Blog Set 8: Gender and Sexuality

Frederik Pohl's “Day Million” (1966) 

The narrator begins by promising to tell us a “love story” but then keeps overturning our expectations. How is this not a conventional love story? How is Don not really a “man” and Dora not really a “woman”?

Joanna Russ' “When It Changed” (1972) 

What is parthenogenesis? Are human males really needed for species reproduction? If not, what other purpose do they serve, if any? 

Blog Set 7: Phillip K. Dick

This week you are reading Phillip K. Dick's "We Can Remember It for You Wholesale" and watching the film Total Recall which is based on the story.

In your blog, reflect on the following:

1. Does the creation of artificial memories by technology seem plausible to you? What would the implications be if memories could be changed as bodies are changed by cosmetic surgery?

2. “We Can Remember It For You Wholesale” was adapted into the movie Total Recall, in which Douglas Quail was played by Arnold Schwarzenegger. What do you think of this casting decision?

3. How does adaption from a short story to a movie impact the story?

Blog Set 6: Computers and Virtual Reality

"Burning Chrome,"  William Gibson, 1982



What sort of world does “Burning Chrome” imagine will exist in the future? Who has power? Who is Chrome?









"Computer Friendly," Eileen Gunn, 1989

Why do you think that the author chose to tell this story from a young child’s point of view? How might this point of view affect the reader’s experience of this future world?