After Class Writing: New Wave SF, Harlan Ellison, and Philip K. Dick

After today’s class, write at least 250 words summarizing the readings by Harlan Ellison and Philip K. Dick, and the lecture on New Wave SF.

19 thoughts on “After Class Writing: New Wave SF, Harlan Ellison, and Philip K. Dick

  1. CarissaSimeone

    Carissa Simeone
    After class writing 11-8-17

    This week Professor Ellis introduced the New Wave of SF. Originally from the U.K.in the 1960’s, which the United States eventually adapted. New Wave opened up the soft sciences that started surfacing into SF stories. Soft sciences could be the sciences that concerns human beings. Soft sciences are considered sciences such as psychology, astronomy, sociology, etc… The New Wave was first applied in SF writing by Christopher Priest in the New Worlds, a U.K. version of SF magazine. Professor Ellis noted that before the 1960’s New World magazine was similar to an American SF magazine, such as Astounding. In May/June 1964, New World magazine started to become unique thanks to Michael Moorcock (1939). Moorcock took over editorship and he was a similar influence like that of Campbell’s work and experience. Moorcock mentored and critiqued the SF authors of New World magazine. Moorcock was passionate about his work and his main mission was to steer away from the demeaning image that SF genre received from society. His writing is distinctive because new ideas he presented to his readers. One of them being the multiverse, which was defined in class as a set of alternate universes that are all interconnected through one hero of the story.

    There are 5 characteristics of New Wave SF:
    1. Belief SF could & should be taken seriously as literature.
    2. Writing experimentation and overall better writing.
    3. Related to topics: inner-space, developing more psychology into writing and relating more to humans.
    4. Shared qualities with the late 1960’s counter-culture, i.e. mind-altering drugs, pop art, sex, social change, and equal rights.
    5. Pessimism about the near future, such as nuclear war, U.K. politics involving American politics.

    We also discussed the author of “The Electric Ant”, Philip K. Dick (1928 -1982). Dick had a fascination with the human brain, and thought of it as the virtual reality stimulator in humans. Key words that were related to Philip’s writing were his ontological studies, which related to the nature of being. Also discussed was epistemology, involving philosophical ideas of truth, belief, and justification.

  2. Brianna

    Brianna Grant
    Eng2420 E255 Science Fiction
    Prof. Ellis
    City Tech
    10 November 2017

    During lecture on November 8, 2017, Professor Ellis expounded on the topic of New Wave Science Fiction. Alongside, he provides the analysis of the viewpoints of authors within this genre of science fiction, in the mid to late twentieth century. Professor Ellis also elaborated on the essential works and the influential magazines that were cultivated during this era.
    He began lecture by stating the derivative of the term “New Wave.” The term “New Wave” comes from French film critiques. Thereof, another name would be experimental cinema and New Wave Science Fiction was an adaptation of Ray Bradbury’s writing style. New Wave Science Fiction contains male lead characters and was an awakening in science which involved a turn back on the attention of the human being and the soft sciences.
    Professor Ellis states that “A science fiction writer by the name of Christopher Priest developed a terminology for the term New Wave called “New Worlds” that defines the science fiction of the new era.” “New Worlds” magazine was the leading science fiction magazine in the Unites Kingdom. In May 1964, Michael Moorcok assumed editorship and changed the magazine were improved and more respected. Moorcok made a deliberate attempt to lose the generic outlook of science fiction literary content.
    Nonetheless, examples of “New Wave” science fiction literature would be “Eternal Campion,” “Dangerous Visions”(1967) and lastly “Again, Dangerous Vision” (1972). Hence, the Moorcok’s five characteristics of New Wave Science Fiction are:

    (1) Belief that SF could and should be taken seriously as literature

    (2) Writing experimentation (Better writing overall)

    (3) Innerspace

    (4) Shared qualities with the late 1960 counterculture in interests of market, sex (industrial)

    (5)Pessimism about the future (usually the near future)

  3. Rebecca D.

    Rebecca Delgado
    ENG 2420
    Professor Ellis
    November 15, 2017

    In class we talked about the New Wave era of SF which took place in the 1960s and 1970s. New Wave focused on the “soft sciences” (social sciences like sociology, anthropology, psychology), turning its’ attention back on the interest of people. New Wave became popular in the United Kingdom before making its’ way to the United States. Michael Moorcock became editor of the UK SF magazine, “New World” in 1964, and helped make improvements.
    There are 5 characteristics of New Age SF are;

