After watching this week’s lecture on New Wave SF and completing the assigned readings, write at least 250 words summarizing your notes and copy-and-paste your summary into a comment made to this post. Focus on what stands out to you, what were some of the important points that I made, what were interesting elements in the readings, connections between the readings and other SF that you know, etc. Remember, the weekly writing assignment is graded on best effort. I would like to know what you find notable about each week’s class. As long as the posts relate to the class and you give me your best, you receive all the credit. Also, this serves as regular writing practice, which has been shown to improve your writing skills by simply doing this kind of work. It will help prepare you for the writing that you will do on your research essay and the final exam.
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After reading this week’s assigned readings and watching lecture, what stands out to me is that the tragedies from the 1960s seem like they are always undermined. From JFK’s assinattion to the terror of the Vietnam War, to the genocides happening globally, the 1960s seem like a dark period of human history that does not get the same amount of attention such as events like the Great Depression or the World Wars. When Professor Ellis discusses the major contributors to New Wave SF, such as Michael Moorcock and Judith Merril, he emphasizes that a lot of the SF writing at the time focused on the pessimism of the future. This stood out to me the most because to get the readers or listeners’ attention and interests at the time, New Wave SF used current events to formulate story plots that can resemble a future of uncertainty. When watching this week’s assigned film, “Star Trek, “The City on the Edge of Forever,” what stood out to me was the Codrazine drug overdose that occurred to Dr.McCoy. This stood out to me because at the time, the 1960s saw an influx of the use of drug use as soldiers were returning home with drug habits from Vietnam. Many of the movements of the 1960s such as the Hippie Movement, saw the use of marijuana, LSD, and other various drugs among activists. This stood out to me because “Star Trek, “The City on the Edge of Forever,” incorporated scenarios happening domestically to a futuristic film.
The New Wave of Science Fiction (coined by Christopher Priest, derived from French cinema) ties in the “Long 60’s”: it cites anti-establishment counter culture, violent political upheaval, questions of status quo, and quick technological advancement. Michael Moorcock, as editor of “New Worlds” wanted to create a “new literature for the space age” using a William Burroughs-like, chaos-entropic writing style. Focusing on the idea of the “eternal champion” and Weltschmerz (one who knows reality cannot satisfy the demands of the mind), he weaves in the social demands of the mid 20th century. The New Wave of Science Fiction wants to be taken as serious literature with more experimentation and better writing. My personal favorite, Philip K. Dick, uses an amphetamine-driven writing style to spiral into a world that questions everything around it ontologically. The characteristics of the New Wave are explored in the Human’s deep psychosis and ways of thinking. J.G. Ballard highlights the dark underlyings of our lust in his novel, Crash. We are satisfied from destruction, and the ways machine fit within our bodies physically and mentally. In the movie “Crash”, one scene shows a woman sticking a piece of metal in a huge gash wound of hers: horror and sex create a gross spectacle. The writings of the era are violent, moral, ethical, and question everything we think we know (our epistemological problems). People escape reality using mind-altering drugs which flourish in the Science Fiction New Wave. It shows in Substance D, Cordrazine, and our own LSD. At what point do drugs become their own reality?
I loved the rundown of this week’s lecture on New Wave SF because of how many amazing SF stories were made in books, movies, and TV shows to educate younger audiences especially since JFK’s promise to America that there would be a man put on the moon. The various events that were discussed in the lecture, such as the Vietnam War, Korean War, the resignation of President Nixon, and the assassination of President Kennedy, all contributed to the ongoing nuclear bomb developments in our world and how much they are affecting us today. I was surprised the massive impact of the KKK was not mentioned in the lecture, and how it affected the way racism was portrayed in works of literature such as in Dr. Suess’s books that portrayed some form of science fiction (The Lorax on the climate crisis). Nonetheless, the readings reminded me a lot about some of the most popular shows that I’ve loved watching growing up. “The Ticktokman”‘s severity with monitoring and keeping time schedules strict for citizens made me think about Gravity Falls and the multi-dimensional universe that the characters had to fight off in order to save their world. The Tiktokman’s strictness with keeping the citizens as ‘slaves’ of time might’ve also indicated the hardships that industrial workers in the 40-60s have had to endure before the progressive movement in America and the unionization of many workers. “The Electric Ant” made me think of a show called Lab Rats, which is about three teenagers who have had bionic chips placed in their necks as children and grown to have bionic powers. Their father, who developed the software and implemented the ability for them to upgrade their human-robot powers gave them the ability to pose as ‘superheroes’ using science to give the teenagers the ability to do supernatural things such as telekinesis, super speed, and super strength. Although I found Carlson Poole’s situation creepy and frightening, it does show a foreshadowing future of where humanity might be in the near future. The idea of experimenting with ‘super-humans isn’t new, and we experience the reality with our love for Marvel or DC, and other forms of supernatural qualities that regular humans (or aliens from another planet) have, but the scenario in which a human can have a bionic chip inserted in their body to give them superpowers or just turn them into an android is astounding.
