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  • New OER Launched: Yet Another Science Fiction Textbook (YASFT)

    Woman astronaut wearing an exosuit is reading a book in a futuristic library. A tall alien male is standing in the background selecting a book off the shelf. Image created with Stable Diffusion.

    I’m very happy to announce the launch of a new open educational resource (OER) that I’ve been working on for awhile!

    It’s called Yet Another Science Fiction Textbook (YASFT). It’s over 60,000 words and includes additional resources that can be helpful for readers, students, and instructors.

    YASFT is released under an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International Creative Commons License. It’s freely available to be read as it is. However, if anyone would like to use it in another way, there are licensing terms that must be followed: “This license requires that reusers give credit to the creator. It allows reusers to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format, for noncommercial purposes only. If others modify or adapt the material, they must license the modified material under identical terms.”

    You can find YASFT under the Teaching menu above or directly here.

    Its abstract and table of contents are included below.

    Abstract

    Yet Another Science Fiction Textbook (YASFT) is an open educational resource or OER, meaning it is freely available for anyone to use and learn with. It provides a chronological history of Science Fiction (SF) with an emphasis on literature and film, and it includes other useful resources, such as a glossary of terms, an extensive list of SF definitions, additional resources, a syllabus with hyperlinked readings available online, and video lectures. It tells a story, but not the only story, about SF history. It’s also an experiment in using generative artificial intelligence (AI) to assist with editing a large body of text, in this case over 60,000 words.

    Table of Contents

        Front Matter
            What is YASFT?
            Who made YASFT?
            Why was YASFT made?
            Why is it called YASFT?
            How can YASFT be used?
            How was YASFT made?
            Acknowledgements
        Preface
        Origins of Science Fiction
            Early Fantastic Stories
            Scientific Revolution
            Age of Enlightenment
            Romanticism
            The Gothic
        Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein
            Science-Saturated Novel
            Victor Frankenstein’s Hubris
            Critique of the Age of Enlightenment
            Tabula Rasa
        Proto-SF
            Historical Context
            Edgar Allan Poe
            Nathaniel Hawthorne
            Jules Verne
            H. G. Wells
            E. M. Forster
        Pulp SF
            Historical Context
            Overview of Pulp SF
            Hugo Gernsback
            E. E. “Doc” Smith
            C. L. Moore
            Edgar Rice Burroughs
            H. P. Lovecraft
        SF Film Serials of the 1930s and 1940s
            Buck Rogers
            Flash Gordon
        Golden Age SF
            Historical Context
            Overview of Golden Age SF
            John W. Campbell, Jr.
            Isaac Asimov
            Ray Bradbury
            Robert A. Heinlein
            Frank Herbert
            Tom Godwin
        SF Film Through the 1950s
            Film vs. Literature
            Early SF Film
            1950s SF Film Boom
            Forbidden Planet
        New Wave SF
            Historical Context
            Overview of New Wave SF
            J.G. Ballard
            Harlan Ellison
            Philip K. Dick
            Samuel R. Delany
        Star Trek
            “The City on the Edge of Forever”
        Feminist SF
            Historical Context
            Beginnings of Feminist SF
            Definitions of Feminist SF
            Joanna Russ
            Marge Piercy
            Pamela Zoline
            James Tiptree, Jr.
            Ursula K. Le Guin
            Octavia E. Butler
        Afrofuturism
            Steven Barnes
            Tananarive Due
            Nalo Hopkinson
            Nnedi Okorafor
        Cyberpunk
            Historical Context
            Coining the Cyberpunk Term
            Cyberpunk Characteristics
            William Gibson
                Sprawl Trilogy and Stories
                Hermes 2000 and Floppy Disk eBooks
                The X-Files, “Kill Switch”
            Bruce Sterling
            Pat Cadigan
        Contemporary Science Fiction
            Historical Context
            Ted Chiang
            N. K. Jemisin
            Cory Doctorow
            Charlie Jane Anders
            Martha Wells
            Mary Robinette Kowal
            Ken Liu
            R. F. Kuang
        SF Film from 1960 Onward
            1960s
            1970s
            1980s
            1990s
            2000s
            2010s
        Global Perspective: Taiwanese SF
            Brief Taiwanese History
            Taiwanese SF Overview
            Taiwanese Fandom
            Cultural Comparisons
            Issues with Translation
        How to Keep Up With Science Fiction
        Appendices
            Appendix 1: Glossary of Science Fiction Terms
            Appendix 2: Chronological List of SF Definitions of Science Fiction with MLA Citations
            Appendix 3: Further Reading
                Textbooks
                Readers
                Teaching
                Online Research
            Appendix 4: Sample Syllabus with Hyperlinked Readings
            Appendix 5: Lecture Videos
            Appendix 6: Version History

  • Bronze Angel Memorial for Benjamin Franklin Romaine in Green-Wood Cemetery

    Benjamin Franklin Romain memorial with bronze angel statue in repose. In Green-Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn, New York.

    While walking in Green-Wood Cemetery, I recently approached this beautiful memorial for Benjamin Franklin Romaine. A bronze angel holding a hammer and chisel sits in repose of its completed work creating this monument.

    Jeff Richman discovered the name of the angel’s sculptor as Raffaello Romanelli. He explains how he worked it out in this blog post on the official cemetery’s website.

    Below are close-up photos of the sculpture.

    Benjamin Franklin Romain memorial with bronze angel statue in repose. In Green-Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn, New York.
    Benjamin Franklin Romain memorial with bronze angel statue in repose. In Green-Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn, New York.
    Benjamin Franklin Romain memorial with bronze angel statue in repose. In Green-Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn, New York.
    Benjamin Franklin Romain memorial with bronze angel statue in repose. In Green-Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn, New York.
    Benjamin Franklin Romain memorial with bronze angel statue in repose. In Green-Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn, New York.

  • Life Finds a Way

    Paper wasp nest attached to one of the bolts holding the car door hinge to the driver side front door of a 2013 Toyota Corolla.

    When I began working on my 2013 Toyota Corolla in December 2023, I discovered this paper wasp nest built onto a bolt connecting the door hinge to the driver side front door. It was a tiny marvel of engineering in a sheltered area of an otherwise inhospitable environment.

  • Almost Done With a Sabbatical Side Project

    Anthropomorphic cat typing on a typewriter at a desk. City buildings seen in the window behind him. Image created with Stable Diffusion.

    These past two weeks, I’ve been working on a sabbatical side project. I put my primary research project on hold so that I could think about it some more before proceeding. In the meantime, I’m using generative AI to help accelerate my work on an open educational resource (OER) focused on Science Fiction (SF) that I plan to launch soon. The writing is done on the project. What I am doing now is using an large language model (LLM) that I’m running on my desktop workstation to help me with editing. I think the end product will be pretty cool, and it will be something anyone is free to use after it’s launched. Stay tuned!

  • Jurassic Park Car Wash Surprise

    When I was walking by the car wash on 7th Avenue and 20th Street in Brooklyn, this Jurassic Park themed jeep made me do a double take. Zoom in for its dino surprises on the cargo rack.