    The belief that SF could and should be taken seriously as literature

    2. Writing experimentation and better writing overall.

    3. Inner space trend toward psychology and soft sciences.

    4. Shared qualities with lates 1960s counter culture.

    5. Pessimism about the future.

    Two of the short stories read in class were “Repent Harlequin, Said the Ticktockman” by Harlan Ellison and “The Electric Ant” by Philip K. Dick. In “Repent Harlequin, Said the Ticktockman”, a man named Everett C. Marm dresses up as a harlequin rebelling against the timekeeper. The story takes place in a dystopian future where time is regulated by the Ticktockman and everything is planned out by a strict schedule. The Harlequin creates pranks throughout the city, putting people behind their schedule. He eventually gets caught by the Ticktockman and is executed, yet he has made his mark on society as the timekeeper’s schedule is a few minutes off. In “The Electric Ant”, Garson Poole was in an accident which resulted in his right arm being replaced with a robotic one. He was given an electrical unit in his chest which allowed him to stay alive since he was now an “electric ant” or someone with a robotic limb. Poole realizes that the unit gives him his visual perception of the world and dislikes that his life depends on that specific unit. He ends up cutting the tape next to the wires to see if he can be in control of his destiny and slowly the world around him fades. The story abruptly ends.

  4. Jia Du

    Jia Du
    ENG 2420 Science Fiction
    Professor: Ellis
    11/14/17

    In beginning of class, the professor started the class topic about New Wave Science Fiction. New Wave Science Fiction originated in U.K. during the 1960s. During that time, New Wave was an exclusive magazine in U.K. One of the first writers that applied new wave was Christopher Priest. The professor also discussed that Michael Moorcock (1939-Present) was the new editor of New Worlds on May June 1964. The Science Fiction would connect stories to the real world, which allows the Science fiction to be more challenging. Eventually The New Wave made to way to the United States. Judith Merrill is a U.S. / Canadian writer. She wrote about the England’s new wave. In 1968 she wrote England Swings. Some great Science Fictions during that time was Dangerous Visions (1967) and Again, Dangerous Visions (1972). The Professor then discussed the Five Characteristics of the New Wave.
    (1) Belief that SF could and should be taken seriously as literature
    (2) Writing experimentation and improvement on better writing overall.
    (3) Inner space
    (4) Shared qualities with the late 1960 counterculture.
    (5)Pessimism about the future, the near future.
    The next thing the class discussed about was The Electric Ant (1969) by Philip K. Dick (1928-1982). The story is about the character Garson Poole who lost his hand and suffered injuries in an accident. His hand was replaced by a mechanical one. He felt like a mechanical slave as he explored his new body. He eventually starts experimenting his tape/ panel in his chest. Every time he makes a change to the tape it effects reality. Eventually his changes kills him.

    The next story is “Repent, Harlequin! “Said the Ticktockman (1965) by Harlan Ellison (1934-Present). The story takes place in a dystopian world where everyone is doing their task precisely by schedule. Being late is also considered a crime. The person in charge is Ticklockman who enforces the laws of this world. A person being late can have the time taken off his life. When the person runs out of time, he/she heart will be turned off. The main character is Everett C. Marm who is rebellious towards Ticklockman. He is never on time and his behavior effects everyone around him causing them to be late too. He was eventually captured and was sent to be brainwashed. At the end of the story one of his followers told him he was three minutes behind schedule.

  5. Saif Ahmed

    Saif Ahmed
    Prof. Ellis
    ENG 2420
    11/15/2017

    In class we spoke about New Wave Science Fiction and this basically heavily has hard sciences, understanding that science is a lot than that of Hard Sciences and is looking for an answer to the question what is human beings place in the world. The new wave comes from film criticism and Micheal Moorecock born 1939 and is still alive he became the new editor of new worlds magazine in England Liverpool in 1964. Michael Moorecock also mentioned the multiverse which is parallel universes slightly different and all protagonists are connected. For the class reading one is by Harlan Ellison born 1934 and is still alive he wrote the “Repent, Harlequin, said the Ticktockman” and this about following a time schedule which is fixed and the time keeper or the Ticktockman is only used to the fixed time because he is brainwashed to make him be efficient. Harlequin is made to repent because he made Ticktockmans time get thrown off and Harlequin sacrificed himself to change the TickTockman. The next story is by Philip K. Dick and his story “The Electric Ant” is about Garson poole who is a robot that is a slave and poole tries many new experiments with himself be able to reverse time is crucial by cutting his own chest where the circuitry is also he is programmed to not pick up signs that he is not human. The doctor mentions while he was in the Hospital that he is an electric ant and tells poole that he needs to go to the robot factory. Poole experiments with himself but in the end it does not go well and he destroyed himself while performing the time changing experiment.

