Study Guide for Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.'s _Player Piano_, for various classes at Miami University (Oxf... more Study Guide for Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.'s _Player Piano_, for various classes at Miami University (Oxford, OH, USA). Background information for undergraduate students, plus commentary on a comic-dystopian work highly relevant in 2022 and following: when AI and robotics will foreground again issues of automation, and political divisions in the U.S. and elsewhere will make highly relevant Vonnegut's 1952 observations on potential conflicts based in education and employment potential.
... We argue that much twentieth century dystopian literature, reflecting this new world picture,... more ... We argue that much twentieth century dystopian literature, reflecting this new world picture, embodies two symbols for individual human helplessness and triviality: the beehive and the machine. Reluctantly,we will skip over ...
Taken to extremes, social organization--however necessary in itself--leads to the creation of wha... more Taken to extremes, social organization--however necessary in itself--leads to the creation of what editors Erlich and Dunn label Clockwork Worlds. This anthology has been organized to define and expand that concept for the reader. Arthur O. Lewis provides a comprehensive overview of clockwork worlds and sets them in their political and literary contexts. Following Lewis' introduction are two series of essays which show how the theme of mechanized environments has been developed in classic works of dystopian fiction, and how it has been treated by some of the major contemporary science fiction writers. The Special Topics section studies mechanized environments from a variety of viewpoints. The editors have included an extensive list of stories, novels, films, background readings, and other works useful for the study of mechanized environments.
About This volume Introduction A List of Works Useful for the Study of The Human/Machine Interfac... more About This volume Introduction A List of Works Useful for the Study of The Human/Machine Interface in SF Reference Works Anthologies and Collections Fiction and Poetry Literary Criticism Stage, Screen, and Television Drama Stage, Screen, and Television Drama Criticism Graphic and Plastic Arts Music Background Reading Author Index Title Index Keywords and Theme Index
At the start, there was Marshall Tymn founding his series with Greenwood Press, Contributions to ... more At the start, there was Marshall Tymn founding his series with Greenwood Press, Contributions to the Study of Science Fiction and Fantasy, in which the first volume was The Mechanical God: Machines in Science Fiction (1982). This volume was edited by Thomas P. Dunn and Richard D. Erlich, with an Introduction by Brian W. Aldiss and collected eighteen essays by eighteen scholars on the subtitle's topic. Mechanical God was followed in 1983 by Number 7 in the Contributions series, Erlich and Dunn's Clockwork Worlds: Mechanized Environments in SF.Mechanical God and Clockwork Worlds got decent reviews and a somewhat surprising number of positive informal comments on the Dunn/ Erlich contribution of a "List of Works Useful for the Study of Machines in Science Fiction" and a "List of Works Useful for the Study of Mechanized Environments in SF": a biblio-, filmo-, video-, discographical effort to provide a briefly annotated list of basic works for the study of each theme. So Dunn and I decided that our most immediately useful project for the academic study of sf might be to join the scholars putting together the basic tools for research. We "got professional help" in areas outside our expertise, and produced a combined and expanded volume with the ungainly title Clockworks: A Multimedia Bibliography of Works Useful for the Study of the Human/ Machine Interface in SF. The formal credits list Erlich and Dunn as compilers, "Assisted by Edward K. Montgomery, Catherine Mills Royer, and D. Scott DeLoach," though others helped with the project, including Chad Dresbach (who supplemented Dunn's extensive knowledge of pinball machines with his own expertise in that area and in the developing medium of video games and their early successors), and Jeffrey R. Wilson and Vincent Moore, who compiled the core of the section on music."Multimedia Bibliography" was a necessary phrase for us to use because Clockworks appeared in the Greenwood series "Bibliographies and Indexes in World Literature" (Number 37), and the word "Bibliography" had to appear in the title. The multimedia part, though, was crucial, or at least our most original contribution.In our Introduction, Dunn and I-I've moved the "voice" here to just Rich Erlich-described Clockworks as "an analytical, selected list, with comments, of works useful for the study of the human/machine interface in SF, stressing English-language works produced 1895-1990," and expanded upon "analytical" by noting the sections into which the List had been divided, "with works arranged alphabetically within each section":(1) Reference Works(2) Anthologies and Collections(3) Fiction(4) Literary Criticism(5) Stage, Screen, and Television Drama(6) Stage, Screen, and Television Drama Criticism(7) Graphic and Plastic Arts(8) Music(9) Background ReadingClockworks was published in 1993, and Dunn and I mostly moved on to other things, including, in my case, film studies and occasional consulting on movie scripts. Now and then, though, friends would recommend books relevant to "the human/machine interface," and I saw on my own a number of relevant movies. As cyberpunk and its successors rolled on, human relationships with our machines-in a widening sense of "machine"-became still more pronounced, intimate, and unavoidable. And, significantly for the usefulness of the Clockworks project, those relationships continued to be expressed in a number of different artistic media, which reflected ways of life that, for good and for ill, were becoming increasingly science fictional. Somewhat to my snobbish and/or philistine expectations, even graphic novels and video games evolved into sophisticated art forms that often addressed the human/machine interface.So I found myself fitfully preparing a Supplement to the List, a "Clockworks 2," and eventually had a significant number of entries. For my convenience, and that of my students, I put the supplement online. …
Study Guide for Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.'s _Player Piano_, for various classes at Miami University (Oxf... more Study Guide for Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.'s _Player Piano_, for various classes at Miami University (Oxford, OH, USA). Background information for undergraduate students, plus commentary on a comic-dystopian work highly relevant in 2022 and following: when AI and robotics will foreground again issues of automation, and political divisions in the U.S. and elsewhere will make highly relevant Vonnegut's 1952 observations on potential conflicts based in education and employment potential.
