Lecture 10 on New Wave Science Fiction, Harlan Ellison, and Philip K. Dick is embedded above. Write your own notes into your notebook for the lecture and your readings of Ellison’s “Repent, Harlequin, Said the Ticktockman!” and Dick’s “The Electric Ant.” Then, add a comment to this post of at least 250-words summarizing the lecture and your readings before Wednesday, April 29.
Keep track of the lectures and readings. You can check the Dashboard > Comments on our site to see if you’ve missed any 250-word summaries. If you have, get them done and send me an email letting me know which ones you’ve caught up on.
As I’ve said before, this is a challenging time that we find ourselves in right now. To be a successful student with distance learning requires tremendous self-discipline. I know that you all can do it, but depending on your circumstances, it can take more or less conscious effort on your part.
If you haven’t reached out to me yet about your research essay, please send me an email to jellis at citytech.cuny.edu with your plan. I’ll reply with some feedback and advice.
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If you’ve seen the film Galaxy Quest, you know the catchphrase: “Never give up! Never surrender!”
In our 4/22 lecture, “New Wave SF” and its major contributors were discussed. The name New Wave comes from the French “Nouvelle Vague,” which refers to French cinematic works like those of Jean Luc Godard. It also referred to the ascendency of punk music in the late 70’s. It was first applied to SF by Christopher Priest (British writer and critic of SF; wrote The Prestige) when he used the term to describe writing in the magazine “New Worlds,” a British SF magazine that started in 1936 as a fanzine called “Novae Terrae,” of which Michael Morecock became editor and changed the direction to what is now referred to as “New Wave.” Morecock juxtaposed fiction with factual and social commentary, visual collage and concrete poetry (visually shaped). He wrote often of “multiverses” and called for a “new fiction for the space age.”
New Wave moved from the UK to the USA, and Harlan Ellison was one of the first writers to promote New Wave SF in the U.S. in his “Dangerous Visions” collection of stories (1967, 30+ stories). New Wave SF had five major traits:
1) Belief that SF could and should be taken seriously
2) Writing experimentation and better writing than past iterations of SF (e.g. pulp SF)
3) “Innerspace”: tendency toward psychology and the soft sciences
4) Shared qualities with late 60’s countercultures: drugs, eastern philosophies, marketable sex and social movements toward egalitarianism
5) Pessimism about near future
Major authors included J.G. Ballard, a Brit whose works focused on psychology, deserted landscapes and broken technology, and Innerspace. He wrote Crash, which described a kind of perverted fascination with the graphic death and mortality associated with automobile accidents that Ballard was obsessed with, and The Atrocity Exhibition (1970), which was comprised of many condensed mini-novels linked together by their chapter names, which, when combined, formed a full sentence.
Harlan Ellison (1934-2018) and Philip K. Dick (1928-1982) were two major writers of the subgenre. Ellison’s work focused on ethics, human courage and the city. He specialized in short stories and screenplays and was known for his gregarious, bold personality. In addition to “’Repent, Harlequin!’ Said the Ticktockman,” Ellison wrote “I Have No Mouth and Must Scream” and “Pretty Maggie Money Eyes.” In 1969, he wrote “A Boy and His Dog,” which later became a film and was about a boy and his telepathic dog and their symbiotic relationship: the dog receiving food from the boy, and the boy receiving help finding females by the dog. Ultimately the boy kills a girl in order to feed his dog… The dog’s name is Blood (of course). Philip K. (Kindred) Dick wrote mainstream novels and short- and long-form SF, most of which was celebrated only after his death. He relied on amphetamines to improve his efficiency, writing 5 novels in 1963 and 6 novels in 1964. His writing had 6 major qualities:
1) Concerned ontological problems (existential problems)
2) Epistemological problems (issues related to knowledge itself)
3) Entropy (the tendency of the universe to move toward disorder)
4) Empathy (especially in androids’ capacity to possess it)
5) Religion (Gnosticism and Asian religions)
6) Many stories involved the “little man” (common man)
Some of his most high profile works included The Man in the High Castle (1962), about a world in which the Axis powers prevailed over the Allies, The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldridge (1964), a story in which people take drugs to experience different types of realities, A Scanner Darkly (1977), about a narcotics agent who loses the singularity of his personality when drugs “separate” him into multiple personalities, Valis (1981), in which Dick writes about himself writing about himself (Horselover Fat) experiencing alien communication, and most famously, Do Androids Dream of Sheep?, which was turned into “Blade Runner.”