  6. RafMal87

    Class was difficult today due to excessive heat, but we got through a good amount of lecture. To start, Professor Ellis wanted us to talk about our views on “Forbidden Planet.” We all agreed that it was a portrayal of machismo sexism, but were impressed with the depth of the lessons learned in the story. The twist was pretty cool, what with the monster being an emotional conflict of Morbius’ turned sentient. Professor Ellis introduced us to the term “technocrat”, meaning a technology expert, or one who has the knowledge of a vast amount of the sciences of technology. Morbius is a biologist, yet he still messed with cryotechnology without the ability to control it and that ultimately leads to his demise.
    The New Wave comes from film criticism- in French called nuvelle vauge, during the mid to late 20 century. This was the beginning of experimental cinema, Jean Luc Goudars- Alphaville, Francios Turraut- Farenheit 451, and others, experimental French film makers making wild movies that are the norm today thanks to CG but were startling and confusing to the movie watchers of that time. The term was resisted by both sides of the writers.
    Christopher Priest- (b. 1943) was the first editor of New Worlds Magazine, the popular sf magazine in Britain, and the writer of The Prestige. He defined the era of SF as New Wave. When Michael Moorcock (b. 1939) became editor in May/June 1964, the magazine changes as drastically and controvertially as Campbell did with Amazing. His rules for accepted literature were:
    1) Juxtapose fiction with factual, social, commentary- force of social justice
    2) Visual collage, different images and artwork to disorient the audience and make them uncomfortable incorporated into the story to show sf was not easy, or safe, but a challenge
    3) In attempt to lose genre SF image, as low grade reading, he worked in placing writers in rapid social change and vanguard art.
    Moorcock wrote a series of stories with two major but different protagonists- Elric and Jerry Cornelius. He writes about a multi-verse where there is a display of parallel universes, so that the same characters could be recycled with different personalities and attributes. He has now made this world an open universe, meaning other authora re free to use his environment as their setting.
    With the uptight and rigid rules from these editors editors, Judith Merril (1923-1997) and Harlan Ellison (b. 1934) decided to publish their own anthropologies to feature authors who did not “make the cut” of Amazing or New Wave magazines. The two popular anthologies are called “Dangerous Visions” (1967) and “Again, Dangerous Visions” (1972).
    Characteristics of a New Wave story-
    1) belief that SF could and should be taken seriously as literature
    2) writing experimentation and better writing overall
    3) inner space- trend toward psychology and soft sciences (Human science) this will help to add depth to the story
    4) shared qualities with late 1960s counterculture- (again, using today’s problems to inspire the story) i.e. mind-altering drugs, oriental religions, market interests in sex, pop art and media landscape, social change for equal rights and protection,
    5) pessimism about the future, especially the near future- apocalypse is inevitable, there is no distant future because we will not survive, 1) belief in likelihood of disaster by overpopulation, ecological collapse, war. 2) political strife, Southeast Asia.

    Ellison’s story “Repent, Harlequin!’ Said the Ticktockman” (1965) is an example of a dystopian future, where Fordism has taken control of everyone’s Time and the Mast Timekeeper (Ticktockman) has the power to control anyone’s lifetime. Harlequin is a rebel, who cannot conform to the rigid time system that Society has forced on him. Somehow Society brainwashes him into becoming a robot like the rest, but in his rebellion, he has thrown the schedule of the Tciktockman himself off and has fulfilled his goal that nothing is unchangeable.

    Phillip K. Dick (1928-1982) wrote the story “Electric Ant” (1970) which tells of a high class lawman, Poole, discovering that he is in fact a robot, an electric ant, and n his mind, an abomination. His creators, the head of the department, use him to keep all the other workers in line because he is unbiased, programmed to their satisfaction, and a slave of theirs. However, once he has discovered the deception, Poole believes that altering his inner space (his feedback tape) will change the environment around him. This tampering leads to his destruction, and an unclear ending as to whether he envisions the end of the world or the domino effect of Sarah possibly being an ant herself that discovers the truth with Poole’s demise.

  7. Justin Tam

    Justin Tam
    ENG2420
    Professor Ellis
    November 15, 2017
    New Wave SF was exactly what it sounded like, a new wave of SF. But instead of the SF that included hard science with things like chemistry or biology, it included soft science into its stories. The magazine called New Worlds started to change once Michael Moorcock (1939-present) became the editor in May-June 1964, New Wave SF made its foot into New World. If one had to make a comparison, you can compare New Worlds to Campbell’s Astounding which in itself says a lot about New Worlds. Things that were included in the New Wave SF was that it connected things into real life, it had visual collage of different artworks to make audience uncomfortable, it is something that people aren’t used to. Makes the reader know that SF isn’t safe, wasn’t easy, it is difficult and challenges us. Moorcock also wanted to get rid of Sf’s image of being bad, that it was literature that is as great as any other, so he worked with writers to bring radical changes, social changes. Initially when New Wave started to emerge, the writers who were used to hard science SF thought that the new SF was trash, and didn’t accept it as SF.
    Repent, Harlequin, Said the Ticktockman by Harlan Ellison (1934-present) is about a man name Harlequin who doesn’t believe in the belief that everything should be done by the hour, the minute, the second, the very millisecond and so forth. He believed that people should be free to choose what they do by their own time. The man named Ticktockman is in charge of maintaining the time and see that everyone is doing their job according to the schedule, according to the time. So Harlequin is setting up plans to purposely disrupt this time and in the end, while Harlequin ends up losing to this time and its accordance, he ends up disrupting even the Ticktockman’s time who is supposed to be on top of time.
    The Electric Ant by Philip K. Dick (1928- 1982) is about a “man” named Poole who has just learned that he is actually an android after being examined by doctors after an accident. He realized that this changes everything about his entire life and that he is just simply an android who have been given data in order to accomplish his task which is to be CEO of the company. So Poole decided to tinker with the tapes that essentially feeds him the perception of what he is perceiving in the world just as humans perceive our world from our eyes sending it to our brain. But when he ends up dying after tinkering with the tapes and trying to reverse it. Sarah, who was with him at the time starts to experience and see that her own hand was fading.