In this week’s lecture the professor introduced us to New Wave Science Fiction. A new era for science fiction that was related to the 60s and its huge changes to society in America. During this time, SF writers demanded for science fiction to be taken more seriously and to be compared with other works of art. People experimented with new writing styles and a lot of the stories from this time shared qualities with 1960s counterculture. J.G Ballard was one of the first people to begin experimenting with new styles of writing, but his was particularly odd. The professor mentioned one of his books called “Crash” and how it was determined that he extracted some kind of pleasure from deadly accidents. This kind of person is considered messed up, however we still read these kinds of books because everyone has a kind of morbid curiosity hidden in the backs of their mind that makes people want to read them. What I found most interesting however was Harlan Ellison and while reading his stories and hearing the lecture, I kept thinking how there should be a movie about this guy. Everyone that knew him said he had a crazy personality and he was also described by Robert Bloch as “the only living organism I know whose natural habitat is hot water”. He became part of a gang in order to gather information about how gangs work and write a new book with that information. What I found really funny though, was him getting fired from Disney because he was overheard suggesting a Disney pornographic movie. Another really interesting person that was talked about in the lecture was Philip K. Dick and how he used drugs to be able to write more. His stories revolved around Psychological and Philosophical problems. Namely, ontological problems and epistemological problems. He also used the concept of entropy, loss of empathy and religion to give the world and the characters in them more depth. I also like the fact that the main characters in his stories were completely normal people so it made the stories more believable.
This week’s lecture was centered around New Wave Science Fiction, which revolved around the 1960s, a period of broad social change in America due to the events at the time, like JFK’s assassination, Nixon’s resignation, civil rights movements, and the Vietnam War. It was during this period that the science fiction genre remanded to be taken seriously as works of literature, so it’s no surprise that those years saw a rise in quality of SF works.
J.G. Ballard was the first featured writer in the lecture. He was known for his inclusion of exploration of human psychology in his works. As mentioned in the class, “Crash” was filled with gruesome traffic accidents that targeted humans’ inherent curiosity. I could not help but keep thinking about how true the statement is. Even if we get grossed or scared, there is something about the death that we cannot avoid wondering because it is not something anybody gets to just “experience.”
Harlan Ellison was the author of one of this week’s stories, “Repent, Harlequin, Said the Ticktockman!” I had mixed feelings about this story, mainly on the setting. Firstly, it just feels a bit unbelievable that the Harlequin was the single most rebellious person in all of society, because as I personally believe, humans have an inherent tendency to be rebellious, which leads me to the second point. It’s hard to believe that every single person in society willingly gave up their life to the possibility of getting a death penalty due to things they sometimes have no control over.
Some things I have noticed is that the New Wave Science Fiction came about during the 1960s when there was a lot of tension and people were questioning things more. The counterculture is basically that. They would counter your point. The writing for new wave Science Fiction is also experimental. This would mean it was different from other readings you may pick up at that time. This new wave of Science Fiction was also taken as seriously as literature like novels. These books would be pessimistic about the future. J. G. Ballard wrote things to that effect. He wrote books with psychology and emotion in mind. Ballard also used a desert landscape in his books. This use of desert landscape as a background is pretty pessimistic because when you think of a desert, you think of it being dry and lacking resources. These were settings that Ballard used in his writings. Another author mentioned in the lecture was Harlan Ellison. What I found kind of interesting was that he joined a gang to write a book about what it was like. Ellison also wrote other books which all had themes of ethics, human courage, and the setting of the city. Another author mentioned in the lecture was Philip K. Dick. He wrote books that had focus on ontology which is the idea of what is real or fake from whatever first hand knowledge you have. His short story called “The Electric Ant” demonstrates this because the main character, Garson Poole, discovers that he is a robot. Poole also finds out that in his chest, there are tapes that basically are his understanding of reality. What he understands as the truth is what is established in the tape in his chest. He makes holes in the tape in his chest which then changes his perception of reality. This is a great example of the use of ontology in Philip’s book. Garson’s sense of what was real to him changes when he plays around with the tape in his chest. New Wave Science Fiction seems to be when Science Fiction became experimental.