In The Electric Ant (1969), Dick writes about Garson Poole, a company executive who discovers he is a robot with a human-like appearance (android) after he gets into an accident and is examined by a doctor. He finds a punch-hole tape reel system in his chest cavity that he determines is the source of all his programming. He discovers eventually that he can manipulate his entire experience by manipulating the tape. The story raises many epistemological and ontological questions, like “What makes our reality real?”, “Is our reality only real if it is shared?” and “What does being human mean?” After Poole experiments with the tape enough, he finally cuts the tape, intending to reattach it after he understands what it feels like to experience all sensations at once. But the tape moves too rapidly through the reel after he cuts it, and Poole ignites into a kind of psychedelic overload of sensation, finally expiring. When his assistant Sarah Benton informs Danceman (Poole’s Number 2 at the company Tri-Plan), both are relieved that Poole no longer lives with the torture of understanding how different he is; that he is not fully human. However at the end of the story, Benton herself begins to disappear, just as Poole did. The story brings to mind “The Matrix” and “Blade Runner,” the former of which deals ontologically with ideas of reality and what existence is. Is there a difference between “existence” itself and the mere perception of it? The latter film (adapted from another one of Dick’s works) touches on the identity crises of androids that feel as though they are human – what makes us human beyond the feeling that we are?
In “’Repent, Harlequin!’ Said the Ticktockman” (1965), Ellison creates a satire about a dystopian world, similar to that of 1984. It describes a society in which man’s life has been converted to a precise value in terms of labor over time. The world and everyone’s purpose in contributing to the labor that drives it is mechanized and quantified in the time allotted to perform each task. This is all regulated and overseen by a central body led by “The Ticktockman” (the Master Time Keeper), who acts as a head of state, ultimate law enforcement authority and executioner. He is masked. Everett Marm is the protagonist, who dresses like a harlequin and seeks to subvert society’s schedule, by planning pranks that cause delays. The Ticktockman finds him and, instead of killing him, sends him to a place to be brainwashed. The encounter results in the Ticktockman himself being late, which results in him concluding that everyone else’s time must be off: “Check your watch.” The story also called to mind elements of “The Matrix “(humans being harvested for their output value) as well as elements of 1984, which addressed the dangers of fascism and authoritarianism. The finale of the story represents the ultimate power of the dictator, who can change the rules to his/her liking.
In our last lecture class, lecture 10 we discussed the New Wave Science Fiction. The new wave is translation for the French term Nouvelle vague, meant to describe film. New wave was first applied in the novel The Prestige by the Science Fiction writer and critic Christopher Priest. New wave described the writings that were in the magazine the New World. New World magazine was the leading Science Fiction magazine in the UK, The magazine changed when Michael Moorcock novel was published in the magazine in the 1964 issue. The characteristics of New Wave of Science Fiction are beliefs that Science Fiction could and should be taken seriously as literature, writing experimentations and better writing, inner space- tendency towards psychology and soft sciences, anthropology, psychology, and sociology, shared qualities with late 1960’s counter culture, exhibits- pessimism. JJ Ballard (1930- 2009) Empire of the Sun wrote in 1984, made into a film by Steven Spielberg. JJ wrote about being a civilian in a Japanese POW camp. He discovered Science Fiction during rural air force flight training in Canada. JJ writing style was experimental and he focused was on inner space. Crash (1973) explores the psychological satisfactions of danger and death on the road. Atrocity exhibition- composed of shorter segments connected by titles. Harlan Ellison (1934- 2018) writings were about ethics, human courage and the city, he wrote short stories. In 1967 Ellison edited Dangerous Visions, published I have a Mouth and I Must Scream, teleplay for Star Trek (city on the edge of forever) was broadcast. Repent Harlequin said the Tictockman (1965) looks at dystopian future in which time is strictly regulated and everyone must do everything according to the strict time schedule. Philip K. Dick (1928- 1982) fist Science Fiction writer to have work published by the library of America. Philip’s characteristics of his writings were ontological problems, entropy- order to disorder, epistemological, empathy, religion, and the little man. In the Electric Ant, Garson Poole wakes up after a flying car crash to find he is missing a hand.
