After class, post a comment summarizing your readings and today’s lecture. This should be at least 250 words. Of course, more words are better!
For Heinlein’s “–All You Zombies”
For Tom Godwin’s “The Cold Equations”
18 thoughts on “After Class Writing: Golden Age SF Continued, Heinlein, and Godwin”
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Brianna Grant
Eng2420 E255 Science Fiction
Prof. Ellis
City Tech
23 October 2017
Assignment #6
During lecture on October 25, 2017 Professor Ellis expounded on the topic of the Golden Age SF continued, Heinlein and Godwin. He also elaborated on the essential works published by these phenomenal authors and how each author’s writing styles were influenced by their viewpoints and by the era in which these works were published.
He began lecture by elaborating about Susan Calvin and the R.U.R. Susan Calvin was a robo-psychologist with U.S Robots and is known for the work ‘Liar.’ R.U.R or Rosums Universal Robots (1920) is a stage play by a Carol Capek that was published by check republic. It was a play about workers rights. When robots started to protest that they should have rights as well.
Professor Ellis’ next topic was on an author by the name of Robert A. Heinlein (A= Anson)(1907-1988) who was a naval officer that caught Tuberculosis and was discharged after 5 years of science. He was the 1st grand master of science fiction and fantasy guild. He was also considered the “Old Man” by his peers despite being their same age because people thought that he was very mature. He had a self assured writing style and his works exemplified ‘Hard SF.’ This is the process of blending science into stories. His stories also had 5 more characteristics about them such as:
(1) Didactic father figure in stories
(2) Characters were relatable to himself
(3) Fathers usually into political context and not always had the same political stance throughout numerous works
(4) His marriages often depicted political stance in real life
(5) Was very liberal
An example of a work that he wrote is the 1942 work “Waldo” that depicted a remote manipulator system.
The last topic that Professor Ellis spoke about was Tom Godwin (1915-1980) Tom Godwin was a writer who published 30 short stories, had a poor life growing up and even dropped out of school in third grade as a result of family issues. Unfortunately, he developed Kyphosis during the military and became an alcoholic thereafter. This is the reason as to why he only published few works during his life. His works also exemplified hard science fiction which often depicted that the universe does not care about us, and no emotion behind it. An example of one of his essential works would be the (1954)work entitled “Cold Equations.”
Rebecca Delgado
ENG 2420
Professor Ellis
November 1, 2017
This week was a continuation of The Golden Age of SF. Carol Capek wrote a stage play
called R.U.R. (Rosums Universal Robots) in 1920. The play was about workerâs rights as robots were taking over their jobs. The robots protested that they should have rights since they work.
Tom Godwin was born in 1915 and died in 1980. He wrote a total of 30 short stories in his life. As a child he grew up poor and had to drop out of school in the third grade. His Hard Science Fiction story âThe Cold Equationsâ (1954) set the model. Hard SF had no emotion behind it and the universe does not care about us as a whole. In âThe Cold Equationsâ, an 18 year old girl is a stowaway on a ship. Once she is found out the pilot of the ship has to report her and unfortunately her punishment is being projected into space. She is not given any sympathy or listened to from the other pilots, even though the pilot who found her tried to save her. Eventually the girl accepts her fate after talking to her brother and meets her fate.
Robert A. Heinlein was born in 1907 and died in 1988. He was an influential SF writer and considered the Grand Master of Science Fiction and Fantasy. Heinleinâs story included Hard Science Fiction which means science was included into his stories. He had 5 characteristics incorporated into every story; didactic father figures, characters relatable to himself, the fathers with a political stance not always the same in every story, very liberal and marriages that have political context of the time. Heinlein wrote the short story âAll You Zombiesâ in 1959. The story involves an endless loop of time travel of the main character and the narrator.
Jia Du
English 2420
10/31/17
Professor Ellis
After the professor summarized about our last reading the professor mentioned about Transmedia where they tell the story across multiple plat forms like books, games, movies. As he continued on, he mentioned the author Robert Anson Heinlein (1907-1988). He was a navy Officer and he studied physics in UCLA. Heinlein was a Grandmaster as Science Fiction Writer and group. He also won four Hugo awards for best novel and supported many fellow writers. Heinlein also worked alongside Campbell. The next author that was mentioned in class was Allen Steele. He defined hard SF as a form of imaginative ligature; uses an established science as a backbone. Some of the works Heinlein wrote was Waldo (1942), Starship Troopers (1959), Stranger in a Strange Land (1961), The Moon is a harsh Mistress (1966) which won the 1960 Hugo awards. The last short story Heinlein wrote was All You Zombies (1959). In the story it is about the concept of Ouroboros of endless loop of time travel to create and recreate him/her self which symbolize his/ her own way to achieve immortality.
