thought experiment

[katster]

grr, parents, making me miss my one morning pleasure. So yeah, Mal, that's why I wasn't around. It wasn't because I was procrastinating on my paper, it was because I was getting donuts for my *mother*. :P

But besides that, here's the ponderance I've got for y'all to ponder. Let's pick the hypothethical. You're asked to teach a course on science fiction. Which books and short stories would you have your class read? Bonus points for why. :)

Comments

[beandelphiki.livejournal.com]

I don't know how obvious this choice might seem, especially coming from someone with my username. But Ender's Gaem would have to be one. Because it's more modern (not all good sci-fi was written decades ago), and it shows the range the genre can have.

Of course, if someone is signing up for a course on science fiction, one would assume that they probably don't have a "it's all ships shooting lasers" bias, anyway. So that might not be a large advantage. But I'd want to give an idea of how far science fiction can stretch, from the very "hard" end to Card's end - very character-driven, without lots of jargon or research involved.

No science fiction course would be complete without some of Bradbury's Martian stories, of course. And Heinlein, obviously, although I couldn't begin to decide where to start with that.

I'm an awfully scattered reader, so I haven't read a ton from any one genre. But were I teaching a course on this, I'd want to show the way science fiction has developed over time, possibly consider some of its impact on our culture, and - most importantly - impress upon my students that fresh novels and stories are always being written. Great science fiction ideas have not been "used up." I've always felt that science fiction was the genre that pushed boudaries more than any other, and that's not possible to "use up."

/long-winded

[beandelphiki.livejournal.com]

*mumbles* And lj didn't let me spellcheck or preview, so that's "game," obviously.