During this lecture we learned about New Wave science fiction that was produced during the 1960s and 1970s. New wave SF was a type of writing that was discovered in New Worlds magazine. New Worlds was a leading British science fiction magazine. New wave SF writing took off in New Worlds when Michael Moorcock assumed editorship in 1964. Some important characteristics of new wave SF include the belief that SF could be taken seriously as literature. Writing experimentation and better writing than pulp SF. Focuses on Interspace and soft sciences such as anthropology, sociology, and psychology. It shared qualities with 1960s counterculture including mind altering drugs, orientating religions, violating taboos. It also exhibits a pessimism about the future, the likelihood of disaster from overpopulation, war, and ecological collapse. We learned about three important SF writers, JG Ballard (1930 – 2009), Harlen Ellison (1934 – 2018), and Philip K. Dick (1928 – 1982). JG Ballard discovered SF during royal air force flight training in Canada. His work is considered as an experimental style, he focused on psychology and emotional significance of deserted landscapes and wrecked technology. Harlan Ellison specialized in short stories and script writing, he focused on ethics and human courage. Philip K. Dick wrote mainstream novels, short and long form SF. He gained fame for his work after his death. Six characteristics that describe his writing are ontological problems, epistemological problems, entropy, empathy, religion, and normal characters playing the hero. Two readings we had for this week were “Repent, Harlequin!” said the Ticktockman by Harlan Ellison (1965) and Electric Ant by Philip K. Dick (1969). The first short story is about a world that is run by the Master Timekeeper or the Ticktockman. In this world where people must be on time or risk having their lives shortened due to lateness’s. A Harlequin emerges, and rebels against the Ticktockman and his society in a series of acts to distract people from their duties. The Ticktockman’s power is displayed when he eventually captures the harlequin. Unlike most people in this world, Harlequin shows no fear in the face of death and the Ticktockman since he has the power over life and death. Instead of killing the Harlequin, the Ticktockman sends him to a reeducation camp and eliminates his ability to think freely, and in return makes him praise the Ticktockman’s society. The second story is about a man named Garson Poole who wakes up in the hospital after a car accident. He finds out that he is robot, and that he was created to be a controlled manager at the Tri-plan company. Upon Poole investigating his body further, he finds his reality tape in his chest. At first, he wanted to kill himself by cutting it off, but decides it would be better if he manipulates it to change up his reality.
The ninth lecture was we covered New Wave science fiction literature. Starting in England then later popularizing in the United States, it took a while for this genre to be excepted here. A British magazine was the first to publish this style of science fiction in a magazine called “Novae Terrace.” The magazine had its largest change when a gentleman by the name of Michael Moorcock took over the editorship. He is just as vivacious for his job as John W. Campbell yet in different ways. Moorcock had a different approach and characteristics with the magazines in telling science fiction stories. Some of these characteristics were juxtaposing fiction with factual social commentary, visual collages, concrete poetry. Then we covered five characteristics of New Wave science fiction. We covered one notable science fiction writer that we did not read for the week named J. G. Ballard. He wrote the novel “Empire Under the Sun” which was a favorite movie of mine when I was younger.