... We argue that much twentieth century dystopian literature, reflecting this new world picture,... more ... We argue that much twentieth century dystopian literature, reflecting this new world picture, embodies two symbols for individual human helplessness and triviality: the beehive and the machine. Reluctantly,we will skip over ...
Taken to extremes, social organization--however necessary in itself--leads to the creation of wha... more Taken to extremes, social organization--however necessary in itself--leads to the creation of what editors Erlich and Dunn label Clockwork Worlds. This anthology has been organized to define and expand that concept for the reader. Arthur O. Lewis provides a comprehensive overview of clockwork worlds and sets them in their political and literary contexts. Following Lewis' introduction are two series of essays which show how the theme of mechanized environments has been developed in classic works of dystopian fiction, and how it has been treated by some of the major contemporary science fiction writers. The Special Topics section studies mechanized environments from a variety of viewpoints. The editors have included an extensive list of stories, novels, films, background readings, and other works useful for the study of mechanized environments.
About This volume Introduction A List of Works Useful for the Study of The Human/Machine Interfac... more About This volume Introduction A List of Works Useful for the Study of The Human/Machine Interface in SF Reference Works Anthologies and Collections Fiction and Poetry Literary Criticism Stage, Screen, and Television Drama Stage, Screen, and Television Drama Criticism Graphic and Plastic Arts Music Background Reading Author Index Title Index Keywords and Theme Index
At the start, there was Marshall Tymn founding his series with Greenwood Press, Contributions to ... more At the start, there was Marshall Tymn founding his series with Greenwood Press, Contributions to the Study of Science Fiction and Fantasy, in which the first volume was The Mechanical God: Machines in Science Fiction (1982). This volume was edited by Thomas P. Dunn and Richard D. Erlich, with an Introduction by Brian W. Aldiss and collected eighteen essays by eighteen scholars on the subtitle's topic. Mechanical God was followed in 1983 by Number 7 in the Contributions series, Erlich and Dunn's Clockwork Worlds: Mechanized Environments in SF.Mechanical God and Clockwork Worlds got decent reviews and a somewhat surprising number of positive informal comments on the Dunn/ Erlich contribution of a "List of Works Useful for the Study of Machines in Science Fiction" and a "List of Works Useful for the Study of Mechanized Environments in SF": a biblio-, filmo-, video-, discographical effort to provide a briefly annotated list of basic works for the study of each theme. So Dunn and I decided that our most immediately useful project for the academic study of sf might be to join the scholars putting together the basic tools for research. We "got professional help" in areas outside our expertise, and produced a combined and expanded volume with the ungainly title Clockworks: A Multimedia Bibliography of Works Useful for the Study of the Human/ Machine Interface in SF. The formal credits list Erlich and Dunn as compilers, "Assisted by Edward K. Montgomery, Catherine Mills Royer, and D. Scott DeLoach," though others helped with the project, including Chad Dresbach (who supplemented Dunn's extensive knowledge of pinball machines with his own expertise in that area and in the developing medium of video games and their early successors), and Jeffrey R. Wilson and Vincent Moore, who compiled the core of the section on music."Multimedia Bibliography" was a necessary phrase for us to use because Clockworks appeared in the Greenwood series "Bibliographies and Indexes in World Literature" (Number 37), and the word "Bibliography" had to appear in the title. The multimedia part, though, was crucial, or at least our most original contribution.In our Introduction, Dunn and I-I've moved the "voice" here to just Rich Erlich-described Clockworks as "an analytical, selected list, with comments, of works useful for the study of the human/machine interface in SF, stressing English-language works produced 1895-1990," and expanded upon "analytical" by noting the sections into which the List had been divided, "with works arranged alphabetically within each section":(1) Reference Works(2) Anthologies and Collections(3) Fiction(4) Literary Criticism(5) Stage, Screen, and Television Drama(6) Stage, Screen, and Television Drama Criticism(7) Graphic and Plastic Arts(8) Music(9) Background