Syllabus, schedule and course policies

UH 300-002

Strange New Worlds: 21^st-Century Science Fiction

Fall 2011

3-5:30 p.m. Wednesdays, Nott Hall basement computer-lab classroom (up the ramp)

Teacher: Andy Duncan

All students in this class must be enrolled in the University Honors Program.

Texts:

• Paolo Bacigalupi, The Windup Girl (2009; Night Shade Books, 2010)
• Ted Chiang, Stories of Your Life and Others (2002; Small Beer Press, 2010)
• Ted Chiang, “Exhalation” (2008; at NightShadeBooks.com)
• Ted Chiang, The Lifecycle of Software Objects (Subterranean, 2010)
• Tom De Haven, It’s Superman!: A Novel (2005; Del Rey, 2011) and Our Hero: Superman on Earth (Yale University Press, 2010)
• Cory Doctorow, Little Brother (2008; Tor Teen, 2010; also a free Creative Commons download here)
• Doctor Who, “The Girl in the Fireplace,” written by Steven Moffat, directed by Euros Lyn (2006; Doctor Who: The Complete Second Series, BBC Video, 2007)
• Doctor Who, “Blink,” written by Steven Moffat, directed by Hettie MacDonald (2007; Doctor Who: The Complete Third Series, BBC Video, 2007)
• Duncan Jones, Moon (2009; Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, 2009)
• Cherie Priest, Boneshaker (Tor, 2009) and Dreadnought (Tor, 2010)
• Jonathan Strahan, ed., The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year Volume 5 (Night Shade Books, 2011)
• Handouts, online materials or reserve-room materials as announced.

Course Description: Many of the tropes of science fiction -- computers, space travel, cloning, genetic engineering, cyberspace -- have become commonplaces of daily discourse and daily life. Yet science fiction persists and thrives as a literary genre, a sociological movement, a marketing category, an extrapolative and speculative way of thinking. This interdisciplinary seminar is designed to deepen your understanding of 21st-century science fiction in all its modes.

Course Objectives: By semester’s end, students will be more sophisticated consumers of science fiction wherever they encounter it, from the aisles of Barnes & Noble to the headlines on CNN. They will be better able to speak and write about it with depth and insight and to understand how science fiction engages with the world, and vice versa. No prior obsession with science fiction is required.

A Technology Note:  Your teacher lives in the mountains of western Maryland and interacts with the class in real time via webcam with the exception of one in-person visit per semester, generally for the final class meeting.  Student conferences during the rest of the semester are encouraged; they will take place via phone, e-mail, or Facebook, as the student prefers.

Attendance Policy:  Attendance and class participation (in class and online) are required.  After two absences, your final grade will be lowered one letter for each subsequent absence.  After five absences, you will receive an F for this course.  Arriving late or leaving early counts as half an absence.  In case of illness, injury or crisis, let your teacher know as soon as possible.  Don’t just vanish.

Papers:  You will write two non-fiction papers, each at least 2,000 words long, on topics of your choosing that are approved in advance by your teacher.  Papers should specifically illuminate one or more of the texts being discussed in this class, but they may extend their focus beyond those texts as well.  More detailed paper guidelines will be provided later in the semester.  You will lead a five-to-10-minute class discussion of each topic as you are working on it.  Papers handed in late will be docked one letter grade for each day they’re late.  Papers more than a week late will not be accepted and will receive a zero.  Format Requirements:  Both your papers will be handed in electronically.  E-mail them as PC-compatible Word attachments.  Papers must be in 12-point Times New Roman, double-spaced, with ragged right margins and page numbers in the upper-right corners.  Papers that don’t fit this format will be returned unread for correction.

Blog:  Each of you will receive (and accept) an invitation to join Blogger and the class blog.  Here our class discussions will continue beyond Wednesday class meetings.  Participating on the blog – through original posts and replies to others’ posts – is an important part of your semester grade, so get in the habit of visiting daily and contributing frequently.  The minimum class requirement is three posts per week per student, at least one of which must start a new topic or thread, and at least one of which must be a response to a classmate’s post.  More frequent posts are highly encouraged.  Also chiming in from time to time may be invited guests from the world of science fiction publishing (as opposed to the science fiction world, which we all inhabit).

Other Assignments and Expectations:  You will keep up with all the reading and will participate in all class discussions, orally and online.  You will lead at least one class discussion of a text that has been assigned you.

Grade Formula:

• Two 2,000-word papers @ 20% each: 40%
• Two 5-to-10-minute informal presentations on paper topics @ 10% each: 20%
• Blog participation: 20%
• In-class participation: 20%

We will follow the UA guidelines for plus-minus grading.

