Science Fiction Short Story Institute

Short Story Institute Readings / 4

Science Fiction Short Story Institute

Syllabus version 0.7: June 15, 2015

Day 1: Monday, June 15

Road to SF Volume / Readings for Class Discussion (dates). Also read all of Gunn's story introductions. / Authors / Student Discussants
vol 1 / Volume 1 introduction / James Gunn / Chris McKitterick and Karen
Discuss "What is science fiction?" Definitions here.
vol 1 / excerpt from Frankenstein (1818 anonymous; 1823 Shelley) / Mary Shelley
vol 1 / "Rappaccini's Daughter" (1844) / Nathaniel Hawthorne
vol 1 / "The Diamond Lens" (1858) / Fitz-James O'Brien
vol 3 / "The Cold Equations" (1954) / Tom Godwin
vol 3 / "The Engine at Heartspring's Center" (1974) / Roger Zelazny
vol 1 / "The Star" (1897) / H.G. Wells
vol 2 / "The Machine Stops" (1909) / E.M. Forster
vol 2 / "Twilight" (1934) / John W. Campbell

Day 2: Tuesday, June 16

vol 1 / excerpt from A True Story (165 - 170 AD) / Lucian of Samosata / Student Discussants
vol 1 / excerpt from The Voyages and Travels of Sir John Mandeville (1357-1380) / Anonymous / Jack and Mateen
vol 1 / "Somnium or Lunar Astronomy" (1610, published 1640) / Johannes Kepler
vol 1 / excerpt from The Journey to the World Underground (1741) / Ludvig Holberg
vol 1 / "Mellonta Tauta" (1849) / Edgar Allan Poe
vol 1 / excerpt from Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (1870) / Jules Verne
vol 1 / excerpt from Around the Moon (1870) / Jules Verne
vol 1 / excerpt from Looking Backward (1887) / Edward Bellamy
vol 1 / "With the Night Mail" (1905) / Rudyard Kipling
vol 1 / excerpt from Utopia (1516) / Thomas More
vol 1 / excerpt from The City of the Sun (1623) / Tommaso Campanella
vol 1 / excerpt from The New Atlantis (1627) / Francis Bacon

Day 3: Wednesday June 17

vol 2 / Volume 2 introduction / James Gunn / Student Discussants
vol 1 / excerpt from A Voyage to the Moon (1657) / Cyrano de Bergerac / .
vol 1 / excerpt from A Voyage to Laputa (from Gulliver's Travels, 1726) / Jonathan Swift
vol 1 / "Micromegas" (1752) / Francois Marie Arouet de Voltaire
vol 2 / "The Revolt of the Pedestrians" (1928) / David H. Keller, M.D.
vol 2 / excerpt from Brave New World (1932) / Aldous Huxley
vol 1 / "The Damned Thing" (1898) / Ambrose Bierce
vol 2 / "The Moon Pool" (1981 [in 2002 RtSF edition only]) / A. Merritt
vol 2 / "The Red One" (1918) / Jack London
vol 2 / "Dagon" (1919) / H.P. Lovecraft

Day 4: Thursday, June 18

vol 1 / excerpt from She (1887) / H. Rider Haggard / Student Discussants
vol 2 / From Under the Moons of Mars (1912) / Edgar Rice Burroughs / Mateen and Sophie
vol 2 / "A Martian Odyssey" (1934) / Stanley G. Weinbaum
vol 2 / "Proxima Centauri" (1935) / Murray Leinster
vol 2 / "Black Destroyer" (1939) / A.E. van Vogt
vol 2 / "The New Accelerator" (1901) / H.G. Wells
vol 2 / "The Tissue-Culture King" (1927) / Julian Huxley
vol 2 / "With Folded Hands" (1947) / Jack Williamson
vol 3 / "Brooklyn Project" (1948) / William Tenn (Philip Klass)

Day 5: Friday, June 19

vol 3 / Volume 3 introduction / James Gunn / Student Discussants
vol 2 / excerpt from Last and First Men (1930) / Olaf Stapledon / .
vol 2 / "What's It Like Out There?" (1952) / Edmond Hamilton
vol 2 / "The Faithful" (1938) / Lester del Rey
vol 2 / "Requiem" (1939) / Robert A. Heinlein
vol 2 / "Hyperpilosity" (1938) / L. Sprague de Camp
vol 2 / "Nightfall" (1941) / Isaac Asimov
vol 3 / "Reason" (1941) / Isaac Asimov
vol 3 / "Critical Factor" (1953) / Hal Clement

Day 6: Saturday, June 20

"The Science Fiction Sentence"
"The Protocols of Science Fiction" / Various / Discussant
vol 3 / "Sail On! Sail On!" (1952). We will do a close reading of this story to discuss the protocols of SF - how do we read SF differently than other literature? What is the "SF sentence"? / Philip Jose Farmer / Chris McKitterick (your teacher)
leads today
vol 3 / "All You Zombies" (1959) / Robert Heinlein
vol 3 / "We Can Remember It for You Wholesale" (1966) / Philip K. Dick
vol 3 / "Sundance" (1969) / Robert Silverberg

