It's August Already?

August. 


It's a Miyazaki morning here on this misty Wisconsin morning. So far, it's been Kiki's Delivery Service followed by Ponyo on a Cliff by the Sea. 


The countdown for back-to-school has begun. My contract year (for which I still do not have a contract outlining my salary) begins August 26th.


As a newly-tenured professor, I will get a pay bump. One that will be completely wiped out by the new insurance co-pays and premium increases. Really happy about that.


OK I am not going to complain in this post. I am going to write about what I am looking forward to in this upcoming academic year, namely my SF lit/film course.


ENG 28(4): Science Fiction Literature and Film. Here's the course description from my 2009 syllabus:

“Commerce is our goal here at Tyrell. ‘More human than human’ is our motto.” –Dr. Eldon Tyrell Blade Runner (1982)

For almost two centuries, science fiction (or speculative fiction) has existed as a genre that explores, more than any other, the question “What if?” This course will examine what it means to be human in an engineered age—what responsibilities do we have, if any? How far will we go to push the limits of science? Is there such a thing as ‘too far’?

The consensus among SF writers and filmmakers seems to be…yes. We will spend considerable time in and out of class pondering the impact of technology on our lives—the moral, political, and social ramifications of our dependence on machines—a dependence as old as civilization itself. Some of our themes will deal with the idea of progress; industrialization (and its ancillaries: capitalism and globalization); the corporatization of society; feminism; and we will wrestle with the question of postmodernism.

I absolutely adore this course. The whole thing is centered around what it means to be human in a technological age, and it's long been my opinion is that this is the central motif in all SF lit and film. All other questions are ancillary to question "What does it mean to be human?" (I'd argue that this is the prime question for all creative human endeavors--that those who create are seeking answers to this question.)

The course starts with Frankenstein (the novel, then James Whale's 1931 adaptation), progresses to Metropolis (1927, Fritz Lang), Asimov's I, Robot stories ("Robbie" "Escape!" and "Evidence"), watch I, Robot (2004, Alex Proyas) and round out the first half of the semester with Vonnegut's Player Piano. I love that I get to mess around with critiquing capitalism. It's one of the things that makes this class so much fun.

The second half of the semester is devoted to the development of cyberpunk, starting with Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and Ridley Scott's Blade Runner (1982) which is one of my favorite films of all time. We read C.L. Moore's 1944 novella No Woman Born, which slots in really well with Frankenstein and the Prometheus idea. We do James Tiptree, Jr.'s "The Girl Who Was Plugged In" and I wish to heaven I had time to show and discuss Avatar (2009). I have them read three stories out of William Gibson's only short story collection Burning Chrome ("Johnny Mnemonic" "The New Rose Hotel" and "Burning Chrome") because I found in 2007 that we didn't have time to properly examine Neuromancer (1984). We finish out the semester with Ghost in the Shell (1995) and The Matrix (1999).

I could do an entire course devoted to cyberpunk, and I think that the next time I teach SF lit (Fall 2013) that's what the course is going to have as its prime focus. There are so many stories (Bruce Sterling, Lester del Rey, Neal Stephenson, etc.) and films (Akira, Terminator / Terminator 2, etc) that I simply don't have time but would love to teach that I think it's time to re-jigger the course again. As I'm teaching it this semester, I'm going to plan for the next time instead of leaving it go.


And don't get me started on steampunk...I know, I know, I'm way behind on my book reviews. Stay tuned...

On Steampunk: Scott Westerfeld's Leviathan

Today's post will be a review of the first book in Scott Westerfeld's YA steampunk Leviathan series.

Book One: Leviathan (released October 2009)


This isn't so much a review as it is a mash note. I loved this book. The world Westerfeld has created is an alternative-early 20th century as the European powers are moving toward WWI. The alternative part? The world is divided into proponents of evolutionary tinkering (Darwinists) and proponents of steam-powered mechanization (Clankers). The Brits and their allies are Darwinists, and the Austro-Hungarian/Germans are Clankers.

Deryn is a fifteen year old girl who disguises herself as a boy so that she can join the British Air Service, which uses great Beasties resembling squid filled with hydrogen. She loves to fly, and she has to protect her secret at all costs, or she risks being stuck forever on the ground.


Alek is the son of the murdered Archduke, on the run from his own people and the Germans with only a few loyal men to help him run his mechanical Stormwalker (which looks a bit like ED-209 from Robocop) to the safety of the Swiss border.


The characters are believable and the story is engaging--Alek and Deryn are thrown together and have to learn to trust each other despite being on opposing sides of the coming War. Keith Thompson's illustrations are fantastic (in all senses of the word) and a welcome addition to the text.

I loved the book, and I devoured it in two sittings.  Highly recommended, especially if you are a history or science buff. Westerfeld has done his homework, and his creations (both Clanker and Beastie) are believable. I found myself wishing I could get a ride on the Leviathan myself.

