Class notes for October 12, 2017
Science Fiction
Recap on discussion about utopias/dystopias with examples from “The City of Omelas” andĀ Station Eleven.
Science fiction as a genre
Watched video discussing the genre
Brainstorming adjectives for Science Fiction
| exaggerate | possible/unreal | creativity(nature) | technology | fantasy | protest (existence/future) |
| predictions | speculative design* | present | change | ||
*speculative design – a design used not only to create things, but ideas as well.
(final four texts are in the speculative genre)
“based on science, but it isn’t real”
Came from the author’s imagination. Things might not be real but they could possibly happen.
Science fiction commonly involves the interplay between the real world and the science fiction text. The military’s weaponry has been influenced by science fiction. Science fiction may sometimes be considered a “low brow” genre of fiction.
Science fiction usually plays by the rules of our real world. Based onĀ science notĀ magic.
Ex – If someone goes invisible in a science fiction text, the cause is most likely science, not magic or sorcery etc.
steampunkĀ – science fiction genre where our modern technology is introduced into the past.Ā
extrapolation – taking something and pushing it to it’s logical extreme
Discussion onĀ Station Eleven and how it relates to the previous discussion.
The flu epidemic is not “unthinkable” as humanity has had had widespread disease kill millions of people, although not to the extent depicted in the text.
Parts and chapters are structured to give us views of the post-collapse as well as pre-collapse.
Emily St. John Mandel insists that rather thanĀ Station Eleven being science fiction, it is literary fiction.
Analysis of John Gast’s painting “American Progress”
- depicts development
- “manifest destiny”
- possible angel, central figure – symbolic of angelic dressings
- weather is split in half in the direction the central figure is moving
- shows multiple types of transportation
- expansion into the unknown
***Homework***
Read Parts 4-6. Blog due on Monday 10/16
Class discussion response #5 extended to Friday 10/13
***Extra Credit***
Attend the science fiction symposium at city tech on Dec 6th and post a blog about it.
Thanks for these notes Anoop. Could you edit the post to add the categories of the text/section we were discussing that day (‘Station Eleven,’ Parts 2-3)? Thanks!
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