Early editions of I, Robot (l-r): 1950 1st edition hardcover by Gnome Press; 1950 dust jacket of 1st edition hardcover by Grosset & Dunlap; 1963 Science Fiction Book Club edition by Doubleday
As a model for your own analyses, I am writing one that examines Isaac Asimov’s “Runaround” and three early covers of I, Robot (pictured above). The first part of today’s blog post features excerpts from my draft in progress and my commentary on the writing.
One of the hardest parts of composing an analysis is building paragraphs by moving effectively from sentence to sentence. The ideas you want to express may be clear to you, but shifting from one idea to the next logically and gracefully requires revision. The screenshots and commentary that follow demonstrate how I have structured my introductory paragraph and one of the body paragraphs.
Writing the first paragraph required solving several problems, including these:
I needed to show a connection where there is no readily apparent one (between “Runaround” and early covers for I, Robot).
The opening paragraph needed to include a summary, but I did not want to begin with a summary.
Whatever I began with would need to lead to the summary. How would I connect the first lines to the summary that would follow?
The summary would need to lead to the thesis. How would I turn from an overview of the short story to a claim about the story and the I, Robot covers?
In the opening paragraph (above), I begin by acknowledging the lack of any readily apparent connection between the book covers and “Runaround.” In the second sentence, I offer details that show the lack of a readily apparent connection (nothing indicates that Mercury is the setting), and I liken the robots to guards. I use what the robots don’t do (“offer any inkling of the narrative that unfolds”) as a lead-in to the summary, the first sentence of which serves as an appositive for “the narrative that unfolds.” The next two sentences continue the summary.
At the end of the summary, I turn back to the covers with the statement, “The covers illustrate none of that.” Then I shift from what the covers don’t depict to the connection I have identified, which I present as an appositive after “representations of Asimov’s themes.” After I assert the similarity between the robots on the covers and medieval knights, I acknowledge that the parallels could simply be the product of a marketing decision. I disagree with that theory; however, and my reason for that disagreement serves as my thesis: the last sentence of the paragraph (highlighted above).
In the body paragraph below, which is not the second paragraph of the analysis, I demonstrate how images of the knights of chivalry–a word that derives from an Old French term for horse soldier or horseman–occur in “Runaround.”
You are not required to cite any text other than the story or stories that serve as your subject. In the paragraph above, I cite Le Morte d’ Arthur to demonstrate the use of the term errant. No page numbers appear in the parenthetical citation because I am quoting an unpaginated online version of Thomas Malory’s chivalric romance on Project Gutenberg.
Elsewhere, I note the descriptions of Donovan and Powell riding the old robots as if they’re on horseback, and the parallels between the Three Laws of Robotics and the chivalric code. After fall break, I will post the complete analysis.
Parenthetical Citations
Yesterday in the 10:40 class (section eight), I presented models for the parenthetical citations required if you need to clarify which supertoys story you are quoting. Those models appear below.
(“Supertoys Last” 3).
(“Supertoys When” 16).
(“Supertoys in Other” 27).
Note the abbreviated versions of the titles and the placement of the periods. Brian Aldiss‘s last name is not included because you establish in your introductory paragraph that he is the author. If it’s clear in your analysis which story you are citing, do not include the abbreviated title; it’s used only to clarify the source.
Works Cited
If you cite two or more of Brian Aldiss’s stories, use the list below as your model.
Note that if you cite more than one work by an author, his or her name is not repeated. Instead, three strikes of the hyphen key denote that the entry has the same author as the previous entry. Also note that the stories are alphabetized by title. “Supertoys When Winter Comes” is the second story chronologically, but it’s the last story alphabetically, so it’s listed third.
If your analysis focuses on “Runaround,” use the entry below as your model.
Note that the first date, 1950, indicates the book’s date of publication, and the second date, 1963, is the publication year of the edition you are citing. (Your class handout is a copy of the story in the 1963 Doubleday Science Fiction Book Club edition.)
If your analysis focuses on one or more of Aldiss’s stories, but you quote or paraphrase the Three Laws of Robotics, your works cited list should include an entry for “Runaround,” and the analysis should include a parenthetical citation for the laws.
Next Up
Wordplay Day! To prepare for class, revisit the Merriam-Webster Scrabble Word Finder page, and review your journal notes and the blog posts devoted to Scrabble tips.
This morning in class, you will begin drafting your analysis, which will focus on Isaac Asimov’s “Runaround,” one or more of Brian Aldiss‘s supertoys stories, or “Runaround” and one or more of the early covers for Asimov’s I, Robot. Assignment details are included below and on the handout you will receive in class. An additional copy of the assignment is posted on Blackboard.