  8. Pierre Polycarpe

    Pierre Polycarpe
    ENG 2420
    Prof. Ellis

    Our last class lecture entails the New Wave era of SF. (1960’s) The term New Wave comes from a French film critique; Nouvelle vague, however, the term was first used in SF by Christopher Priest, a SF writer. In 1977, the term New Wave was applied to music. (New Wave of Punk Rock) Priest wrote in a magazine call new world, the leading UK SF magazine. Prof Ellis stated that in the 1960’s, the new world magazine was not unique at all. In fact, it was very similar to other magazines such as American magazine, Astounding. After when Michael Moorcock became the new editor in 1964, things started to change. His vision was to take SF to places where it never been before; SF should not be just about SF, he wanted to show others that SF is not an easy task, challenging others. Michael also contribute by helping other writers to help change the way people would think about SF. Some thought that it was trash, not real SF which led Michael to come up with the 5 characteristics of New Wave SF.

    Repent, Harlequin, Said the Ticktockman is a short SF story written by Harlan Ellison. (1965) The story took place somewhere in the future; dystopian, an urban city where time was measured by the Ticktockman. Time was as valuable as currency. Failure to be late would led to consequences such as diminished your lifespan or death. The Harlequin, who clearly stood against the Ticktockman decided to sabotage his plan by being late constantly and delaying everyone behind schedule

  9. Alex G

    Alex Giffen
    ENG 2420
    Prof. Ellis
    15 November 2017

    In class we discussed the the New Wave Science Fiction. New Wave is moving away from the hard sciences and male leads to now the soft sciences. These soft sciences are human sciences, like psychology, sociology, or even philosophy. We also discussed Micheal Moorecock, an important editor for New Worlds magazine and important to the New Wave as well. He had three guidelines for New Wave SF. First, juxtapose fiction to the real world, this would be references to social justices in the real world. Second, juxtapose visuals to make the reader feel uncomfortable. And lastly, SF had to lose its ‘image’ through rapid social change and radical art.
    New Wave itself had five characteristics. First, it was to be taken serious, not like its predecessors. It also demanded experimentation to create better writing overall. It leaned towards ‘Innerspace’, trending towards psychology and soft sciences. It shared qualities with counterculture of the 1960’s; like sex, drugs, equal rights, etc. New Wave takes place in the future, but near future. Lastly, New Wave depicted realistic disasters like overpopulation, diminishing resources, politics, etc.
    The first reading we had was Philip K. Dick’s “Electric Ant.” This story emphasizes the idea of New Wave. It tells how a man discovers how he is a robot and how he can manipulate his reality by punching holes in his tape. It asks the questions; what is real? Is my reality different from your reality? Can we trust our senses to clearly show a true reality? This all comes to the fact that everything we learn or experience comes through our brain, and how we wouldn’t know if anything is wrong then.
    The second reading was Harlan Ellison’s “Repent, Harlequin, Said the Ticktockman!” This dystopian future is a future based on Fordism, everything now is forced on a schedule. The hero Harlequin is tired of the constant force of following every moment of the schedule and decides to disrupt it. The Ticktockman who runs the world is furious and captures the Harlequin. Instead of making him a martyr, he brain washes him to make him repent. In the end Ticktockman is three minutes behind due to our hero’s efforts.

  10. Gabriel Higuera

    Gabriel Higuera
    ENG 2420
    New Wave Science Fiction has its roots in the United Kingdom and blossom as a way of Michael Moorcock’s (Born in 1939) “New Worlds” Magazine shaking the Science Fiction world like Campbell’s “Outstanding” Magazine. Moorcock became editor of New Worlds in 1964, and along with his introduction as editor, a lot of changes have been accredited to him such as: improved stories, provided help to writers, juxtapose Science Fiction with current real world events, the use of imagery/picture collage to disturb the audience as a way to lose the Science Fiction image it had at the time and instead have Science Fiction represent a sort of radical art.

