Pete Teaches Science Fiction --Class #2

Early writers

Science Fiction Writers!	Science Fiction Writers?
Jules Verne 1828-1905  "Voyage Extroadinaire" / Extraordinary Voyages French adventure writer who enjoyed writing stories that include a technological wonder	Homer?? Odyssey? Illiad? Could Homer have believed cyclopses really existed? See L. Sprague De Camp's interesting non-fiction book, "Lands Beyond."
H.G. Wells 1866-1946 Socialist with pacifist leanings  Wrote science fiction which said something about society.  War of the Worlds imagery	Jonathan Swift Gulliver's Travels?? Political satire??
Edgar Rice Burroughs 1875-1950 American, the escapist, heroic branch of science fiction Art based on Edgar Rice Burroughs fiction

Frankenstein --Pete Teaches Science Fiction -Class #1

I recently had the chance to teach a non-credit class on science fiction at the local engineering school. Of course, I accepted. And, although we've only completed three weeks I am enjoying myself and so are the students, I think.

Class #1 was devoted to the question of "Can one define what science fiction is?" and "What is the first Science Fiction story?"

I don't claim it's a definitive answer, but I chose Mary Shelley's Frankinstein as my answer.

In fact, I completely admit I took this answer from Brian Aldiss's wonderful book, "Billion Year Spree."
https://www.amazon.com/Trillion-Year-Spree-History-Science/dp/0380704617/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1507513805&sr=1-1&keywords=trillion+year+spree+the+history+of+science+fiction

A wonderful book well worth reading and in much need of an update.

So here's a bit on Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley.

The story of the writing of Frankenstein is fascinating but has also been documented many times before.

For instance see:
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/frankenstein-published

or
http://www.thedailybeast.com/the-summer-storm-that-inspired-frankenstein-and-dracula


This entertaining and well done video includes much on that subject, although I prefer to stop the video at about the point roughly half way through where the SPOILERS  on this classic novel (much different from the films) start:

Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (as well as Pollidori's much forgotten but highly influential novel, "The Vampyre.") were written on a particularly wild weekend by a group of decadent Bohemians including Lord Byron, the poet, and Mary's husband Shelley, another decadent, wild poet.

I'd heard there was a movie based on this weekend and the events that occurred. To my surprise, I learned there were two. interestingly, they were made only two weeks apart. "Haunted Summer" and "Gothic" --interestingly I stumbled across a bizarre looking film called "Liztomania" that was also produced by Ken Russel, producer of "Gothic."

Although "Liztomania," had nothing but nothing to do with anything related to the class, save for some bizarre science fiction imagery, I showed it to the students and they seemed to enjoy it.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095280/


http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091142/

Liztomania by Kurt Russel

 

https://www.google.com/search?q=Franz+Liszt&oq=Franz+Liszt&aqs=chrome..69i57&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073298/

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Finally, for students who wished to find the text of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, it's on line in several places.

http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/84?msg=welcome_stranger

http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/6087

More Christmas Specials and Movies for English Language Learners and Foreign Students

Last time on this blog, I shared a few of the more common American Christmas specials. This time, I'll add a few more, as well as a couple of the best known Christmas films. These are all iconic Christmas specials well known in the USA and I introduced them in my advanced class a couple weeks ago.

# 5 -- A Charlie Brown Christmas 

Charlie Brown is most certainly an American icon. Seems like this should be included.

# 6 -- A Christmas Story

Last month in this class, as discussed in a post a few weeks ago on movies, I showed the Thanksgiving film, "Pieces of April," spread over a few weeks. I seriously considering give this film, "A Christmas Story," the same treatment and only decided against it as I did not wish to repeat myself with the same kind of class, two months in a row. Undoubtedly a good film for foreign folks wishing to understand American culture. --or at least American culture of a few decades ago.

#7-  It's a Wonderful Life 

A true classic and a well known one. Surely it can't help for people wishing to understand our culture to check this one out, can it?

# 8 - A Miracle on 34th Street 

The story of a "real" Santa Claus in New York City. Another classic worth checking out.

#9 -- Santa Claus Conquers the Martians  

Okay, here I might be pushing it. I admit this strange and bizarre classic in "bad" movies has a special place in my heart. On the other hand, I did show it to my students in the advanced class, a group primarily composed of educated, middle class Asian housewives and they seemed to consider the brief exposure ten minutes well spent.

An Introduction to Christmas Special for "New Americans," Foreign Students, and ESL Students --Part One

Once a week, I teach an advanced ESL class where most of the students are wives of highly educated foreign workers, often from the tech industry. They generally speak English well and much of the class is cultural enrichment. 

What follows is a list of Christmas Specials that I introduced my students to this week. 

I began by explaining that Christmas is a religious holiday celebrated only by those who are at least nominally Christian and introduced the concept of separation of church and state. Nevertheless, I said, Christmas is clearly and important time of year and the separation of Church and State is not 100% (for better or worse) as evidenced by such things as "In God we Trust" on the money. 

So, with no further ado, a list of Christmas specials for ESL and Foreign Students. 

#1 --Frosty the Snowman

Although technically not a Christmas special, per se, this does tend to get shown around Christmas time. Therefore I began the class with it, perhaps to alleviate fears that I was going to push my religious beliefs or offend Muslims.   

Like many of these I began with the song on which the television special was based, and explained the vocabulary and concepts in it. Therefore I began with this song.    

 

I then followed up with the trailer for the TV show (or as close to the trailer as I could find. I am not convinced, despite the label, that this is really the TV show trailer.) 

#2 --Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer 

Again, I began with the song, explaining lyrics and vocabulary and cultural references. As an aside, and a piece of self criticism, this was not a terribly interactive lesson and was a bit lecture heavy. Not perfect, but once in a while, I feel, it's okay to do such lessons. 

 

This was followed by the trailer for the TV special. (This is not the one I used in class, but how can one not enjoy this? Especially if you are from Schenectady, home of GE, as I am. )

#3 - How the Grinch Stole Christmas 

This one I did a little differently than the others, because while the others started with songs, this one started with a book, a book by Dr. Seuss, so I began there. The I showed the trailer for the TV show. 

I explained that while I thought the word "grinch" had not been an English word, before this song they could now use it to describe an unhappy, grouchy person. I then followed this up with the song, explaining that a lot of the vocabulary is quite intense and obscure (I actually had to look up a couple words myself, "wasty" for instance, and told my students so. I do make it clear to my students that I do not understand every English word and they should not expect to be able to do so either. )

I showed this partly to explain the cultural significance of the song. I kind of feel they were more impressed than I was, but it was still fun to see the US Navy band perform this classic. 

 

This might have worked too, but probably not as well. 

And finally I introduced them to the Jim Carrey full length movie. I confess, I steered them away from it, but explained I hadn't seen it myself and perhaps I should before saying bad things about it. On the other hand, with the cartoon being such a classic, I feel this entire movie is unnecessary. Competely unnecessary.