Syllabus Issues

[jhameia]

So. I just got an email from the prof I'm going to TA for. I'm staring at this syllabus and my eyes are straining at trying to focus from how white it is.

I went through the names of the students registered for the class. Generally the classes I have TA'd have been very diverse but I think this is the most diverse I've seen them.
16 East Asian
31 Latino names (but several could be Filipino)
6 South / West Asian
3 names I think are Eastern-European
1 African name
21 names I'd code as "white"

And I know there is at least one student who is black, with a French name (because I had has just last year). In fact, I recognize three names on this list.

This is the course description:
This is an interdisciplinary course that considers science fiction as an interface between and reflection of today’s scientific and humanistic disciplines. We use a wide range of twentieth-century science fiction stories to examine science fiction’s treatment of such “big” themes as time, space, religion, nature, mind, and the future.

And here are the assigned readings:

Introduction: What is Science Fiction?
Philip K.Dick, from Paycheck, preface
Adam Roberts, "The History of SF," pp. 1-7 and 37-42

Unit 1: Science Fiction, Language and Religion
Religion
1953 Arthur C. Clarke, Nine Billion Names of God
1963 Roger Zelazny, A Rose for Ecclesiastes

Religion and Politics
1967 Philip K. Dick, Faith of Our Fathers
2001, Ted Chiang, Hell is the Absence of God, 23-50.

Alien Languages and Human Myth
1934 Stanley G. Weinbaum, A Martian Odyssey
Stanley G. Weinbaum, Valley of Dreams

Alien Languages and Commensurability
1998 Ted Chiang, The Story of Your Life

Unit 2: Time, Paradox, Cause and Effect
Time and the Ancient World
1958 L. Sprague de Camp, Aristotle and the Gun
1967 James Cross, The Doll-House

Time Paradoxes and Time Travel
1959 Robert Heinlein, All You Zombies
1994 Mike Resnick, Seven Views of Olduvai Gorge

Another View of Time Travel
1979 Octavia Butler, Kindred

Unit 3: Human Nature
What Makes us Human?
1943 Lewis Padgett, Mimsy Were the Borogoves
1955 Cordwainer Smith, The Game of Rat and Dragon

Human Nature and Society
1988 Mike Resnick, Kirinyaga
1993 Mike Resnick, Mwalimu in the Squared Circle

Our Genetics
1969 James Tiptree, Your Haploid Heart
1993 Nancy Kress, Dancing on Air

Humans as Mortals
1966 Cordwainer Smith, Under Old Earth
1967 Norman Spinrad, Carcinoma Angels

If I'm not mistaken, that is a really white list, especially for a class that's as diverse as it looks. Butler and Chiang only? I love me some Cordwainer Smith, but TWO stories from him (one which is mostly about telepathic cats)? And THREE Mike Resnick stories? I'm not sure it's fair for me to deal with it.

I'm currently going through a list of stories that I would like to suggest in place of these. I think my prof would prefer older, more established stories but, eh.

So currently I'm looking at this:

Unit 1: Science Fiction, Language and Religion
Religion
1953 Arthur C. Clarke, Nine Billion Names of God
1963 Roger Zelazny, A Rose for Ecclesiastes 2010 Pamela Taylor, 50 Fatwas for the Virtuous Vampire

Religion and Politics
1967 Philip K. Dick, Faith of Our Fathers 1993 Sherman Alexie, Distances
2001, Ted Chiang, Hell is the Absence of God, 23-50.

Alien Languages and Human Myth
1934 Stanley G. Weinbaum, A Martian Odyssey
Stanley G. Weinbaum, Valley of Dreams 2000 Nalo Hopkinson, Midnight Robber (the excerpt that Grace Dillon chose for WALKING THE CLOUDS will work really well)

Alien Languages and Commensurability
1998 Ted Chiang, The Story of Your Life
2004 devorah major, Trade Winds (adding this in because I think it's a good pairing)

Unit 2: Time, Paradox, Cause and Effect
Time and the Ancient World
1958 L. Sprague de Camp, Aristotle and the Gun
1967 James Cross, The Doll-House 2004 Vandana Singh, Delhi

Time Paradoxes and Time Travel
1959 Robert Heinlein, All You Zombies
1994 Mike Resnick, Seven Views of Olduvai Gorge 1994 Ursula LeGuin, Another Story

