Adam Jortner, Auburn University

Uncommon Courses is an occasional series from The Conversation U.S. highlighting unconventional approaches to teaching.

Title of course:

Science Fiction as Intellectual History

What prompted the idea for the course?

For most of its history, science fiction was a disreputable, throwaway genre. But sources of culture and thought aren’t just found in classic literature or in the writings of the great thinkers. They’re also in popular entertainment: movies, comics, pulp magazines, TV.

Big thoughts often come in chunks with labels like “The Future” or “Technology” or “Freedom.” And most ideas about these things are shaped by science fiction.

So in this class, my students explore how the theories of Charles Darwin, for example, are reflected in science fiction like “Jurassic Park,” “The Island of Dr. Moreau,” “X-Men” and “The Wrath of Khan.”

I’m lucky to be the third generation of professors teaching this course at Auburn. It’s an old staple here that I inherited.

What does the course explore?

I usually pick three big plot ideas from sci-fi: alien encounters, time travel and superhuman abilities. Then we trace the development of those ideas, primarily through American fiction.

Students might read H.G. Wells’ “The Time Machine,” which was written in the 1890s and tells the story of the Eloi and Morlocks, post-human races from 800,000 years in the future; C.L. Moore’s secret visitors from the future in the 1953 novella “Vintage Season”; and Steven Spielberg’s 1985 escape to an idealized 1950s in “Back to the Future.”

These works all include mind-bending theories about what time travel might look like. But students also see how each of them tells a different story about the anxieties and obsessions of the times in which they were created.

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For example, Wells’ novel is a vision of how thousands of years of Victorian class divisions lead to the evolution of a group of cannibalistic underground humans. In “Back to the Future,” Marty McFly leaves the dingy, broken-down 1980s for a clean and shiny version of the 1950s, one that looks much more promising than 1985. The film taps into the 1980s political and cultural nostalgia for so-called “simpler” times. (Of course, in their version of 1955, Biff and Marty never deal with segregation or Cold War nuclear panic.)

Science fiction offers a kind of film negative of history – a back door into what made people worried or scared rather than what was heroic. Sci-fi captures that fear and anxiety.

Rod Serling’s 1960 “Twilight Zone” episode “The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street” is the story of how neighbors turn on each other when they suspect an alien invasion is taking place. It parallels the American crisis over desegregation and communist subversion.

As Serling concluded, “For the record, prejudices can kill and suspicion can destroy, and a thoughtless, frightened search for a scapegoat has a fallout of its own – for the children, and the children unborn. And the pity of it is that such things cannot be confined to the Twilight Zone.”

Why is this course relevant now?

New technology, along with endless predictions and prophecies about the future, bombard students.

It’s important to take a moment to step back. How is the way we talk about and use technology influenced by the way we’re trained to think about technology and the future? And how much do past visions of the future dictate the choices of the present?

What’s a critical lesson from the course?

Students often think technology has rules and it will follow those rules. But technology doesn’t work like that.

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That’s both terrifying and uplifting, because it means that we can still create and imagine our future as we see fit.

What materials does the course feature?

I anchor the course with a series of novels; the list changes, but it always includes “The Time Machine” and Ursula K. Le Guin’s 1971 novel “The Lathe of Heaven.”

Beyond that, I try to pepper in a mix of pulp stories, TV shows, radio dramas, comic books and films. I assign the 1970s avant-garde sci-fi stories of Brian Aldiss and Joanna Russ, and underground literature from the 1980s, such as the graphic novel “Ed the Happy Clown.”

I shape the course like a traditional “great books” course – those that feature the works of intellectual and literary giants – by assigning a different work every week. I just have a different idea about what makes a great book.

We also spend a delightful week examining the economic and cultural history of “so-bad-its-good” B movies and late-night features, where I have them watch an episode of the Canadian sci-fi show “The Starlost,” considered one of the worst shows in television history. Sometimes you have to learn what not to do.

What will the course prepare students to do?

They learn to read and think. They learn that all stories have ideas and philosophies, whether simple or complex, wise or foolish.

