model assignments

e-texts & research links

Prof. White's home page

Course Texts

Scriptural texts: esp. Genesis (Creation) and Revelation (Apocalypse)

H. G. Wells, The Time Machine (1895)

Octavia Butler, Parable of the Sower (1993)

Future Primitive: The New Ecotopias, ed. K. S. Robinson (1994)

Virtually Now: Stories of Science, Technology and the Future, ed. J. Schinto (1996)

+ online texts & email handouts—see reading schedule below

Graded Work
Reading quizzes (app. 10%, more if results are far below average.)
Pre-Midterm (start Essay 1 + Essay 2 research proposal; 4-6 October, 20%?)
Midterm (In-class or email, 30 October; 30-40%)
Final Exam (11 December, in-class or email; 40-50%)
Grades are not computed mathematically; percentages indicate only assignments' approximate relative weight. Only letter grades are given. Pluses and minuses may appear on component and final grades.

Class Presentations, participation, attendance (app. 10-20%, graded silently)
Future-Vision Presentation
Discussion-Starter
Web-Highlighter
Class preparation and participation

Attendance: One free cut allowed without comment or penalty. Two or more absences or partial absences, even with good excuses, lower final grade, potentially seriously.

Final grade report

Course policies

Monday, 28 August

Readings:  Preview Scriptural Texts of Creation & Apocalypse

Population growth

terms: decline or progress

mimesis

symbols and narratives; genres; romance narrative; the sublime; science fiction

Agenda:

welcome, syllabus, website, daily windows, time
review assignments; 2016 homepage
presentation preferences + handout
Presentations for next Tuesday? > email later this week
[break]
critical terms: mimesis
symbols and narratives > genres, romance narrative
midterm > 3 narratives (obj. 1); nature of time
preview next week's texts & discussion questions

Discussion Questions:

1. Have any of you ever taken a course like this before? What expectations or wishes?

2. How much should this course teach prophecy and science fiction as genres with qualities you can find in other forms of literature, or concentrate on what's special about prophecy and science fiction?

3. What attitudes are possible for reading religious scripture as literature? How is religious scripture read differently from everyday literature? What conflicts might arise?

4. What attitudes toward Biblical Creation & Evolution?

3. Genesis as Origin Story / Creation Story: familiarity with genre?

4. How does the Creation story in Genesis set up Revelation?

Monday, 11 September: Apocalyptic scriptures

Readings: Read through Scriptural Texts of Creation & Apocalypse

terms: Millennium / Apocalypse, prophecy, sublime, symbol

Discussion-starter: 

Web-highlighter (midterms): instructor

terms: images, symbols, genre, utopia, narrative genre, romance narrative

Agenda: emails, presentations + info sheets, Assign Parable of the Sower; future-vision next week?

quiz on reading assignments

Discussion-starters: Andrew, Marion (added question)

symbols & narratives

[break]

web-highlight: Pre- & Midterm assignments, Model Assignments (developing your essay, using terms)

#5 & 6 social consequences

romance narrative

apocalyptic music: Carl Orff, Carmina Burana; Beethoven, Ode to Joy

Discussion Questions: 1. Creation-Apocalypse narratives exemplify the linear model of time, but what parts of today's apocalyptic texts suggest a more complex model or dimensions beyond "Point A to Point B?"

2. Narrative genres: How does the plot-pattern of Revelation resemble the plot narrative of a romance? Pay attention to the gradual revelation of the central character of Jesus—how does he appear? How is he like a hero in a romance-rescue story? How are the Satanic figures like the villain? (instructor will lead)

3. Symbols are among the most striking and obvious devices of apocalyptic literature, e.g. popular references to "666," "The Beast," "Anti-Christ," "The Whore of Babylon," "Signs in the Heavens," etc. What can we learn about symbols' functions in literature generally from their power in apocalyptic literature?

Special questions for End-Times literature and reading or teaching scripture as literature. (We can't get to all of these, but they suggest millennial literature's many points of interest for literary and cultural criticism.)