Overview
A textual analysis aims to demonstrate how a text works, how it achieves its effects. The process of writing your analysis will include these steps:
Summarizing the text precisely so the reader can envision it. An analysis is not a summary, but your introductory paragraph will include one that will serve as a lead-in to your thesis or main claim: what you think the text achieves or what it means and how it conveys its meaning.
Paying close attention to details, what they imply, and how they relate to each other and the whole
Explaining what the text means or what it achieves and the significance of that.
Prompts
Compose an analysis in response to one of the prompts below.
Isaac Asimov’s “Runaround” recounts the events of the second Mercury expedition conducted by U.S. Robots and Mechanical Men, and Brian Aldiss’s supertoys stories chronicle the evolution of the Synth company, from Synthank, to Synthmania, to Worldsynth-Claws. Explore the trajectory of the technological advances in Asimov’s story or Aldiss’s trilogy.
Both “Runaround” and the supertoys stories portray robots in service to humans. Examine Asimov’s or Aldiss’s notion of robot service and how that vision of servitude shapes the character of one of the robots and the humans it serves. You may address more than one robot, but your analysis should focus on only one.
Probe Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics and consider how one robot’s adherence to or violation of one or more of the laws reflects on the laws, the robots, and/or the humans whom the robots serve.
Brian Aldiss’s supertoys stories not only mark the change of seasons—referenced in the titles—they also depict changes in the environment. Explore those changes and their links to technological advancements.
Examine the interactions between one of the humans and one of the robots in “Runaround,” or between one of the humans and one of the robots in the supertoys stories. What do the human’s interactions reveal about his or her perceptions of artificial intelligence? You may address more than one human and one robot, but your analysis should focus on the relationship between one human and one robot.
Study the cover art for one or more early editions of I, Robot and consider the relevance of that cover or those covers to one or more aspects of “Runaround.”
In “Supertoys Last All Summer Long,” David questions whether he is real. That line of inquiry continues in the second and third supertoys stories where he short-circuits the illusions of his virtual home and tries to make sense of the ravaged reality that remains. Explore David’s desire to be real and his search for meaning in the world.
Directions for Planning and Drafting
Review the texts that you have read for class, and determine which one interests you most as a subject of analysis. You are not permitted to read any of the texts on screen during your drafting period today.
Identify the details in the text that are thought-provoking or revealing.
Develop your analysis through a close examination of those details.
Write in dark ink, preferably black.
Double-space to allow for room for my annotations. You are welcome to use both sides of the page.
Before you leave class today, staple your handout to the top of your draft and submit it to me. Next Wednesday, I will return your draft with notes, and you will have the class period to begin revising and editing on your laptop or tablet.
Think of your preliminary draft as your down draft; your aim in the early stage of the process is to get your ideas down on the page. You may need the process of drafting to discover what you think the text means and how it conveys its meaning.
Elements for Textual Analysis
Language and Stylistic Devices: Literary devices (metaphors, irony, symbolism), diction (word choice), and syntax (sentence structure).
Content and Themes: Recurring ideas, patterns, or points of contrast.
Structure: Organization, including scene structure, and how it adheres to or breaks from convention.
Characterization: Character development, motivation, and their role in the story.
Guidelines for Revising
Your revised analysis should include the following elements:
A title that offers a window into your analysis
An introduction that presents a summary of the text
A thesis statement, or main claim, that presents your take on the text based on your close study of it
Textual evidence that supports your claims
A minimum of two relevant quotations from the text, introduced with signal phrases and followed by parenthetical citations
A conclusion that revisits the thesis without restating it verbatim
A work cited entry
A minimum of 600 wordss
Directions for Formatting and Posting Your Revision
Save your revised essay as a Microsoft Word file or PDF and submit it to Blackboard in compliance with MLA manuscript guidelines.
Publish your revision as a blog post. In your post, omit the first-page information included in your file submitted to Blackboard (your name, course, section, professor’s name, and date). Add to your blog post an image that documents some part of your writing process away from the screen, such as a photo of your reading notes or a page of your draft. Also, add to your blog post an embedded link to a relevant website.
The complete guidelines for your assignment, along with the grade criteria, are also posted on Blackboard.
Next Wednesday, September 30, I will return your handwritten drafts (with my notes), and you will have the class period to begin revising on your laptops. Because the first week of October is Fall Break, you have two additional weeks to revise before you submit your analysis to Blackboard and publish it on WordPress. The due date for your revised analysis is Wednesday, October, 14 (before class). The deadline is Friday, October 16 (before class).