Then for our reading this week it was a short story written by Harlan Ellison who we also covered in class, the short story is called ““Repent, Harequin!” Said the Ticktokman.” I really enjoy Ellison’s style of writing after being introduced to this read. I started watching interviews and lectures that he had done and found them very intriguing. He has a very philosophical way in which he thinks mixed with his theories of society and culture in the future. I think he might be a favorite of mine now. I also watched “A Boy and His Dog” which I found his take on a post-apocalyptic society to be a cynical dark humor style which I found both funny a fascinating. Then I read our next reading for the week by Philip K. Dick which was “Electric Ant.” This was also an interesting read, but more of a direct narrative style compared to Ellison’s poetic play on words to iterate a cultural feel.
It is fascinating to see how the genre evolves with New Wave SF. This period of time seems to exceed the “Golden Age” of SF. What stood out to me the most was in the beginning of the lecture when we discussed the characteristics of SF. More specifically I am referring to the first 2 characteristics that are 1. The believe that SF should and could be taken seriously as literature
2. Writing experimentation and better writing. To further prove this point I want to point out how our 2 readings clearly share this influence. Ticktok Man and The Electric Ant truly both feel serious and greatly differ from one another. The level of Inner Space in The electric ant absolutely gives the impression of an experimental story that dares to push the reader to question their own reality. Which for me is an astounding achievement. This story reminds me a lot of the Matrix which was clearly influenced by this work. Often, in my time growing up androids are portrayed as terrible machineries who pose a threat to humans. However the electric ant depicts an android as one of us (a human who didn’t know they weren’t human). The popular theory of “Life is a simulation” must have really influenced many people during this era. I believe I have come across youtube videos that support this theory as well as Elon Musk support for this theory. I don’t think it’s a crazy one. Although I’d rather not share my personal feelings about that theory, I will say that I interpreted the tape to represent our brains.
In lecture 10, the New Wave Science Fiction is discussed. New Worlds was a British Science Fiction magazine, which originated in 1936 as a fanzine called “Novae Terrae.” The editor of New Worlds magazine was John Carnell, who lived from 1912-1972. There were multiple writers mentioned for this time period that were influential to New Wave. Before getting into detail of who contributed to the expansion of it, the characteristics of New Wave Science Fiction was made clear:
1. A belief that Science Fiction could and should be taken seriously as literature.
2. Writing experimentation and better writing. Unlike the poorly written work like Pulp Fiction.
3. Innerspace, which was the tendency toward psychology and other soft sciences like sociology, psychology, anthropology, etc.
4. Shared qualities with late 1960s counter culture, which includes mind-altering drugs, oriental religions, violating taboos, a market interest in sex, strong involvement in pop art and media landscape generally, and social change for equal rights and protection under the law.
5. Exhibits a pessimism about the future, especially the near future.
There were three major writers mentioned in the lecture: J.G Balland, Harlan Ellison, and Phillip K. Dick. Out of the three writers, the background of Ellison weirded me out. The different traits of Ellison caused mixed feelings. He was said to be an advocate for the right of writers, including himself. However, he was also apparently capable of having a very dominating presence in any room, and could be mean or rough. What worried me was the fact that he proposed the idea of a Disney porn movie, while voicing a few characters as examples. This was weird because of the fact that I know many Disney princesses are characterized as underage girls. I was intrigued about his work as a writer, but this turned me off about his character.
During this lecture, we talked about the “New Wave Science Fiction”. We dive back into a British Science Fiction magazine called “New Worlds”. I felt as if New Worlds was talked about in past lectures, with well known Science Fiction authors work first showing up in that magazine. “New Worlds” started up back in 1936 under a different name known as “Novae Terrae”. “New Worlds” has a lot of different writers providing their stories to be read by others. This of course makes sense considering this was a magazine. One of the writers who wrote for the magazine was John Carnell, who was alive from 1912-1972. J.G Balland, Harlan Ellison, and Phillip K. Dick were also other writers who contributed to the magazines story archive. “New Wave Science Fiction” was…well, a new form of Science Fiction being developed with different characteristics. This was the era where authors wanted their work of Science Fiction to be taken a little more serious than before, so different writing techniques were used, as well as better writing was included into stories. Exhibits were used a lot, which is a negative few of whats coming. These were especially common with near future stories.