    Moorcock is also given the credit of creating the multiverse, something we see being done very successfully in today’s films. New Wave Science Fiction is characterize with the following:

    – Believe that Science Fiction should be taken seriously
    – Writing experimentation including better writing
    – A trend towards phycology and soft sciences
    – Shared qualities with its era’s counter culture like mind alternating drugs
    – Pessimism

    Harlan Ellison’s (born in 1934) “Repent, Harlequin, Said the Ticktockman!” was an interesting story regarding an utopia which time sensitivity is turned up 100 notches, where misused of time in any sort of inefficient way can get a person in trouble. Harlequin represents counter culture and goes against society’s expectations which ultimately pays with his life, but not without a cause since his death made the Ticktockman himself use his time inefficiently, thus, showing society that even the enforcer of the rule wasn’t able to be perfect with timing.

    Philip K. Dick’s (1928 – 1982) “The Electric Ant” shows us the world of a man that wakes from an accident, only to later discover that his reality and perception of live is conducted by this device implanted in his chest while he was in surgery recovering from said accident. He toys around with the device which then finds how to help tinker his perception of life. He ends sort of self-destroying himself in an effort to explore what more can he see. Good story.

  11. Mellissa

    Mellissa Valle
    ENG 2420
    Professor Ellis
    Due 11/15/2017

    New Wave SF

    Stared in U.K. around 1960’s. Soft sciences could be the sciences that concerns human beings, psychology, sociology, history, and linguistics. Christopher Priest(1943) in “The New Worlds”, a U.K. version of SF magazine. In May/June 1964, New World magazine by Michael Moorcock (1939) super famous still alive. He was very influential, he was as polemical as Campbell has been with “Astounding” but to different ends. He would write manifestos, he helps other writers and improve their work. He would connect the stories to what’s happening in the real world. SF should not only about entertainment. He was about the “visual college” to make uncomfortable the audience instead give it “formal”. His idea was that SF wasn’t safe or easy, it challenges the reader. Back then people would think SF was trash, but he made it radical art, making the writing look better, more literally. “New literature for the space age” . “The Multiverse” the idea of parallel universe, each one slightly different from the other. Some figures: The eternal champion, who combatants chaos in other to maintain order. The anti hero, Jerry Cornelius, type of hero that flights for good but doesn’t mind to kill anyone. Michael Moorcock invites other writers to use these ideas of multiverse. Then the idea of the New Wave come to US thanks to another writer/editor Judith Merril (1923-1997) “England Swings SF” (1968) “Dangerous Visions” (1967) and “Again, Dangerous Visions” (1972). Five characteristics of New Wave: 1) Belief that SF could and should be taken seriously as literature. 2) Writing experimentation and better writing overall. 3) Inner space- trend toward psychology and soft sciences. 4) Shared qualities with late 1960s counterculture. 5) Pessimism about the future, especially the near future.

    Harlan Ellison, “Repent, Harlequin, Said the Ticktockman!”(1965)
    The story is about a futuristic world that is controlled by a robot, the Ticktockman, who has the power to manipulate the remaining time of a person’s life. His purpose is to penalize citizens who are always late by removing time from their life that’s equal to their lateness, like the harlequin who was asked to go to the master timekeeper where he was brainwashed instead of being killed which would have made him a martyr. The ironic part of this story is that the ticktockman was 3 minutes late. So will he lose 3 minutes of his life?
    Philip K. Dick, “The Electric Ant”(1969)

    This story involves a guy, Garson Poole who wakes up in the hospital after a car
    accident. He is then informed by a doctor that he is an electric ant. After speaking with a technician he learns that he is not a human but a mechanical slave. After finding out about this he wanted to kill himself but chose not too, instead he starts experimenting with the chest panel to manipulate his reality and this could be seen when he talked with the Danceman at the bar. His constant tinkering with the chest plate triggered a security measure, which is in place to protect his life. As he continues screwing with his system he ends up dying thus destroying his reality.

  12. Jessica

    Jessica L. Roman
    ENG 2420-E255
    November 17, 2017
    New Wave Science Fiction

    The lecture for the weeks of 11/8 and 11/15 were concerned with the introduction of New Wave Science Fiction. Up until this point, the stories we read were male centered adventures and focused on hard sciences. In the 60’s there was a shift in SF that centered more on human beings, technology’s impact on them and soft sciences. The New Wave movement began in the UK, its name adapted from French film critique.