4. If Revelation and other apocalyptic texts are among the most popular parts of the Bible, why? What literary appeals? (<in contrast to appeals to faith, religious belief, etc.) How does Revelation seem different from other Biblical or scriptural texts like the Gospels? (Eastern Orthodox churches don't include Revelation in the Bible.)

5. What impulses for social or personal change, or what social consequences, result from apocalyptic texts and thought? How does apocalyptic thinking influence attitudes toward decline or progress?

6. Jesus was crucified around 30-36AD, and the Book of Revelation was written between 70 and 95AD. Matthew 24.34 records Jesus saying, "This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled." What social or evolutionary consequences to perennial belief that "ours is the last generation?"

Added question: Apocalyptic thinking and literature are always popular to some degree, but why is are Millennials naturally fascinated by apocalyptic films (alien invasion, zombie apocalypse), post-apocalyptic romance narratives (young adulty dystopias like Hunger Games, Maze Runners, The Giver), and more traditional scriptural apocalypses (Left Behind series, + ISIS jihadism is apocalyptic-cultish).

Monday, 18 September

Readings: Parable of the Sower (read app. half, at least through p. 166)

optional reading: brief bio of Octavia Butler (pre-mortem [2006]) &

interview with Octavia Butler

Octavia Butler obituary 2006

Discussion-starter: 

Future-vision presenter: Clark Omo

Agenda: pre-midterm & midterm

narrative: decline or progress? reading religious scripture as literature? > spectacle, sublime, romance narrative

presentation assignments

future-vision:

quiz

[break]

discussion:

science fiction; utopia / dystopia

assignments

Discussion Questions: 1. Conclude Apocalyptic scriptures: upsides / downsides of interpreting Scripture as literary text? Attractions / detractions of apocalyptic narrative?

2. Compare Parable to Revelation. How are both apocalyptic?

2a. Describe Parable of the Sower as science fiction / speculative fiction. (Compare / contrast Genesis, Revelation, etc. as scripture.)

2b. As science fiction, how does Parable incorporate evolution? (For instance, human behavior as change and adaptation? Contrast to sin and virtue, or faith vs. lack of faith?)

2c. Science fiction is not just science but also fiction (see genres): How is Parable fictional in representational form, and how is its narrative romance? (instructor will lead)

2d. Lauren also develops her own theology--compare, contrast her father's Baptist belief.

3. Compare biblical apocalypse and environmental apocalypse?

4. Compare Parable of the Sower (1993) with more recent YA dystopia / post-apocalyptic novels like The Hunger Games (2006-10) and other young adult dystopias?

Monday, 25 September: apocalypse and evolution

Readings: Parable of the Sower (complete)

Discussion-starter: (Parable):

Future-vision presenter:

Instructor's presentation: Octavia Butler, Parable of the Talents (1998)

Agenda: assignments; discussion next week?

science fiction & subgenres; preview Butler later in summer

quiz & short break

discussion:

Parable of the Talents

[break]

future vision:

pre-midterm & web resources > creation-apocalypse narrative + post-apocalypse + evolution

Discussion Questions: 1. Continue comparisons with Genesis / Revelation and other apocalyptic texts. Does Lauren qualify as a "prophet?" Earthseed as prophecy? Earthseed community as utopia? (cf. heaven at end of Revelation)

2. Discuss blending of apocalypse and evolution in Parable of Sower (and later texts like Time Machine).

2a. How are both present? How account for co-presence instead of mutual exclusion?

2b. Where do apocalypse and evolution diverge? Where do they meet? Can you reconcile seeing the world as both apocalypse and evolution, rather than one excluding the other? If so, how?

2c. What are the signs, symbols, or keywords of creation-apocalypse and evolution?

3. Broadly, how does Parable of the Sower succeed (or not) in making you care about the future? Or does it just make you want to buy guns, hoard gold, hide, and distrust anyone who's not in your family or church?

4. Science fiction and many other forms of popular literature do not age well. Parable of the Sower is now 20+ years old. How out of date is it already? How much closer are we to its time-frame? If the novel survives and remains readable and interesting, why? What literary qualities make it somewhat timeless or classic?