ReadingClockworks was published in 1993, and Dunn and I mostly moved on to other things, including, in my case, film studies and occasional consulting on movie scripts. Now and then, though, friends would recommend books relevant to "the human/machine interface," and I saw on my own a number of relevant movies. As cyberpunk and its successors rolled on, human relationships with our machines-in a widening sense of "machine"-became still more pronounced, intimate, and unavoidable. And, significantly for the usefulness of the Clockworks project, those relationships continued to be expressed in a number of different artistic media, which reflected ways of life that, for good and for ill, were becoming increasingly science fictional. Somewhat to my snobbish and/or philistine expectations, even graphic novels and video games evolved into sophisticated art forms that often addressed the human/machine interface.So I found myself fitfully preparing a Supplement to the List, a "Clockworks 2," and eventually had a significant number of entries. For my convenience, and that of my students, I put the supplement online. …
SAUSAGE PARTY (2016) as serious satire, offering open-ended conclusions both in terms of plot and... more SAUSAGE PARTY (2016) as serious satire, offering open-ended conclusions both in terms of plot and its religious theme.
A minor contribution to the discussion of academic writing energized by the article in the Chroni... more A minor contribution to the discussion of academic writing energized by the article in the Chronicle of Higher Education on line, "Why Most Academics Will Always Be Bad Writers," by Noah Berlatsky 11 July 2016. Follows George Orwell's basic idea in "Politics and the English Language" (1946) of the political implications of language but pushes that idea further in asserting that unnecessarily difficult writing is in itself an exercise in power by a willfully difficult writer.
Looks back from March 2016 — after debates on racial casting in film and on the Oscars, during th... more Looks back from March 2016 — after debates on racial casting in film and on the Oscars, during the primary elections for US President — at Robert Heinlein's 1959 STARSHIP TROOPERS and Paul Verhoeven's 1997 film. Examines the usefulness of casting Heinlein's Filipino Rico as White in the film, starting with a close reading of Heinlein on the Fasces symbol and Verhoeven's handling of the scene in which Johnny Rico is flogged. Verhoeven does well to suggest that over the long-term traditional racist fascism may be less of a threat to liberal democracy than a militaristic authoritarianism where a Black man might whip a White — and what counts is the presence of the whip ("the Power of the Rods and Ax") and who orders it used.
Starting from the usual esthetic superiority of Shakespeare's plays to his sources, looks at reas... more Starting from the usual esthetic superiority of Shakespeare's plays to his sources, looks at reasons for preferring some aspect of recent film redactions of Jane Austen's MANSFIELD PARK and PRIDE AND PREJUDICE to Austen's originals.
Starting from various forms of the US Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag looks at the issue of defi... more Starting from various forms of the US Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag looks at the issue of defining the US as a Nation vs. Republic in a time of increasing Nationalism.
An essay in the old sense of "attempt" (or meditation) on the relevance of the historical and lit... more An essay in the old sense of "attempt" (or meditation) on the relevance of the historical and literary background of heroic *winning* for the continuing popularity (as of 14 November 2018) of U.S. President Donald J. Trump. References GILGAMESH, Euripides's THE BACCHAE, BEOWULF, and other works, plus Karen Anderson in FIELDS OF BLOOD: RELIGION AND THE HISTORY OF VIOLENCE on the tradition of aristocratic exploitation in agrarian civilization and thereafter. Starts with the doctrine of "Winning isn't everything; it's the only thing" and returns to that idea — and disapproves.
Goes back to basic military science well summarized by the logline in Gregg Easterbrook's essay i... more Goes back to basic military science well summarized by the logline in Gregg Easterbrook's essay in _The New Yorker_ for 7 Oct. 2002, asserting that "Nukes" — atomic munitions and hydrogen bombs — "Are the Only Weapons of Mass Destruction" ("Term Limits: The Meaninglessness of WMD," pp. 22-25). Values the international conventions against CBR — Chemical, Biological, and Radiological warfare — but notes that conventional weapons are often more deadly.
