English 558:  Major American Authors:  Philip K. Dick and William Gibson
Fall 2007

Course syllabus
Policy Statement

Jameson: Excerpt from Postmodernism; or, The Cultural Logic of late Capitalism.

Marcuse: "A Note on the Dialectic"  [Preface to Reason and Revolution]

Shaikh, "Capital as Social Relation."


Freedman Study Guide Chp 1
Freedman Study Guide Chp 2.1
Freedman Study Guide Chp 2.2
Freeman Study Guide Chp 2.3


Theoretical Models Part 1

Research Paper Assignment

Postmodern Thought (massive web site)

 

Part 1  Dick

Short fiction reading schedule

Major (official) web site:  http://www.philipkdick.com/index.html

Fan site:  http://www.philipkdickfans.com/main.htm

The official Ubik Corporation site:  http://www.philipkdickfans.com/ubikcorp.htm#whatis

Useful, short overview of The Man in the High Castle and other thoughts on Dick's work by Pete Smith in The Chartist:  http://www.chartist.org.uk/articles/scicult/nov02_smith.htm

Nicole Panter

Important e-article in Wired:  "The Second Coming of Philip K. Dick"

Review Article in The New Yorker (7 September 2007): "Blows Against the Empire"

 

Select Movies based on Dick materials (as of 2003):

  BLADE RUNNER (1982) TOTAL RECALL (1990) SCREAMERS (1996) IMPOSTOR (2002) MINORITY REPORT (2002) PAYCHECK (2003)
PLOT A bounty hunter chases down and kills remarkably human androids, then begins to suspect he might be one himself. A man tries to take a virtual vacation on Mars, only to learn he’s actually a secret agent fighting a brutal dictatorship there. An army commander on a distant planet battles androids that can be distinguished from humans only by their screams. A scientist who has developed killer androids is arrested and charged with being one. A police officer in a unit that captures murderers before they strike is then accused of a future crime himself. An engineer whose memory is erased races to find out why he traded a huge payday for seemingly useless trinkets.
DIRECTOR Ridley Scott Paul Verhoeven Christian Duguay Gary Fleder Steven Spielberg John Woo
STAR Harrison Ford Arnold Schwarzenegger Peter Weller Gary Sinise Tom Cruise Ben Affleck
GROSS (US) $28 million $119 million $6 million $6 million $132 million opens December 25 2003
BASED ON Do
Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968) 		"We Can Remember It for You Wholesale" (1966) "Second Variety" (1953) "Impostor" (1953) "The Minority Report" (1956) "Paycheck" (1953)
WHAT DICK GOT PAID $1,250 NA $375 $75 $130 $195


 

 

Part 2  Gibson

Short fiction reading list

[Note: Sorry about the original missing links for certain stories, which are now fixed as 10/12).
All stories except "Johnny Mnemonic" can be accessed on-line via http://www.voidspace.org.uk/cyberpunk/burning_chrome.shtml   
    "Fragments of a Hologram Rose" (1977)
    "Johnny Mnemonic" (1981): http://project.cyberpunk.ru/lib/johnny_mnemonic/
    "The Gernsback Continuum" (1981)
    "New Rose Hotel" (1981)
    "Burning Chrome" (1981)

Official Gibson web site

William Gibson aleph:  excellent fan tribute site

"The Gernsback Continuum" (and a lot more!)

Interview with Gibson

The Cyberpunk Project

Neuromancer Study Guide (Useful, but exercise caution:  the glosses are excellent, but the interpretive remarks are often misleading, superficial, or mystified.)

RE:  Pattern Recognition
              Special Frontline documentary:  The Merchants of Cool (thanks to Scott Lawson for this link)

Fredric Jameson's review-article on Pattern Recognition:  http://www.newleftreview.net/NLR25706.shtml
 

 

On-line Research Sites for SF

Washington State University SF Bibliography (This is an excellent list of books and other general resources.)

SF and Fantasy Research Database (A superb research site.)

Science Fiction Studies Search Engine (Searches articles in SFS only.)