5. Compare Parable of the Sower (1993) with more recent YA dystopia / post-apocalyptic novels like The Hunger Games (2006-10) and other young adult dystopias?

Monday, 2 October

Readings: "Stone Lives" (email PDF) and "Bears Discover Fire" (FP 17-28)

Discussion-starter:  instructor

Future-vision presenter:  

Future-vision presenter:

Web-highlighter (midterms):

Agenda: time-management

Parable of Sower as evolution / creation-apocalypse

pre-midterm

future-vision:

quiz + break

evolution + Time Machine assignments

discussion: instructor (evolution in "Stone" and "Bears")

future-vision:

Discussion Questions: 1. What key terms, symbols, or ways of thinking signal that these stories operate in a world built on evolutionary premises? (Consider terms or ideas like change, adaptation, survival, + plenty of animal characters and symbols.)

2. What picture of humanity do these stories (and evolutionary models) create? What assumptions about the way nature, time, and society are organized, esp. in contrast to creation-apocalypse?

3. Preview high tech / low tech scenarios (29 March, 5 April): Are "Stone Lives" & "Bears" high tech or low tech sf? What different appeals?

4. "Stone Lives" is our most typical science fiction story all semester—How? Discuss formulaic gender, depiction of world, and esp. romance narrative (esp. superhero protagonist tasked with saving a pre- or post-apocalyptic scene).

5. "Bears" is an unusually humorous sf story—how? What makes it amusing? How does its narrative fit the definition of comedy? How may humor or comedy serve science fiction's function of making science familiar or comfortable to non-scientific readers?

Monday, 9 October

Readings: "Somebody up there Likes Me" (VN 208-237); begin The Time Machine (through ch. 5).

Discussion-starter: instructor

Future-vision presenter:  

Agenda: premidterm updates, schedule; primary & secondary research; time measures

assignments / Mozart handouts / alternative futures

midterm; writing as writer-audience, individual-community

presentation:

quiz > break

Time Machine / Somebody discussion:

metaphor, symbol, narrative (obj. 3)

evolutionary signs & narratives (obj. 1)

Discussion Questions:

1. Science fiction has built-in problems as classic literature, but H.G. Wells maintains status and influence as the greatest "classic" science fiction writer. What qualities distinguish his style? What models does he create for science fiction in terms of style, action, and characterization? What mix of science and fiction?

2. The Time Machine was written 1895, a generation after Darwin's Origin of Species (1859): What signs, terms, or symbols of evolution in Time Machine? Is its plot evolutionary or apocalyptic?

3. Evolution as progress or decline? How does changing the time scale (from near to distant future) change the perception?

4. Identify "Social Darwinism" (e.g., "survival of the fittest") with cultural, class, or biological developments in The Time Machine.

5. "Somebody up there . . . ": How is Wells's industrial-era evolution updated to digital-era technology? What styles or symbols are updated in terms of gender, action, humor? How are both evolution and creation-apocalypse present in the same text?

5a. "Somebody" (cont'd): Published in 1994, this might be Literature of the Future's most current, hippest test. What feels current or futuristic about its language or scenario?

Monday, 16 October (transition from evolution to alternative futures)

Readings: conclude The Time Machine (ch. 6 through epilogue); Bruce Sterling & Lewis Shiner, "Mozart in Mirrorshades" (email PDF)

Discussion-starter:   (either Time Machine or "Mozart" or both)

Future-vision presenter: 

Agenda: schedule, assignments, midterm
future-vision:
quiz
Wells
Time Machine / Mozart discussion:

Sphinx in Time Machine

Discussion Questions:
Time Machine: Conclude Evolution Section; continue questions above +
1. conclusion of Eloi-Morlock story: apocalyptic or evolutionary? How like a romance narrative?

2. Late in novel, very deep future—what storytelling challenges to deep-future science fiction? (cf. evolution narrative)

3. Summarize science fiction style + problems or issues with "classic science fiction." How does Wells survive as "classic sf" when so little sf does?

