Scifi for beginners

2004-01-23T13:03:00.000-08:00

Day 13:
Today we worked on our web projects for about two hours, I got a lot done and have a lot planned for the weekend. Over the weekend I plan on putting my websites about robots up. I have already found the sites its just a matter of putting them online. I also have to do my part of the story over the weekend, I am in charge of the ending. Sunday night my group will be meeting to put our pieces together and making everything flow. It seems like it will be a busy weekend.

2004-01-22T13:26:00.000-08:00

DAY 12:
Today we watched trekkies it was fairly entertaining, I was a little surprised at some of the things people do. Last night our group got together and put together a detailed outline of our story. This way we can all write one part of the story but it wont be as jumpy cause we will already know what the others are going to write. This weekend we plan on putting the whole thing together. I have been working on my web project and I am starting to like it a little more because I am more comfortable with the web design program.

2004-01-21T12:44:00.000-08:00

Day 11:
Last night we finished neuromancer and wrote a response to the novel along with a response to the matrix which we watched yesterday. Tonight my group is meeting to work on our story which is still going to be about our asteroid man. I really enjoyed talking about neuromancer because I really liked reading the story, when we talked about it in class it cleared up a few things.

2004-01-21T12:15:00.000-08:00

Day 10:
Today we discussed Neuromancer and than watched the matrix. The two seem to be very similar, both revolve around cyberspace, The matrix seems to have taken a number of ideas from Neuromancer. Our group worked out a few things for our project, we decided to do a story about an asteroid approaching earth but only one man knows. As it will end the man does not tell anyone but just gets closer with his family. I think we will work on it tomorrow night. Tonight I am going to write about the matrix, most probably I will discuss sunglasses in the movie along with ignorance and dystopia.

2004-01-21T10:27:00.000-08:00

Day 9:
I was not in class on Friday because I was headed to Detroit for a funeral. But in the car I talked to my little bro about a bunch of science fiction. It would appear that he reads a good bit of it which was surprising to me. He pointed out a few things about the matrix I had never really thought about before. It is possible that the trilogy is loosely based around the bible. I also went to the Detroit auto show while I was there and found that many of the cars belong is SF novels as opposed to on a showroom floor.

2004-01-15T13:28:00.000-08:00

Day 8:
Today we discussed race in SF and related it to MIB which we watched in class. My group has come together and discussed maybe writing a story about bugs, we decided that we defiantly want it to be based around elon that would make it a little more interesting for the readers in our class. Robot research is going well still I have a few site written down for my links. Tonight I am going to read some articles which are intended to guide us in our writhing I hope they will help.

2004-01-14T13:20:00.000-08:00

Day 7:
Last night we read an article on women in SF and ways of communicating feminist issues through SF, we than went on to read a short story about a girl going through puberty and turns into a werewolf. We spent the day discussing women and even young girls in Jr high. I am currently working on my web page I just completed my definition page which was a big step but very easy to find. I also read an article today about robot dogs in the military and their development which seems to be sooner than we think. Today we also got our group together for our short story, our group of 4 discussed a story about ants so we will see where that goes.

2004-01-13T13:21:00.000-08:00

Day 6:
Today we discussed an article about Star Trek and its relation to U.S. Foreign Policy, We than watched Star Trek: First Contact. I enjoyed the movie and I will be writing about it tonight. I think I will write on the Borg civilization and their organization. The movie dealt with a lot of concepts we discussed in class such as space travel and interaction of societies from different planets. I did not get to work on my web research today but I plan on finalizing a few pages tomorrow.

2004-01-12T13:15:00.000-08:00

Day 5:
Today I learned a lot about making my web site. I designed my template and finally felt like I was going somewhere with my site. I have finalized my timeline and am ready to set up my definition page. Tomorrow I plan on putting together my Research page on Robots that should be interesting. I would also like to find some pictures that will make my site a little more interesting. I am really enjoying the class, the two stories we read last over the weekend were the type I was expecting to read in this course, I didn't mind sitting down and reading them at all. I actually look forward to our next reading, I hope they are just as good.

2004-01-09T13:26:00.000-08:00

Day 4:
We watched Blade Runner today and are assigned to write a free response on the movie. I may write my response on the dark, film noir qualities of the movie or perhaps on the environmental collapse I noticed while watching. My web project is now going to be on robots and there advances in the last 10 or so years, I feel I can find a lot of information on robots and I think it would be interesting.

2004-01-08T12:38:00.000-08:00

Last night we read 3 scifi stories and one article pertaining to the stories. I really enjoyed all three stories, all dealt with the future and two of them dealt with a nuclear fall out and radiation. Today we spoke about the stories in groups and discussed some of the ambiguous points the authors made. For example in Asimov's Robbie the robot could not talk and we wondered why he may have written the story that way. Our group decided that talking robots lacked emotion because there voices lacked feel while the robot could convey his love for the girl better without talking. We also hypothesized that the bond between the girl and the robot was more special and harder for the mother to understand when the robot would not carry on conversation. The remainder of the class period was spent discussing an article on scifi movies of the last 20 years and there reflections of society. We than worked on our web research. I learned a lot today about the effects of scifi on society and there very close parallel, it would appear that scifi is a very effective way for writers to comment on society.

2004-01-07T12:55:00.000-08:00

Today archetypes for science fiction were examined in class. We discussed A Mortal Immortal: A Tale along with Poe's The Fall Of the House of Usher. Shelly's immortal was a solid story about the age old question of immortality, and its strong disadvantages. The House of Usher was a very dark story about an insane incestuous family and there demise. We compared these stories to science fiction of today and discussed how they lead to the development of SCIFI today.

2004-01-06T11:38:00.000-08:00

Science fiction seems like the ideal literature class, it combines great stories with the theory behind them. This was something I did not expect I assumed the class would focus on only the writing and authors, when in fact we will investigate the impact on society.
I plan on researching cloning and genetic engineering, It seems to be a hot topic in today's research labs. It is also a topic I have looked into before and I am very interested in. But I do not plan to limit myself to this topic; my first day of in class research will focus primarily on finding a topic I feel I will enjoy researching.