a) description of the original text and its socio-cultural / historic origins Stanislaw Lem’s novel The Star Diaries is a series of space adventures starring Lem’s recurring space-voyager protagonist, Ijon Tichey. My project will focus on the 21st Voyage, where Ijon visits the planet of Dichotica. The inhabitants of Dichotica are automorphists (transhumanists), whose technology [...]
THX-1138 is a 1971 dystopian science fiction film directed and co-written by George Lucas. Set in a massive underground city, completely cut off from the natural world, the film presents a society whose human population is forced into dehumanizing and oppressive conformity. Co-living arrangements between men and women are chosen by a central computer, and [...]
Though it may not be obvious upon initial reading, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein contains subtle commentary on the gender roles of her society. When we examine the time period in which she lived, along with her family history, we begin to uncover Shelley’s motivation to comment on the presumed role of women, which she more than [...]
We might best define science fiction by discussing it within the broader category of literary fiction. Fiction is unique in that it allows the reader to be temporarily transported into another place and time, escaping the “real world”. The reader might even have a paradigm shift by experiencing life through another person’s eyes, having access [...]
