Practicing Science Fiction

Drawn from the Science Fiction Research Association conference held in Lawrence, Kansas, in 2008, the essays in this volume address intersections among the reading, writing, and teaching of science fiction. Part 1 studies the teaching of SF, placing analytical and pedagogical research next to each other to reveal how SF can be both an object of study as well as a teaching tool for other disciplines. Part 2 examines SF as a genre of mediation between the sciences and the humanities, using close readings and analyses of the literary-scientific nexus. Part 3 examines SF in the media, using specific television programs, graphic novels, and films as examples of how SF successfully transcends the medium of transmission. Finally, Part 4 features close readings of SF texts by women, including Joanna Russ, Ursula K. Le Guin, and Octavia E. Butler.

Karen Hellekson is a freelance copy editor and independent scholar. She is coeditor of the open access journal Transformative Works and Cultures and of the quarterly SFRA Review. She lives in Maine.

Craig B. Jacobsen teaches at Mesa Community College in Arizona. He is coeditor of the quarterly SFRA Review.

Patrick B. Sharp is an associate professor at California State University, Los Angeles. He has written extensively on science fiction.

Lisa Yaszek is associate professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Her most recent work was on galactic suburbia.

Edited by Karen Hellekson, Craig B. Jacobsen, Patrick B. Sharp and Lisa Yaszek

Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 226
Bibliographic Info: notes, bibliographies, index
Copyright Date: 2010
pISBN: 978-0-7864-4793-0
eISBN: 978-0-7864-5783-0
Imprint: McFarland

Preface      1
—KAREN HELLEKSON

PART 1. TEACHING
Introduction: Teaching with Science Fiction      7
—CRAIG B. JACOBSEN
1. Grokking Rhetoric through Science Fiction: A Practical Examination of Course Construction      13
—JEN GUNNELS
2. Incorporating Science Fiction into a Scientific Rhetoric Course      24
—MICHAEL J. KLEIN
3. Revealing Critical Theory’s Real-Life Potential to Our Students, the Digital Nomads      37
—JASON W. ELLIS

PART 2. READING AND WRITING
Introduction: Reading and Writing SF      53
—PATRICK B. SHARP
4. Reading/Writing Martians: Seeing Techne and Poiesis in The War of the Worlds      58
—CHARLES HARDING
5. The Creation of Heinlein’s “Solution Unsatisfactory”      74
—EDWARD WYSOCKI
6. Entropy, Entertainment, and Creative Energy in Ben Bova      87
—DONALD M. HASSLER

PART 3. MEDIA
Introduction: Media and Science Fiction      99
—KAREN HELLEKSON
7. Investigating the Postmodern Memory Crisis on the Small Screen      104
—SUSAN A. GEORGE
8. Text’s Resistance to Being Interpreted: Unconventional Relationship between Text and Reader in Watchmen      117
—HO-RIM SONG
9. “Breathe, baby, breathe!” Ecodystopia in Brazilian Science Fiction Film      130
—ALFREDO SUPPIA

PART 4. WOMEN
Introduction: Women and Writing      149
—LISA YASZEK
10. Hail the Conquering Campbellian S/Hero: Joanna Russ’s Alyx      154
—EILEEN DONALDSON
11. Essentialism and Constructionism in Octavia E. Butler’s Fledgling      168
—KRISTEN LILLVIS
12. Joanna Russ and the Murder of the Female Child: We Who Are About To…       183
—REBEKAH SHELDON
13. Learning to Listen, Listening to Learn: The Taoist Way in Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Telling      197
—JAMES H. THRALL

About the Contributors      213
Index      217