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(Course-related content will appear here in reverse chronological order: the newest things at the top of the page, and older posts toward the bottom.)

The Next Few Weeks

Folks:Time is getting tight this semester! I will have no choice but to cut something from our schedule, but I’m still trying to decide what.In any case, we’ll need to have a make-up class once this semester; it will take about 3 hours. We can try choose a date next time we’re all together.For next week’s class on 27 May, we will see Yehyun’s presentation.I think we’ll probably move Hanmoi’s and Minkyo’s presentations to the make-up class day, so we can have one more panel discussion. That means we’ll have two more Tuesday classes. For one, we’ll discuss a film — I’m still trying to select  one — and for the other, we’ll have a wrap-up discussion, with a short reading assigned.Your final essays are due on the last class, which is our meeting on the morning of Thursday, 10 June.

Updated Panel Discussion Schedule

Folks, here’s the updated schedule for our class’s Panel Discussions and lectures for this semester, which I had to rearrange because of all the events this semester on Tuesdays.Some of the readings and preparations are still TBA. As well, it’s looking like lecture time is getting to be too short, so I may indeed change some of my scheduled lectures to MP3 lectures, so you can download and listen before class, and then we can discuss any questions you might have during our precious classtime!

Note that there will be one makeup class held this semester. Hopefully we can have it during an afternoon where most or all students can attend, and then we can go out for a bit together afterward.

Note also that this may still change somewhat. I’ll let you know if anything big changes, and will post about it here!

13 May: Madonna — a modern flapper? Preparation for Audience:

Participants:

27 May: Do Some Still Like It Hot? On Marilyn Monroe, Two Generations LaterPreparations:

Participants:

Makeup class: Saturday, May 29th (or another date if necessary): 

First Hour: Lecture — How SF Changed the Western  Mind

Second Hour: Panel Discussion: SF as a Foreign Language

Preparations:

Participants:

1 June:Lecture — How SF Changed the Western Imagination (End) and Beats, Hippies, Straights, and the Politics of Youth Culture3 June:Second Hour — Panel Discussion: Panel Discussion: Does Korea “Need” a Beat or Hippie Generation?Preparations:

Participants:

8 June: Lecture – Beats, Hippies, Straights, and the Politics of Youth Culture (end) and Man and Superman, and Super-”girl”?10 June: Heroism and Other Discourses from the World of Comic BooksPreparations:

Participants:

Madonna and the Flappers Feedback Form

Folks,You can give feedback on the first panel discussion here.Thanks, and see you in a little over a week!

Dialog Exercise

Hi folks. I gave you an assignment regarding dialog, and suggested Terry Bisson’s story “They’re Made Out Of Meat.”The story has also been made into a pretty decent little film, which you can see below:

(There are other video versions online as well — search the title on Youtube and you can see a few. I like this one too. But make sure you read the story, too. It’s short and worth a look.)

Your homework is to write a 500 word dialog between two characters, and to write it the way Bisson writes his — without any action, or “he said”/”she said.”

Later, we’ll go back and fill out the scene with other stuff, like action, setting, and so on. But for now, focus on writing dialog that sounds and feels believable and interesting.

Researching For Your Fiction

I promised a post by today, so here goes…

This week’s homework assignment is concerning research. You need to research for your fiction, of course — all of you realize this, whether you want to do it or not. You’ve almost certainly run into points in writing your stories where you weren’t sure whether what you were writing was plausible or realistic.You probably just made up an answer and continued on writing. This is natural and normal, but when it’s time to edit your work, you need to try to better than that.

Of course, certain things, you can make up on your own.. for example, what do unicorns eat? You don’t really need to research that! You can:

Of course, most of you are writing stories that are basically in our world. But you can still use research to make your imagination work harder, and come up with more interesting things. Sometimes, a secondary storyline can make a story more interesting, or make a character feel more human and believable. It doesn’t need to be related to the main storyline, either.

For example, a young woman who is struggling to deal with her new job is a great character for a story. Just because, say, she starts seeing ghosts, or is deciding to break up with her boyfriend,  or whatever — that is, just because the main plotline happens — doesn’t mean the struggle with her job goes away suddenly. In fact, the struggle with her job can make her more interesting and believable, and add some variety to the story. Let’s say, her boss is sexually harassing her. What are the most common forms of sexual harassment in the country where your story is set? What are the laws about sexual harassment, and how do women usually handle it in the society in which your character lives? This is all something you can research, so that you can write well about the minor subplot of her problems at work — even if they’re not the main point of the story.

One author I know sometimes just jams together two seemingly-unrelated themes to thicken stories. For example, an old man who is dealing with his terminal cancer; he is also a butterfly collector, and has a huge collection of rare butterflies he wants to give to his son, except his son doesn’t like butterflies at all.  What do butterflies have to do with cancer? Well — we probably can find a symbol there, but really, nothing… just like who you’re dating these days has nothing to do with that professor you’re having problems with these days. Life is full of supposedly unconnected things. Making stories where things are (or seem) somewhat unconnecte, at least at first, makes it feel a little more like life.

(Though, of course, at the same time, sometimes the deep connection really is there, and you can feel it though it’s not totally clear to you. The cancer/butterfly-collecting idea probably would work that way, for example.)

Another example is the details of your world. For example, a few students in our class have been writing stories set after some kind of war or disaster in Korea. If you’re going to write about disasters, you need to research how disasters work. Of course, a nuclear bomb has never exploded in (South) Korea before. But there were two atomic bomb explosions in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Lots of people have done research and calculations to figure out how most major cities would be affected by such an explosion, or the explosion of a stronger nuclear weapon. There’s lots of detail, too: the way an electromagnetic pulse would destroy most circuity in electronic devices — no more iPods and cell phones! — and the effects of the radiation of people at certain distances from the blast. But you can also research stuff like where people would get their food. What happens to canned food after a nuclear blast 50 miles away? How does botulism grow in (some) dented cans? How long would it take before all the canned food in your character’s city disappeared and people had to find another food source? Where could they find it?

Your homework for next week is to choose two books (in Korean, if you prefer!) on two different topics.

I don’t expect you to read both of those books for next week. However, I want you to have both books on hand — bring them to class — and submit for me a report including the following for each book (which you can call your MAIN BOOK and your SECONDARY BOOK):

TITLE: (in Korean and English, if it’s a Korean book)
AUTHOR:
PUBLICATION DATE:
PUBLISHER:
WHY I CHOSE THIS BOOK:
SECTIONS MOST RELEVANT TO MY RESEARCH: (which chapters, pages, etc. seem most relevant for your interests)

This report is due for next Wednesday (ie. May 12th).

Finally, we’ll be doing critiques all next week. All the stories to be critiqued should be online this weekend if possible!

Have a great weekend!

Panel Discussion Schedule

Folks,Here’s the schedule for our class’s Panel Discussions from 13 May to 10 June. I’m still working on figuring out exactly which readings I will assign you, but that should all be clear within the next week or two.13 May: Madonna — a modern flapper? Preparation for Audience:

Participants:

20 May: Do Some Still Like It Hot? On Marilyn Monroe, Two Generations LaterPreparations:

Participants:

27 May: SF as a Foreign LanguagePreparations:

Participants:

3 June: Does Korea “Need” a Beat or Hippie Generation?Preparations:

Participants:

10 June: Heroism and Other Discourses from the World of Comic BooksPreparations:

Participants:

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