Week 9: “They’re Made Out of Meat” and “To Serve Man”

This week, we’ll be workshopping your ideas for your Final Papers and also discussing a very short story. 

Lesson 1

We’ll discuss “They’re Made Out of Meat” by Terry Bisson. 

• Here is a copy of the story in English. (It’s short, so it’s okay that there’s no translation available as far as I know.)
• Below, you can see one of many short movie adaptations of the story:

Here is the handout from our Day 1 class:

Lesson 2

We’ll check out the classic Twilight Zone episode “To Serve Man” based on Damon Knight’s story of the same title.

Here is a copy of Damon Knight’s story:

… and here is the Twilight Zone episode (currently available online):

https://www.facebook.com/vintageretroandclassics/videos/the-twilight-zone-to-serve-man/450823008633544

This time, we’re going to flip the script. Your group is going to discuss what you found interesting about the episode, and formulate several questions you’d like to share with the class. We’ll collect those questions at the end of the classtime.

Homework

Later this semester, we’ll workshop your final paper ideas. For now, here is a handout describing my expectations for what you will write for the Final Assessment Task:

Journaling

Write your thoughts about the Fermi Paradox, and/or your thoughts about how SF reflects the Copernican Revolution. You may also wish to write about your feelings regarding how viable comedic SF is as an artform.