Making use of the fannish hive mind

[icepixie]

wintercreek, I finished The Sparrow the other day, and OMG I WANT TO INCLUDE THIS IN MY CLASS SO BAD. It's exactly the kind of novel I want the course to be about--using science fiction not only to look at ourselves from a different perspective, but on historical personages from a different perspective as well. SO. AWESOME.

Andandandandand, best of all, it's not as long as I thought it was! We could get through it in perhaps three weeks, which, if it's the longest work on the syllabus, would be reasonable enough. Ah! Hooray!

So with that on there, I've filled, hmm, perhaps two-thirds of the syllabus. Here's what I'm planning on:

- The Sparrow - Mary Doria Russell [Oooh, and excerpts from sixteenth-century Jesuit missionary reports or the conquistadors' relaciones for comparison purposes--holy cow, is my Early Am Lit class coming in handy here?]
- The Martian Chronicles - Bradbury
- "Paradises Lost" - Le Guin*
- Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Adams
- "Strangers" and possibly "Fortune Hunter" - Poul Anderson
- "The Screwfly Solution" - Raccoona Sheldon
- Stories from Italo Calvino's Cosmicomics (probably some combination of "The Distance of the Moon," "The Sign in Space," "Without Colors," and "The Spiral")
- Excerpts from Margaret Cavendish's A New World Called the Blazing-World
- Radio version of War of the Worlds and the various fabulous historical sources on same that nickless sent me
- Contact (film version) [Comparing and contrasting this to Sparrow would be amazing]
- Serenity (or possibly the episode "Ariel")
- Babylon 5: "Believers" or perhaps "The Geometry of Shadows"
- TNG: "Darmok"

I'm tempted to include the Vorkosigan novella "The Mountains of Mourning," but it would be tricky because you need to read the whole thing to discuss it in any kind of interesting way. Perhaps over spring break... I would also like to include an episode of The Secret Adventures of Jules Verne, but that would have to be very bootleg, alas, since there are no DVDs of it. Boooo. Perhaps there is a suitable steampunk short story lying around somewhere... (Recs? castalianspring?) I also haven't finished reading through all the recommendations y'all gave me last time I posted on this, so there will be more short stories selected from that, I'm sure. (I'm thinking "We Can Remember It For You Wholesale" and "Repent, Harlequin!" will be definites, but I probably need four or five more all together.)

My main theme is still turning out to be space exploration and alien interaction, but I feel like I should throw in something connected to the other major sci-fi threads out there--time travel, cyberpunk, androids, alternate universes, etc. I think I should probably include a NewWho episode so my film/TV examples aren't all American, but...gah. I'm still ticked off at that show. Maybe I'd better find a time travel short story instead. (There's The Time Machine, but I'm starting to run low on time in the semester. There's Heinlein's "All You Zombies," but I can't see sustaining 50 minutes of discussion on it.) I would like to include something from BSG, but I really don't know how I would manage to find an episode that didn't require yards of explanation for nonfans, so that may be a non-starter. Are there more non-space opera short stories I'm missing that need to be on here and weren't suggested before?

Another question: if you could pick one or two episodes each of Farscape and Futurama to put on this syllabus, which would it be? I haven't seen either series in too long, so I don't recall which would be best. Perhaps "Revenging Angel" for FS? (I need things that aren't too continuity-heavy, but of course the best episodes are the ones steeped in continuity, and I don't really remember a lot of them anymore, sigh.) The two I remember most clearly from Futurama are "Jurassic Bark" (which, come to think of it, would illustrate time travel rather well) and whichever one it is where Fry moves the stars for Leela. I would also like to use that series in a similar manner to HHG, as an example of sci-fi trope parody, so any particularly great examples of that would be welcome.

For you comic/graphic novel folks out there, any short examples to offer? I feel like there's probably good stuff there, but I just don't know about it. It would have to be readable for and discussable in one 50-minute class, because I'm running low on slots in the semester.

And finally, if y'all know some good fandom-related essays, blog entries, or the like, I'd love to hear about them, since one of the three paper assignments is going to be related to fandom. I figure Henry Jenkins is probably the go-to guy for this; anyone know if Textual Poachers is still the gold standard of fandom anthropology-type stuff, or are his newer books just as good? (I see he has a blog as well...I'll have to look through that and see if any entries are particularly relevant to what the assignment will be.)

* If anyone knows how to get copies of this novella not bundled in the collection The Birthday of the World, that would be fantastic. Since it's less than 30% of the book, I should be able to get the library to digitize it and make it available for my students to print out--I would hate to make them buy the book just for a small part of it--but at 100+ pages, I bet most of my students won't bother to print it out, and, if my experience is any indication, read it. I don't know why, but they buy and read the textbooks, but completely ignore the online material. Damned frustrating.

Comments

[castalianspring.livejournal.com]

Hm, I haven't read any steampunk-ish short stories, but if you want time travel and fun steampunk elements The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers is a great novel. And if you need any SAJV eps, I can supply those, but the quality varies on those (oh, how I covet DVDs of that show). Another great series for turn-of-the-century setting with time travel elements would be The Adventures of Brisco County Jr.