As more and more time develops Science Fiction starts developing itself into sub categories with it’s own unique and valuable sub genres. Today on lecture #10 we dive deep into the new wave of SF and how “new wave” came to be.
New wave of SF had a massive boom in the late 60s all the way to the late 1970s that was “characterized by a high degree of experiment both in form of literary or artistic sense ability”. Micheal Jon moorcock was a crucial author during the age of Sf he was and still is a renoun writer. He’s known for his multiverse writing. That revolves around one character living through different universes with slight differences in his personality and traits. That has to combat chaos in order to form order.
The idea of Sf spreaded from the United Kingdom all the way to the United States. It was very difficult to swing big and profound writers to this new trend of SF. The first big writer to break this barrier was Harlan Ellison which he promoted twice in his breaking grounds collection and a second time in 1972. The movement for new wave of SF opened new ways of storytelling for new writers and new ideas.ps a third installment of “breaking grounds” is basically half life 3 at this point Been talked about for decades but absolutely nowhere to be seen.and for the story we had to read for this lecture “repent; Harequin said the tictokman”. By Harlan Ellison I seriously don’t know if it’s weird if I resonated with this short story but personally my favorite stories are the ones I can relate too no matter how bizarre they actually are. This story is about a world In a near future setting that is basically controlled by time and tight schedules. The “tictokman” which is basically the ruler of this world has the power to terminate anyone running late so basically I would be the first one dead in this world. Harlan Ellison continues his trend of difficult writing in this one he makes everything seem a lot more complicated then they should be but is always throwing unique ways to tell a story.
The class was about the New wave (from the French Nouvelle Vague) the term that comes from film criticism. New Wave was applied for the 1st time in SF for the UK writer and Critic Christopher Priest. He used this term to describe the kind of writing that appeared in the magazine called New Worlds.
Michael Moorcock tried to create speculative fiction and make broader the spectrum of SF. That is why he tried to use more options and literary genres in his magazine to expand the SF, he refers to this in his first editorial of New Worlds “this is a new literature for the space age”. Also, he founded the idea of a multi-universe that is so common in the Marvel and DC comics.
The 5 characteristics of New Wave SF: 1. Believe SF could and should be taken seriously as literature. 2.writing experimentation and better writing. 3. Inner space: tendency towards psychology and the soft sciences. 4. Shared qualities with the late 1960s counterculture. 5. Exhibit a pessimism in the future, especially the near future.
In the last part of the class, we examine some works related to this movement of the New wave SF and their authors. J.G. Ballard and his book the empire of the sun who even was adapted by Steven Spielberg in the cinema. Crash was the exploration the psychological aspect of automobile accidents and the satisfaction of danger, mutilation, and death on the road. This born of the obsession the author with the crash car accidents. Also, the works of Harlam Ellison and Phillip Kindred Dick and their respective works were revised in the class.
The topic of Lecture 10 is New Wave SF. The term New Wave is a translation of the French term ”Nouvelle Vague” and is associated with cinematic works like Alphaville by Jean Luc Godard and the cinematic version of Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, by Francois Truffaut. The term is also used to refer to the ascendancy of punk rock music that occurred in the late 1970s. UK SF writer Christopher Priest, author of the novel The Prestige (1995), which was adapted to film by Christoper Nolan in 2006, first utilized the term to refer to the type of writings found in the leading UK magazine New Worlds.
New Worlds’ editorship was taken over by Michael Moorcock (1939-) in 1964. Moorcock with a hands-on approach and passion similar to Astounding’s John W. Campbell, Jr., pushed for the evolution of SF. His methods included juxtaposing fiction with factual social commentary, the use of visual collages, and concrete poetry. Moorcock called for “a new literature for the space age”. Moorcock is also an SF writer whose works are based around the existence of a multiverse where the character’s lives and experiences differ between the parallel worlds.