Another View of Time Travel
1979 Octavia Butler, Kindred

Unit 3: Human Nature
What Makes us Human? Migrant Narratives
1943 Lewis Padgett, Mimsy Were the Borogoves 2004 Greg Van Eekhout, Native Aliens
1955 Cordwainer Smith, The Game of Rat and Dragon 2010 Zen Cho, Four Generations of Chang E

Human Nature and Society
1988 Mike Resnick, Kirinyaga 2012 Sabrina Vourvoulias, Ink OR 1973 Ursula LeGuin, The Ones Who Walk Away From The Omelas
1993 Mike Resnick, Mwalimu in the Squared Circle 1992 Derrick Bell, The Space Traders

Our Genetics
1969 James Tiptree, Your Haploid Heart
1993 Nancy Kress, Dancing on Air
(I'm not good with this section. Kiiind of want to use 2012 Junot Diaz, Monstro or 2011 Indrapramit Das' "The Runner of n-Vamana")

Humans as Mortals
1966 Cordwainer Smith, Under Old Earth 2011 Carlos Hernandez, The Aphotic Ghost OR 2008 Tanith Lee, Dead Yellow
1967 Norman Spinrad, Carcinoma Angels

I'm kind of grasping at straws for a few of these, especially the last two sections. Ideally I'd be able to replace one of two old white dudes in each section with a POC or WW author. I'd like to be able to offer two suggestions per section, though, to give the professor a choice.

She's also offered me the chance to give a guest lecture so I may ask to do the one I've re-named Migrant Narratives.

I'm not positive that she'd welcome this drastic a change, but framing it as suggestions might go down better. Plus, the theme of the SFTS Sawyer Seminars this year is "Ethnofuturisms" so it seems kind of remiss to... have a buncha old white dudes be the introduction to literary SF for a lot of these kids, some of whom I'm betting are coming in because of television media.

Anyway, further suggestions are very welcome.

Comments

[nyarlathotep]

I look at it his and the first thing I think is, “Oooh, reading list.”

[jolantru]

The reading list is... mmm...

I would recommend newer writers too... but, mmm...

[lovepeaceohana]

Less supportive advice, more cheerleading: I would much rather take the class with your syllabus! It does seem a little tone-deaf to lead with so many white authors to such a diverse class of students ... >.>

[phi]

Ugh, definitely not just you in seeing that list as overwhelmingly white. What a narrow and unrepresentative introduction to the genre. Just generally, but also some of the specific choices have me baffled, like WTF with only one author representing Alien Languages and Human Myth? That field is *so broad* there's no reason to have both selections from the same author. Ditto Human Nature and Society (and LOLs forever at choosing Resnick to represent that topic). And as much as I love Chiang and Butler, there are so many excellent POC authors. It really looks like she just grabbed two big names because she doesn't actually read anything by POC. Ditto on her choice of women.

I like your choices a lot and I think it's tactically wise to leave one of your professor's choices in most categories (not the double Resnick though, ugh!) I do think for Humans as Mortals it would be better to replace the Spinrad than the Smith, just on the grounds that I think Smith was more influential on his successors than Spinrad was? But that might be my own idiosyncratic reading history speaking. For the society section, Ink is more impactful and also super relevant to current events but "Omelas" is definitely a respected classic and might be easier to convince your prof (unpopop: I don't really like "Omelas." It's too full of blatant emotional manipulation for my taste). I really can't think of anything good for Genetics, though lots of terrible works come to mind.

Anyway, I'm definitely going to look up the works on your list that I haven't read yet. Thank you! And good luck with your prof.

[spacehawk.livejournal.com]

I'll give this some thought. But at first glance, thank you for replacing "What Makes Us Human" with "Migrant Narratives." (Actually, there are so many things that could replace "What Makes Us Human" as represented by two white dudes.)

You've got some great suggestions here. Any chance you could also suggest Filipino/a authors? There is so much good SF coming out of the Philippines, so little of which is known in the US "SF mainstream".

Mostly I'm still stuck trying to figure out how "Game of Rat and Dragon" is a story about "what makes us human" -- especially if one has to select just two stories to represent this concept. (I'm not personally familiar with the other one, but I'm... well, shall we say, skeptical.) Game of Rat and Dragon? What? No really, what?

[fantasyecho.livejournal.com]

I'm short on ideas of what to suggest from the Pin@y writers for the very specific topics on here. Esp stories that closely resemble the stories that are currently on the list.

I think Game of Rat and Dragon works tangentially because it questions the animal-human binary since the cats are so similar to the humans, to the point of being able to, well, Drift with each other.