The next author the professor mentioned was Tom Godwin (1915-1980). His stories were exclusively to Astonishing Magazines. He only published thirty stories. During his life he developed Kyphosis and became an alcoholic which made his life difficult. One of the work he published was The Cold Equations (1954). The story is a perfect example of hard SF where the universe is cold and no sympathy towards characters. The story is basically about the pilot discovering a stowaway 18 year old girl on a ship. In the story these ships only carry enough fuel to complete the mission, no more no less and with the extra weight of the girl, it endangers the life of everyone on board and the mission. All the girl wanted to do was to see her brother but after speaking to her brother, she decided to eject her into space to save the mission.
Saif Ahmed
Prof. Ellis
ENG 2420
10/31/2017
In class we spoke about the idea of transmedia is the idea of a story or group of story that goes across lots of different media. We mentioned that robots are always changing, and they are made more high tech meaning every time a new technology will arise and people will want that technology. We then spoke about Ray Bradburyâs Martian Chronicles illustrated 1951. In Fahrenheit 451 we spoke about how Ray Bradbury uses Science Fiction to help us connect to terrible things Science Fiction can do. We finally spoke about two writers that shaped Science Fiction to their style Robert A. Heinlein born 1907 and died 1988 and other writers considered him the old man because people thought he was advanced, and wrote the story All You Zombies published 1959, which is about time travel of a once a female now a man because he/she had two reproductive organs and lost the female hood due to a pregnancy that she took in need of money for $100. Ended up pregnant but luckily doctors found his male parts and made him essentially a man and now couple years in the future talking to a bartender who was a time traveler to recruit him and said you can get that person back for messing up the female hood you once had. Heinlein also incorporated a lot of hard science fiction which was mentioned in class as the form of imaginative literature that uses either establish or carefully extrapolated science as its backbone. Heinlein in his stories slips these in. Next Writer mentioned is Tom Godwin born 1915 and died 1980 and he wrote Cold Equations published 1954 and this is about a girl stows away on a stardust which is an emergency dispatch ship that heads to the frontier planet Woden. The girl is identified by the pilot as an 18 year old stowaway. The girls name is Marilyn stowed away to see her brother on that planet and he is a colonist. She boarded seeing no personal allowed and thought she will get fined but this could jeopardize the mission and kill a lot of colonists in Woden so the pilots release her in space.
Justin Tam
ENG2420
Professor Ellis
November 1, 2017
Robert Anson Heinlein (1907-1988) was a navy officer for five years who was discharged due to tuberculosis. He had a education at the university of Missouri. He has won four Hugo awards for best novel. Working alongside Campbell, Heinlein was the first to have his âfuture historyâ published which was never done by anyone else before. This lets readers know what Heinlein plans to write, when it might come out or what is unfinished, etc. Heinlein always used âhard SFâ in his stories involving sound scientific information. According to Adin, âhard SFâ is defined as an âform of imaginative literature that uses established or carefully extrapolated science as its backbone.â Heinlein also always used didactic father figures to lead the protagonist. The short story we read, All you Zombies (1959) was the last short story Heinlein wrote before only writing novels after.
Some novels Heinlein wrote includes Waldo (1942), Starship Troopers (1959), Strangers in a Strange Land (1961), The Moon is a Harsh Mistress (1966) and Time Enough for Love (1973).
Tom Godwin (1915-1980) was also another writer who worked alongside Campbell in Astounding. Godwin wrote about 30 short stories. As a kid, due to family problems, he had to drop out of school after 3rd grade. Godwin also suffered from kyphosis causing him to suffer pain from hunchback problems. One of the story we read Cold Equation (1954), is the story known to define âhard SFâ whenever the topic is brought up.
Paul Chandipersaud
In this lecture we started off by continuing our lecture in Golden Age SF and talking about Ray Bradbury (1920-2012). We discussed transmedia and that it is a story or group of stories that gets expanded into different medias. Bradbury is the author of Fireman which was published in 1951 and. We then began discussing Robert A. Heinlein (1907-1988). Heinlein went to school, was in the navy, graduated from UCLA with a degree in psychics and he began publishing SF in 1939. He was a very successful writer winning 4 Hugo awards and he was the Grandmaster of SF and fantasy. He used Hard SF in his stories and he had a very unique way of writing and releasing stories. We then began to talk about stories like Starship Troopers (1959), Stranger on a Strange Land (1961), The Moon is a Harsh Mistress (1966), Time Enough for Love (1973), and Tom Godwinâs (1915-1980) story Cold Equations (1954).
