Today began my American Science Fiction in the 20th Century class. This class is going to be awesome! As it turned out, the teacher had changed the books and movies a bit from the original plan. Additionally, as I found out during my tutorial for this class (which immediately follows it on Thursdays), the tutorial will be structured much like the tutorial for Contemporary British Fantasy Literature. That is, the tutorial will serve to cover those topics that would normally be covered in the semester time from December to February. This effectively makes it as though I have two fantasy literature classes and two science fiction classes. Combined, it will make for a very awesome semester here in Germany.
The people in my American Science Fiction in the 20th Century class (hereafter referred to as “sci-fi class” or something along those lines) are quite a varied mixture. Whereas many of the people in the Brit lit class seemed to be very into what we were reading, the members of the sci-fi class run the gamut from hard-core science fiction aficionados to people who are acquiring a literature degree and have never read a sci-fi book before. Their personalities also span quite a large range, from very shy to, quite frankly, pompous. (The biggest example being the one young man who outright asked the teacher why so many of the books we were reading seemed to deal with gender issues and were not, in his opinion, the best examples of science fiction.) It was completely uncalled for, as only half of the books we are reading touch on anything remotely like a gender issue. One must also consider the fact that these sci-fi books take place, usually, in the future, so any sort of gender issue is not something that is reality in our world today. For example, in one of the books we are reading, The Female Man, men and women have been at war for forty years. The concept behind this part of the story may stem from gender issues, but as the teacher made it clear – this is not a gender studies class (though, as I found out, it apparently is an elective that can be taken by gender studies majors).
Here is something random that I learned from my teacher yesterday in talking to her after class: In the United States, “gender studies” and “feminist studies” and the like all walk hand-in-hand. In Germany, it is much different. “Gender studies” is quite separated from things like the feminist movement and feminist studies.
As I mentioned before, one of the two tutorial sessions for my sci-fi class is immediately following the class session on Thursdays. Thus, after class yesterday, I met with my tutorial leader. He is a really cool guy and a big sci-fi fan. As I am the only IUSP student in this class, my tutorial is one-on-one, which actually gives me a lot more choice in the subject matter that we will cover.
This is a quick run-down of the media that I will be covering in my sci-fi class. In the actual class, we have the books Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?,The Left Hand of Darkness, and selected articles from Reading Science Fiction; the short stories “Bloodchild” and “That Thou Art Mindful of Him”; and the movie Bladerunner. Because the tutorial meets for a total of four hours per week, as opposed to the two hours per week in which the class itself meets, I am covering a lot more in the tutorial, including the following: the book The Female Man; the short stories “The Cyborg Manifesto” and “The Bicentennial Man”; and the movies Star Trek: First Contact, Gattaca, Contact, Logan’s Run, and, possibly, The Island.
This afternoon, my throat felt sore with a lot of junk in it. I hope I am not coming down with a cold or something, but if so, I certainly brought the right medicines, etc. for it. It seems to me like more of an allergy brought on by junk in the wind. Sneezing has been minimal and my nose is not stuffed up, merely quite runny at times.
Finally, as a quick update on how all of this reading is going…I managed to read all of The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe by Wednesday afternoon (having started Tuesday night). Then I started in on The Fellowship of the Ring. I read all of “Bloodchild” this afternoon, plus most of “The Bicentennial Man.” Tomorrow I need to finish “The Bicentennial Man” and keep pushing on through The Fellowship of the Ring so that I can begin reading Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone early next week. Good times will be had by all involved (aka me)!
No comments:
Post a Comment