Syllabus, class policies and schedule

UH 300-001

Strange New Worlds: 21^st-Century Science Fiction

Fall 2013

3-5:30 p.m. Wednesdays, 280 Nott Hall

Teacher: Andy Duncan

All students in this class must be enrolled in the Honors College.

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, “What’s Expected of Us” (2005; at http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v436/n7047/full/436150a.html)
• Ted Chiang, The Merchant and the Alchemist’s Gate (Subterranean, 2007; out of print in paper, but available as a Kindle or Kindle-for-PC e-book)
• Ted Chiang, “Exhalation” (2008; at NightShadeBooks.com)
• Ted Chiang, The Lifecycle of Software Objects (Subterranean, 2010; at http://subterraneanpress.com/magazine/fall_2010/fiction_the_lifecycle_of_software_objects_by_ted_chiang)
• Cory Doctorow, Homeland (Tor Teen, 2013; also a free Creative Commons download here: http://craphound.com/homeland/download/)
• 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)
• Gardner Dozois, ed., The Year’s Best Science Fiction: 30^th Annual Collection (St. Martin’s, 2013)
• Cherie Priest, Boneshaker (Tor, 2009)
• Cherie Priest, Dreadnought (Tor, 2010)
• 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. Writing proficiency within this discipline is required for a passing grade in this course.

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 Skype with the exception of one in-person visit per semester.  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, including evaluation criteria, 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.  The first paper will be graded and returned, with comments, before midterm.  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. Writing Requirements: Coherent, logical, and carefully edited prose is required.  Students should demonstrate higher-level critical thinking skills, such as analysis and synthesis. A student who does not write with the skill normally required of an upper division student in the discipline will not be given a passing grade, no matter how well the student performs other course requirements.

Blog:  Each of you will receive (and accept) an invitation to join Blogger and the class blog (http://strangenewworlds2013.blogspot.com/). 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 posts: 30%
• In-class participation: 10%

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. 21: First class meeting. Getting acquainted.

Aug. 28: Chiang, Part 1: Stories of Your Life and Others. Last day to drop without a W grade.

Sept. 4: Chiang, Part 2: “What’s Expected of Us,” The Merchant and the Alchemist’s Gate, “Exhalation,” The Lifecycle of Software Objects.

Sept. 11: Doctorow, Little Brother.

Sept. 18: Doctorow, Homeland. (Appropriately, as Constitution Day is Sept. 17.)

Sept. 25: Dozois, Part 1: “Weep for Day” (Das), “The Man” (McAuley), “The Stars Do Not Lie” (Lake), “The Memcordist” (Tidhar), “The Girl-Thing Who Went Out for Sushi” (Cadigan), “Holmes Sherlock” (Arnason), “Nightfall on the Peak of Eternal Light” (Lovett and Gleason).

Oct. 2: Dozois, Part 2: “Close Encounters” (Duncan), “The Finite Canvas” (Mandelo), “Steamgothic” (McMullen), “In the House of Aryaman, a Lonely Signal Burns” (Bear), “Macy Minnot’s Last Christmas on Dione” (McAuley), “Twenty Lights to ‘The Land of Snow’” (Bishop).

Oct. 19: Paper-topic discussion.

Oct. 16: Doctor Who, “The Girl in the Fireplace” and “Blink.” First paper due by midnight.

Oct. 23: Dozois, Part 3: “Astrophilia” (Vaughn), “What Did Tessimond Tell You?” (Roberts), “Old Paint” (Lindholm), “Chitai Heiki Koronbin” (Moles), “Katabasis” (Reed), “The Water Thief” (Reynolds), “Nightside on Callisto” (Nagata), “Under the Eaves” (Tidhar), “Sudden, Broken, and Unexpected” (Popkes).

Oct. 30: No class. Last day to withdraw with a W. Fall break starts Oct. 31.

Nov. 6: Dozois, Part 4: “Fireborn” (Wilson), “Ruminations in an Alien Tongue” (Singh), “Tyche and the Ants” (Rajaniemi), “The Wreck of the ‘Charles Dexter Ward’” (Monette and Bear), “Invisible Men” (Barzak), “Ship’s Brother” (de Bodard), “Eater-of-Bone” (Reed).

Nov. 13: Bacigalupi, The Windup Girl.

Nov. 20: Priest: Boneshaker and Dreadnought.

Nov. 27: No class meeting. Happy Thanksgiving.

Dec. 6: Last class meeting. Paper-topic discussion. Course wrap-up.

No final exam.  Second paper due 9:30 p.m., Tuesday, Dec. 10 – at the end of the period when our final would have been held, had this been one of those classes.

About your teacher:  I received my M.F.A. in fiction writing from the University of Alabama in 2000 and was one of the first instructors recruited for the Honors College by founding Dean Bob Halli, who claims not to regret it. My first published science fiction/fantasy story, “Liza and the Crazy Water Man,” hit the shelves my first semester in the M.F.A. program, in the World Fantasy Award-winning anthology Starlight 1, edited by Patrick Nielsen Hayden (Tor, 1996). Since then, my fiction has received two World Fantasy Awards, a Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award for best science fiction story of the year, and, most recently, a Nebula Award, for my 2012 story “Close Encounters,” which also has been selected for five year’s-best volumes. Upcoming are the novella “Wakulla Springs,” co-written with Ellen Klages, at Tor.com in October 2013, and a third collection, An Agent of Utopia: New and Selected Stories, from Small Beer Press in fall 2014. I am an alumnus of the Clarion West writers’ workshop (1994) and have taught both Clarion (2004, 2013) and Clarion West (2005). I am on the permanent Sturgeon Award jury, and I am an active member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America and the Horror Writers Association. By day, I am a tenured associate professor in the Department of English at Frostburg State University in Frostburg, Md.