Day 7: Sunday, June 21

vol 3 / "Desertion" (1944) / Clifford D. Simak / Student Discussants
vol 3 / "The Game of Rat and Dragon" (1955) / Cordwainer Smith / Justine and Israel
vol 3 / "Who Can Replace a Man?" (1958) / Brian W. Aldiss
vol 3 / "Dolphin's Way" (1964) / Gordon R. Dickson
vol 3 / "Day Million" (1966 [hear Pohl reading this piece here]) / Fred Pohl
vol 3 / "Tricentennial" (1976) / Joe Haldeman
vol 3 / "The Million-Year Picnic" (1946) / Ray Bradbury
vol 3 / "Thunder and Roses" (1947) / Theodore Sturgeon
vol 3 / "That Only a Mother" (1948) / Judith Merril
vol 3 / "The Terminal Beach" (1964) / J. G. Ballard
vol 3 / "The Big Flash" (1969) / Norman Spinrad

Day 8: Monday, June 22

vol 3 / "Mimsy Were the Borogoves" (1943) / Lewis Padgett (Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore) / Student Discussants
vol 3 / "The Sentinel" (1951) / Arthur C. Clarke / Karen and
vol 3 / "Kyrie" (1968) / Poul Anderson
vol 4 / "Schrödinger's Kitten" (1988) / George Alec Effinger
vol 3 / "Coming Attraction" (1950) / Fritz Leiber
vol 3 / "Harrison Bergeron" (1961) / Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
vol 3 / "Slow Tuesday Night" (1965) / R. A. Lafferty
vol 3 / "Aye, and Gomorrah" (1967) / Samuel R. Delany
vol 3 / "The Jigsaw Man" (1967) / Larry Niven
vol 3 / excerpt from Stand on Zanzibar (1968) / John Brunner

Day 9: Tuesday June 23

vol 4 / Volume 4 introduction / James Gunn / Student Discussants
vol 3 / "Fondly Fahrenheit" (1954) / Alfred Bester / Justine and Sophie
vol 3 / "Pilgrimage to Earth" (1956) / Robert Sheckley
vol 3 / "The Streets of Ashkelon" (1962) / Harry Harrison
vol 3 / "I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream" (1967) / Harlan Ellison
vol 3 / "Masks" (1968) / Damon Knight
vol 3 / excerpt from The Left Hand of Darkness (1969) / Ursula K. Le Guin
vol 3 / "When It Changed" (1972) / Joanna Russ
vol 4 / "The heat death of the Universe" (1967) / Pamela Zoline
vol 4 / "Of Mist, and Grass, and Sand" (1973) / Vonda N. McIntyre
vol 4 / "Abominable" (1980) / Carol Emshwiller

Day 10: Wednesday, June 24

vol 4 / "Born of Man and Woman" (1978) / Richard Matheson / Student Discussants
vol 4 / "Common Time" (1953) / James Blish / Jack and
vol 4 / "Nobody Bothers Gus" (1968) / Algis Budrys
vol 4 / "The Dance of the Changer and the Three" (1968) / Terry Carr
vol 4 / "The Last Flight of Dr. Ain" (1974) / James Tiptree, Jr. (Alice Sheldon)
vol 4 / "View from a Height" (1979) / Joan D. Vinge
vol 4 / "Flowers for Algernon" (1959) / Daniel Keyes
vol 4 / excerpt from Dune (1965) / Frank Herbert
vol 4 / "The Island of Doctor Death and Other Stories" (1970) / Gene Wolfe
vol 4 / "Gather Blue Roses" (1971) / Pamela Sargent

Day 11: Thursday, June 25

vol 4 / "The Library of Babel" (1941) / Jorge Luis Borges / Student Discussants
vol 4 / "With a Finger in My I" (1972) / David Gerrold / .
vol 4 / "Rogue Tomato" (1975) / Michael Bishop
vol 4 / "The Word Sweep" (1979) / George Zebrowski
vol 4 / "The Luckiest Man in Denv" (1952) / C.M. Kornbluth
vol 4 / "Where No Sun Shines" (1970) / Gardner Dozois
vol 4 / "Angouleme" (1971) / Thomas M. Disch
vol 4 / "Uncoupling" (1975) / Barry Malzberg
vol 4 / "This Tower of Ashes" (1976) / George R.R. Martin

Day 12: Friday, June 26

vol 4 / "My Boy Friend's Name is Jello" (1954) / Avram Davidson / Student Discussants
vol 4 / "The First Sally (A), or Trurl's Electronic Bard" (1974) / Stanislaw Lem / Israel and
vol 4 / "The World Science Fiction Convention of 2080" (1980) / Ian Watson
vol 4 / "The Moon Moth" (1961) / Jack Vance
vol 4 / "Light of Other Days" (1966) / Bob Shaw
vol 4 / "The Planners" (1968) / Kate Wilhelm
vol 4 / "Air Raid" (1977) / John Varley
vol 4 / "Particle Theory" (1977) / Edward Bryant
vol 4 / "Exposures" (1981) / Gregory Benford
online / contemporary story - TBA