Next review: Book Two: Behemoth (released October 2010) 

Reviews to Come

I haven't had much time online this week (a good thing) but I am getting my remaining brain cells together to review a few books for the Steampunk Challenge:

• Leviathan and Behemoth by Scott Westerfeld
• Boneshaker and Dreadnought by Cherie Priest
• The Windup Girl and Shipbreaker by Paolo Baciagalupi
• Soulless, Changeless, and Blameless [The Parasol Protectorate] by Gail Carriger (and by the time I get to it, probably Heartless as well, as it's due out July 1)
• Steampunk ed. Ann VanderMeer and Jeff VanderMeer
• The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers

These have all been reviewed elsewhere, and the Steampunk Scholar is a far more in-depth resource (and should be since it's his PhD thesis)--but I'd like to take a crack at them too.

Steampunk Challenge 1

Today's is the first post for the year-long Steampunk Challenge put on by Rikki Donovan. From October 1, 2010 to September 30, 2011, I will be reading and reviewing works of the science fiction sub-genre known as steampunk.

I am choosing to take it as a fairly broad category; some critics will only call a work steampunk if its setting is an alternate-Victorian era (e.g. George Mann's The Affinity Bridge  and its sequel, The Osiris Ritual) as opposed to a society whose technology is dependent on steam power. Others (myself included) are inclined to be a bit looser, if only because it adds to the pool of cool books to choose from.

Here is my [initial, unofficial, in-no-particular-order] list:

• Boneshaker and Dreadnought, by Cherie Priest
• The Diamond Age, by Neal Stephenson
• The Difference Engine, by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling
• The Affinity Bridge  and The Osiris Ritual by George Mann
• The Anubis Gates, by Tim Powers
• Steampunk, edited by Ann Vandemeer
• Steampunk Prime, edited by Mike Ashley
• The Strange Affair of Spring-Heeled Jack, by Mark Hodder
• The Parasol Protectorate (Soulless, Changeless, Blameless, and [forthcoming] Heartless, by Gail Carriger

Each of these falls under the narrower definition of steampunk, though I will also be reviewing Ship Breaker and The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi (these are set in a climatologically altered future where fossil fuels are gone/nearly gone and the remaining people are forced to improvise). All of them are readily available through Amazon (some are new, some not so much).

My first exposure to the genre came with The Difference Engine, and I have been steadily building my collection. I look forward to reading (or in some cases re-reading) these books and getting into good discussions with my fellow Steampunk Challenge participants.

The first of my reviews (forthcoming, after I've graded my most recent batch of 72 composition papers) will be on The Difference Engine by my favorite SF author bar none, William Gibson (written in conjunction with his co-author Bruce Sterling).

Vacation Reading List

We are in the last stage of summer, now. I can smell the "end" in the air: a mix of freshly-cut alfalfa, liquefied manure spread on shorn fields, and the mist of mosquito spray...

I am gathering up my books and papers to take to the cottage in far northern Wisconsin, and for the sake of my marriage, I am not taking anything post-apocalyptic. Hubby says it's making me a bit ... shall we say, nuts. I read Paolo Bacigalupi's most recent book Ship Breaker, as well as The Windup Girl. Both are set in a near-future where there's very little food and the gap between rich and poor has widened even further (in the case of the former), and where what food there is has been genetically engineered by huge megacorps that have in turn spawned unstoppable mega-bugs that kill off the crops and cause mass famine (in the case of the latter). Coming as this does on the heels of my teaching Food, Inc.and Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma, I'd say that Bacigalupi has hit the right nerve. I now have nightmares about our garden getting fungus and giant bugs.

So my vacation reading list:

• Dracula Bram Stoker (re-read)
• Snow Crash Neal Stephenson (re-read)
• The Anubis Gates Tim Powers (re-read)
• In Defense of Food Michael Pollan (finish for class)

Plus whatever else I can find that's halfway interesting when I finally get to BookWorld in Minocqua. If they have George Mann's new book The Osiris Ritual (steampunk), I'll be getting that. Gail Carriger's third book in the Parasol Protectorate, Blameless, doesn't come out until 8/31, which is inconvenient for my vacation plans. William Gibson's new book Zero History doesn't come out til September 7th so I'll have to cram that in while I'm getting the semester underway. He'll be at Borders on Michigan Ave. in Chicago on 9/17 so I'll have to see if I can get down there for that.

I'm also taking my notebooks so that I can keep scribbling ideas for my own book. I've discovered that sitting on the pontoon boat in the sun does wonders for my overall attitude about life, and when I'm in a better frame of mind, I can take my post-apocalyptic nightmares and turn them into something useful.

My protagonist has a name and I'm beginning to get the history together. In spite of having my chapbook summarily rejected last week, I'm feeling pretty good about my prospects for getting some work out there, and even though I've overloaded my brain with dystopic visions of the future (again), I'm feeling hopeful that we'll find a way out of the mess. The involuntary media-fast I'll be on (no cable, no internet, spotty phone service) means that I'll be able to focus without getting angry at the BS that currently passes for new-media journalism coverage of climate change, the oil spill, wheat shortages in Russia, and the Tea Party's unsurpassed arrogance and stupidity.


Be well, my friends.