The Fantasy and Science Fiction/Theory Reading Group is a casual, convivial group that meets once a month. We gather to discuss works (partial list of previous readings) that we have chosen collectively and to put those works in some sort of theoretical perspective, the sort, of course, depending on the works and the viewpoints of those assembled. The Group is open on a drop-in basis, because we are always interested in the views of those who are especially interested in a particular work or author, but most participants try to attend regularly. Our currently active members include faculty, graduate students, and staff from the University of Michigan,Wayne State University, and other local residents with strong interests in the field. (We are not open to undergraduates. Interested undergraduates may want to consider joining a local science fiction club such as the Stilyagi Air Corps in Ann Arbor.) The Fantasy and Science Fiction/Theory Reading Group normally meets year round from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. although occasionally our schedule varies, so please consult the calendar below. Our current location is 3200 Angell Hall in the Department of English of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Eric Rabkin, the group's convener, always provides something like peanuts; others sometimes bring additional snacks.
At our meeting of 13 Oct 2009, we agreed to continue meeting generally on the second Tuesday of the month. If all goes according to custom, at the October meeting listed below, we will pick books for at least a few subsequent months, so participation in person or by prior contact for that meeting is especially invited.
All of the works listed below were available either new or used when the schedule was set, but some books may require ordering, so it is advisable to begin acquiring texts early. Our schedule follows:
| Dates |
Works |
|---|---|
T 10 Nov |
Markus Zusak, The Book Thief. A hauntingly written international bestseller about growing up under the Third Reich, as sympathetically narrated by Death. (This is a long book, so you may want to start early.) |
T 8 Dec |
Night Watch. In this Russian-language fantasy-horror film, even the subtitles add visual signficance. This, our annual view-and-pizza meeting, in order to show the video, will be in the Viedoconference Suite (Room 1180) at the Duderstadt Center. Travel directions. |
T 12 Jan |
David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas. An acclaimed kaleidoscopic novel interweaving half a dozen plot lines, settings, and even styles, all ultimately brought together in a novel somehow reminiscent of both Umbero Eco and Philip K. Dick. |
T 9 Feb |
Robert J. Sawyer, Flashforward. In this novel, basis for a 2009 television series, everyone in the world gets a glimpse of themselves twenty years hence. How does that change them now? |
T 9 Mar |
Grant Morrison & Frank Quitely. All-Star Superman, vols. 1 and 2. These two volumes form a complete set of surprisingly powerful new trips into this well known superhero's world. |
T 13 Apr |
William Gibson, Neuromancer. This 1984 touchstone Cyberpunk novel, which gave us the terms "cyberspace" and the computer sense of "matrix," arguably changed science fiction more forcefully than any other single book since The Martian Chronicles. How does it strike us now? |
T 11 May |
M. T. Anderson, Feed. In this futuristic satire of consumer society, told from a boy's perspective, television and computers connect directly into people's brains. |
T 8 Jun |
Terry Pratchett, The Wee Free Men. In this YA Discworld novel (that stands on its own), a girl, needing magic to rescue her brother, finds aid from a raucous crew of blue, six-inch tall unlikely heroes. |
T 13 Jul |
Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. This unexpected bestseller really manages the monstrous mash-up marvelously. |
T 10 Aug |
Neal Gaiman, The Graveyard Book. Like Mowgli raised by animals in The Jungle Book, Nobody here is raised by the ghosts of the graveyard into which the orphaned 18-month old escapes after the shocking opening. There follows a YA-friendly episodic novel of growth. |
T 14 Sep |
Richard Kadrey, Sandman Slim. A funny, dark, romping noir thriller set in a world where Satan is real and there's deadly magic in L.A. Metaphors, anyone? |
T 12 Oct |
Book selection meeting! Please come ready to suggest books for the group to read. If you wish, bring a copy of each suggested book and/or bring reviews. Please check in advance to make sure that the books you suggest are available. In case our selection discussion takes less than our two-hour allotment, Eric will bring copies of a short-short story for us to read together and chew on, but anyone else who wants to do that should feel free to do so. If you can't make the meeting but want to make a recommendation, please send it to our mail group. |
T 9 Nov |
China Mieville, The City & The City. Two Eastern European cities, one booming, the other blighted, inhabit the same space, the inhabitants invisbile to each other, but that separation fantastically complicates the hard-boiled detection in this speculative police procedural. |
If you want to send an electronic message to this Reading Group, please address FantasySF@umich.edu. If you want to see this message on the World Wide Web, please point your browser at http://www-personal.umich.edu/~esrabkin/fsftsched.html. If you want to add your name to the mail group or make suggestions or inquiries, please contact Eric Rabkin by e-mail (esrabkin@umich.edu) or snail mail at Department of English, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1003.
Come join us!
| Eric | This page was last updated on
Friday, 30-Oct-2009 19:16:24 EDT
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