New Wave was not well-received upon its introduction to the US from the UK. Harlan Ellison influenced its acceptance by publishing the new kind of stories in Dangerous Vision (1967) and Again, Dangerous Visions (1972). The SF old-guard and even New Wave writers resisted the term New Wave SF but the term eventually gained acceptance and helped to diversify the genre. Five characteristics of New Wave SF include the belief that SF could and should be taken seriously, writing experimentation which led to better writing, a tendency towards psychology and the soft sciences, shared qualities with 1960s counterculture, and pessimism about the future.
Some notable New Wave SF writers are J.G. Ballard (1930-2009), Harlan Ellison (1934-2018), and Philip K. Dick (1928-1982). Ballard was born in Shanghai and grew up in a Japanese POW camp. He discovered SF as a young man while training for the Canadian Royal Air Force. His self-proclaimed focus was on inner-space and he published The Atrocity Exhibition in 1970 and The Crash in 1973. Ellison’s works focused on ethics, human courage, and the city. He had a successful writing career in which he won 8 Hugo Awards, 3 Nebula Awards, and served as the 23rd Grandmaster of the Science Fiction Fantasy Writers of America. He was also on the frontline of social movement and participated in the March to Selma with MLK Jr. and reported on the Chicago Race Riots with James Baldwin in the 1950s. Dick lived in California most of his life but lived for a short time in Vancouver, Canada. He wrote an exorbitant amount of literature to generate income and in the 1960s completed 24 novels with the aid of amphetamines to boost his speed and energy. Most of Dick’s works gained recognition and were adapted to film after his death. Some popular films based on his works include Blade Runner (1982), Total Recall (1990), Screamer (1995), Imposter (2001), Minority Report (2002), Paycheck 2003, A Scanner Darkly (2006), Next (2007(, The Adjustment Bureau (2011), the remake of Total Recall (2012), and The Man In the High Castle released on Amazon Video in 2015.
The assigned readings for Lecture 10 were “Repent, Harlequin, Said the Ticktockman!” (1965) by Harlan Ellison and “The Electric Ant” (1969) by Philip K. Dick. The story by Ellison takes place in a future monochronic society where lateness is punished by an untimely death. The protagonist Harlequin lives his life at his own pace and finds joy in disrupting the system. He is an anonymous anomaly in a conformist society and as a result is incessantly pursued by the timekeeper, the Ticktockman. His rebellious actions are ended abruptly when he is outed by his girlfriend, Pretty Alice, who is bothered by his ways and prefers order and precision to chaos and imprecision. The Ticktockman makes Harlequin whose true identity has been revealed as Everett C. Marm repent publicly, and then ends his life, simultaneously returning things to normal. Or so it seems. “The Electric Ant” is a story about a robot, named Garson Poole, that learns that he is an android after being involved in an accident that requires his hand to be replaced. He is confused about the newly learned info and begins to question what is real and what is not. He performs a series of experiments on himself in an attempt to learn more about his programming and if possible make changes to it. His first attempt in manipulating the equipment in his chest fails and he is promptly repaired, but on his second attempt, he damages the equipment and does not have sufficient time to repair it causing him to see his “life” flash before his eyes prior to expiring.
New wave science fiction originated from film critics, referring to the rise of pop music in 1977. Applied by Christopher Priest to describe the kind of writing that appeared in the New Worlds magazine. The New Worlds magazine was the leading science fiction magazine in the UK, then when Micheal Morcock assumed editorship in the May-June issue in 1964 the magazine theme shifted to factual social commentary, visual collage, and concrete poetry. He did this to lose science fiction image to place speculative fiction in a context of rapid social change and radical art more generally. The idea of new wave science fiction spread from the UK to the US. Unfortunately, the US had problems migrating the major magazines from the UK so Harlan Ellison promoted a new kind of science fiction called “Dangerous Visions” in 1967 including 33 influencful stories. The movement opened up the genre for new stories and new ways of telling them, bringing the science fiction back into the golden ages. Some new wave writers were J. G. Ballard, William S. Burroughs, Harlan Ellison, and Philip K. Dick.
