Comments on: Teaching Science Fiction http://guitarsophist.com/2009/08/19/teaching-science-fiction/ Music-Rhetoric-Teaching Fri, 16 Dec 2011 15:41:39 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: guitarsophist http://guitarsophist.com/2009/08/19/teaching-science-fiction/#comment-104 Wed, 26 Aug 2009 00:50:15 +0000 http://guitarsophist.com/?p=232#comment-104 It is hard to figure sexual attractiveness into one’s pedagogical theory, outcomes assessment, or whatever. I guess it’s there though, an uncontrolled, or unfathomable variable. Does the Faculty Center give a workshop? Probably not. I have to rely on wickedly brilliant course design and great earnestness.

This course is a lot of fun, for me, and apparently for the students. I got into teaching it in a rather unhappy and roundabout way, but I am happy I did.

]]> By: Victoria http://guitarsophist.com/2009/08/19/teaching-science-fiction/#comment-103 Tue, 25 Aug 2009 23:51:07 +0000 http://guitarsophist.com/?p=232#comment-103 I fondly remember my sci fi/fantasy course in college. We read (among other things) ACC’s The City and the Stars, a collection of short sci fi stories, ULeG’s The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas, and…I can’t remember what else. The instructor did *not* want to be teaching the course because it was not “his” genre, but he was a good sport and, I realize in retrospect, tried to be a responsible teacher. He was also extremely sexy, which is probably partly why I remember the course so well! [rolls eyes, hey, I was 18]

I remember doing a very B-grade paper on Omelas. I knew it was a B-paper while writing it. But I just could not see any other way to look at the story than that Omelas was a horror, because “consent” is such a central concept to legitimate sacrifice.

]]> By: guitarsophist http://guitarsophist.com/2009/08/19/teaching-science-fiction/#comment-102 Sun, 23 Aug 2009 18:40:13 +0000 http://guitarsophist.com/?p=232#comment-102 I always tell students why we are reading a particular book. If it is a long book, I try to create a little motivation by giving them a synopsis that creates interest, but leaves a lot of questions to be answered. It’s more like a book jacket blurb, I guess, than a synopsis.

]]> By: Jim http://guitarsophist.com/2009/08/19/teaching-science-fiction/#comment-101 Sun, 23 Aug 2009 17:09:32 +0000 http://guitarsophist.com/?p=232#comment-101 I really enjoyed reading this post. Thank you. Also, I noticed that you provided the students of a detailed synopsis of a reading in the syllabus, which would not have occurred to me to do, but could certainly confer some advantages, by giving them a starting point.

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