Heinleinâs story All you zombies is about how a time traveler who jumps through time and deals with a bunch of people and at the end it turns it he is all those people at different stages in his life. The story starts in a bar where the barkeep makes conversation with a customer. The customer tells the barkeep their whole life story about how they use to be a women, they had a baby and the doctors saw she had male organs inside her and they made it so she can now be a woman. Also how she met a man and fell in love and he just one day disappeared and she believes him to be the father and also the one who kidnaps her baby. Sheâs filled with rage talking about him and the barkeep offers her a way to meet that man again. She agrees and the barkeep takes her into another room where he takes out his device and time travels through numerous places. It wasnât until the end when the readers realize that the barkeep is the girl, the baby, the man, and the time traveler is all the same person just at different points in their life.
Godwinâs story is about a young girl named Marylin who sneaks aboard a ship that is sent out to deliver emergency medical supplies to a group of people and in that group is her brother who she wants to see badly. The pilot Barton finds Marylin and he knows what he must do but she has no idea. The ship only has enough fuel to get to the destination with only Barton abroad and if there is another other additional weight the ship is going to crash and they are going to die and the group needing the supplies will die too. Barton is suppose to jettison Marylin by itâs hard for him to do because she is a young girl and she didnât know the consequences of a stowaway. All she wanted to do was see her brother but now she could never see him again. Barton got her brother Gerry on the transmitter and they got to exchange words before Marylin met her fate.
Jessica L. Roman
Prof. Ellis ENG2420 E255
October 29, 2017
Golden Age of Science Fiction Continued
This weekâs lecture was a continuation of Golden Age Science Fiction and focused on writers Robert A. Heinlein (1907-1988) and Tom Godwin (1915-1980).
Robert A. Heinlein attended the University of Missouri as well as the U.S Naval Academy and went on to service as a naval officer. After his discharge, he briefly studied physics at UCLA. In comparison to other SF writers of the time, Heinlein got a late start and began publishing in 1939, making him roughly 32 years old. Heinlein proved to be a very influential writer in the SF field and went on to win four HUGO awards for best novel. He had a wide breadth of work, which included Future History and Hard SF. Within the subgenre, Hard SF his writing was innovative as it relied on using sound ideas and principles in science and engineering. Heinlein also had a self-assured writing style that blended the science and technology in his stories very naturally. In regards to his readership, he would let his readers know what to expect in his future publications, which is very common today. Our assigned readings this week was Heinleinâs â-All you zombies-â, this was his last short story and published in 1959. The story, which can be a little confusing on the first read deals with, Ourobouros, solipsism, time travel and the resulting paradoxes. The narrator, who we meet as the Bartender is awaiting his patron (and future recruit), who is referred to as the Unmarried Mother. The Bartender senses he is in a foul mood but manages to get on his good side by related to him that they are both the offspringâs of unmarried parents. At this point, the Unmarried Mother, who writes stories for a confession magazine, explains how he can relate the womanâs perspective so well. He was born a girl. We actually discover that the Unmarried Mother is actually intersex and after the birth of her child, her female organs had been so badly damaged the doctors reassigned her as male. Struck by further tragedy the Unmarried Mother also tells the Bartender the baby was kidnapped by an unknown man. After hearing history, the Bartender tells the Unmarried Mother something remarkable, he can offer him the revenge he has sought on his childâs kidnapper. The next series of events goes fast but ultimately the Bartender (who we find out is also an agent of the Temporal Bureau), through a series of time jumps, turns out to be the Unmarried Mother and the kidnapped child. The story ends with the Bartender successfully recruiting his younger self and drops him off at the office of the Temporal Bureau.