Harlen Ellison’s “Repent Harlequin, Said the Ticktockman!” in 1965, where a dystopian future where time is regulated and you must follow a strict schedule. A man assumes the harlequin to rebel against the timekeeper, the ticktockman. The harlequin is captured and rehabilitated, he repents in public.
Philip K. Dick’s “The Electric Ant” published in the October 1969 issue in F&SF magazine, where the character discovers he is a robot with a human appearance or an android. Within his chest is a punch hole tape that contains his programming. He discovered that changing the tape can change his reality.
In Lecture 10 we were introduced to the New Wave of Science Fiction. It comes from a period in the 1950s called “Nouvelle Vague,” which was an experimental film movement involving French directors. New Wave SF began in the United Kingdom and made its way to the United States but not without strife. The first time it was used was by Christopher Priest, an SF Writer when he used the term to describe writing in a magazine called New Worlds. New Worlds was a Science Fiction magazine which started in the UK in 1936. It’s editor, Michael Moorcock was another SF writer who developed new literature for the Space Age – most of his stories involve multiverse worlds.
It is noted that New Wave SF (not to be confused with New Wave music from the ’70s) has the following 5 characteristics:
1. The belief that SF could and should be taken seriously as literature
2. Experimenting and bettering writing (similar to what the Golden Age was to Pulp SF)
3. Inner Space, leaning towards psychology and soft science
4. Shared qualities with 1960s counterculture
5. Exhibits pessimism about the future
There were three prominent writers during this time in SF. JG Bullard (1930-2009) born in Shanghai and discovered SF later in his life. His writings about Innerspace have been described as “experimental.” His two well-known works are “Crash” (1973), and “The Atrocity Exhibition” in which the chapters themselves composed condensed novels, connected by titles that make up a running sentence.
Next up is Harlan Ellison (1934-2018), whose stories focus on ethics, human courage, and the city. Ellison’s forte was mainly short stories and screenplay. And has been described as outspoken, insecure, and ambitious (what a paradox). His story “Repent Harlequin Said the Ticktockman,” takes place in a dystopian future in which time is regulated and everyone is kept on a strict schedule. Failure to abide by their schedule leads to the time taken off their own life. The story follows the main character who rebels against the schedule and tries to distract others from their schedules. Eventually, the main character is captured by the Master Timekeeper or Ticktockman and must repent by telling everyone that he was wrong.
Lastly, we discussed Phillip K. Dick (1928-1982) who wrote mainstream, short and long forms of SF novels. His downfalls were that he would often use enhancing drugs to write quicker and rose to fame after his death. Dick had 6 characteristics of his works:
1.Ontological problems: concerning reality/authenticity
2. Epistemological problems
3. Entropy
4. Empathy: concerning the android and human being
5. Religion: Gnosticism, which is related to Christianity, in which secrets truths are meant to be discovered
6. The little man: the hero is an average Joe instead of being a super
In “The Electric Ant” (published in the October 1969 issue of Fantasy and Science Fiction), our main character, Garson Poole wakes up from a flying car accident and finds out he is missing a hand and later that he is actually a robot. He also discovers there is a tape in his chest with micro punched holes in it which controls his reality. Poole decides to experiment and punch new holes in the tape and in turn, the new hole adds something to his reality. In the end, Poole is left wondering if anything about himself and his reality is real at all.
