Housekeeping

Hi everyone,
I've been looking over the syllabus and besides tagging (labeling) our posts with what kind of post it is, we also need to put our names as a tag. I've gone ahead and done so for the posts we've already done but if everyone would remember to do so from now on, things will go smoother for us and the professor. I'll keep an eye on the tags and add them if need be. See you all in class on Tuesday and enjoy your day off.
~ Jen

The Time Machine and The Garrison State

Let me begin by saying that I have a special affinity for the classics. There are many writers of Sci-Fi and for that matter just about every genre imaginable out there today but I rank almost all of my favorites as coming from around the turn of the last century or earlier. Reading one of H.G. Wells' masterpieces as our first encounter for this adventure is one of the things that sold me on wanting to take this class. Even our blog title represents one of the many great incarnations of the legend. Mercury Theatre was the program on CBS radio in which Orson Welles and his actors performed a reading of The War of the Worlds setting off one of the greatest panics in American History as many listeners truly believed that aliens had landed and were wreaking havoc on the countryside. Any work that can have that sort of effect is by my standards the mark of a true genius.

The mastery of The War of the Worlds is well known. However to me the even greater story is that this was not his first great masterpiece. His legend began with our subject of discussion The Time Machine. Wells was one of the first people to publish anything having to do with traveling through time. While that is honorable it is not really all that special. The real importance of this story is not that it was the first of its type, but that it is still one of the leading themes in our times. Countless books, television shows, and movies have all centered around the concept of traveling through time. Focusing not on some alien invaders acting as the catalyst for change, instead the time traveling narrative is centered right here on earth and what humanity does to make things better or worse. In The Time Machine the dichotomy established in the future between the Eloi and the Morlocks in the future world that the Time Traveler arrives in is in many ways a comment on society around the turn of the twentieth century. At the time there was a divide between the haves and the have nots. Those who had everything enjoyed themselves carelessly during the day but always feared that one day those less fortunate than them would rise up against them.

This thought brings me to the film Metropolis in which the dichotomy is strikingly similar. On the surface of the earth the wealthy live in peace and comfort provided by the hard worker living underground. Just as the Eloi fear the Morlocks so too do the men like Frederson fear his workers. Frederson believes that if necessary he can employ his, for lack of a better word, brute squad he can suppress any sort of worker's rebellion. Clearly this does not happen but their is an implication that those are the methods he would have used if the Machine-Man had not been created.

The whole idea of the better-off in some way controlling the worse-off is exactly what Lasswell discussed in "The Garrison State" written in 1941. The sheer irony of the similarities in a German film said to be one of Hitler's favorites and an American scholar just before America joined the war is enough to suggest that indeed this military state is where the world appeared to be heading in the first half of the twentieth century. Of course many would argue that pattern is continuing.

In closing, the works we have begun with I believe serve as almost a teaser for the class. We have begun by taking on one of the longest lasting themes in Sci-Fi, that of time travel and more importantly, the impacts our actions have on the future, and yet our future has yet to be determined as we prepare to go where only a few have ventured before. The great adventure that is Social/Science/Fiction.

Reflection After Class 1

I have taken an honors English class before with a focus on sci-fi and there we discussed to great extent what sci-fi is or what it isn’t and got to read a variety of scholarly essays on the matter. The thing that I carried away from that and what was reaffirmed today in class is that good sci-fi (not the trash that any literary genre has) is not just some exciting story or shallow but in fact often explores many intricate and important social issues. And as we discussed it does so in a unique way by allowing the reader to look at an issue from more of a distance and an outsider point of view. What I find odd is that there are many sci-fi books and movies that I have walked away from and was like WOW we have the same stuff going on in our world and I wish we could handle that issue the way they did in the book, or I hope we don’t end up like race in that book, or other things of that nature. Basically I believe you can learn a lot from quality fiction books, and sci-fi is no exception but a large number of people think that sci-fi is just about cool futuristic guns and killing aliens that often look bug like or other ridiculous clichés.
So I guess the main point I would like to hear your input about besides the stuff I just said is that after the discussion a thought that stayed with me is how people seem to have issues with listening to or understanding some truths if they are presented to them in their true form, but if they are disguised as fiction well then it is more bearable and they may even pay attention. There was another time in my life where that same thought crossed my mind and that was at a book reading by Chuck Palahniuk (author of Fight Club for those of you that don’t know) I have read a number of his novels and they tend to have very weird and ridiculous stories and plot lines (not sci-fi although he does have a chapter in one book that is very sci-fi). But at the reading when asked where he comes up with his crazy ideas he said: well when I start to write a story I tell everyone I know what the subject matter is and ask them to bring me stories they have about it or have heard about it. And then the stuff people tell me and stuff I have experienced or heard I often incorporate into my books, so many things that you see in my books that have been labeled fiction actually have a lot of truth to them, but in today’s world people don’t believe truth so you have to disguise it as fiction. He also gave an example, if you are curious I can post it as well.

Reflections, 1/15

Having finished the first day of class, I came away with a few major impressions. First of all, Star Trek may now have some merit in my eyes. Let me explain: I encountered Star Wars as a kid, and was therefore always partial to it. Secondly, and somewhat silly to say, is that Star Trek frightened me a lot as a small child when I watched it at night, and so I never really got into it (I read a study once saying that things that scare one as a child stay with them for the rest of their lives - this may be the case with me). In any event, all of what was mentioned about the deep philosophical nature of the Star Trek series (particularly the professor's comment about it exploring liberal democracy, which resonated with me). I also appreciated some of the comments that other people made on the subject.

Finally, I also was interested to hear that there was such a variety of experiences and interests represented in the room, and how that will affect the discussion (positively, I hope).

Thats it for this one.

-Mike

Class 1/15

Well here is my first post for our little adventure. Before today I too was not really sure of any sort of specific criteria was for what was and was not science fiction. I was generally of the impression that if it seemed futuristic or in some way technologically oriented it was sci-fi. The whole classification system we discussed today was very enlightening and I must say I now am forced to rethink many of the books and films I have experienced. I originally classified them as sci-fi whereas thanks to this class I am forced to now think of them as fantasy.

Reflection, Class 1

I guess I'll go ahead and get started on this whole posting thing, while I have the time.

The main thing I think I took away from today's class is the list of elements that make up science fiction. I've always distinguished it from fantasy by the presence of the machinery and technology that's used in science fiction but today all I could think about while we were talking is that science fiction doesn't have much magic, fantasy does.
Lord of the Rings, plenty of magic. Elves have it, the whole age deal and never dying is part of the magic. Harry Potter, well, of course there's magic. The Discworld novels have witches and wizards, so plenty of magic there.
Science fiction, though has spaceships, rockets, phasers, and special engines. Not too much magic. Aliens, sure. But no magic, beyond the already displaced Star Wars.
So there you go, my reflection for the week.

Opening Salvo

Here it is, post number 1. We'll be posting reactions to readings, class sessions, and even movies. So, woot.
And live long and prosper.