We touched on Tom Godwinâs life briefly during our lecture. Godwin grew up poor and had to drop out of the school in the 3rd grade. He went on to join the military but was discharged because of his kyphosis. His life woes along with the pain from his hunched back are what likely lead him to alcoholism. Godwin was one of Campbellâs writers and published 30 short stories. The work we read for the week was âThe Cold Equationsâ which was published in Astounding in 1954. This short is the model of Hard Science Fiction, which holds the view that the universe does not care about us, not in a malicious way but in the reality of things as they are. We cannot bend the laws and principles of science to suit our human condition. Fittingly during our lecturer it was shared that Godwin attempted to rewrite the story multiple times to save a characters life, much like the in story characters, but Campbell insisted it had to end that way, he could not change the science in the story just for a happy ending. In âThe Cold Equationsâ, we meet a pilot, Barton, who is operating an Emergency Dispatched Ship (EDS) in the frontier of space. Humankind has just begun its research and settlement of planets and much like the American frontier; it is not a forgiving place. When we first encounter Barton, he has noted there is a change in the ship, which indicated there is a stowaway. He knows what he has to do; all stowaways are condemned to be jettisoned into space as the emergency vessels carry just barely enough fuel for an EDS to make its trip. These are the cold equations of this particular frontier. While he does not look forward to his duty he knows it is the ways it has to be, if not it would be a death sentence to those he was sent to help as well as himself and the stowaway. When he finally confronts the stowaway, who up to this point Barton referred to as âheâ, it is discovered the guilty party is an 18 year old girl, Marilyn. It takes him some time to come to grips with this and eventually explains the situation to the young girl who has been completely sheltered from the hard ways of the frontier. Even though he knows there is nothing he can do Barton reaches out to the captain of the Stardust, the ship the EDS originated from, in hopes of a miracle. The Captain, to his credit, is empathetic to Barton attempt but there is nothing that can be done. He does however allow Barton to deviate slightly from practice to give Marilyn just a little more time to live. Marilyn is able to write letters to her parents and is able to briefly speak to her brother, who happens to be the reason she snuck onto the EDS in the first place. Barton promises her parents will receive her letter and at the conclusion of her conversation with her brother and Marilyn proceeds to enter the airlock to be ejected into space.
Gabriel Higuera
ENG2420
Lecture continued with topics such concerning robot phycology and a play regarding robotâs right called âR.U.Râ â âRosomâs Universal Robotsâ by Carol Capek (1890 â 1938) where the word robot is first introduced. The logic behind this play is that robots start to realize how stripped of rights they have been, even though they work and just as a human with rights does. This depicts robots with human-like characteristics like logic self-thinking intelligence. Transmedia is another subject discussed in class, it is roughly described as âA group of stories that go through a lot of different Medias.â This means the translation from say novel to movie to TV show, and how each method of media will have itsâ own differences and limitation from each other.
The concept of âHard S.F.â was introduced, described as the form of imaginative literature that uses established or carefully extrapolated science. A prime example would be that of the short story Tom Godwinâs (1915 â 1980) âCold Equationâ published in 1954, it is the model of hard S.F. It involves the story of an adventurous young girl who taught that sneaking into a spacecraft was a good way to reach a loved one, but not too long as she is discovered by a crew member, sheâs faced with the consequences. Death. Even though the crew member tries everything in his power to spare the girls life, there was no way around it and she is killed off and sent out of the space craft in space in order to continue the space craftâs journey uninterrupted.
Robert A. Heilamâs (1907 â 1988) final short story called âAll you zombiesâ published in 1959 speaks about time travel, in a very confusing paradox that states that this man nicknamed the âUnmarried Motherâ and his/her adventures through time to find his/her kidnapped baby. Very eerie story.
Alex Giffen
ENG 2420
Prof. Ellis
1 November 2017
Last class we discussed the two authors Robert Heinlein (1907-1988) and Tom Godwin(1915-1980). We touched on these authors because of their writings during the Golden Age of SF. These two authors both wrote âHardâ SF, which uses true sciences. Allen Steele defined Hard SF as a form of imaginative literature that uses to established or carefully extrapolated science as itâs back bone. We also went over âFuture Historyâ a carefully planned schematic for all the stories that Heinlein would write in 1941. We also discussed different philosophical basis of stories, such as Ouroboros and Solipsism. Ouroboros being that life is a cycle, like a phoenix rising from the ashes or a snake that continually eats itself. Solipsism being the idea that everything outside of our own mind is unsure.
The first story we read was Robert Heinleinâs âAll You Zombies.â This short story tells of how an orphaned girl falls for a man who leaves her while she is pregnant. After the baby is born she finds out she is more biologically a man and that her baby is kidnapped. Thrown into despair, he begins to drown his sorrows with alcohol. One night, in a bar, the bartender hears his story and tells how he can find the man that abandoned him and allegedly took his child. He goes with the bartender only to be told that he is not a bartender, but a time-traveler. After being taken back in time the man realizes that they are all one person, the man, child, mother, bartender are all the same. This short story highlights the philosophy of Ouroboros.
