What Belongs In a High School Sci-Fi/Fantasy Lit Class? 1021
flogger writes "I have been asked to help develop a literature course for Science Fiction and Fantasy literature. What do you consider to be appropriate selections of short stories and novels in these genres for high school students of all ability levels? I'd also like to know why you choose certain selections. This class will be 'regular' class and not a class for 'flunkies' to earn a credit by sitting docile and listening to lectures. The following is a course description that I have been given as a guideline. This description can change. Any ideas? 'In this Junior/Senior level course, students will focus on the genres of Science Fiction and Fantasy. Students will survey the histories of these genres and recognize how world events have been reflected onto other worlds. From the early formation of the genre, with Verne, and the classics of Clarke, Tolkien, Bradbury, and LeGuin, to the contemporary works of Card, Jordan, and Vinge, the genres have been about portraying humanity in possible scenarios. These works have mirrored events throughout the troubled situations of our history and provided optimistic outcomes and horrifying predictions. Through this course, students will utilize analytical skills and reading strategies to evaluate our current situation and project into the literature of different worlds while sharing and learning of an author's insight. Possible areas of interest will be topics of the environment, energy conservation, war, social issues, and others. '"
Where was this class for me? (Score:5, Insightful)
You might consider that not only does the world around us inform the fiction that is written (consider Heinlein's social and political commentary in Starship Troopers) but that also Science Fiction informs our own world (see how innovation is sparked by what SciFi has given us. Also, the genres can be used to teach us about the past (Piers Anthony's Steppe) or give us a glimpse into the far future (Niven's Ringworld). There is quite a lot of SciFi in our daily lives, but our world is certainly present in our SciFi.
I want to know where this class was $Big_Num years ago. I would have jumped at the chance to participate in such a class.
Some More Names to Consider (Score:5, Insightful)
Um, what were you planning to have them do? What amount of reading per week are you aiming at? 20-30 pages? I realize a lot of the authors (Jordan especially) may be too much to ask.
Dune (Score:3, Insightful)
I think the books really transcend into life in the 21st century. Plus there's a plethora of movie versions you could show your class.
Whoa.. stop! (Score:5, Insightful)
Think of the children! PLEASE!
No offense .. but it sounds like this course is going to be just like most English courses..
That is.. take an enjoyable experience (i.e. reading a good book) and turn it into a complete chore by over-analysing everything to the point that students shun reading forever.
Now.. maybe some high school students would enjoy comparing their favorite sci-fi series to the cold war.. or writing a 10 page essay on what the author _REALLY_ meant when he said "John walked briskly across the street".. but I suspect most won't.
That said.. if this is your intention though.. 1984 is a must. You can (and people have) turn just about any paragraph in that book into a masters thesis.
break down the genre a bit (Score:5, Insightful)
Cyberpunk (Gibson, Stross et al)
Classic old school sci-fi (Clarke, Heinlein etc)
Modern Space opera (Ian M Banks)
High Fantasy (Tolkein et al
Schlock Fantasy (Dragonlance, Drizzt)
Re:Where was this class for me? (Score:3, Insightful)
Robert Heinlein! (Score:5, Insightful)
Robert Heinlein!
Note: I'll write only about the books I've read, other folks might have other points of view.
Heinlein might have had a weird way of looking at things but he has great stories as an introduction to the scifi genre - light(ish) reading with plenty of topics to discuss.
Take two of his works that I recommend to folks, Starship Troopers and Farmer in the Sky. Both are "juvenile" books - sex and misogyny are themes in Heinlein's later works - but deal with life in space in a very realistic way. They're wildly speculative yet, just barely, they're plausible enough to make sense.
If you're looking for short stories, there's The Man Who Sold The Moon - short stories populated with really far-fetched ideas yet it's a really fun read.
I'm sure other people will suggest other things but I strongly suggest you take a look at Heinlein for the kids, after all he wrote a bunch of stories for them that are easy reads and are, as far as I can remember, kid-safe.
I'm resisting recommending more authors - as I'm sure this thread will be full of them - but Heinlein's earlier works, from what I recall, are nice examples of scifi aimed towards younger audiences.
Re:Some More Names to Consider (Score:3, Insightful)
I'd add Brin & Modesitt. They also have some nice socialogical themes to them.