    The first SF writer to use the term was Christopher Priest in a critique in New Worlds magazine. New Worlds magazine was a Science Fiction magazine in the UK. Much like with Campbell’s effect on Astounding, New Worlds prospered under the editorship of Michael Moorcock (1939), which began in 1964. Moorcock wanted to shake the poor image of SF so he worked with and mentored his writers to juxtapose fiction with relevant social commentary. He believed Science Fiction was not meant to be comfortable, easy or safe; it should challenge its readers and writers. Moorcock was also known for creating a multiverse through in his stories.
    New Wave eventually came to the U.S with the aid of Judith Merrill in her writing of England’s New Wave movement. There was a lot of resistance amongst readers and writers, even those who wrote what was deemed New Wave SF. It was thought of quite lowly and created much tension amongst authors. Writers like Merrill and Ellison began to publish New Wave stories in Anthologies since magazines were not too keen on publishing them. Professor Ellis described the five characteristics of New Wave as:

    1. The belief SF could and should be taken seriously
    2. Writing experimentation and better writing overall
    3. Inner space, a trend of focusing on psychology and similar soft sciences.
    4. Shared qualities with the late 11960 counter culture
    5. Short sided and pessimistic, stories of the near culture.
    We continued our lecture on 11/15, which began with going over the authors read the week prior, Philip K. Dick’s the Electric Ant and Harlan Ellison’s “Repent, Harlequin said the Ticktockman”. Harlan Ellison (1934- ) specialized in short stories and screenplay, his work focused primarily on themes of ethics and human courage. Ellison is described as insecure, hyperactive, physically fearless and ambitious. While he was very fan friendly, he could be brash when it came to his rights and the rights of others. Ellison is highly successful and won eight Hugo awards and three Nebula awards. “Repent, Harlequin!’ Said the Ticktockman” (1965) is a story of a dystopian future, in which time is regulated and controlled by the Ticktockman. The story focuses on Everett C. Marm who is Harlequin the rebel. Harlequin cannot conform to the system he feels is wrong and is constantly doing all he can to disrupt the very precise schedule forced on society. His actions which are deems a crime eventually get him captured. Harlequin refuse to repent for his actions, and though this would typically result in the stopping o ones heart the Ticktockman decided instead to have him essentially brainwashed to conform. Though in the end he is rebellion wound resulted din him losing himself it was not in vain. His sacrifice manages to disrupt the schedule of the Ticktockman.

    Philip K. Dick (1928-1982) spent the majority of his life in the California. He wrote both mainstream and science Fiction though most of his mainstream work was published posthumously. Unfortunately, Dick experienced financial struggle and developed an amphetamine addiction in order to push work stories in quick succession. In fact, in the 1960s he wrote 24 novels. He was also known for piecing together several short stores into novels. Dick was also the first SF writer to be included in the Library of America. The characteristic of his work dealt with ontological and epistemological problems, entropy, empathy, religion and the “little man”. Dick’s “The Electric Ant” (1970) is the story of Garson Poole who after an accident that costs him his arm, discovers he is in fact an organic robot or android, which in this story are referred to as electric ants. This finding shakes his world and the sense of all he ever knew. After his discovery he begins to tinker with himself, he researches what feeds the experience he has is a punch card in his chest. He begins to experiment with his reality tape discovering that he can alter his subjective reality but making more holes or covering holes. In one instance, we wins up jamming the feeder and technician are called in to repair him again. Poole is determine that the reality tape, if tapered with correctly can allow him to experience everything at once. When he finally cuts his tape, believing it will allow him to experience all; he miscalculates the feed and is unable to reattach it in time. Poole tells his coworker who is with him that she is not real; she is merely a punch hole in his reality tape. She rejects this, however once the tape reaches the cut end things around his, even her hands become transparent. Leaving the reader to speculate who was in fact real.

  13. Brian Kriczky

    Brian Kriczky
    Prof Ellis
    ENG 2420

    Last class we began by continuing discussing on new wave SF. One major contributor to New Wave SF was Harlan Ellison who was born 1934 and is still alive today. Ellison’s work focused on ethics and human courage. Much of his writing took place in cities. He mainly did short stories and wrote screenplays. Ellison was very accomplished and won 8 Hugo Awards, 3 Nebula awards, and was named 23rd Grandmaster of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. He is also know to have been fired from Disney on his first day of work. He was overheard by Roy Disney telling a porn story using Disney characters and acting out their voices. An important part of his life was when he started editing “Dangerous Visions”. We also discussed Phillip K Dick. Dick was another major influence of SF at this time. He lived from 1928 to 1982 and cranked out tons of stories during his life. The characteristics of his work were: ontological problems, which involves reality, being, or authenticity, epistemological problems, which involve knowledge, or how we believe whats real or fake. His work also involved Entropy, Empathy, and gnosticism or hidden knowledge. In Dick’s work often involved the “little man”, in his stories the main character was not some super hero, but an average Joe type of character. There was a life changing event that happened to Dick and he began writing trying to describe what happened to him. It was sort of like an deep spiritual awaking. After this event his work changed and he wrote many papers about the incident. Books have even been written about him on just that one event.

