Wednesday, July 12, 2000
The University Daily Kansan
Section B · Page 3
Sci-fi bookload is heavy reading
By Karen Lucas
writer@kansason.com
Kansason staff writer
It's an intense course.
Twenty-five novels form the centerpiece of a two-week course on science fiction that started Monday.
James Gunn, professor emeritus of English and science fiction author, meets with 14 students each afternoon for the course, Intensive English Institute on the Teaching of Science Fiction.
"My interest is in providing a background of a genre so that people can read and understand it better when they're finished," said Gunn, who has offered the course since 1974. "In effect, the whole course is an exercise in definition because science fiction is very difficult to define and the best way to do it is to show how it has developed."
The class began its study of the genre by examining a work by H.G. Wells, whom Gunn described as the founder of modern science fiction.
"Without him, science fiction wouldn't be what it is today," Gunn said. "At the heart of science fiction is H.G. Wells' focus on ideas like the time machine and evolution."
Another writer studied in the course is Hal Clement, who participated in last weekend's John W. Campbell conference on science fiction, which Gunn's students had to attend. The conference was sponsored by The J. Wayne and Elsie M. Gunn Center for the Study of Science Fiction. Clement also gave a lecture Thursday evening titled "Hard Is Easier."
The class will discuss Clement's novel, Mission of Gravity, which Gunn said depicted a world that was alien to Earth.
"The world is shaped much more like two bowls placed on top of each other," he said. "The creatures who live there have a different understanding of their world than we have of ours."
The course also will focus on one of Gunn's works, The Listeners, published in 1972. Gunn said he wanted to include his novel on the reading list because it would offer students a different type of experience.
"In your class work, you often don't get a chance to ask the author why they did that or what it meant or why they wrote that way," he said.
Christopher Dick, Hillsboro graduate student and instructor of English at Tabor College in Hillsboro, said he was looking forward to hearing his professor talk about *The Listeners*.
Dick also said he had finished reading all the works on the list before the course began. During the two months leading up to the class, he said he tried to read a novel every other day.
"It was a fun list," Dick said, "and since I feel like I'm a novice, this was a good introduction."
Another course requirement is the submission of either a paper or a short story.
"I think people ought to have the opportunity to be creative," Gunn said. "Most science fiction readers want to write science fiction. That's one thing about science fiction, it tends to grab readers because it's a literature of ideas and people generally aren't intimidated by it. They want to write it."
"That's one thing about science fiction, it tends to grab readers because it's a literature of ideas and people generally aren't intimidated by it."
James Gunn professor emeritus of English and author
CLASS READING LIST
Brian W. Aldiss, Hellionica Spring Isaac Asimov, The Caves of Steel ___The Foundation Trilogy Gregory Benford, Timescape Alfred Bester, The Demolished Man John Brunner, Stand on Zanzibar Arthur C. Clarke, Childhood's End Hal Clement, Mission of Gravity Samuel R. Delanty, Babel-17 Philip K. Dick, The Man in the High Castle
William Gibson, Neuromancer James Gunn. The Listeners
Robert A. Heinlein, The Puppet Masters
Frank Herbert, Dune
Ursula Le Guin, The Left Hand of Darkness
Pohl and C.M. Kornbluth, The Space Merchants
Frederik Pohl. Gateway
Robert Silverberg, Dying Inside
Theodore Sturgeon, More Than Human
Jack Vance, The Languages of Pao
Kurt Kutnuget, The Siren of Titan
A. E. van Vagt, The World of Null A
H.G. Wells, The Time Machine
Gene Wolfe, The Shadow of the Torturer
Recommended text: James Gunn, The Road to Science Fiction, volumes 1-4.
The list was provided by James Gunn,
professor emeritus of English.
James Gunn, professor emeritus of English and science fiction author, discusses novels with students during class yesterday. The class will read 25 novels for the course. Photo by Aaron Lindberg/KANSAN
Production sizzles with electrifying performances
Pink Thunderbird showcases actors
By Amy Cummins Special to the Kanson
The actors' skills and the jokes about religious dogma are the best reasons to see the latest University Theatre production.
1959 Pink Thunderbird opened Friday at the Inge Theatre. The production combines two one-act plays, Laundry and Bourbon and Lone Star, directed by John Gronbeck-Tedesco, professor of theater and film.
In Laundry and Bourbon, three women drink bourbon and Cokes while talking about their lives in Maynard, Texas, the Lone Star State.
All three women play off of each other well. Acosta convincingly portrays frustration and love for her husband. Listening to Schemmel, particularly during her phone conversations, is sheer pleasure. Selig is hilariously on-target as a back-porch Baptist with country-club snobbery and a fear of communism.
Elizabeth, played by Andrea Acosta, Overland Park senior, shares her marital problems with Hattie, played by Megan Schemmel, Shawnee senior, as they fold laundry. Amy Lee, played by Jennette Selig, May '99 graduate, tells Elizabeth that she saw Roy, Elizabeth's husband, with another woman in his 1959 pink Thunderbird convertible.
Playwright McLure seems more comfortable writing for male than for female characters. His reliance on stereotypical female behavior is irritating. Gronbeck-Tedesco, however, tries to overcome this problem by helping the audience sympathize with the women.
Lone Star, the second play, takes place behind a town bar. Vietnam veteran Roy, played by Nick Schmitz. Olathe senior,
dressed in cowboy boots and a cowboy hat, loves his country, his wife, and his 1959 pink Thunderbird convertible.
Lone Star beer also might be added to that list, because Roy and his younger brother, Ray, played by Lloyd Bolick. Leavenworth senior, consume even more beer than the women in the first play drank bourbon. The dweeby Cletis, played by Aaron Champion, covets Roy's Thunderbird.
Bolick's performance in the role of Ray is the best reason to see 1959 Pink Thunderbird Bolick acts compellingly even when he's not saying a word, and his delivery of dialogue provides the strongest evidence for McLure's playwriting skills. Schmitz is well.cast as Roy, with over-the-top energy, virility and a lust for life.
Explanations of the Ten Commandments generated a lot of laughter.
But the running gag about
SHOWTIMES
1959 Pink Thunderbird produced by the University Theatre will play at the Inge Theatre July 13, 15, 31 and 33
Tickets are available at the
Tickets are available at the Murphy Hall Box Office, 864-3982, and the Student Union Activities box office, 864-3477
Oklahoma does not work. Also, Roy's eagerness to talk about his combat in Vietnam is unrealistic and does not fit with the upbeat tone of the conversation, despite its setting in the late 1970s.
A ride in this 1959 Pink Thunderbird is worth taking, if one does not mind the occasional bumps along the way. The production continues July 13, 15, 21 and 23 at the Inghe Theatre.
Tickets for 1959 Pink Thunderbird and the musical, You're a Good Man Charlie Brown, are available from the Murphy Hall Box Office or the Student Union Activities box office.
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