In Lecture 10, we discussed New Wave SF. New Wave originally comes from the French term “Nouvelle Vague” which refers to French cinematic works like those of Jean Luc Godard. New Wave also refers to punk music ascendancy around 1977. New Wave was first applied to SF by SF writer and critic, Christopher Priest. New World was a leading United Kingdom SF magazines and things changed once Michael Moorcock became the editor 1964 issue. Characteristics of New Wave SF are Belief that SF could and should be taken seriously as literature, writing experimentation and better writing, Inner space, shared qualities with 1960’s Counter Culture and pessimism about the future. We also discussed three important New Wave SF writers starting with J.G. Ballard(1930-2009). Ballard’s work was characterized as written in an experimental style and focused on the psychology and emotional significance of deserted landscapes. The second writer was Harlan Ellison(1934-2018). His work focused on ethics, human courage, and the city. He specialized in short stories and screen playwriting. Furthermore, in 1967, Ellison edited Dangerous Visions which was one of the most famous scientific anthologies ever. We discussed one of Ellison’s stories, Repent, Harlequin! Said the Ticktockman(1965). It was about a dystopian future where the time s regulated and you must follow a strict schedule. A man assumes the anarchist Harlequin to rebel against the timekeeper, Ticktockman. Harlequin is captured and rehabilitated and repents in public. The last New Wave SF writer we discussed was Philip Kindred Dick(1928-1982) he wrote mainstream novels and short/long forms of SF. He was the first SF writer to have his work published by the Library of America. We were assigned to read Electric Ant(1969). The story was about Garson Poole who discovers he is a robot with a human appearance following a car accident. He further finds out that what he believes is his subjective reality is being red to him from a micro-punched tape in his chest cavity.
In this week’s lecture, we covered the genre of New Wave Science Fiction. We first learned about what New Wave SF is and its origin. It comes from film criticism. It refers to punk music’s ascendency around 1977. It was first applied to science fiction by science fiction writer and critic, Christopher Priest. He used the term New Wave to describe the king of writing that appeared in a magazine called New Worlds. New Worlds is a well known UK Science Fiction magazine. We learned about Michael Moorcock, born in 1939, who began editorship of the magazine in May 1964. Eventually, New Wave spread from the UK to the United States. We learned the characteristics of New Wave SF. We also learned about science fiction writer Harlan Ellison (1934-2018). Ellison promoted New Wave SF in Dangerous Visions in 1967. It opened up the genre for new stories and the new ways of telling stories. It also revitalized the genre from its Golden Age focus. We discussed various works by Harlan Ellison. We also learned about J. G. Ballard (1930-2009). His work is categorized as written in an experimental style focusing on psychology and innerspace. We also discussed science fiction stories Crash and The Atrocity Exhibition. We then discussed Philip K. Dick (1928-1982). We learned about his background and the kind of work he produced. We also learned characteristics of his work. We discussed various stories he wrote. Lastly, we discussed the stories we read for the class, “Repent, Harlequin, said the Ticktockman” and “ The Electric Ant”.
New Wave Science Fiction took off when Michael Moorcock became editor of the UK Science Fiction magazine in 1964. He wanted Science Fiction to contain more speculative fiction that involved rapid social change and radical art. He described New Wave Science Fiction as a “New literature for the Space Age.” The New Wave of Science Fiction eventually spread from the UK to the US. New Wave SF has five important characteristics that include a belief that SF could and should be taken serious as literature, better writing, inner space, common qualities with 1960s counterculture and a pessimism about the future. Two examples of New Wave SF are Harlan Ellison’s (1934 – 2018) “Repent, Harlequin!” Said the Ticktockman and Philip K. Dick’s (1928 – 1982) The Electric Ant. The former tells the story of a dystopian future in which time is regulated, and all humans must submit to strict schedules. An anarchist rebels against the timekeeper but is then captured, rehabilitated, and repents in public. The latter tells the story of a man named Garson Poole who after a car accident, realizes that he is an android and that by altering the punch hole tape that holds his programming he is able to change his reality. Dick’s stories have six characteristics including a concern of ontological problems, epistemological problems, entropy, empathy, religion, and the little man. Many of his stories deal with normal everyday people who begin to question their own reality and existence.