For Futurama, I'd go with Jurassic Bark and the one where everyone travels back in time and Fry becomes his own grandfather. Farscape is a tough choice; I suppose it depends on what element of the show you want to focus on?

I haven't read any of Jenkins' new books, but Textual Poachers, although a great book for the history of fandom, vidding, and slash fic, is rather dated now. It doesn't really deal with online fandom at all.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Have you read Iain M. Banks' Culture novels? There is one Culture short story, The State of the Art, which would be suitable, I think - basically, a ship from the Culture, a utopian hedonistic society, discovers 1970s Earth. The results are very interesting, and kind of paradigmatic space opera.

[cleverocity.livejournal.com]

whichever one it is where Fry moves the stars for Leela.
That's "Time Keeps On Slippin'" which is one of my faves. "Roswell That Ends Well" is one of the most time-travel-iest episodes, except maybe the first movie, Bender's Big Score.

There's Heinlein's "All You Zombies," but I can't see sustaining 50 minutes of discussion on it.
How about combining it with another Heinlein time-travel short story like "By His Bootstraps"?

IFSDB (http://www.isfdb.org) seems to say "Paradises Lost" is only found in that one collection, though it's not 100% reliable.

[rowdycamels.livejournal.com]

The two I remember most clearly from Futurama are "Jurassic Bark"

Yes, make the kiddies cry!

since one of the three paper assignments is going to be related to fandom.

You are cruel.

[nickless.livejournal.com]

Radio version of War of the Worlds and the various fabulous historical sources on same that nickless sent me

I have a couple more things to send, but via snail mail since they're photocopies of articles. One is from a Social Studies teaching ideas magazine that has the same authentic texts I sent and some other info (can't remember exactly what at the moment) and the other is - ironically - a Q&A column from the paper where someone asked about the name of a tv movie re: alien invasion that freaked people out. The interesting bit? It was in the early/mid-90s. Thus counteracting the whole "pffft, people back then were SO naive, nothing like that would POSSIBLY happen nowadays." Because you know someone's going to bring that up. It was in the paper about a week after I sent you everything, so the timing was quite amusing.

As for FS, you could do Nerve/THM, but I honestly don't know what aspect that would focus on. :) And it needs a lot of backstory. A Human Reaction does the whole - well, how-humans-would-react bit, but from the angle of one native saying "dude, they're safe" rather than just "here they are, do we welcome them or attack them?" And while it's definitely not the greatest episode - or really even a GOOD episode - I, ET has the human-as-alien aspect. Or do both I, ET and AHR and compare/contrast. Time travel - The Locket! (Heh.) Ooooh, ...Different Destinations. Time travel that doesn't work out. (Hi, I'm going through the ep lists.) I'd say Kansas/Terra Firma, but I think they're way too heavy on the continuity. The others are more stand-alone, maybe.

[wintercreek]

I am so excited that you liked The Sparrow! Words cannot express. Also, I think doing the movie version of Contact and contrasting with The Sparrow is an inspired idea and I heartily approve. I really wish I could take/teach this class with you. <3 <3

[elflore.livejournal.com]

This class sounds so awesome! Some recs...

Farscape: I think you're right, 'Revenging Angel' is not only one of the best eps, but I think one of the most accessible to people who don't know the show. Who doesn't love Looney Tunes?

NewWho: Despite your complaints, can I recommend 'Blink' from season 3? It's a Steven Moffat Doctor-lite special, completely stand-alone, and one of the most brilliant twists on time travel the show has ever done. Plus, it'll really speak to modern students, I think...there's a whole bit about DVD easter eggs in there that's amazing and hilarious. (If you haven't seen this ep yet, I beg you to track it down and watch it before you finalize your syllabus. :?P)

Comics: If alien interaction is a theme, there's a short Green Lantern story (not even a full issue's worth, I don't think) called "In Blackest Night" by Alan Moore that's collected in a book called "DC Universe: The Stories of Alan Moore." ( http://www.amazon.com/DC-Universe-Stories-Alan-Moore/dp/1401209270/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1242906214&sr=1-1 ) It's about a Green Lantern trying to recruit an alien to the Green Lantern Corps (a group of space police, essentially), only the alien comes from a sector of space where there's no light, and therefore no color, so it can't understand the concept of a Green Lantern. The answer the GL comes up with is ingenious.

I'd also recommend a graphic novel called "Orbiter" by Warren Ellis. It's a complete-in-one-book (and not very long) hard SF story about a missing space shuttle returning to Earth, the ship having been drastically altered by aliens, the pilot alive but catatonic. A group of NASA and civilian specialists try to piece together the mystery of what happened to the ship and crew and what it all means. Some mindblowing ideas in there, fun characters, and the art is gorgeous. http://www.amazon.com/Orbiter-Warren-Ellis/dp/1401202683/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1242906157&sr=1-1

[rivrea.livejournal.com]

If you'd like to avoid Doctor Who for the timey-wimey stuff (although I'd personally go with The Girl in the Fireplace and what it does with time travel), you could always pick Different Destinations as your Farscape episode of choice.

Or possibly Heinlein's By his bootstraps (???) and Moorcock's Behold the Man for time-travel paradoxes.