  14. Randy Valcourt

    In the New Wave of Science fiction begins in Britain and was later aborted by America during the 1960’s. The New wave deals with soft sciences rather than the hard sciences like the Golden Age of SF where hard sciences where used. The soft sciences are science more in the line of humanities like psychology and sociology. One of the key characteristics of the New Wave is make SF a serious form of literature in the eyes of everyone at the time. One why the New Wave age achieved this was through the soft sciences in their stories. This SF deals with the inner space of the protagonist in the story basically what revolve around the characters mind and the stories also dealt with psychological effects on a grander scale like in a society. Some of the authors that really brought this form of New Wave SF to light were Philip K. Dick and Harlan Ellison. One of Philip K. Dick that we read was “The Electric Ant” and this really shows how psychology is used in the short stories. In the story the main character Garson Poole gets in an accident and is set into the hospital where upon inspection by the doctors they found out that he is an “Electric Ant” an organic robot. When Garson wakes up he is notified of the news and he is in shock because he never new he was a robot. The doctors didn’t do much for him but he pays them and he went to a repair facility where his injuries where fixed which was a served hand. He went to his home thinking about how all his life was lie thinking whether or not his actions were his own or were they just all due to his programing. After he gets a computer to exam his body he finds his main circuits, which is some micro tape that control his perception of reality. After messing with reality and witness the city disappearing and reaping in front of his eyes he begins to question all of reality he dies messing with micro tape in an attempt to see every thing he can. Another short that was great in the era was Harlan Ellison’s “Repent, Harlequin, Said the Ticktockman!” a very interesting story in my opinion. The story is sent in a dystopian society where everything is ruled by time down to how long a person has to live. There is one character that is a rebel or a renegade who has a persona as a harlequin a prankster. In this dystopia ruled by time the Harlequin seeks disrupt the cities schedule to keep force people to slow down and take in life to realize that they have no freedom and to realize that there is more to life then just schedules. The harlequin did many things to disrupt schedules in fact in the beginning of the story he causes gummy bears to rain down in a factory causing the workers to laugh and stop working slowing down production in the city. This disruption causes the TickTock man to get involved which is the head timekeeper in this society and he makes a manhunt for the Harlequin. Of Corse the Harlequin uses this to his advantage and further disrupts society as the police are chasing him down. Later they capture him in his own home where he is brought to the Tick Toc man where his confronted and forced to “repent”. Upon his rewiring he is force to make a live telecast stating that its better to be in order with schedules then to have chaos without it. The author makes a node to the 1984 novel to describe what happen to him. After the telecast he is killed off. However the effects that the Harlequin had on society still remains for even the TicTock man has become late on his schedule by three minutes

  15. David

    In class, Professor Ellis talked about “New Wave SF”, New World, Michael Moorecock,, Jedith Nuerriel and more. He began giving a definition of “New Wave.” The term “New Wave” was said to come from French film critiques. New Wave SF contains male lead characters and was an awakening in science which involved a turn back on the attention of the human being and the soft sciences. Jedith Nuerriel was touched about as he wrote about the English New Wave in “English Swings SF” in 1968. Finally, a lot of resistance was put up against the New Wave of SF via writers that were labeled New Wave writers but didn’t want the label.

    Professor Ellis also talked about Michael Moorecock. Michael Moorecock was a man that became the new editor of “New Worlds” and did many things for SF as a whole. It was said he that he wanted to connect stories with what happened in the real world, show people that science fiction was not not safe or easy, wanted to get SF out from being looked down upon and called for new literature in this new “Space Age” of SF, he called. Moorecock also had five characteristics of New Wave Science Fiction are”

    #1: Belief that SF could and should be taken seriously as literature
    #2: Writing, experimentation and better writing overall
    #3: “Inner space” (trend towards psychologically and soft sciences)
    #4: Shared qualities with the late 1960 counterculture (market interest in sex, social change for equal right under the law, etc)
    #5: Pessimism about the future (usually the near future and likelihood of overpopulation)

  16. Sharon Rios

    Sharon Rios
    In class, we discussed the “New Wave” era of science fiction, which took place in the 1960’s and 1970’s. New Wave focused on the “soft sciences”, which are social sciences like sociology, anthropology, and psychology. It mostly reflects the examination of people. New Wave became popular in the United Kingdom before the United States. Michael Moorcock became editor of the UK SF magazine, “New World” in 1964, and helped make most of the improvements.
    New Age science fiction consists of five characteristics:
    1.The belief that science fiction should be taken seriously as literature
    2. Writing experimentation and overall improvement of writing skills.
    3. Inner space trend toward psychology and soft sciences.
    4. Shared qualities with late 1960’s counterculture.
    5. Pessimism about the future.
    Two of the short stories read in class was “Repent Harlequin, Said the Ticktockman” by Harlan Ellison and “The Electric Ant” by Philip K. Dick. In “Repent Harlequin, Said the Ticktockman”, a man named Everett C. Marm dresses up as a harlequin rebelling against the timekeeper. The story takes place in a dystopian future where the Ticktockman is regulating the time and everything is planned out by an extremely strict schedule. The Harlequin creates pranks throughout the city that delays people’s schedule. He eventually gets caught by the Ticktockman and is executed; yet he has made his mark on society, as the timekeeper’s schedule is a few minutes off. In “The Electric Ant”, Garson Poole was in an accident, which resulted in his right arm is replaced with a robotic one. He was given an electrical unit in his chest, which allowed him to stay alive. Now he is referred to as a robot or an “electric ant”. Poole experiments with himself because the circuits were changing his perspective, but it does not go well and he ends up destroying himself while performing a time changing experiment.

