Today, we began watching James Cameron’s 1986 film Aliens, and I lectured on Ridley Scott’s earlier 1979 Alien and how these figure into feminist SF via their characters, themes, and source material: H.R. Giger’s “Necronom IV.” I shared pictures of my visit to Gruyères with the class, too (for the juxtaposition of quaint, medieval Swiss town with the Giger Museum and Bar). I asked the students to take notes about the film and identify how it exemplifies feminist SF as discussed during Tuesday’s class.
We will conclude Aliens during tomorrow’s class, discuss the students’ findings relating to it being feminist SF, and review for the second major exam.
For further learning, I found this interesting documentary about Giger’s Necronomicon and his influence on the first Alien film on YouTube:
Dynamic Subspace 