The Grand Hypertext Space Opera Project

The Grand Hypertext Space Opera

We’re going to collaboratively write a hypertext Sci-Fi novella. It will be between 20-30 pages and selected words will redirect to: extended biographies of characters, interior monologues, alternate plot lines, ephemera, appendices and informative graphics, even puzzles and anagrams which allude back to the main storylines.

1.     On Note cards (4 x 8) we’ll construct character biographies (one color), Plot and Setting elements (separate colors), Events and Relationships (you get the picture).

2.     Then we’ll progress to the construction of a time line and plot template.

3.     Then we’ll go through a process of transferring to an outline form

4.     Start posting through a dedicated wiki, with a required number of edits and/ or contributions, which will make up a large portion of your grade for the course.

5.      Every class begins with a “staff meeting” in which we will discuss the general progress of the project as well as addressing specific issues.

6.     The chief requirement for this project, which will be half of your final grade, is awesomeness. This project needs to be so cool that when people see it, hear about, or take the time to read it, they come away with a renewed faith in humanity.

First Week Schedule and Assignments

Hello Sci-Fi freaks and freakettes!

This is going to be a fun semester. I have loved Sci-Fi as a genre since I was a child, and unlike St. Paul, I have yet to put away my childish things. Science Fiction is not pure escapism for me. That oft levied criticism ignores two major factors of Science Fiction literature...

1. Science Fiction allows writers to express fantastic visions of the future, futures that must be justified rationally. These explorations of imagination often inspire visionaries in other fields and lead indirectly to true technological progress.

2. Through the darkened glass of fantastic worlds science fiction has proven to be a power voice of political and ideological critique.

This course is designed to be in depth. It will not be a survey of the history of science fiction (although there will be a little of that). It will not be a complete genre study (although there will be more than a little of that). What this class will be is a study in "Ideology" and how it is expressed, subverted, and co-opted through the lens of science fiction literature.

Each six weeks we will cover one book, and there will be one "research question"

Unit 1: How has science fiction been used to support the dominant ideology?

Unit 2: How has science fiction been used to subvert the dominant ideology?

Unit 3: How has the subordination been co-opted by the dominant ideology?

This class will have four major grades per six weeks:

Major Grade 1: Exam on the book

Major Grade 2: Research plan and rough "draft" of unit presentation

Major Grades 3 & 4: Presentation on your examination of the "research question." This is not a presentation on the book for class, rather it should be an examination of a text of your choosing through the critical lens of the "research question." Each presentation will be approximately fifteen minutes.