"Mozart in Mirrorshades": Begin Alternative Futures

1. Look for key terms in quantum & temporal physics: probability, temporal physics, time holes, parallel worlds.

Monday, 23 October : Alternative Futures

Readings: "Garden of Forking Paths"; William Gibson, "The Gernsback Continuum"; "Better Be Ready 'bout Half Past Eight" (VN 22-47) [<title from lyrics to "Darktown Strutters' Ball" (1917)]

Discussion-starter:

Web-highlighter (midterms):

Agenda: Mozart, symbols, metaphors, assignments for post-midterm
midterm >
web highlights:
quiz > brief break
discussion, texts:

Discussion Questions:

1. How convincingly do today's texts represent or make you feel the possibility of Alternative Futures, either through literary techniques or scientific references?

1a. What metaphors or analogies make this disconcerting concept familiar or imaginable? What mental images of alternative futures, besides "Garden of Forking Paths?" Branching tree? Maze or labyrinth? Altered mentality? Multiple personality? Music in concert?

Monday, 6 November: high-tech future, cyberpunk literature

Readings: William Gibson, "Johnny Mnemonic"; William Gibson, "Burning Chrome"; Richard Goldstein, "The Logical Legend of Heliopause and Cyberfiddle" (VN 159-180).

Discussion-starter: 

Future-vision presenter:

Agenda: midterms, assignments
scenarios, high-tech, low-tech (JM 7.1-2) (final)
quiz
[break]
discussion:
future vision:

Backgrounds: Cyberpunk in the 1980s and 90s represented a major "mainstreaming" of science fiction into literary fiction, with William Gibson ("The Gernsback Continuum") as the movement's defining figure. Gibson's writings, beginning with Neuromancer (1984), influenced the metaphors and visiosn with which writers, film-makers, and everyday people imagined or described the high-tech world of virtual reality and the human-machine interface.

Discussion Questions: 1. What like / dislike about cyberpunk style and why? ("Cyber" = cybernetics or artificial intelligence; "punk" = 70s-80s countercultural street style or attitude)

2. Gibson is admired as one of science fiction's best stylists, but his writing often leaves students cold.

What strengths? What resemblances to literary fiction? (e.g. imagery, metaphor, range of reference or allusion)

What weaknesses? (e.g. thin characterization, plot-turns on subtle shifts in human or machine relations rather than stereotypical characterizations and whiz-bang action of popular science fiction)

What metaphors for computers, their users, and their realities does his style create?

What human-machine interfaces that we've seen elsewhere in course? (e.g., bionic implants, human penetration of machines)

Gender stylings? (stereotypical background: sf for geeky white guys > implications for women's identities?) (recall "Stone Lives")

3. What attraction-repulsion of high-tech future? Consider organic / non-organic; actual / virtual reality; real people / social media.

Monday, 13 November: low-tech: organic human nature & tradition in high tech world

Readings: "The Onion and I," (VN 8-21)."Drapes and Folds," (VN 126-139)."Speech Sounds"(VN 91-108).

Discussion-starter: 

Web-highlighter (final exams):   (1-2 examples from Essay 1 & Essay 2)

Agenda: midterms > final exam > web review:

assignments / scenario term-sites

quiz

break

discussion:

Discussion Questions:

1. If you didn't (or did) like the cyberpunk / high-tech / virtual realities stories, what opposing values or appeals of content or style do these low-tech stories offer?

2. What utopian / dystopian elements? Identify different appeals of low-tech and high-tech.

3. Contrast organic or biological appeals of low-tech with non-organic or tech appeals of high-tech.

4. What elements of Romanticism and romance? (e.g., nostalgia for organic nature, sentimental human bonds of family; quest for transcendent meaning in antagonistic environment.)

5. Octavia Butler, author of Parable of the Sower, wrote "Speech Sounds"—how do you recognize her style and subject matter?