Disabilities:  In accordance with the federal Americans With Disabilities Act, your teacher, the University Honors Program and the university are committed to providing appropriate support for students with disabilities, including learning disabilities.  Any student who wants to request disability accommodations need only contact UA’s office of disability services at 348-4285 and get the paperwork to me.

Academic Misconduct:  Academic misconduct includes all acts of academic dishonesty and any knowing attempt to help another student commit academic dishonesty.  Academic dishonesty includes, but is not limited to:  (1) Cheating – using or attempting to use unauthorized materials, information or study aids.  (2) Plagiarism – representing words, data, works or ideas as one’s own when they are not.  (3) Fabrication – presenting as genuine any invented or falsified evidence.  (4) Misrepresentation – falsifying, altering or misstating the contents of academic documents such as schedules, prerequisites and transcripts.  Cases of academic misconduct will be turned over to the University Honors Program for disciplinary action that could be as severe as suspension from the university.

Schedule of class meetings, reading assignments and due dates.  All texts will be discussed on the days listed.  This is a living document, subject to change.  Any changes will be announced in class and via the class blog.

Aug. 24: First class meeting.

Aug. 31: Chiang, Part 1: “Tower of Babylon,” “Understand,” “Division by Zero,” “Story of Your Life,” “Seventy Two Letters” (all in Stories). Last day to drop without a W grade.

Sept. 7: Chiang, Part 2: “The Evolution of Human Science,” “Hell Is the Absence of God,” “Liking What You See: A Documentary” (all in Stories), “Exhalation,” The Lifecycle of Software Objects.

Sept. 14: Doctorow, Little Brother. (Constitution Day is Sept. 16.)

Sept. 21: No class.

Sept. 28: De Haven, It’s Superman!: A Novel and Our Hero: Superman on Earth.

Oct. 5: Paper-topic discussion.

Oct. 12: Duncan Jones, Moon. First paper due by start of class.

Oct. 19: Strahan, Part 1: “Elegy for a Young Elk” (Rajaniemi), “Seven Sexy Cowboy Robots” (McDonald), “Under the Moons of Venus” (Broderick), “Alone” (Reed), “Names for Water” (Johnson).

Oct. 26: Strahan, Part 2: “Plus or Minus” (Kelly), “The Jammie Dodgers and the Adventure of the Leicester Square Screening” (Doctorow), “The Maiden Flight of McCauley’s Bellerophon” (Hand), “The Taste of Night” (Cadigan), “The Exterminator’s Want-Ad” (Sterling), “The Naturalist” (McHugh).

Nov. 2: Strahan, Part 3: “Sins of the Father” (Genge), “The Sultan of the Clouds” (Landis), “Iteration” (Kessel), “The Night Train” (Tidhar), “The Things” (Watts), “The Zeppelin Conductors’ Society Annual Gentlemen’s Ball” (Valentine). Last day to withdraw with a W.

Nov. 9: Bacigalupi, The Windup Girl.

Nov. 16: Priest, Boneshaker and Dreadnought.

Nov. 23: No class. Thanksgiving Eve.

Nov. 30: Paper-topic discussion.

Dec. 7: Two Doctor Who episodes, “The Girl in the Fireplace” and “Blink.” Course wrap-up.

No final exam.  Second paper due 9:30 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 13 -- the end of what would have been our final, had this been one of those classes.

About your teacher:  My new collection is The Pottawatomie Giant and Other Stories (PS Publishing, 2011), which includes a new novelette, “Close Encounters”; a new story, “Slow as a Bullet,” is in Eclipse Four, edited by Jonathan Strahan (Night Shade Books, 2011); another new story, “On 20468 Petercook,” is in press at Tor.com.  My first collection, Beluthahatchie and Other Stories (2000), won a World Fantasy Award, as did my story “The Pottawatomie Giant” (2000).  My novella “The Chief Designer” (2001) won the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award for best science fiction story of the year.  My other books include The Night Cache, a novelette (PS Publishing, 2009); Alabama Curiosities, non-fiction (second edition, Globe Pequot Press, 2009); and Crossroads: Tales of the Southern Literary Fantastic, an anthology co-edited with F. Brett Cox (Tor, 2004). I contributed essays to the Hugo Award-winning Cambridge Companion to Science Fiction (2003) and the Stoker Award-winning Horror: Another 100 Best Books (2005).  A 1994 alum of the Clarion West writers’ workshop, I have taught at Clarion (2004) and Clarion West (2005).  I was on the 2010 Shirley Jackson Awards jury, and I chaired the 2010 Philip K. Dick Award jury.  I received my M.F.A. in fiction writing from the University of Alabama and was one of the first instructors recruited for the Honors College by founding Dean Bob Halli, who claims not to regret it yet.  By day, I am an assistant professor in the Department of English at Frostburg State University in Frostburg, Md.