The second story was Tom Godwinâs âThe Cold Equations.â A stowaway, Marilyn, is trying to see her brother on another planet. She does not have the money to get a ticket so she ignores the warning signs of the ship and hides anyway. When she is found out she is told of the harsh reality that the ship only has enough fuel to take the exact number of passengers. The cold equation is that she will die, either by being jettisoned to save the others, or staying aboard and dooming them all. In the end she accepts her fate and is shot into space. This story explains the concept of the needs of the many outweigh the needs of a few.
Carissa Simeone
After Class Writing
10-25-17
In class we continued to discuss the impact of SF during the golden age. We finished discussing Bradburyâs (1920-2012) significance as a SF author.
Two authors that were introduced into the SF genre during the golden age era was Robert Heinlein (1907-1988) & Tom Godwin (1915-1980). These authors wrote in Hard SF due to using logic supported by scientific facts. Allen Steele defined Hard SF as a form of imaginative literature that uses to established, or carefully extrapolated science as its back bone. Trans-media was a word worth mentioning that was discussed in our previous lecture. Trans-media can be described as a variety of stories that go through several, different forms of media. It can refer to as a book that was once a novel, has been developed into a TV series, or even a film, and therefore each form of art, whether it is a novel or film, although it is similar storylines, may be interpreted in different styles from one another.
Godwin, being one of Campbellâs protĂŠgĂŠâs, published âThe Cold Equationsâ in 1954 in Astounding magazine. This short story is one of the first examples that introduced of Hard SF writing to society. The story is about an adventurous, stowaway, Marilyn, who takes and risk, and sneaks into an aircraft in order to meet her loved one. The story takes a turn for the worst, when the young girl is discovered by the pilot. Marilyn is jettisoned by the aircraft because there is only enough fuel to bring the fixed number of passengers to planet Woden.
Robert A. Heilamâs (1907 â 1988) short story called âAll You Zombiesâ published in 1959 in Fantasy & Science Fiction magazine involves a young man and his journey through time travel. The young man finds out that he is his own offspring, story is kind of a plot twist, and he refers to himself as the Unmarried Mother. The chronicles involve the man travelling back into time find his kidnapped baby.
Pierre Polycarpe
ENG 2420 SF
Prof. Ellis
October 31, 2017
Our previous class was a continuation of the Golden Age SF. During the class, prof Ellis talk about several characters that played a major role during the Golden Age of SF. Such as Ray Bradbury, really known for using SF to help connect to his stories, Robert Heinlein (1907-1988) and Tom Godwin.
Robert Heinlein (1907-1988). was an educated man, served in the army between 1933 and 1934. He is sometime considered among the top influential writers in SF. Perhaps itâs because as a child growing up, he read every single SF book he could including H.G Wells.
Heinlein was discharged from the army after suffering tuberculosis and chronic sickness.
During his life, he won 4 Hugo awards for the best model. He also wrote a lot of different book. Such as
⢠Campbell published Heinlein 1941
⢠Those he plans to write
⢠Those that hasnât published
⢠He let readers knows what to expect
⢠Let readers know how story is connected
⢠He innovated hard SF
⢠He devoted a great deal of energy, learned about science
Heinlein had a self-assured writing. In other words, unlike other writers, he would slip things in without details. His characteristics are didactic father figure in stories, characters were related to himself, fathers usually into political context and not always had the same political science, his marriages often depicted political stance in real life and he was very liberal.
We also talked about Tom Godwin (1915-1980). Godwin was an exclusive writer who published about 30 short stories during his lifetime. Unlike other scientist, Godwin had a poor life. He dropped out of school and had sycosis however, he didnât realize until he joined the military and got discharged. As a result, he became an alcoholic.
