Category: Science fiction
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Thanks to Aaron Ducksworth, a 2023 Fellow in Ideas, for today’s post. November 10, 2023 Many movies of various genres have been made about the relationship between humans and anthropomorphic technology and the complicated relationship between them – think The Terminator franchise (1984-2019), I, Robot (2004), Virtuosity (1995), and The Matrix franchise (1999-2021). M3GAN is …
February 3, 2023 Thanks to Chad Greene, a 2023 HMU Fellow in Ideas, for today’s post. The tradition of utopias in imaginative literature – whether in a dialogue by Plato, a comic by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, or a movie by Ryan Coogler – is an attempt to answer some of the most essential …
September 17, 2021 Thanks to Rebecca L. Thacker, a 2021 HMU Fellow in Ideas, for today’s post. Although I won’t deny the pleasures of “art for art’s sake” (I’m no stranger to a lazy day curled up with a plot driven page-turner), as a feminist cultural studies scholar, I’m interested in the role literature can …
May 7, 2021 The Deep by Rivers Solomon — Review by Rebecca Thacker “Our mothers were pregnant African women/Thrown overboard while crossing the Atlantic Ocean on slave ships/We were born breathing water as we did in the womb/We built our home on the sea floor/Unaware of the two-legged surface dwellers/Until their world came to destroy …
November 16, 2018 Thanks to Alissa Simon, HMU Tutor, for today’s post. In Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula Le Guin has her protagonist, Genly Ai, travel to the distant planet Gethen which has no birds or flying insects. As a result, the communities there never even thought to attempt flight and their language has no …
August 24, 2018 Thanks to Alissa Simon, HMU Tutor, for today’s post. How do algorithms know which options are right for you? They are purportedly a mathematical calculation based on personal tastes, previous preferences and your own interaction. I will use examples from Pandora and Netflix to express my meaning, but really, I could broaden …
May 11, 2018 Thanks to Dr. John Reynolds, HMU alumnus, for today’s post. How malleable the notion of science fiction is! What strange places one ends up in when exploring such a seemingly simple question: “Is Star Wars science fiction?” The question grew out of reflections on and discussions about Alissa Simon’s blog post “What …
Pleasures of Reading, Thinking and Conversing in Science Fiction Age Read More »
April 27, 2018 Thanks to Alissa Simon, HMU Tutor, for today’s post. A couple of weeks ago, I had the pleasure of attending a three-day conference hosted by the Great Books Council of San Francisco. The event, which took place at Asilomar, offers four discussions focused on one play, one work of non-fiction, one of …
October 21, 2016 Thanks to Alissa Simon, HMU Tutor, for today’s blog. Leadership has been on nearly everyone’s mind as of late. Unfortunately, it is not a Great Idea in the Great Books canon. However, there are many categories that touch upon ideas of leadership, such as Government, Man, Constitution, and Virtue and Vice. There …
June 3, 2016 Thanks to Sue Durkin, HMU Tutor, for today’s post. The Great Books Chicago weekend, advertised as “a weekend of conversations and culture,” is back and its return was glorious. I was fortunate enough to be one of the seventy participants spanning from California to Toronto who converged in the Windy City to …
