As heard in class...

[ultranos]

One of the best things about going to school with a bunch of geeks, and taking a class in science fiction and fantasy media, is that you get quotes like this:

"Stargate has given me unrealistic expectations: all alien planets will have one village where they all speak English."

"Except when they don't."

"Except when they don't. And everyone has a two syllable name."

Comments

[holdouttrout.livejournal.com]

Totally. *g*

[ultranos-fic.livejournal.com]

Man, this should be titled "what happens when an aero-astro engineer and a mechanical engineer start whispering in class about expectations from science-fiction". :P

[arresi.livejournal.com]

Amen to that! I adore my thesis advisor, who did his diss on "Leave it to Beaver" and has been encouraging me in my plan to write a thesis/book on American science fiction TV. And I had a classmate who wrote a paper on Fraggle Rock.

[samantilles.livejournal.com]

damn and I thought I had it fabulous when I wrote a paper on Catch-22... I thought the pop-culture media woohahah we see in "PCU" was exaggeration... now I know I missed out!!

[ultranos-fic.livejournal.com]

"PCU"?

[samantilles.livejournal.com]

it was a cult classic film from the mid 90s (everyone in school watched it when I was in college earlier this decade) and in this film, this one secondary character spends an entire semester watching nothing but TV in an effort to prove find his thesis topic. At the end of the semester monster party he stopped the show by screaming that he found the hidden link to his thesis (something about john wayne being on 24 hours a day somewhere) and got out of his pajamas, which he'd been in literally all semester. I just pray he took a shower before graduation...

[ultranos-fic.livejournal.com]

This particular class is kind of awesome. The first half is focusing on cyberpunk, having us read/watch some of the classic examples of the genre, such as Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Neuromancer, The Matrix, and Snow Crash.

The second half is basically letting us derail the class entirely and do presentations/reports on...whatever specific thing in sci-fi or fantasy we want. My friend and I are contemplating taking over the class for a day and talking about Stargate or Doctor Who.

[arresi.livejournal.com]

Any idea of what your angle is going to be?

I'm focused on the scientists.

[ultranos-fic.livejournal.com]

Not yet. We're throwing ideas back and forth. Such as "Human History According to Doctor Who". ALL of human history. Even the stuff that happens in the 51st century. :)

Although, I'm tempted to do something with "the scientist/hacker as hero in contemporary science fiction". Meaning sci-fi that happens "now", in the near-future, or in an alternate present. Such examples would be Stargate, but also games like Half-Life and parts of the Megami Tensei series, and shows like Serial Experiments Lain.

[arresi.livejournal.com]

Ooh, very cool. (Both of them.)

[beanpot.livejournal.com]

**snort*

Hee.

[ultranos-fic.livejournal.com]

I have the best friends ever. :P