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3 November 2009
ENG 400 Students [ONLY],
Your readings for this week are . . .
ENG 400 (CA01) Fall 2009 - ST: Studies in Science Fiction
November 04, 2009
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This entry posted by lhobbs at 11:06 AM and is filed under Course Syllabi.
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Boulle's _Monkey Planet_ and the Hero’s Journey
November 01, 2009
Image Source: http://www.dvd.net.au/movies/p/09829-2.jpg
Boulle's Monkey Planet and the Hero’s Journey
by Kristin Brittain
Joseph Campbell created a chart that roughly outlines a single structure in which most stories follow. He charted the map of the “hero’s journey,” and it encompasses a series of stages that can be applied to almost any narrative. The “monomyth” follows the progression of the protagonist throughout the three stages of the cycle. Although every story is . . .
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This entry posted by lhobbs at 05:33 PM and is filed under Literature.
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Van Vogt's "Black Destroyer" and the Monomyth
October 09, 2009
Image Source: http://vanvogt.www4.mmedia.is/images/large/Astounding%20Science%20Fiction%20July%201939%20--Black%20Destroyer.jpg
Van Vogt's "Black Destroyer" and the Monomyth
by Liz Hardy
According to Joseph Campbell, every story has its structure and root in the cyclic journey of myths which he termed the “hero’s journey.” The hero’s journey, a step of concrete stages, shows the significant metamorphosis a character undergoes throughout the course of the given story. The hero’s journey is also found within the realm of science fiction; while not admirable in intent, the character known as Coeurl in A.E. van Vogt’s story “Black Destroyer” shows a clear progression through Campbell’s cycle.
While little is known about . . .
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This entry posted by lhobbs at 08:06 AM and is filed under Literature.
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Why is Star Trek Significant to Contemporary American Pop-Culture?
April 08, 2009
| Futurama | Weeknights, 9p/8c | |||
| Star Trek Wars | ||||
| ||||
Video URL Link: http://www.comedycentral.com/videos/index.jhtml?videoId=166869&title=star-trek-wars
Recently, because I teach a Science-fiction literature course, I was asked by the public relations department of Saint Leo University to provide some commentary for Ted Anthony, a noted Associated Press journalist writing a news story on the upcoming Star Trek film and why Star Trek, as a pop-culture phenomenon, seems to resonate on an almost folkloric level with certain elements of American society. I was happy to oblige but I had to admit that it was a solid question and one that would warrant some reflection first. Since its debut, Gene Roddenberry’s famous series from the 1960s has certainly proven influential in many ways. For example, concepts from this speculative fiction about Earth’s distant future have found their way into the English vernacular and in technological innovations.
Even those who have never watched a single episode may be familiar with . . .
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This entry posted by lhobbs at 10:35 PM and is filed under Critical Theory.
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Harlan Ellison's "Soldier" from _The Outer Limits_ (1964)
March 19, 2009
Image Source: http://mhpbooks.com/mobylives/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/ellison.jpg
Students,
This entry is for the purpose of housing science fiction writer Harlan Ellison's story "Soldier," filmed as episode 1 (Season 2) of the "original" 1964 television series The Outer Limits. The 51 minute B/W video is made available thanks to user "mekrain" 's YouTube channel in six parts (embeded below). Please watch them in the correct sequence.
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This entry posted by lhobbs at 12:04 AM and is filed under Science Fiction Studies.
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Speculative Fiction: The Consequences of Transforming Adjunct Teachers into Robots
December 23, 2007
Image Source=http://www.neatorobotics.com/neato/images/robot_teacher.jpg
Hi Everyone,
It's the end of the year and time to review some speculative fiction...about the future.
This hilarious, yet horrific, short story--sent to me by my dissertation committee director--should have come out at Halloween. Coming out during the Winter holiday season, it sort of reminds me of the fused "Halloween-Christmas" holiday of the far-future as depicted in Matt Groening's sci-fi Futurama episode, "A Tale of Two Santas." The "war" aspect seems to satirize the now archetypal robot-war backstory of either the Matrix series (The Animatrix) the new Battlestar Galactica series, or many other science fiction classics. Now, we have a "teacher" story. Could Michael Moore or Al Gore please make this into a film?
The Chronicle of Higher Education, by the way, is a great resource for those in our field by the way--as much as I read them, I should give them a shout-out once in a while. This dystopia, from the mind of Brigham Young's Kerry Soper, spells out exactly--well, at the furthest extreme--what adjuncts and full professors alike envision for the future of the corporate university. From the 30 Nov. 2007 edition:
OBSERVER
Mutiny of the Adjunct Bots(Excerpt from the secret journal of Prof. Maxwell T. Detritum, now a teaching assistant at the Universal University)
February 18, 2085
The mid-21st century was a dark time in higher edutainment. For those of us lucky few who had achieved hypertenure in the Great GPU (Global Phoenix University), the years leading up to the Adjunct Robot Uprising were magical. Salaries were enormous, teaching duties had finally been eliminated, and one's research could be conveniently outsourced to Internet-based proxies that would analyze random data and then write and publish superior scholarship with only minimal prompts . . .
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This entry posted by lhobbs at 10:56 AM and is filed under English @ Random.
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Setting and *The Eye of the Beholder*
March 05, 2007
Image Source: http://www.hagginmuseum.org/images/events/beauty_beast.jpg
Students,
Discuss the film cited below:
Serling, Rod, dir. “The Eye of the Beholder.” 1959. The Twilight Zone. DVD. 11 November 1960 (Season 2, Episode 6). 25 min.
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This entry posted by lhobbs at 09:32 AM and is filed under Literature.
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Video Short - Teaching ESL to Klingons
November 10, 2006
| So, is this sketch representing a "fictional" mock-up for a bi-lingual educational program or an ESL one? Is the instructor teaching the Klingons their own language or subjects in their own language? I'm not exactly sure what this message says, on a cultural level, about issues of either tolerance, mainstreaming, or perhaps political correctness. Someone somewhere should be able to infer "something" from this, without doubt. Even so, it does come across as slightly amusing, at least, for Star Trek fans. I'll let the commenters sort through the appropriateness of such an ad (read: do you ever feel like you're teaching to a group of Klingons?) I do like her mantra as one that humorously reflects my own: "I CAN be strict...but I just want them ready for the REAL world." The irony of the world real in this one is uncanny. Originally aired on The Space Channel (a Canadian Sci-Fi channel) and can also be found in a search on Google Video. |
This entry posted by lhobbs at 01:02 PM and is filed under Where I Surf.
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Documentary Film - Trekkies
September 19, 2006
Photo Source: http://www.stomptokyo.com/img-m3/trekkies-c.jpg
As you screened the film today in class, I asked you to take notes in your journal on the following information. Some of these you may have needed to answer outside of class.
Here are the questions:
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This entry posted by lhobbs at 02:25 PM and is filed under Film.
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