More classics and sources (Score:4, Insightful)
I'd add some H. G. Wells and John W. Campbell - classics before Asimov (although Campbell's personal views are somewhat controversial now). And of course Asimov was mentioned by some people above me already.
Also, there are genres that fall within sci-fi and fantasy, like alternate history. Some good sources for short stories, too, are the Asimov's, Analog and SF&F literary magazines, and also short story digests published on a regular basis that include some big names writing short stories for the more literary public.
Re:Some More Names to Consider (Score:3, Insightful)
I second most of this list, especially Asimov, Dick, Lem
However, I would not suggest heavily political books to avoid needless controversy, or big doorstoppers that might discourage some kids.
Re:Dune (Score:4, Insightful)
What do you mean "books"? There is only one Dune book!
I know... (Score:4, Insightful)
All joking aside, I can't see why this class is necessary. Science Fiction and Fantasy are meant to be enjoyed. If you force children who aren't interested, they still won't like it. If it's an elective, then you'll get kids who have probably already read all of the books that might be offered, so they won't fully enjoy it either. Unless it worked around not that well known literature and focused more on discussions and less on bulk reading/essays, it might have some merit.
For that matter, a good 1/3 of my books read in plain ol' Lit were sci-fi/fantasy. Would that class be changed to general lit? Will there be no other specialized lit classes? Will they cut general lit and change it into specialized lit, so that no one has to leave the genre they like? I prefer the generalized approached to reading, otherwise you are in danger of never leaving your comfort zone.
Re:Whoa.. stop! (Score:3, Insightful)
No offense .. but it sounds like this course is going to be just like most English courses..
Well no shit. You go to school to learn, which is Hard Work, not to goof off or be entertained. If students just want to read good books, they can read themselves without taking the class.
.. or writing a 10 page essay on what the author _REALLY_ meant when he said "John walked briskly across the street"..
Has that ever really happened? Ever?
You can (and people have) turn just about any paragraph in that book into a masters thesis
Likewise, this? Somebody wrote a master's thesis about a *paragraph* from 1984? And even more than one person has done this?
Ursula K. Le Guin for both sci-fi and fantasy (Score:1, Insightful)
Ursula K. Le Guin
for both sci-fi AND fantasy... which is awesome
and one of her best sci-fi books, The Left Hand of Darkness, which won the Hugo and Nebula awards in 1970 (Dune did the same things), is bound to get the PTA's panties in a bunch due to it's discussions on sexuality (which, as an English teacher... is your JOB)
Re:Let the students... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Whoa.. stop! (Score:5, Insightful)
Don't forget all interpretations much match the teachers own view as well. Nothing spoils someone interest in a topic, when a teacher always tells them what story they got from this abstracted fiction is wrong.
Re:Whoa.. stop! (Score:4, Insightful)
SF is about the tech, not the people.
Technical documents are about current tech. Scientific American is about fictional future-tech. Science-Fiction is about the people living in a "Scientific American" world. If it's not about people, there's no _story_.
Re:Some More Names to Consider (Score:3, Insightful)
Your question is too broad. (Score:5, Insightful)
You might as well have asked people to name their favorite fantasy or sci-fi authors; you're going to get zillions of lists of recommendations without much guidance on what to pick and why.
IMHO, you need to look at that course description and ask questions like "Can you suggest some high quality fantasy or sci-fi works that have as their core theme "the relationship of humans with their environment" or "the nature of intelligence" or whatever.
Two recommendations I'd make:
1. Don't be afraid to go old (H.G. Wells _The Time Machine_, for instance, attempts to make some provocative claims about what happens to an increasingly technological society -- remarkable given when it was written).
2. Steer away from huge works. LOTR is my favorite fantasy book; but books like that are too big. They prevent you from reading too much other stuff because of time constraints.
Not an afficianado, but... (Score:1, Insightful)
For my money, David Brinn and Bruce Sterling have both changed the way I view the world.
Brinn focuses on the environment and the possible consequences of ignoring the world's current challenges. His book Earth is a good example. The lesser perils of population, pollution and economics are overshadowed by the threat of an updated Frankenstein's monster, and the presentation is not very sophisticated, but the current set of environmental challenges is laid out rather succinctly.
Bruce Sterling brings a more biting social commentary to his opus. Snow Crash, The Diamond Age and Holy Fire all challenged me to view my own experience of the world in a new light. Reading Holy Fire, in particular, caused me look at healthcare in a completely different light, that of the "medical industrial complex," where Show Crash contained an indictment of nanotechnologies all-but-unresearched potential health consequences, and The Diamond Age presented a very cool virtual educational technology along with an explanation of why you'll never see it in public education. (It's the economics, stupid!)
