LITR 4632: Literature of the Future

Web-Highlight 2005

Thursday, 16 June: narrative: alternative futures "Garden of Forking Paths" (handout); "The Gernsback Continuum" (BC 23-35); "Better Be Ready 'bout Half Past Eight" (VN 22-47);

Web-highlighter: Jenn House

Class wide excerpts 2003

In contrast, the literature we are engaging is actually literature ABOUT the future (or possible futures).  Surprisingly, as in “Better Be Ready ‘Bout Half Past Eight” the future is not always so far away that we cannot connect with its contents today as with Time Machine.

Second, having been in the corporate world for 20 years, I can relate to and greatly appreciate many of the stories I read in class, such as Stone Lives, which deals with the evolutionary issue of capitalism and the influence and control that corporations can have on society.  I have experienced, firsthand, those effects and have gained an even greater appreciation of the potential misuse of power in the hands of ill-intentioned capitalistic control-seekers. 

Readers beliefs are easily viewed when discussing texts like Revelations, Genesis and even “Better Be Ready ‘Bout Half Past Eight.” Therefore, every text read makes the reader confront their personal belief system and ask does it work in a story like this one? The texts operate on a different level from other classes. Except for the bible and The Time Machine, the notoriety is not present due to the text’s subjects falling in and out of the science fiction realm. Discussing endless possibilities in The Garden of Forking Paths leaves no student free. Everyone talks because the content forces it and no one can be wrong….Those that wonder enough should be sent to this class to expand their minds and get a chance to operate on the “literature of the future level.”

Class Wide Excerpts 2001

Before, my thinking was that our destiny was figured out for us. That if something happened it was because it was meant to be. That it would lead us down the correct path. Yet in the Jorges Luis Borges story it talks of "forked paths". Aren’t we always questioning? Asking, "What if I had taken that job? What if I had moved to Florida? Etc." After reading "Parable of the Sower", I realize that we have the ability to make our own ‘Earthseed’. Lauren left a bad situation to better her life. Therefore, she made her path and her future. [HA 2001]