In todayâs lecture we went through the rest of the Golden age of SF. During which we learned of some more important authors like Robert A. Heinlein and Tom Godwin. Robert A. Heinlein was known as the old man among the authors in the SF genre and he publish many works in Astounding not to mention he made a lot of novels as well. Tom Godwin wasnât as accomplished as Heinlein he actually lived a very poor live he was a alcoholic but under the circumstances it forced him to push himself and he was able to publish 30 stories in a mouth which is an astonishing feet. Thereâs an interesting tale about an interaction between Godwin and Heinlein. It Goes the Godwin had admired Heinlein so much in fact that he wrote a letter to 8 him stating how he wished to be a great writer just like him and Heinlein in a act of great kindness sent Godwin money for his troubles with no intentions of getting that money back. As I have stated before Both Heinlein and Godwin contributed to some great SF stories one of which by Robert Heinlein is âAll you Zombiesâ which in my opinion is one of the most convoluted time travel story I have ever read. The maid theme of the story is Ouroboros, which is the name of the alchemic symbol of a snake eating its tale. This represents the story of the author we are introduced to in the story his pen name is the unmarried mother. Turns out that he had sex with himself back in the pass when he was a woman and as a woman she gives birth to him or herself which is then set further back into the past where his or her life starts off in an orphanage. We was an audience learn this through a butler that the unmarried mother is talking to after he asks her about his ability to write in a feminine way. It turns out that it the authorâs life is the product of the butlers time travel tampering. Turns out that he brought the present from of the author gave him some money and sent him to the past on the idea that he will get revenge on the wealth man that did him wrong. However turns out that he was the rich man and he ended up falling in love with his female self and the baby that he bore was actually himself that the time traveller took and sent the baby back in time and placed the baby on the orphanage. So accentually the author is caught in a loop where he continually births himself. Now the story that Godwin made wasnât as complex as Heinlein but it was impactful in my opinion the story was called the âCold Equationâ. The story shows how unforgiving the universe is through the simple equation a certain amount of fuel in a space vessel will take a certain mass form a to b. In this case the pilot of this vessel is Barton and he is trying to send emergences supplies for a space station to a planet full of settlers that need a serum in order to survive. What seemed like a simple mission turned into a moral dilemma for Barton when he finds a stowaway, who turned out to be an 18-year-old girl named Marilyn. So he has to choice whether or not to save the girl and jeopardize to mission to save the settlers or through the girl out into the vacuum of space where she will die a cold death. In the end after checking for any alternative he ended up sending the poor girl to her death right after she contacted her brother who she wanted to see so badly that it led her to stowaway and to her enviable doom. This story really brought home how unforgiving the universe is to us mere humans. This stories are some examples of the form of high literacy that occurred in the Golden as of SF.
Mellissa Valle
ENG 2420
Professor Ellis
11/01/2017
Golden Age SF Continued, Heinlein, and Godwin
In class we continued with The Golden Age of SF, another famous short story Liar! By Isaac Asimov. RUR (Rossum’s Universal Robots) the word ârobotâ comes for the first time in 1920. We talked about another fixed up novel âThe Illustrated Manâ(1951), a creepy book, about creatures with tattoos that move and tell stories, at the end the guy dies. Later âCollierâs Magazineâ where Bradbury breaks the idea that SF is trashy and ghetto.
Heinlein (1907-1988) Also a physicist from LA, starts written for Campbell 1999 and was the first master who won 4 Hugo awards for his novels. He was able to make a novel a month. About his written: — His type of story future history. — He let the readers know what was going to take place. — The term âHard SFâ is introduce Allen Steele(1958- ) defined Hard SF as a form of imaginative literature that uses to established, or carefully extrapolated science as its background.. — Henlein had self written style â He uses slang, heâs confident abp0ut using words. â Unlike Wells, he doesn’t explain too much what a time machine is. â Dictative father figures that guide youth. âWaldoâ(1959) that depicted a remote manipulator system. In the story he gets the idea later he actually built it. âStarship Troopersâ (1959) a puerto rican guy who fights bug aliens. âStranger in a Strange Landâ (1961)dealing with martians, The Moon is a harsh Mistress (1966) there is no such a thing as free lunch.â Time Enough for Loveâ (1973) novel about a guy who lived so long that was brought to heaven.
