Fall 2001, Sharon Goetz
(I no longer have the syllabus with the reading schedule, or rather, I would if I dug out my old FrameMaker 5 installation CD. Use open formats, everyone!)
What kinds of perspective on place does one gain upon taking an unexpected journey? Which kinds of sites does one visit in speculative fiction, and does the range of possible realms differ from those one finds in more mainstream narratives? What can one learn along the way geographically, ethnographically, and psychologically? We will ponder these questions and others as tourists ourselves, reading and exploring alien landscapes. Due attention will be paid to honing writing skills and the niceties of correct grammar and syntax.
Bisson, Terry. “England Underway.” Omni, Jul 1993. Available online (Feb 1998) at http://www.infinityplus.co.uk/stories/england.htm.
Borges, Jorge Luis. “The Garden of Forking Paths.” In Labyrinths: Selected Stories & Other Writings, edited by Donald A. Yates and James E. Irby, 19-29. New York: Modern Library, 1983.
Butler, Octavia. “Positive Obsession.” In Bloodchild and Other Stories, 125-36. New York: Four Walls Eight Windows, 1995.
Card, Orson Scott. Ender’s Game. New York: Tor Books, 1985.
Charnas, Suzy McKee. “Listening to Brahms.” In Vanishing Acts, edited by Ellen Datlow, 16-42. New York: Tor Books, 2000.
Chiang, Ted. “Story of Your Life.” In Starlight 2, edited by Patrick Nielsen Hayden, 257-313. New York: Tor Books, 1998.
Ford, John. “Mandalay.” In From the End of the Twentieth Century, edited by Paul J. Giguere, 54-78. Framingham, MA: NESFA Press, 1997.
Le Guin, Ursula. “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas.” In The Wind’s Twelve Quarters, 275-84. New York: Harper & Row, 1975.
Lethem, Jonathan. “Access Fantasy.” In Starlight 2, edited by Patrick Nielsen Hayden, 198-215. New York: Tor, 1998.
Moseley, C. W. R. D., ed. The Travels of Sir John Mandeville. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1983.
Simmons, Dan. Hyperion. New York: Bantam Books, 1989.
Willis, Connie. “The Last of the Winnebagoes.” In The Year’s Best Science Fiction, Sixth Annual Collection, edited by Gardner Dozois, 186-228. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1989.