The New Wave: Science Fiction Short Stories of the ’60s and ’70s
Instructor: Rahul Kanakia (rahkan@stanford.edu – (202) 841-0265
Faculty Sponsor: Prof. Ursula Heise
Tuesdays 4:15-6:05 in Building 160, Room 326
Introduction
For many decades after rising from pulp action stories, science fiction remained a genre of reasoned extrapolations of the future tied up into a traditional adventure story plot. But, in the middle of the 1960s, a new group of science fiction writers began experimenting both stylistically and with content. Ursula Le Guin, James Tiptree, and Joanna Russ used their stories to comment about gender, in a field still largely dominated by men. Philip Dick and Harlan Ellison pondered God and the nature of the universe. John Brunner and J.G. Ballard introduced the theme of ecological catastrophe to a field long preoccupied with nuclear war and the apocalypse.
In this course, we will utilize the short works of these authors, and more, to understand the changes taking place in the field during this time. The course will be divided into topics. Each week students will read three stories that share a similar topic or theme common to stories of the period and should come into class prepared to discuss the stories
Assignments
Student Initiated Courses are required to have gradeable assignments. Twice during the quarter, each student will turn in discussion questions on the week’s reading.
The stories will be available online at www.stanford.edu/~rahkan during the week in which they are to be discussed.
October 2nd – Technological Change and Social Upheaval
“The Roads Must Roll” by Robert Heinlein
“Scanners Live in Vain” by Cordwainer Smith
“Repent, Harlequin!’ said the Ticktockman” by Harlan Ellison
October 9th – Religion
“Faith of Our Fathers” by Philip Dick
“The Star” by Arthur C. Clarke
“Hell is the Absence of God” by Ted Chiang
October 16th – Ecological Catastrophe
“The Last Flight of Dr. Ain” by James Tiptree, Jr.
“The Ugly Chickens” by Howard Waldrop
October 23th – Utopias
“The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas” by Ursula Le Guin
“Persistence of Vision” by John Varley
“Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut
Week 6 – Gender
“When It Changed” by Joanna Russ
“
“The Women Men Don’t See” by James Tiptree, Jr.
November 6th – Human Potential
“Flowers for Algernon” by Daniel Keyes
“Understand” by Ted Chiang
“Stable Strategies in Middle Management” by Eileen Gunn
November 13th – Cosmology
“All The
“The Beast That Shouted Love At The Heart of the World” by Harlan Ellison
December 4th – Race
“Mary Margaret Road-Grader” by Howard Waldrop
“Aye, and
Week 10 – Proto-Cyberpunk
“The Girl Who Was Plugged In” by James Tiptree, Jr.
“I Have No Mouth Yet I Must Scream” by Harlan Ellison
“True Names” by Vernor Vinge