Monday, 20 November: ecotopia

Readings: K. S. Robinson, “Introduction” to Future Primitive; "Chocco" (FP 189-214); "House of Bones" (FP 85-110)

Jeet Heer, "The New Utopians" (read as far as you can, but for sure read the final paragraphs on "solarpunk")

Chaco Canyon

Discussion-starter:

Future-vision presenter:

Agenda: midterms > final exam; final class assignments

future vision:

preview

quiz

ecotopia texts discussion:

Chocco, House of Bones

Humans Need Not Apply

Discussion Questions: 1. What are your experiences reading or teaching utopian or dystopian fiction in American middle schools and high schools? E.g., Brave New World, Anthem, Nineteen Eighty-Four, Fahrenheit 451, Lord of the Flies, The Giver, The Hunger Games and other Young Adult Dystopias. What are the attractions of these genres or sub-genres? Why does American reading go more toward dystopias than utopias?

1a.What is utopian or potentially dystopian about "ecotopias," either in concept or in today's texts?

2. Art or literature "entertains and educates" in a continuum: some literature entertains more, some educates more; Where do the two stories fall on this spectrum? (related terms: didactic literature; Literature of Ideas; what terms for pleasure-reading?).

If "Chocco" is more didactic or instructional, what fictional features make it somewhat more entertaining, or relieve the educational edge? What kinds of pleasures does "Chocco" offer?

How and why is "House of Bones" more entertaining as fiction than "Chocco?" In what ways may it still succeed as "instructive" or "educational?"

Any questions or comments generally about today's readings?

3. What are the urgencies and difficulties of discussing overpopulation and climate change? Does science fiction provide a way to discuss? What upsides, downsides to fiction as learning? What metaphors or symbols enable us to imagine a sustainable future?

Monday, 27 November: Alien Contact 1

Readings: "They're Made out of Meat," (VN 69-72)."The Poplar Street Study" (VN 140-148); "The Belonging Kind"

Discussion-starter:

Future-vision presenter:

video: Fermi Paradox (Fermi Paradox)

scale of solar system

Agenda: review last class + question 3

prsn:

final exam / alien contact

solar system

quiz  + [break]

discuss alien-contact fiction:

Fermi Paradox

Discussion Questions: 1. What do we learn about ourselves and the unknown as a result of reading Alien Contact stories about the future?

1a. How does alien-contact science fiction change our view of humanity on earth? If humans and aliens represent "the self and the other," what do "they" reveal about "us?"

1b. What literary techniques make you understand, care, and learn about the unknown? (e.g., metaphor, allusion, irony, the sublime)

1c. Given the scale and majesty of the universe, how much does alien contact literature feel religious in some sense? (Hinterlands 3.1, 3.7)

2. How successfully do the stories get beyond the predictable formulas of popular science fiction and become literary fiction?

2a. How much do the characters escape the good guy-bad guy-confused woman characterization of popular science fiction or the aliens-as-terrorists models from The War of the Worlds, Independence Day or other standard "Earth vs. Aliens" movies in which aliens automatically appear as apocalyptic terrorists or as innocent child-like wise men (e.g., E.T., Yoda)?

2b. How can you identify William Gibson's style from our previous readings ("The Gernsback Continuum"; "Johnny Mnemonic"; "Burning Chrome") to "The Belonging Kind" and "Hinterlands"? Consider extended metaphor and anti-hero characterization.

General pop-culture questions: 3. Since alien-visitation or "contact" is about as true or likely as ghost stories but is frequently represented in popular literature and film, what purposes does this subject serve for us? Why do we prefer stories about aliens to stories about our environment?

4. What dimensions of time or narratives of the future do aliens represent? How do they represent our future narratives of apocalypse, evolution, or alternative futures?

5. How do today's readings fulfill today's scenario for Alien Contact?

Monday, 4 December: Alien Contact 2

Readings: William Gibson, "Hinterlands"; Simon J. Ortiz, "Men on the Moon" (VN 238-247); Ursula K. Le Guin, "Newton's Sleep" (FP 311-338)

Discussion-starter:

video: Fermi Paradox (Fermi Paradox) + NYTimes book review

Agenda: Fermi Paradox

"Belonging Kind"

final exam

quiz > break + evaluations

discussion: Tom