  17. JBanschick

    Jacob Banschick
    Prof. Ellis
    ENG2420

    In today’s lesson, we covered the subject of New Wave Science Fiction, which had originated from europe in the 60’s but eventually made its way overseas. This was the introduction to the “soft sciences” of the scifi movement. To clarify, soft sciences are subjects such as psychology, astronomy, sociology, etc.
    We also learned of Michael Moorcock, who in 1964 was editor of the english Scifi magazine, “New World”, who helped establish the rules for New Wave Scifi, which can be broken down into 5 traits:

    1 – Belief that SF could and should be taken seriously as literature
    2 – Writing experimentation and improvement on better writing overall.
    3 – Inner space
    4 – Shared qualities with the late 1960 counterculture.
    5 – Pessimism about the future, the near future.

    “The Electric Ant” was written by Philip K. Dick (1928-1982) in 1969. In it, Garson Poole is in a serious car accident, losing his hand. After talking with the doctors, he learns he is in fact not a human, but an android referred to as an “electric ant”. Wanting to end his life, he decides instead to tool with his robotic body, theorizing that adjusting the sensors that allow him to see reality can tweak his perceived reality.

    “Repent, Harlequin! Said the Ticktockman” was written by Harlan Ellison (1934- ) in 1965. Repent is the story of a society which revolves entirely around time, and time itself is treated like a commodity. Failure to show up on time means a penalty on a person’s’ total time, until they run out and are killed as consequence. Harlequin, an anarchist, attempts to fight this system, only to fail doing so in the end.

  18. Chris

    Christopher Gonzalez
    Professor Jason Ellis
    ENG 2420 – E255

    In the lecture for November 8, 2017 we discussed New Wave SF which comes from film criticism. It involves experimental cinema and was used by science fiction writer and critic Christopher Pries. New Worlds was a leading UK fantasy.

    “Repent, Harelequin! Said the Tickockman” was written by Harlan Ellison who was born 1934 and is still alive today. Ellison also edited Dangerous Visions and Again, Dangerous Visions. “Repent, Harelequin! Said the Tickockman” was published in 1965 and is about a dystopian future where everyone performs their tasks precisely according to a set schedule. Time is kept by the Ticktockman who can control a person’s lifespan should they not meet expectations. The protagonist does not conform to these rules and disrupts the time of the Ticktock man to show that even the Ticktockman can’t perform accordingly.

    “The Electric Ant was written by Philip K. Dick who was born 1928 and died 1982. The Electric Ant was published in 1968 and is about a man who wakes up from an accident and finds out he is an electric ant. He had no idea because he was programmed to not be aware of the signs he was a robot. He came to question his life and what he had control over and decided he wanted to be free so he experimented with the tape that controls reality and overtime things began to fade. Soon he wants to experience everything at once and so he cuts the tape causing everything to fade. This story involves psychology and perception as reality is based on virtual reality.

  19. Paul C

    Paul Chandipersaud
    This class we discussed the era of New Wave SF and the stories “The Electric Ant” by Philip K. Dick (1928-1982) and Harlan Ellison’s (1934- Present) “Repent, Harlequin said the Ticktockman”. New Wave SF lasted between 1960’s and 1970’s. New Wave SF started began in the UK in a magazine called New Worlds under the editorship of Michael Moorcook (1939- Present). He wanted to change the image of SF that he believed had a poor image. New Wave Sf has five distinctive characteristics to it.
    1. Belief that SF should be taken seriously.
    2. Writing, experimentation and better writing overall
    3. Topic of inner space, a trend of focusing on psychology and similar soft sciences.
    4. Shared qualities with the late 1960’s counterculture.
    5. Pessimism about the future.
    The story “The Electric Ant” is about a man named Garson Poole who gets into a accident and loses his hand. They do an operation on him that basically turns him into a cyborg by giving him a robotic arm and he later discovers a tape in chest that is keeping him alive but also giving him an alternate reality. He messed around with the tape which changed his reality and he messed around with it so much that he severely messed with his reality that made him question what’s real. He ended up destroying himself in the end.
    The story “Repent, Harlequin said the Ticktockman” is about a world were time is everything and its controlled by the Ticktockman. Whoever is late the Ticktockman has the ability to take time away from their lives. A man named Everett disguises himself as a Harlequin and rebels against the Ticktockman messing with time and peoples schedule. He is eventually caught and the Ticktockman doesn’t kill him but brainwashes him to be a modern citizen. Everett leaves him make because at the end someone tells the Ticktockman he is three minutes schedule.

Leave a Reply