March 21st Class - Narratives From the Multiverse

This was the first class really getting into Science Fiction. Steiling was announced to be out for the rest of the year and Dr. Van Cleave would take over. We had David Houle come in and talk to us about how science fiction is relevant to the world today. I have heard Mr. Houle talk before, multiples time actually. Every time I hear him talk, it raises so many topics and gets me thinking outside the box. It's crazy, but he says that's his job and dam is he good at it. I had approached him with questions of what is it to understand, how do you understand things, hearing things but not understanding, and eventually went off into some zen Buddhism. I could understand his apprehension towards fantasy, he says it doesn't progress his life like science fiction does. He mentioned "you can escape from life, or choose to participate in it with the rest of us." He believes, and that history has shown that science fiction eventually becomes science fact, that writers, funny enough, the longer they write the more they stop writing fiction. The video with Delaney was interesting as well, just ways of thinking about things. How something as simple as how big women's pockets are can spur on all kinds of questions. I tried to read Babel17, but for what ever reason I couldn't quite get hooked in, and I read another short story on the side, I can't remember the name, but it had a giant man who washed up on shore and was eventually taken apart by the local residents. It was alright, but nothing really happened. Aside from the David Houle talks, the literature themselves, I found not to be very appealing. Maybe I'm just biased and like hearing David talk.