Both these authors weave a compelling storyline around characters that are sympathetic enough to encourage any reader with an imagination to use it. I didn't realize why their writing was effective until an acquaintance pointed out that what is presented as fiction has to be grounded in reality in order to be believable.
Go forth and imagine...
Re:Whoa.. stop! (Score:5, Insightful)
>1984 is a must.
Is it really? Id rather see this in a politics class or an english literature class after theyve been taught enough history to understand what Stalinism was. I think its 99% political and 1% scifi and without the proper polisci background it just is a dystopian tale instead of the critique and dark satire of oppressive communist governments its supposed to be.
Another Name to Consider (Score:3, Insightful)
I personally liked his several short stories that dealt with time travel and the many ways that people tried to deal with them. My favorite story, "The End", deals with what would really happen if someone could make time run backwards.
The real brilliance of his writing is that he could make you think without delving into political commentary and do it in just a few words. His stories were descriptive enough that you could picture the worlds he described, but not so descriptive that they limited the story to a particular time or place. Stories written in 1954 could have easily been written in 1994. In other words, truly timeless science fiction, something that is very, very difficult to do.
I will get off my soap box now, with a quote from Fredric Brown.
"The last man on earth sat alone in a room. There was a knock at the door..."
Re:Some More Names to Consider (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Where was this class for me? (Score:3, Insightful)
And decidedly a good example of entertainment literature that doesn't belong in a lit class.
Re:Whoa.. stop! (Score:4, Insightful)
Well no shit. You go to school to learn, which is Hard Work, not to goof off or be entertained. If students just want to read good books, they can read themselves without taking the class.
School's main purpose is learning, not boredom. Learning without boredom is the optimum, the goal we should be working toward.
Has that ever really happened? Ever?
It's called hyperbole. It's a literary device.
The point the GP is making, and one that I agree with, is that if you make something boring in school, people will treat it as such in life. Teach a boring biology class, you are robbing two dozen students of curiosity for the wonders of living organisms. Teach a boring math class, you create people who think they can make money off the casinos. Teach a boring English class, your students will never willingly pick up a book again.
Re:Some More Names to Consider (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm here to criticize (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Some More Names to Consider (Score:4, Insightful)
80s-90s represent: Greg Bear, David Brin, Gregory Benford, Vernor Vinge, Robert Charles Wilson, Michael Swanwick, Dan Simmons, Charles Sheffield, Nancy Kress, Kim Stanley Robinson
Re:Whoa.. stop! (Score:3, Insightful)
.. or writing a 10 page essay on what the author _REALLY_ meant when he said "John walked briskly across the street"..
Has that ever really happened? Ever?
Hell yes! Ok.. maybe slight bit of hyperbole (ehe.. that tickled) but when I was in high school we tore "The Great Gatsby" apart line by line. The teacher we had could take just about any poor innocent sentence and explain how it was actually a metaphor for the fall of the American dream and the prevalence of materialism in our society. I honestly think if Scott Fitzgerald had sat in on one of these classes.. he would have laughed his ass off.
This two-period hybrid full-stop/ellipses you use strikes me as emblematic of your perspective on literature and literary classes.
My half-hearted ellipsis are practically a signature .. been using them for literally decades .. kind of my own little way of railing against the system :(
Well no shit. You go to school to learn, which is Hard Work, not to goof off or be entertained. If students just want to read good books, they can read themselves without taking the class.
I don't think this is necessary. I know I sound like some drugged up elementary teacher before (s)he has had the enthusiasm sucked out by "the system".. but learning can be effective _and_ fun. You don't need to suck all the life out of a book to analyze it.
Re:break down the genre a bit (Score:4, Insightful)
Alternate History (Turtledove)
Near Future/Speculative Fiction (Rainbows End, Little Brother, etc)
John Wyndham (Score:1, Insightful)
deserves a mention.
The Chrysalids and Day of the Triffids are two of my all time favorites.
Very similar in style to Wells, with an emphasis on people who forced to adapt to changing society.
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
John Wyndham! (Score:1, Insightful)
I'm surprised I didn't see John Wyndham mentioned anywhere. 'The Chrysalids' is classic post apocalyptic Science Fiction.
