Edwin:
Neologisms are new words in a language which can be used in the modern world creating different words to further our knowledge to build advanced civilizations.
Edwin:
Neologisms are new words in a language which can be used in the modern world creating different words to further our knowledge to build advanced civilizations.
David:
Fiction writers use verisimilitude to give their stories a sense of reality. Most of the time they are not showing or describing something that is actually true or real, but instead making something fictional seem believable.
Stefaniya:
C2: Definitions of SF Terms
Novum â the scientifically plausible innovations used by science fiction narratives.
Santos:
1/ Slipstream- a fictional source that crosses boundaries in genre.
2/Scientific Romances- late 19th century and early 20th century British science fiction stories that focus on the good and evil of advanced technology.
3) Space Opera- a drama taking place in outer space that often consist of space warfare, extraterrestrials, romance, neologisms, and advance technology.
4) Steampunk- fictional text that often takes place in the Victorian era and features advanced steam powered machinery and weaponry.
5) â Cyberpunk- genre of fiction where society is dominated by computers and artificial intelligence.
What is the difference between the sf sub-genres of steampunk and cyberpunk?
â Both steampunk and cyberpunk have to do with the advancement of technological innovations, but the difference between them is the time period. Steampunk involves a more 19th century wild wild west time period with the combination of fictional technology and the innovative technology of that time. An example would be the movie Atlantis: The Lost Empire. While cyberpunk involves a more modern time period with the combination of technological advancements in this time period and the addition of more fictional innovations. An example would be Blade Runner.
6/Â Hard SF is based on science, but not necessarily scientific fact. Works of hard SF make use of the scientific method, where it is not only important to know that something is possible, but also to know how it is possible and why it was made possible. Things that are not based on currently proven scientific facts have to be justified with their own scientific logic. It may be more appropriate to think of it as âfictional science.â (Robert)
Are âcanonâ and âmegatextâ synonyms? If not, how do they differ? Are they related?
Yes, they are related, but they are not synonymous. They are both used to describe SF and other genres, but they are based on different perspectives. A megatext is outlined by authors that contribute to certain themes and sub-genres by creating alternative and derivative works from each other. A canon is outlined by the general community on which individual works contributed to the overall culture of the genre.
Hard SF is based on science, but not necessarily scientific fact. Works of hard SF make use of the scientific method, where it is not only important to know that something is possible, but also to know how it is possible and why it was made possible. Things that are not based on currently proven scientific facts have to be justified with their own scientific logic. It may be more appropriate to think of it as âfictional science.â
RWA4.1: Reading Bradbury, Bester, and Asimov
Please print out copies of the Bester and Asimov short stories (copies of Bradbury’s short story were distributed in class). Please read all three texts from start to finish.  Then, briefly write about your response to each in your reading journal.  Afterward, please read each again, this time taking notes and attending to the story’s elements as a fictional text (plot, character, setting, narrative perspective, figurative language, themes) more carefully, its relationships to various issues related to science fiction as a genre and to some recurring elements or properties of science fiction texts. Afterward, please write some more about each story and the essay, what you now understand about them, and questions that you have about them, making sure to attend to the What, How, Why, So What? elements of each.
Finally, please select one reading question related to the Bester story and one to the Asimov story and post your response to both as comments on this post BY MIDNIGHT, SUNDAY, MARCH 5.Â
Though not required, please feel free to post links that you may have consulted in the process of reading the stories and why you found them helpful.  What is required is that you read the texts carefully, write about them in your reading journal, and think about them in the context of our class discussions, Delany’s fiction and criticism, Russ’s “The Second Inquisition,” Pohl’s “Day Million,” Philip K. Dickâs short story âWe Can Remember It For You Wholesale,â our discussions about that story, the issues and topics raised in the âIntroductionâ to the Wesleyan Anthology of Science Fiction and the collection of responses gathered in âWhy Do You Read Science Fiction.â  We will be discussing the stories and your reading questions in our next class session.
RWA4.2: Literary Studies and SF Keywords: Please select five terms related to the elements of fiction and five terms related to SF studies and define them.  You can post your definitions as a comment on the SF Keywords post or print out a copy of these and hand them in to me next Monday.
Select one short passage for us to discuss together. [why this passage?]
Ray Bradbury, âThere Will Come Soft Rainsâ (1954)
What: Â Bradbury, Ray. Â âThere Will Come Soft Rains.â Collierâs, 1950.
Objective, third person narrator who is unnamed and may or may not be human. Â Some possibilities include: Â The house? Â A surveillance system? A survivor? A ânanny camâ? A security system? Â The robots?
Characters: four people: Mrs. McClellan, her husband and two children. Â There is also a dog and nine thousand robot attendants. Â A Mr. Featherstone is mentioned. Â We donât know who he is, but it is his birthday. Â
Did the house live? Â Did the house die? Â Is the house destroyed? Â
Is the house the narrator? Â Why or why not?
Why are there robot mice?
Narration: Â highly objective, precise, quantitative, all seeing, all knowing, stylistically the narration reads as some kind of report,
Diction: highly factual
Clocks: time, order, end of things, Doomsday Clock,
Elon Musk lives in a smart house. Â
Why would the author or narrator have chosen the âinterior of a clock shop at midnightâ as an image for the last section of this story? Â
Cogs are still in motion in a clock shop, despite being no one to attend to, clocks still function, clock shop would be loud at midnight (sounding alarms), âend of time/end  of timesâ, new beginning, midnight is when both hands overlap and it is simultaneously the beginning and end of a day. Â
How do we define and organize time?
Is this story about time travel?
âDay Millionâ by Frederick Pohl
âWe Can Remember It For You Wholesaleâ by Philip K. Dick
âTime Considered as a Helix of Semi-Precious Stonesâ by Samuel Delany
âThe Second Inquisitionâ by Joanna Russ
Compare/Contrast: Â all of the stories we have read deal with the future of humanity; utopia/dystopia; utopic/dystopic
Humans can disappear, but time continues. Â âThere Will Come Soft Rainsâ is a story about time. Â It is structured by time,
In what way is the Teasdale poem a metonym for the story?
Nature is ultimately more powerful than technologies in this story. Â
Time is relative!
Technologies appear to improve with time. Â But are also irrelevant without people to use them. Â Technologies may breakdown. Â They may also post-date humans. Â