[spacehawk.livejournal.com]

I have to go back through my massive collection of Filipino/a SF to see if there's anything that fits. None of the stories have appeared in Major American Magazines, though, even the most amazing ones.

Game of Rat and Dragon does touch on human-animal relationships, as you point out. But it's tangential, whereas I know some SF which is centrally about that theme (especially shape-changer stories, genetic engineering stories, or so many "aliens as foils by which to understand humanity" stories), and so I'm surprised the professor doesn't know more stories of this type as well.

Now it's true I was raised on a steady diet of Star Trek, which is all about the alien and/or android foils...

[spacehawk.livejournal.com]

For Time Travel: The Battle of Little Big Science, by Pamela Rentz. Yes I know I reprinted it (full disclosure here), but it originally appeared in Asimov's, and it's absolutely amazing. It made some folks I know cry (in a good way).

[fantasyecho.livejournal.com]

Ah yes!! That's a good one!! The fact that it appeared in Asimov's might also sway her.

[spacehawk.livejournal.com]

Glad I could help!

[pernishus.livejournal.com]

Slightly off-topic: in 2004 and 2005 I taught two iterations of a class I called "Science Fiction and the Arts." It, too, was *very* White. I would be interested to know what works you might choose as illustrative for some of the topics we treated then: SF and painting, SF and music, SF and sculpture, SF and dance, SF and theatre (broadly conceived), SF and the Gesamtkunstwerk -- I'm afraid I've now forgotten what other things we touched upon.

Also, since I appear not to have said it recently -- YOU ARE MISSED IN NOVA SCOTIA...

[fantasyecho.livejournal.com]

I think I would be able to do better with categories like those!

[pernishus.livejournal.com]

Jha -- I'm having trouble logging in at Dreamwidth, so I'm posting the comments here -- here are links to three posts that could conceivably be of interest to you concerning the SF class from 2004 and 2005 --

http://pernishus.livejournal.com/1871171.html -- the syllabus

http://pernishus.livejournal.com/1871609.html -- the final exam

http://pernishus.livejournal.com/1871700.html -- list of primary sources I used in 2004

Any suggestions would be gratefully received.

[fantasyecho.livejournal.com]

I recall that a decade ago when I took a class called "Recent Science Fiction" we p much still started from HG Wells (but not one of the famous novels, we did "The Land Ironclads") and stuck to a single anthology, The Oxford Book of Science Fiction Stories. It stopped at 1990. So yeah, I feel my own SF introduction could have been more diverse.

I wish...

[westywandering.livejournal.com]

I could afford to buy some of these books but I'll see what our local libraries can ferret out using the 'lending' process with other libraries. I could try Mac's libraries but that a 70 minute each way driving commitment.
It's always good to expand the mind.

Re: I wish...

[fantasyecho.livejournal.com]

Most of these are short stories, but I think McMaster ought to have So Long Been Dreaming. It might also have Dark Matter but I'm not holding my breath there.

[kate-schaefer.livejournal.com]

These look like good suggestions to me. An area where you might get pushback is that you're suggesting a lot of current fiction, while the original list is specifically framed as being 20th century. Did the prof choose that period in order to make sure that these are stories with some kind of lasting strength? If so, the heavy dose of Resnick is kinda weird.

Good luck.

[fantasyecho.livejournal.com]

I know a few of those stories would be on there because of some sort of subversive intention, like the Time Travel and the Ancient World stories. (She's very fond of Dangerous Visions.) I would like more suggestions of 20th century stuff if possible, because I agree, I'm expecting pushback from there too.

[kate-schaefer.livejournal.com]

For a couple of mid-20th century short stories with serious staying power and big recognition at the time, there's Delany's "Aye, and Gomorrah" and his ""We, in Some Strange Power’s Employ, Move on a Rigorous Line". I assume you've read them, but if not, my oversimplification would be that the first deals with sexual otherness as astronauts, and the second deals with class and modernization.

[fantasyecho.livejournal.com]

I've read the former, but not the latter. Thanks! I think something on class and modernization will go down well, esp with a lot of these students.

[kate-schaefer.livejournal.com]

Also the idea of losing "Mimsy Were the Borogroves" makes me sad. I haven't reread it in years, but it was haunting when I first read it -- at least twenty years after it was first published, and more than forty years ago now -- and it's still strong in my memory now. My hazy recollection is that Catherine Moore was rumored to be a larger part of "Lewis Padgett" than Henry Kuttner was, but I can't prove that.

[fantasyecho.livejournal.com]

Like I said, I could be okay with just replacing one name out of each pair.