Yes, you should watch Red Dwarf (how the hell have you not already??). Especially the first two series. (They beefed up the budget/effects after that and I never liked it as much afterwards.)
Hmmm...
The Left Hand of Darkness is great for alien cultures--the details and mythology she uses to build/back them up/foreshadow are amazing (and were the subject of my long paper last summer).
I think this one has gotten the most votes so far. I'm definitely going to check it out this summer.
I've only read two Philip K. Dick novels but they both deal pretty heavily with the idea of reality/unreality. I think I liked Ubik slightly better, but The Man in the High Castle is about a world in which we didn't win WWII, and what happens to the US culturally (we get broken into several pieces that are ruled by the assorted winners, sort of like Berlin was after the war)
Spiffy!
How about Brave New World? Not alien culture so to speak, but if future = alien, it could work, especially since it contrasts that future with the "present" so nicely.
I like BNW, and I've read it several times, so I'm not averse to putting it on the syllabus, but...I dunno. Everyone reads that. I kind of want to do stuff that isn't normally found in an English class, since this is my one opportunity to do so.
I've heard good things about Canticle. I remember trying to read it when I about twelve and being very lost, but perhaps it would be better now.
How about A Wrinkle in Time? Very much a product of its time (Cold War), but short and a commentary on human nature that probably wouldn't work any other way.
God, it's been forever since I read that. I'll have to look at it again.
Hmm. Not sure if The Golden Compass would work, though elements of it sure are alien. And it definitely contrasts with our own society, if you want to emphasize that.
I think the woman who does Inquiry into Fantasy teaches that one, so probably not. The Margaret Cavendish piece I posted is actually the precursor to Pullman's series, and I definitely want to include excerpts from it. (The link goes to the full text if you want to browse through. It was written in 1684, and is really prescient; the author was a noblewoman with a strong interest in science. Pullman stole liberally from it--alternate worlds reached via trips to the Artic, Dust, armored bears...it's all about women and female empowerment as well, which is AMAZING. Cavendish has some overlong descriptive passages, but I still really like it.)
(If you think I'm looking through my grad school bibliography for things that might work, you'd be right!)
Hee!
Zelazny? Lord of Light? Humans who have figured out how to "reincarnate" into new bodies (Cylons, anyone?) and take on the roles and attributes (via technology) of the Hindu pantheon, re-creating that culture and limiting the growth of technology for their followers because "they're not ready for it"--read: they might steal our power. Until the Buddha comes along... lots of great myth stuff, especially because Sam, aka the Buddha, is such a fabulous trickster hero. And yes, it's QUITE funny.
SWEET. Is this part of the Amber series, or something different?
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2009-03-07 04:19 am (UTC)*hearts Ivanova so hard*
Yes, you should watch Red Dwarf (how the hell have you not already??). Especially the first two series. (They beefed up the budget/effects after that and I never liked it as much afterwards.)
Hmmm...
The Left Hand of Darkness is great for alien cultures--the details and mythology she uses to build/back them up/foreshadow are amazing (and were the subject of my long paper last summer).
I think this one has gotten the most votes so far. I'm definitely going to check it out this summer.
I've only read two Philip K. Dick novels but they both deal pretty heavily with the idea of reality/unreality. I think I liked Ubik slightly better, but The Man in the High Castle is about a world in which we didn't win WWII, and what happens to the US culturally (we get broken into several pieces that are ruled by the assorted winners, sort of like Berlin was after the war)
Spiffy!
How about Brave New World? Not alien culture so to speak, but if future = alien, it could work, especially since it contrasts that future with the "present" so nicely.
I like BNW, and I've read it several times, so I'm not averse to putting it on the syllabus, but...I dunno. Everyone reads that. I kind of want to do stuff that isn't normally found in an English class, since this is my one opportunity to do so.
I've heard good things about Canticle. I remember trying to read it when I about twelve and being very lost, but perhaps it would be better now.
How about A Wrinkle in Time? Very much a product of its time (Cold War), but short and a commentary on human nature that probably wouldn't work any other way.
God, it's been forever since I read that. I'll have to look at it again.
Hmm. Not sure if The Golden Compass would work, though elements of it sure are alien. And it definitely contrasts with our own society, if you want to emphasize that.
I think the woman who does Inquiry into Fantasy teaches that one, so probably not. The Margaret Cavendish piece I posted is actually the precursor to Pullman's series, and I definitely want to include excerpts from it. (The link goes to the full text if you want to browse through. It was written in 1684, and is really prescient; the author was a noblewoman with a strong interest in science. Pullman stole liberally from it--alternate worlds reached via trips to the Artic, Dust, armored bears...it's all about women and female empowerment as well, which is AMAZING. Cavendish has some overlong descriptive passages, but I still really like it.)
(If you think I'm looking through my grad school bibliography for things that might work, you'd be right!)
Hee!
Zelazny? Lord of Light? Humans who have figured out how to "reincarnate" into new bodies (Cylons, anyone?) and take on the roles and attributes (via technology) of the Hindu pantheon, re-creating that culture and limiting the growth of technology for their followers because "they're not ready for it"--read: they might steal our power. Until the Buddha comes along... lots of great myth stuff, especially because Sam, aka the Buddha, is such a fabulous trickster hero. And yes, it's QUITE funny.
SWEET. Is this part of the Amber series, or something different?
Thanks for all the suggestions!