Assignment: Final Exam

Greetings, all!

I wanted to give you as much time as possible to work on your final exam in Science Fiction, so I am including it here on our OpenLab site now. I will discuss it along with all of the final projects in our class in next week’s lecture, and I will send a reminder about it to everyone in the class via email.

This is a take home exam. You should complete it alone using your notes.

Your final exam responses are due by midnight at the end of day on Wednesday, May 20.

If you have any questions, please email me at jellis at citytech.cuny.edu.

Science Fiction Final Exam
Prof. Jason W. Ellis

Instructions

• Answer the following questions as short paragraphs with complete sentences.
• Always include author birth/death dates and publication dates.
• You have a couple of ways to get your exam responses to me for grading:
1) Type your responses into a Word docx file and email it to me as an attachment. I will reply confirming receipt.
2) Write your responses by hand and send your responses to me as a scanned PDF or JPG images via email. Verify that your handwriting and the images are LEGIBLE before sending. I will reply confirming recipt.
3) Don’t post your exam responses on OpenLab. Send it to me at jellis at citytech.cuny.edu using one of the methods described above.

Exam Questions

1. In 5-10 sentences, tell me who wrote Frankenstein, a brief summary of Frankenstein’s plot, why is Frankenstein considered the first example of SF, name the three key characters who are all scientists and explain why each is a “scientist.”
2. In 2-4 sentences, tell me the name of the editor who launched the first SF magazine, the name of the first SF magazine, its month and year of launch, his name for science fiction and its three characteristics.
3. In 1-2 sentences, name the Golden Age editor of Astounding, give his birth/death years, and list his four rules of good SF.
4. For the following Golden Age stories, write 2-4 sentences for each including the name of the author, birth/death years, the publication date of the story, and its summary:
   a. “Reason”
   b. “The Fireman”
   c. “–All You Zombies”
   d. “The Cold Equations”
5. In 2-4 sentences, name the director of the film Forbidden Planet, give the year that it was released, name the film production company, summarize the film, and explain the significance of the id, ego, and superego to its story.
6. In 1-2 sentences, name the editor of New Worlds magazine who inaugurated New Wave SF, give his birth year, and list the five characteristics of New Wave SF.
7. For the following New Wave stories, write 2-4 sentences for each including the name of the author, birth/death years, the publication date of the story, and its summary:
   a. “Repent, Harlequin! Said the Ticktockman” (include the title of the famous book he edited)
   b. “The Electric Ant” (include a list of characteristics of his works, too)
   c. “Aye, and Gomorrah…”
8. In 2-4 sentences, name the creator of Star Trek, give his birth/death years, give its original air dates, list its six characteristics, name the episode that we saw for class, and summarize the story.
9. In 1-2 sentences, define feminist SF and list its six characteristics.
10. For the following feminist SF stories, write 2-4 sentences for each including the name of the author, birth/death years, the publication date of the story, and its summary:
    a. “The Women Men Don’t See”
    b. “Nine Lives”
    c. “Speech Sounds”
11. In 1-2 sentences, define afrofuturism and list its three characteristics.
12. In 2-3 sentences, define cyberpunk and list its five characteristics; name who wrote “Burning Chrome,” give his birth year, give the story’s year of publication, and summarize the story.

Bonus (+1): In 1-2 sentences, tell me which semester reading you enjoyed most. Explain why.

Bonus (+1): In 1-2 sentences, tell me which semester reading you enjoyed least. Explain why.