Science Fiction: Interplanetary Contact (Aliens and Other Strangers)

The University of Akron/ FALL 2015

3300:485, 585—section 01/ TTh 12:15-1:30
Bus Admin 131/ Professor Robert Pope~rpope@uakron.edu 

Below is the R. Crumb illustration of Philip K. Dick's report on his religious vision.
Click on the link, and then click on the image that appears and it will enlarge and clarify.

http://sensitiveskinmagazine.com/the-religious-experience-of-philip-k-dick/

 

 

Texts and Schedule of Readings

Edgar Rice Burroughs, A Princess of Mars
C.S. Lewis, Out of the Silent Planet
Arthur C. Clarke, Childhood's End
Robert Heinlein, Stranger in a Strange Land
Stanislaw Lem, Solaris
Philip K. Dick, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Ursula LeGuin, The Left Hand of Darkness
Douglas Adams, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

~

        Tuesday September 1: Introduction, Edgar Rice Burroughs, A Princess of Mars
          Thursday 3: Burroughs, Forward through Ch. IX I Learn the Language

Tuesday, 8: Burroughs, X Champion and Chief through XXXVIII At the Arizona Cave

         Thursday 10: C.S. Lewis, Out of the Silent Planet, Ch. 1-6

Tuesday 15: Lewis, 7-Postscript

         Thursday 17: Arthur C. Clarke, Childhood's End, Part I Earth and the Overlords, Ch. 1-3

Tuesday 22: Clarke, Ch. 4 and Part II The Golden Age, 5-14

Thursday 24: Clarke, Part III The Last Generation, 15-24

         Tuesday 29: Robert Heinlein, Stranger in a Strange Land, Part One: His Immaculate Origin, i-viii

Thursday, October 1: Heinlein, Part Two: His Preposterous Heritage, ix-xvii

Tuesday, 6: Heinlein, xviii-xxi

Thursday 8: Heinlein, Part Three: His Eccentric Education, xxii-xxix

Tuesday 13: Heinlein, Part Four: His Scandalous Career, xxx-xxiii

Thursday 15: Heinlein, Part Five, xxxiv-xxxix

         Tuesday 20: Heinlein--final day for papers, quiz

Thursday 22: Stanislaw Lem, Solaris, The Arrival-Rheya
        
         Tuesday 27: Lem,"The Little Apocrypha"-The Monsters
         Thursday 29: Lem, The Liquid Oxygen-The Thinkers

        
         Tuesday November 3: The Dreams-The Old Mimoid

Thursday 5: Philip K. Dick, Do Androids Dream if Electric Sheep?, Ch. 1-5
 

Tuesday 10: PKD, 6-15

Thursday 12: PKD, 15-22

Tuesday 17: Final day of discussion on PKD

         Thursday 19: Ursula LeGuin, The Left Hand of Darkness, Ch. 1-4 

Tuesday 24: LeGuin, 5-10

Thursday 26: Thanksgiving

Tuesday December 1: LeGuin, 11-16

Thursday 3: LeGuin, 17-20

         Tuesday 8: Douglas Adams, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Ch. 1-24

Thursday 10: Adams, 25-35

Requirements

~489, 589: A dozen quizzes over the course of the semester, averaged for one grade.


~489 One quote analysis on each book due the last day of discussion of the book, one grade each: Select a quote from the last quarter of each novel, type it out, write a brief essay--no more than three pages--on the significance of that quote where it appears and how it relates to both the end and the final outcome of the text.

~489 Final exam: in class objective--selected of quotes shared through the semester for identification; brought to final exam subjective--essay on the use and meaning of interplanetary contact, written out of class, 3-5 pages.


~589 Interview or commentary report, no more than four pages, three times: write up a contribution to class discussion from interviews or commentary on a text by Heinlein, Dick, and LeGuin.

~589 Final Paper, due final exam period: At least ten pages on some aspect of the texts or of a text or a writer we have read during the semester.