I hope they learn to watch for nonsense in public debates about technology and the future – like how some people assume computer modeling for human language is the same thing as language – and keep an eye out for ideologies masquerading as action films.

I hope they learn to love an author they’ve never read before – and learn to appreciate how much reading and stories make life worth living.

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Adam Jortner, Goodwin Philpott Eminent Professor of Religion, Auburn University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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Inflating Essential Pricing

In a tense federal courtroom in downtown Portland, the spotlight was on Kroger executives as they faced sharp scrutiny over allegations of inflating prices on essential staples such as eggs and milk. This courtroom drama unfolded against the backdrop of Kroger’s proposed national merger with supermarket behemoth Albertsons — a move Kroger claims is vital for their competitive edge in the retail market.

Outside, the drama resonated, with Kroger-owned Fred Meyer’s workers, represented by UFCW Local 555, actively striking across Portland. Their signs, a vivid display of protest against unfair labor practices, underscored a deepening divide between corporate profits and workers’ lived realities.

The union drew a connecting line, spotlighting Kroger’s courtroom admission as emblematic of a broader corporate disregard for both consumer and employee welfare. “Kroger’s exposed strategy of upping prices on basics like milk and eggs only intensifies our drive for equitable labor terms,” the statement from UFCW Local 555 forcefully articulated.

Central to the courtroom revelations was an internal company email, wielded by FTC lawyers, authored by Kroger’s senior director for pricing, Andy Groff. The email candidly noted that the retail price upticks on milk and eggs were “significantly higher than cost inflation,” laying bare a strategy to offload elevated costs onto consumers. This disclosure stirred a noticeable reaction among courtroom attendees, piercing the veil typically shrouding corporate decision-making.

Kroger countered, urging the email’s context be considered as isolated rather than reflecting their broader price strategy. “The email in question does not define our company’s enduring commitment to compress margins and competitively price our goods,” defended a Kroger spokesperson, emphasizing ongoing responses to erratic pricing landscapes since 2020 and maintaining that their pricing aligns competitively with industry leaders like Walmart.

Simultaneously, the ongoing strike at Fred Meyer accentuated community solidarity and frustration concerning soaring living costs, linking the in-court disputes to palpable systemic issues. “It’s as if there’s ‘big corporations’ on one end and ‘everyone else’ on the other,” voiced Justin Godoy, echoing a common sentiment among shoppers disillusioned by perceived corporate avarice overshadowing basic needs.

From the corporate side, Fred Meyer linked the strike’s timing to the pivotal merger, framing the union as pivotal in safeguarding the fate of unionized grocery stores across America. “The merger underscores our commitment to the future of unionized grocery stores,” the company declared, steering the conversation towards a favorable merger outcome.

With the strike poised to continue until the following Tuesday disrupting operations across 28 stores, and an impending decision on the Kroger-Albertsons merger, the issues of corporate stewardship, labor rights, and consumer advocacy hung in balance — unresolved yet deeply interwoven. Community backing for the strikers was palpable, and the reverberations from these intertwined disputes were set to resonate well beyond Portland, casting a long shadow over the national conversation around corporate integrity and economic justice.

Further reading, check out these links.

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https://www.koin.com/news/portland/kroger-albertsons-merger-price-gouging-ftc-allegations-fred-meyer-workers-strike

https://www.commondreams.org/news/kroger-egg-prices

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/kroger-executive-confesses-to-excessively-raising-prices-beyond-inflation/ss-AA1pDO4b

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Our Lifestyle section on STM Daily News is a hub of inspiration and practical information, offering a range of articles that touch on various aspects of daily life. From tips on family finances to guides for maintaining health and wellness, we strive to empower our readers with knowledge and resources to enhance their lifestyles. Whether you’re seeking outdoor activity ideas, fashion trends, or travel recommendations, our lifestyle section has got you covered. Visit us today at https://stmdailynews.com/category/lifestyle/ and embark on a journey of discovery and self-improvement.