"In campus clashes from California to Vermont, many defenders of the First Amendment say they see... more "In campus clashes from California to Vermont, many defenders of the First Amendment say they see signs that free speech, once a bedrock value in academia, is losing ground as a priority at U.S. colleges." Erlich's essay brings to this discussion the experience of a law-abiding and moderate graduate student activist in "the long 1960s" followed by service as a faculty member in the 1970's onward, specifically service on the Miami University Student Affairs Council as we recommended to the University as "a body corporate and politic" in Ohio rules regarding free speech and disruption.
Falstaff on "What is honor" before the Battle of Shrewsbury in I HENRY IV and President Donald Tr... more Falstaff on "What is honor" before the Battle of Shrewsbury in I HENRY IV and President Donald Trump's comment that he'd feel honored meeting with Kim Jong Un, with reference to Macbeth's temptation of Banquo in MACBETH, and the use of "honor" there. Looks briefly at Erlich's experiences as a grammar school student and teacher of expository writing and the relatively ineffective resistance against sloppiness in word choice and irresponsible use of vagueness and hyperbole.
A month into the administration of Donald J. Trump as 45th President of the United States of Amer... more A month into the administration of Donald J. Trump as 45th President of the United States of America, short piece notes instructive parallels in three characters from Shakespeare's History Plays: Jack Cade, Sir John Falstaff, King Richard II.
Straddling the border between an academic note and a political op-ed, this piece broadly compares... more Straddling the border between an academic note and a political op-ed, this piece broadly compares Donald J. Trump with Shakespeare's Richard II as described by King Henry IV to Prince Hal. Erlich insists on Shakespeare's understanding of Kingship as (in part) performance but notes how Shakespeare, through the perception and understanding of Henry IV, insists also on the danger of the royal actor's coming to live the part, including, most dangerously for him, a king's coming to believe his own propaganda on his own unlimited ability to fascinate the public.
"Transparency" in US usage over the last few decades has been a positive term: a political goal f... more "Transparency" in US usage over the last few decades has been a positive term: a political goal for public policy to be made in public, and police practices kept in the open. The term is better seen as ambiguous. "The gaze" may make one the admired "observed of all observers," as Ophelia says of Hamlet, or an object of awe, embodying power and majesty, as Queen Elizabeth I presented herself to her court; alternatively, even for men the gaze may be upon one exposed, humiliated, and tortured as an Englishman upon a scaffold being drawn and quartered, or a condemned slave upon a high cross. Even so, transparency can work to expose official actions to view by ordinary citizens, but also allow surveillance of subjects by the State or allow exposure of ordinary people denied privacy by anyone with a mobile phone with a camera.
In the last couple decades, the term "textual studies" has taken on a different meaning or at lea... more In the last couple decades, the term "textual studies" has taken on a different meaning or at least different connotations from when the author was trained and practiced as an academician. This Note returns to some older meanings and neutral connotations and defends the rather empirical attention to texts and the establishing of texts.
In 2004, the film critic and student of culture Neal Gabler accepted that members of the administ... more In 2004, the film critic and student of culture Neal Gabler accepted that members of the administration of George W. Bush could distort facts for political purposes but was upset with a view he identified (more correctly than he could be certain of at the time) with Karl Rove, asserting, "Rovism posits that there is no objective, verifiable reality at all," which he saw as Orwellian but relatively new. This "Truthiness" essay holds that "Rovism" is prefigured at the heart of George Orwell's NINETEEN EIGHTY-FOUR in the philosophy of the Party as expounded by O'Brien in his torture and re-indoctrination of Winston Smith at the Ministry of Love. More generally, as predicted at the time, the grounds for recent Right-wing attacks on science and empirical proof had been laid in the 20th c. by portions of the academic left who pushed "weak" (epistemological) versions of social construction theories into stronger, ontological forms. "Truthiness" offers little new and nothing profound for those who've followed the conflict within the academy, but should prove useful for younger scholars and for those who read quickly through "The Grand Inquisitor Scenes" in NINETEEN EIGHTY-FOUR and might be surprised to learn how much was being recycled in the Social Construction arguments in the late 20th century.
