class and should, therefore, not accompany you. Anything that has the potential to distract you or the class, should not be in class. If I ask you to put away a device, I expect you not to use it and to not bring it to subsequent class meetings. See the Electronic Devices course policy for more.

Rated R
Finally, since class lecture and discussion will often touch on the controversial, this college classroom is not an appropriate place for children. Please leave them at home. Please note that this class will cover mature subject matter: if you are easily offended by discussions of religion, politics, sex, and other adult concerns, you might not enjoy the study of literature at the college level.

Course Policies

Students are held accountable for knowing and practicing each of the course policies. Consider them like the law: the excuse “I didn’t know” will carry no weight. Since these policies are applicable to every course I teach, they are available on a separate page.

As a Macon State College student and as a student in any of my classes, it is your responsibility to read, understand, and abide by the MSC Student Code of Conduct from the MSC Student Handbook (PDF).

Requirements

Michael Whelan - "2001: A Space Odyssey"

There are three major requirements for this section of ENGL 3999, each of which must be successfully completed to pass the course. Assignments are weighed on a point system, depending on their importance. For example, a reading quiz might have 10 points while an exam might have 200.

Exam
A final exam will be given that will test your knowledge of the subject matter (texts, lecture material, and vocabulary), your ability to synthesize this material, and your creativity in going beyond the discussion and lecture materials. This exam will include vocabulary, identification, and interpretation. The exam grade will be based upon objective knowledge of the material, thoroughness, depth of insight, precision, and originality.

Research/Response Projects
Students will be asked to write at least three (one per section) 750-word essays on assigned readings or topics. Up to three of the most polished will be published on Big Jelly and receive the maximum credit, see the contest rules for an explanation and essay directions.

Daily Work
Regular class attendance, question posing, and active participation in classroom discussions are required. Participation, effort, and attitude will count significantly in this course. Quizzes, other class activities, and homework assignments not explicitly outlined above will be considered daily work.

Schedule

This schedule represents the ideal outline for our semester, but it is tentative and subject to change. It reflects only an overview of readings and assignments, but does not always indicate other specific class-session assignments or activities.

All short stories below are PDFs may be downloaded via the course dropbox. Please sign up for an account in order to have access to the course readings beyond the purchased texts. Once you sign up for an account, be sure to send me the email address you used when signing up, so I can give you permission to access the files.

Be sure to email me your Dropbox email address so I can give you access. Failure to do so will mean you can’t get the reading material.

08/16/10 – Course Introduction; Lecture and Discussion: “Metaphysical SF” and our approach

08/23/10 – Sterling (The Chattanooga Trilogy) “Deep Eddy”; “Bicycle Repairman”; “Taklamakan”

Convergence

08/30/10 – Borges “Garden of the Forking Paths”; Gibson “The Gernsback Continuum”; Clarke “The Star” and “The Nine Billion Names of God”

09/06/10 – Labor Day, No class

09/13/10 – Herbert Dune; Dune research assignment due

09/20 – Asimov “Nightfall”; Pratt “Impossible Dreams”; Di Filippo “Phylogenesis”; Lem Solaris (1-89)

09/27 – Lem Solaris (90-204); In-class screening: Soderbergh Solaris; Paper 1 Due

Divergence

10/04 – Asimov “Reason”; McDevitt “The Cassandra Project” and “The Candidate”

10/11 – Ballard “The Enormous Space” and “Report form an Unidentified Space Station”; Russ “When It Changed”

10/18 – In-class screening: Jones Moon

10/25 – Clarke Childhood’s End; Paper 2 Due

Transcendence

11/01 – Dick Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

11/08 – Sterling “Maneki Neko” and “Dori Bangs”; Gibson “Johnny Mnemonic”; Tiptree “The Girl Who Was Plugged In”

11/15 – Moorcock “Behold the Man”; Di Filippo “A Short Course in Art Appreciation”; LeGuin “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas”

11/22 – In-class screening: Kubrick 2001: A Space Odyssey

11/29 – Heinlein Stranger in a Strange Land; Paper 3 Due

12/06 – Final Exam