Re:Where was this class for me? (Score:2, Insightful)
Try Hitchhiker's guide to galaxy. Great read.
Kurt Vonnegut's Sirens of Titan (which was a big influence to Adams' HG2G) would be a much better read for a lit class. It's a book of pure genius and there's as much insight into the human condition as there is humor. There is also a great Audiobook for this floating around for anyone too lazy to flip pages :)
Re:Some More Names to Consider (Score:5, Insightful)
[...] here's some more names to consider (in no order): Stanislaw Lem, Assimov, Wells, Philip K. Dick,[...]
etc.
I think this is exactly the wrong approach.
Sit your pupils down in day one class one and talk about sci-fi. Every one of them is bound to know at least one or two. Some will know a lot. Let them suggest things and justify their selections. That process alone will teach them something about literature. In the end be prepared to go with a couple things that came from them that aren't precisely what you would have picked but allow you to get your curriculum through. Allow one thing you don't already know yourself to force yourself to do actual analytical work yourself instead of just regurgitating something you've already done to death a million times before.
Pick one thing yourself that you think complements/contrasts their choices (ideally someone NOT on the parent's list of sf clichees). Show them how/when/where it does so.
I am willing to bet this'll make more neurons spark than a pre-set list of well-worn sci-fi authors.
What? IMHO that's not true! (Score:5, Insightful)
Also since the parent mentioned 1984, it's worth noting how much Orwell focused on the dystopia's effect on Smith's psyche. Not to say the environment isn't significant, but you can't discount the human element in a good book, no matter the genre.
Other authors i would add to the list to cover, Niel Gaiman (Stardust is priceless, though there is an explicit scene), C.S. Lewis (Perelandra is difficult diction, but really creative), Marlowe (Faustus could be considered an early Fantasy), Dan Simmons (if adult language/graphic content are admissible), Bram Stoker, and if you want a fantasy piece that comments on the time period, Spenser's Faerie Queene is exactly that.
Other authors i haven't personally read but have been recommended are Feist, Salvator, Saberhagen, and maybe Thousand and One Nights, but that's a stretch.
Re:Some More Names to Consider (Score:4, Insightful)
However, I would not suggest heavily political books to avoid needless controversy, or big doorstoppers that might discourage some kids.
On the contrary, I would use whatever metric is used in any other literature class as to the content, length, or difficulty of the novel. The main reason this post is interesting to slashdotters is that someone is trying to acknowledge sci-fi and fantasy is just as worth studying in an academic environment as other literary works. If that's true, it should be treated the same way, and not tailored to suit political sensitivities or short attention spans.
Re:Is it too much to ask (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Where was this class for me? (Score:5, Insightful)
Problem is most parents freak out. I was in an advanced Lit class and was introduced to Heinlein, Vonnegut, niven, EE Smith, and Ben Bova as writers and the sex scenes and outright violence in some of the books would have the moronic prude parents today suing everyone in sight for every reason. Hell reading a clockwork orange today in a high school would get most teachers fired.
I really feel bad for teachers today. They have to basically give high school kids nursery rhymes instead of exposing them to real writers gritty stories that make the kids want to read with a passion.
Re:Where was this class for me? (Score:3, Insightful)
Adams changed my world view in High-School. Fostered my fascination with Evolution and converted me from agnostic to strong atheism and made me analyze the world in new and interesting ways, His insight is perfect for (some) high school kids to read.
Sadly his humor is largely lost on kids who don't do much critical thinking, I have seen people gloss right over some of the absolute funniest lines in the books without stopping for a second. Many people look for humor in the events of a book, not the words of the book. Douglas' funniest bits were sneaked into very minor bits of exposition, not critical plot points. "The spaceships hung in the air just like bricks don't." The rest of his humor comes from knowing the proper way to deliver his lines, largely requiring at least some exposure to Monty python or other British comedy to know how to read 'Ford, you're turning into a penguin. Stop it.' Read the wrong way the humor is lost.
Re:Where was this class for me? (Score:3, Insightful)
There's also the converse point to consider. In Footfall (I think) Niven and Pournelle make the point (a little self indulgently, maybe) that if politicians are not supposed to plan beyond their term of office, then the only people making serious long term contingency plans are SF writers. I think there's a grain of truth in there; who else has the time and inclination to consider potential scientific breakthroughs, and then explore their social as well as well as technological implications.