Starting from the usual esthetic superiority of Shakespeare's plays to his sources, the essay sug... more Starting from the usual esthetic superiority of Shakespeare's plays to his sources, the essay suggests reasons for preferring some aspect of recent film redactions of Jane Austen's MANSFIELD PARK and PRIDE AND PREJUDICE to Austen's originals.
Relatively brief study guide on Job for students w/o Hebrew by a professor also without Hebrew. S... more Relatively brief study guide on Job for students w/o Hebrew by a professor also without Hebrew. Somewhat existentialist reading with the possibility in the background of teaching Job along with Archibald MacLeish's J.B.
Study Guide from 1987 for undergraduate students in a course in Shakespeare's plays up to HAMLET,... more Study Guide from 1987 for undergraduate students in a course in Shakespeare's plays up to HAMLET, stressing the Comedies and Histories. Possibly of interest for an approach to MERCHANT in the late 20th c. by a Jewish professor teaching classes with a plurality of bright students from respectable Roman Catholic schools with only limited backgrounds in Christian doctrine, with the Protestants not having much more background.
Study guide developed 1999-2004 for introductory SF students for SCIENCE FICTION: A HISTORICAL AN... more Study guide developed 1999-2004 for introductory SF students for SCIENCE FICTION: A HISTORICAL ANTHOLOGY, edited by Eric S. Rabkin (Oxford University Press, 1983). Rabkin starts with a selection from Cyrano de Bergerac's OTHER WORLDS (1657) and gets at least to Ursula K. Le Guin's 1971 story, "Vaster than Empires and More Slow."
Study guide for upper-level undergraduates for Archibald MacLeish's poetic dramatization, updatin... more Study guide for upper-level undergraduates for Archibald MacLeish's poetic dramatization, updating, and re-visioning of The Book of Job.
Study guide and background materials for a flawed book by a flawed author — which remains one of ... more Study guide and background materials for a flawed book by a flawed author — which remains one of the most important works for an introduction to serious analyses of fanaticism. THE TRUE BELIEVER offers Hoffer's "Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements," from the Exodus as related in Torah through World War II and its immediate aftermath, so it necessarily has no agendas regarding the various fanatical groups of the 21st century, making the book all the more valuable as a warning about the mass movements in our near future.
Study guide from 2002 for upper-level undergraduates for THE BACCHAE, offering a reading consiste... more Study guide from 2002 for upper-level undergraduates for THE BACCHAE, offering a reading consistent with an Existentialist approach to a set of works.
Study guide from 2002 for advanced undergraduates studying John Gardner's GRENDEL: the BEOWULF st... more Study guide from 2002 for advanced undergraduates studying John Gardner's GRENDEL: the BEOWULF story from the (less) monstrous point of view. Possibly also of interest as a response to GRENDEL by someone from Gardner's initial audience.
Study guide for upper-level undergraduates on a work of interest for an author interested in gend... more Study guide for upper-level undergraduates on a work of interest for an author interested in gender issues and the law working a variation on the subgenre of cyberpunk.
For upper-level undergraduates, a study guide for Shakespeare's "Problem Play," MEASURE FOR MEASU... more For upper-level undergraduates, a study guide for Shakespeare's "Problem Play," MEASURE FOR MEASURE, the guide last revised at Miami University (Oxford, OH) in 2001, so the guide itself might be of historical value on how this play was taught in the early 21st c. at a fairly conservative university in the American "Old Northwest."
The first of the anthologies by the Science Fiction Research Association collected what might be ... more The first of the anthologies by the Science Fiction Research Association collected what might be called the canonical short-fiction texts in the field as of the fairly late 20th c. For college-age readers — and increasingly over time, their teachers — these texts need some historical context and some annotation, which these study guides attempt to offer.
For undergraduate students, a study guide for Ursula K. Le Guin's ROCANNON'S WORLD and PLANET OF ... more For undergraduate students, a study guide for Ursula K. Le Guin's ROCANNON'S WORLD and PLANET OF EXILE: two early works in Le Guin's canon and early short novels in the Hainish series.
Brief essay chiding Tim O'Brien for naming the protagonist/Narrator of The Things They Carried Ti... more Brief essay chiding Tim O'Brien for naming the protagonist/Narrator of The Things They Carried Tim O'Brien and blurring the liminal area between fact and fiction in a manner that reduced in a small way to the ability of those opposed to political actors such as Karl Rove and Donald Trump to counter more pernicious introduction of fictions in the non-fictional world. (Posted with the essay is a study guide from New Trier High School that has disappeared from the web, a helpful aid for students dealing with The Things They Carried and work that shouldn't be lost.)
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