ââAll You Zombiesâ (1959) by Robert Heinlein (1907-1988)
Story of a man, who is intersex, travels through time and seduces a young lady, who ends up being the female version of him. She gets pregnant and gives birth to an intersex boy who is actually the same guy who traveled through time. The young lady, the traveler and the baby are all the same person -ew- The title is a quotation from the same story â…where did you all zombies come from?â(15)
âThe Cold Equationsâ (1954) by Tom Godwin (1915-1980)
The story takes place in a cargo Ship headed to the planet Woden with a load of medical supplies. The girl, Marilyn, desperate to see her brother, sneaks into the ship and gets caught by the pilot, Barton. By law, all EDS stowaways are to be ejected because any exceed of weight would require more fuel which is limited. Barton explains that she canât stay aboard because that will cause the deaths of both of them the colonists. He is forced to eject her into space. She gets to say bye to her brother and we all cry đ
In class on October 25, we reviewed and expanded on our knowledge of Asimov (1920-1992) and Bradbury (1920-2012). Professor Ellis began class by telling us that Asimov’s message in his Robots series is that although technology is good, as long as we use it for ethical reasoning, logical, and clear limits, we can minimize, but probably never prevent, collateral damage. With the term ethical computing, Asimov stresses the need for techies and inventors to think through all the ramifications of using the advances in technology before they initiate the test and possible cause destruction. Asimov was influenced to write about the emotions of the robots through the 1920s play written by Carol Capek, where robots are manufactured to work labor jobs, and through observation and reason, begin wondering what rights they are entitled to. Continuing on with Bradbury, Professor Ellis tells us of
Robert A Heinlein (Anson) (1907-1988) studied physics in UCLA after being discharged from the Navy for contracting TB while abroad. He began getting published in 1939 with Campbell (1910-1971) in Amazing Stories, which was older for most of the other sf writers, earning him the nickname “the old man.” Heinlein was a versatile writer, with 4 Hugo awards, fan-master status. He is the writer of “All you Zombies–” (1959), the story of a time warp situation that was way complicated to follow. The professor provided us with a visual diagram who was who during when (huh?) and the possibility of how this traveler went from man to woman to bartender to talking to, ultimately, himself. I am going to have to read this book again, because I still donât get it. The song that Professor Ellis explained was used as background music to this travelerâs tale and the song makes more sense than the story being told.
Tom Godwin’s story, “The Cold Equation” (1954) is the story that examples hard science fiction. Hard sf is where the main focus of the story revolves around the âhardâ sciences, such as physics, biology, math, or technology and without this core change, the story would not be the same. Tom Godwin (1915-1980) broke the mold of writing by ignoring the âDisney ending.â Instead of an ending where everyone survives, good prevails bad, and somehow everything works out for the best, Godwin acknowledges that some bad ending will be inevitable. The lessons behind the story- that the universe does not care about us, and that we cannot bend physical laws to our end- are dark and foreboding. In this story, we meet pilot Barton, who works for the space version of an EMT called EDS, as he is delivering life-saving medicine to a group of space travelers. We learn almost immediately that this is a dangerous mission on several ways- he has only been given enough fuel to get there, the recipients are in dire need of this medicine, and every bit of this mission has been calculated to the millimeter and milligram of fuel. And then we meet Marilyn, a young stowaway who was trying to get to the planet Woden to visit her brother stationed there. However, she was ot aware of how meticulous the calculations were to provide the transport and is now forced to be jettisoned- evacuated into space. Barton, being a man of heart, truly tries to hold off the evacuation, going as far as altering his course a bit in order to have her communicate with her brother, speeding into the atmosphere faster than recommended, and allowing her to write her last goodbyes to her family. But, in the end, science prevails, and to save eight people, Marilyn must be the sacrifice. The ever consuming question is clear- would you sacrifice the life of one person, male, female, young, or old for the lives of more people. For Barton, there was no question of the protocol, until the culprit was a young, naĂŻve girl who was not aware of the consequences of her actions. We watch her come to terms with the inevitable truth and wish there were something more to be done, but the facts will never change, Marilyn was not destined to survive.
Today, Professor Ellis had talked about The Firemen, Robert Anson Heinlein and Tom Godwin.
He began lecture by elaborating about Susan Calvin and the R.U.R. Susan Calvin was a ârobo-psychologistâ and is known for the work âLiar.â. R.U.R or Rosums Universal Robots (1920) is a stage play by a Carol that was about robots protesting to have the same working rights that humans do. 1953âs Fahrenheit 451 by American writer Ray Bradbury was talked about in class. 451 is about a future society that has banned all reading material and television has taken over, the job of the firemen of this world is to keep the burn any and all books at 451 degrees.
Professor Ellisâ next topic was on an author by the name of Robert A. Heinlein (1907 – 1988) who was a naval officer that contracted Tuberculosis and was discharged after five years of service. He had a self-assured writing style and his works exemplified âHard SF, which professor Ellis said was a âform of imagine literatureâ. Heinleinâs last story was a story called âOuroborosâ.