I don't think I'd recommend Footfall: It's a long book and there are going to be limits on how much you can expect your students to read. Still, Niven's Flash Crowd is a fine example of this type of story, considering the ways in which a cheap public teleportation system would change society.
It'd be nice to have a symmetrical recommendation for fantasy, but I don't think it really lends itself to that sort of exploration. Fantasy, I sometimes think is best when it looks backwards and inwards into the landscape of myth and the collective unconscious. Robert Holdstock's Mythago Wood would probably be the best example of that, but again it's probably a lot of book to cover. Something from Gaiman's Sandman comics might work - A Dream Of A Thousand Cats, for example.
Just some thoughts.
Re:Where was this class for me? (Score:1, Insightful)
Try Hitchhiker's guide to galaxy. Great read.
HHGTG is fluff...hilarious, thoroughly entertaining fluff, but it doesn't really belong in a Sci-Fi lit class.
"Serious" sci-fi typically casts a real-world, modern humanistic issue against a backdrop that lets us examine it without our preexisting sentiments getting in the way. Racism, censorship, homophobia, totalitarianism, anarchy, genocide, etc...these are really hard things to discuss with a group of high-school kids. Let them discover that the Sci-Fi is not about the future...it's about the present and the past, and the genre's classics punch much harder than most other forms of literature.
If all you have done by the end of the year is get half the students able to speak about these things through the context of the stories and really discuss them, you have done an absolutely spectacular job.
Re:Where was this class for me? (Score:1, Insightful)
canon!
Terry Pratchett, winner and still champion (Score:3, Insightful)
Mr. Pratchett's work is brilliant, insightful, and often as funny as Monty Python. Racism, war, discrimination, child-raising, gangs, drug addiction, and all the ills of the modern age are covered in ways that both entertain and educate.
I wish the man would visit my neighborhood so I could buy him a hat.
Re:Where was this class for me? (Score:5, Insightful)
The philosophy [of] Starship Troopers is so easy to destroy?
Really?
Two of the tenets of that book were (a) all volunteer armed forces; (b) everyone who volunteered for combat service, and served, got to vote. No exceptions.
You'll note the protagonist of that novel was Hispanic, and the protagonist of Tunnel in the Sky was black. Not exactly common for the 1950's.
He wrote Starship Troopers in 1959, in an age prior to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, where many black veterans had been routinely deprived of the vote in the south. He wrote some years before the disaster of the Vietnam War where kids were drafted to serve and die in a decidedly non-volunteer force.
It might be easy to look back today and decry Heinlein's work, but I'm not so sure the philosophy his characters articulate is so "easy to destroy" as you think it is.
Unless of course one is all about racism and conscription. In which case, carry on.
-Holmwood
Celtica311 (Score:2, Insightful)
Thematic grouping (Score:5, Insightful)
Read Robert Heinlein's "Starship Troopers," Joe Haldeman's "The Forever War," and John Scalzi's "Old Man's War." Then discuss what they think each author thought about war and its consequences and how that reflected or disagreed with society's views at the time.
Read James Alan Gardner's "Commitment Hour," Lois McMaster Bujold's "A Civil Campaign," and David Brin's "Glory Season" and discuss gender roles and how science fiction can be used to explore them.
Read Walter M. Miller, Jr's "A Canticle for Leibowitz," Roger Zelazny's "Lord of Light," and Lois McMaster Bujold's "Curse of Chalion" and discuss the role of religion in SF/Fantasy.
Read William Gibson's "Neuromancer," Neal Stephenson's "Snow Crash," and Vernor Vinge's "Rainbows End" and discuss how our view of the future in general and computers in particular has changed over the past few decades, as well as the differences and similarities between "serious" prediction of the future and satirical commentary on the present.
Alternately one could read early and late books for each of Heinlein, James P. Hogan, Hubbard, Orson Scott Card and Michael Crichton and discuss the varying degrees to which (nominally) decent SF authors go loopy in their later years
I'm sure there're lots more ideas along those lines.
Re:Where was this class for me? (Score:2, Insightful)
In practice this is likely to continue a jock culture for another two years of what's already a painful experience for the generally more sensitive/intelligent members of a society, and training 1.5 million young adults to kill effectively almost guarantees the shit will hit the fan regularly. Your army is big enough to fight the entire world already.