In this week’s lecture we move on to New Wave SF. It coincides with the 1960s. Looking back in time the 1960s had a lot of historic moments. Like JFK’s assassination, MLK’s assassination, The Civil Rights movement, Nixon’s resignation, and the Vietnam war. In pop culture, The Beatles coming to the U.S., Woodstock festival, New sounds from the Beach Boys to Jimi Hendrix, and much more. Things I learned about the new wave is that the term comes from film criticism. It was applied to science fiction by Christopher Priest. J.G. Ballard the first writer we talked about in the lecture. His work is characterized as experimental style. It’s focus on “Inner Space”, Psychology, Wrecked technology, and Emotional significance of deserted landscapes. One of his works mentioned was Crash. Crash is about traffic accidents. It’s characterized as danger and death on the road. Another writer talked about in the lecture is Harlan Ellison. One cool thing I learned is that he joined a Brooklyn gang to write about the experiences. I can compare this to method acting. For example Robert De Niro worked a real taxi job preparing for the Taxi Driver role. And Ellison doing the same thing is kind of cool. Ellison works focused on ethics, human courage, and the city setting. Last writer mentioned is Philip K. Dick. He wrote novels focused on ontology, epistemological, entropy, empathy, and religion. Some of his works were 1977 A Scanner Darkly and 1981 Valis. One cool fact that he wrote about normal people, characterized as the “little man”.
In this week’s lecture, we went over the context for new wave of science fiction, and it contain some strong historical event around it during that period, such as JFK’s assassination, civil right, counterculture, and Vietnam War. After that we learned about few different writers like J.G. Ballard, Harlan Ellison, and Philip K. Dick. One thing that stood out to me from the lecture video was when Prof. Ellis going over with “Context for New Wave SF” and in the bullet hole list it contains some of the great tragedies in history like the death of JFK, and the mass massacre of Vietnam War, most people would consider the decade of 1960 was the darkest moment in human history.
In reading of Harlan Ellison’s “Repent, Harlequin, Said the Ticktockman!” is about everyone is doing things race with time, if one person is being late is not merely an inconvenience, and is a crime. The crime can carry a hefty penalty in that a proportionate amount of time is revoked from that person’s life. The main idea of this story it seems to be proving the idea of Industrial Revolution from 1760-1840. All workers were being use as a slave. In “The Electric Ant” is about the main protagonist Garson Poole finds out that he was a robot after he is missing his hand from a flying car crash. Garson He further finds out that what he believes is his subjective reality is being fed to him from tape in his chest. He then adding new holes to his tape, which adds things to his reality. This whole robot idea of this story is very similar to Cyberpunk 2077 when a playable character can actually create something on their body part.
“The Electric Ant” is a fascinating story. It makes me think that what if, one day, I find out that I’m an electric ant too. Would I accept the reality? Or would I choose to kill myself just like the protagonist, Garson Poole? He reminds me of people who have drug abuse issues. Unable to accept reality, some people turn to drugs and alcohol because they try to live in illusions, just like what Poole did with his intricate reality tape.
Harlan Ellison’s “‘Repent, Harlequin!’ Said the Ticktockman” makes me think about the cultural difference. In one culture, time works around people. When people say they’ll be there in the party at 7pm, no guest will actually arrive at 7. It will be 8, 9, or even 10. In another culture, people works for time, exactly like this story, or Swiss German culture perhaps. When people say 7pm, they will come at precisely 7pm because time for them is gold. Moreover, this piece has a confusing timeline. It’s not linear, and it didn’t use flashback; I find it to be a really interesting way to compose a story.
I learned in our lecture this week that Philip K. Dick’s works have six characteristics: 1. It investigates the nature of reality, the nature of being, and the nature of authenticity. 2. It brings up the problems that we have about knowledge. 3. It involves entropy; that is, things tend to become disorganized. 4. Empathy. 5. Religion. 6. His protagonists are often everyday average people, not super heroes.