Tom Godwin (1915 – 1980) was spoken of as a writer who published 30 short stories in his life, but had a poor childhood and even dropped out of school in 3rd grade from family issues. Later in his life, he developed Kyphosis during the military and became an alcoholic after he left.
Other things professor Ellis spoke of on this day was 1961âs âStranger In A Strange Landâ by Vincent Michael Smith, which is about a Earth man stuck on Mars and adopted by Martians. Solipsism, the idea that we can only be sure of our mind, The Illustrated Man published in 1951 by Ray Bradberry and âThere Will Come Soft Rainsâ in 1950 and finally, the term transmedia, which is many different forms of an adaptation.
Sharon Rios
In this lecture, the topic of the Golden Age of science fiction was expanded. We spoke about transmedia, which is a story that goes across lots of different media. It was mentioned that robots are always changing, and they are made to have more high tech meaning so that people will want it. We then spoke about Ray Bradburyâs âMartian Chroniclesâ (1951), and âFahrenheit 451â (1953). Ray Bradbury uses Science Fiction to help us connect to terrible things.
Another influential writer in the Golden Age is Robert A. Heinlein (1907-1988), who was a naval officer that caught Tuberculosis and was discharged after five years of science. He was the first grand master of science fiction and fantasy guild. His peers despite being their same age considered Heinlein the âOld Manâ because people thought that he was very mature. He had a self-assured writing style and his works exemplified âHard SFâ, a process of blending science into stories. His stories also included didactic father figures and the characters were relatable to him. Fathers were usually passionate about a political context, but they didn’t always have the same political stance throughout his various works. The marriages often depicted political stance in real life and were reflected liberalism.
The last topic was about Tom Godwin (1915-1980), a writer who published 30 short stories, had a poor life growing up and even dropped out of school in third grade as a result of family issues. Unfortunately, he developed Kyphosis during the military and became an alcoholic thereafter. His works also exemplified hard science fiction, which often depicted that the universe does not care about us, and no emotion behind it. An example of one of his essential works would be âCold Equationsâ (1954).
Jacob Banschick
Prof. Ellis
ENG2420
A continuation of last weekâs lecture, this week we expanded further on what was called the Golden Age of Science Fiction. The subject of Transmedia was discussed, which is the telling of a single story, or a group of stories, over for multiple platforms such as books, movies, and even videogames. Next, we discussed âHard SFâ, or science fiction that incorporated more of those âhard sciencesâ discussed in the last lecture. Its a term introduced by Allen Steele (born 1958) which he describes as âa form of imaginative literature that uses either establish or carefully extrapolated science as its backbone.â
We discussed the story âThe Cold Equationsâ where Marilyn, a stowaway trying to see her brother on another planet, sneaks onto a ship and hides aboard, ignoring all warning signs telling her otherwise. When she is inevitably discovered by a crew member, she learns to her horror that the shipâs fuel levels are scrupulously measured, and her extra weight will prevent them from reaching their destination. Either they will all die floating the vacuum of space, or she must sacrifice herself in exchange for the lives of everyone else on the ship. Either way, she dies. In the end, she voluntarily allows herself to be jettisoned off the ship, deciding the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. A story Gene Roddenberry was probably a big fan of.
Next we discussed Robert Heinleinâs (1907-1988) âAll You Zombies.â The story, inspired by the song âIâm my own Grandpaâ, proposes a paradoxical situation where the protagonist discovers they are both their own father and mother, as well as the barkeeper theyâre telling the story to, and the baby that theyâd lost through some convoluted time travel loops.
Christopher Gonzalez
Professor Jason Ellis
ENG 2420 â E255
In the lecture for October 25, 2017 we continued the discussion for last weekâs class on Golden Age SF. We discussed things such as R.U.R which stands for Rossumâs Universal Robots. It is a play by Carol Capek where the word Robot comes from. We continued talking about writers such as Ray Bradbury, Robert A. Heinlein and Tom Godwin.
â–All You Zombiesâ was written by Robert A. Heinlein who was born 1907 and died 1988. It is about a time traveling man who was once a woman trying to find his/her baby which was kidnapped and finds out he/she, the child, mother, bartender are all the same person, taking influence from the philosophy of the Ouroboros.
In âThe Cold Equationsâ by Tom Goodwin in 1954, a ship headed to another planet full of medical supplies with just enough fuel to carry the recorded weight of the contents. A stowaway is on board in hopes of seeing her brother on the destination world but is caught by the pilot who sympathizes but has no choice but to sacrifice her for the sake of those that need the medical supplies.