This week’s lecture revolves around the ins and outs of new wave science fiction. Some topics touched on were the social affairs throughout the 1960s, such as the state of politics along with popular music and films being released at the time. This time between 1960 through the late 1970s brought about a lot of change, from the tail end of the civil rights movement, the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, and the protesting of the US’s involvement in the Vietnam War, people were questioning their lifestyles and the social norms. Some important points mentioned were the characteristics that shape new wave SF such as science fiction being taken more seriously as literature and pessimism about the future of humans amongst others. Some influential people in the field are Christopher Priest, Michael Moorcock, Harlan Ellison, and Phillip K Dick. something that stood out from this lecture was one of the novels written by Phillip K Dick, Do androids dream of electric sheep? (1966). The synopsis sounded similar to a popular science fiction video game call Detroit: Become Human. The storyline follows three main characters who are androids, one is a mother figure to the young daughter of her owner, and they spend most of the story on the run. The second one becomes a leader for all of the androids after becoming sentient himself, his main goal is to free all of the other androids. The third and final character is an investigator of sorts who goes after androids deemed Deviants. The decision-based game follows these three characters as their stories expand and intertwine. “‘Repent Harlequin!’ Said the Ticktockman” (1965) was an enjoyable read, though confusing at first because of its non-linear timeline.
In the week 10 lecture, Professor Ellis informed us about the New Wave science fiction that was produced during the 1960s. We first learned about what New Wave SF is and its origin. We also learned it had a lot of important historical events behind it like JFK’s assassination, the civil rights movement, and the Vietnam War. The first writer we learned about was J.G. Ballard (1930- 2009). His work is considered as an experimental style, he focused on the psychology and emotional significance of deserted landscapes and wrecked technology. We talked about one of his books called “Crash” (1973), it explored the psychological aspect of automobile accidents and the satisfaction of danger, mutilation, and death on the road that Ballard was obsessed with. We also talked about Harlen Ellison (1934 – 2018). His work focused on ethics, human courage, and the city. One of his readings was the “Repent Harlequin, Said the Ticktockman!” in 1965, The story 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. I found this story very interesting because it relates to many different aspects of society and different cultures and how people view the meaning of time.
This week we covered the new wave of SF. To begin Each period of SF is influenced by the events taking place at the time and some of the most notable occurrences are JFKs assassination, Civil rights, Music Counterculture, the mother of all demos and more. Douglas Engelbart was the one who created the mother of all demos which showcased the fundamentals of modern computing like graphical user interface and more. Christopher Priest was the first person to incorporate new wave into SF in 1962 with his short film “LA Jade Lade.” Michael Moorcock was another notable SF writer in the 60s. He based his writings on the concept of a multi verse existing where there is a protagonist in each universe is slightly different. An example of this is the 2018 film “Spider-Man into the Spider Verse.” Within this movie there are multiple universes where each has a different spiderman one being the original that we know peter parker, and another one having a younger Miles Morales. There were four characteristics of new wave SF. First the belief that SF should be taken seriously as literature. Second that writing should be experimented with and improved. Third that it should only include sciences relating to humans such as psychology. And fourth that is shows pessimism about the future of human life. J.G Ballard lived from 1930 to 2009 and he wrote “the atrocity exhibition.” this novel used the cut-up style which meant if you took the titles of all the chapters and put them together, they would create a sentence for themselves. Philip K. Dick who lived from 1926 to 1982 was another writer of new wave SF. One topic he wrote about was humans having a lack of empathy. In one of his writings he wrote about a android who shouldn’t have empathy, that was showing compassion opposed to a human not carring and disregarding others.
The week’s lecture of New Wave SF was a great introduction to understanding what is considered New Wave SF and where it comes from. The first New Wave SF writer is a British writer named Christopher Priest known for his book The Prestige. Michael Moorecock became editor in May/June 1964 of the New World magazine which is a SF magazine in the UK. He put forward new literature for the space age with the protagonist for his literature being eternal champions. Judith Merryl a U.S./Canadian writer & editor of England Swings SF 1968, based on the New Wave of SF from England. Different writers from this time period are J.G. Ballard known for Crash published in 1973 and Atrocity Exhibition in 1970, Harlan Ellison, who had a big year in 1967 editing Dangerous Visions and publishing other books and lastly is Philip K. Dick, his books did not have the common hero but rewards different people with that title based on their characteristics. The Electric Ant (1969) by Philip K. Dick demonstrates the epistemological nature of his writing, the difference between what we believe and what is real. “Repent, Harlequin!” Said the Ticktockman by Harlan Ellison published in 1965 correlates with his beliefs in ethics and human courage. The character Harlequin is disruptive by not obeying the established laws of time and he is punished of his wrong doing because of his negative effects on the others around him. The TickTockman could have stopped his heart like the others who didn’t follow the laws but instead he made him apologize for his wrong doing.