Writing about I, Robot Cover Art
If focusing on a visual text in your analysis appeals to you, but the I, Robot covers you viewed don’t spark any ideas, that probably isn’t the prompt you should choose. As the side-by-side pictures below demonstrate, the robots in artist John Berkey’s cover for I, Robot (on the left) bear no resemblance to Mark Zug’s Speedy.
(L-R) John Berkey’s cover for the 1970 Fawcett Crest paperback edition of I, Robot and Mark Zug’s illustration of Speedy in I, Robot: The Illustrated Screenplay (1994).
Although Berkey’s painting and the other early covers of I, Robot may not initially lead you to any ideas for your analysis, thinking about “Runaround” as you plan your draft may reveal a connection between the story and one or more of the covers.
Be open to discovering unexpected parallels as you write, and alter your focus if your interest changes.
In your September 16 writing about the book covers in the Asimov Collection at Smith Library, some of you observed that the robots in Berkey’s cover resembled droids in Star Wars. Notably, Berkey’s painting pictured below served as a concept poster for the first film in the franchise.
(L-R) John Berkey’s cover for the 1970 Fawcett Crest paperback edition of I, Robot and his concept poster for Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope (1977)
Next Up
Wordplay Day! To prepare for class, revisit the Merriam-Webster Scrabble Word Finder page, and review your journal notes and the blog posts devoted to Scrabble tips. Also, look back at the Scrabble debriefing notes on moving from observation to analysis. Those notes are included in the September 21 blog post.
Early editions of I, Robot (top row, l-r): 1950 1st edition hardcover by Gnome Press; 1950 dust jacket of 1st edition hardcover by Grosset & Dunlap; 1950 1st book club edition by Doubleday; 1952 1st UK edition by Grayson & Grayson; 1956 Signet cover; (bottom row, l-r): 1958 Digit Books; 1961 Signet 3rd printing; 1968 Signet 6th printing; 1970 Fawcett Crest; 1968 Panther Science Fiction.
Tomorrow in class, you will begin drafting your analysis, which will focus on Isaac Asimov‘s short story “Runaround, one or more of Brian Aldiss‘s supertoys stories, or “Runaround” in conjunction with one or more of the covers of I, Robot pictured above.
In the early stages of your work, pay attention to the details that interest you. Don’t concern yourself with developing a thesis before you begin writing. The preliminary writing itself is a step that will lead to your thesis and the textual evidence that will support that claim.
One of the details you and your classmates addressed in your writing on Monday may figure in your analysis. Review those prompts and your responses, included below. Could any of them serve as a building block for your analysis?
Below are the prompts from Monday’s class exercise, along with your responses. The groups’ statements appear in bold, followed by my notes.
Although “Supertoys When Winter Comes” and “Supertoys in Other Seasons” are sequels to “Supertoys Last All Summer Long,” Aldiss’s first supertoys story was published as a stand-alone work of fiction in Harper’s Bazaar magazine in December 1969. (The second and third stories were first published in 2001, in the collection Supertoys Last All Summer Long and Other Stories of Future Time, as never-before-seen sequels to the original.) If you chose to analyze “Supertoys Last All Summer Long” as a stand-alone story, what detail would you be certain to include?
Near the end of “Supertoys Last All Summer Long” by Brian Aldiss, the image of “artificial sunlight [. . .] growing long and golden across the lawn” (10) shows evidence of more than just the child robots not being real. It also points to a trend: Everyday things taken for granted may not be real in the future. Note: If you choose to focus on Aldiss’s “Supertoys Last All Summer Long” as a stand-alone story, you might explore how that image of the virtual sunlight and other illusions contrast with the depiction of the real world of the story. How have technological advancements impacted the environment and the people in it?
Towards the middle of “Supertoys Last All Summer Long,” Monica asks, “‘Why can’t we communicate?” to which Teddy responds, “‘Because David’s upstairs'” (6). That exchange captures how the relationship between Monica and David is being processed through Teddy. Note: The group’s statement does not convey why Teddy’s role as a go-between is significant. If you choose to focus solely on Aldiss’s first story, you might consider the nature of communication between Monica and the supertoys or between the two supertoys themselves.
Where and how is one or more of Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics evident in the actions of David, Teddy, or Jules, the serving-man, or where and how do the actions of one of those characters defy one of the laws?
Near the end of “Supertoys When Winter Comes,” David, in a fit of despair, “had struck the house’s control centre” (21). That led to the house disappearing, which causes a dangerous situation for Monica to be in, breaking the first of the Three Laws of Robotics. Note: David’s violation of the first law causes more than the disappearance of the virtual facade of the Swinton’s apartment, the illusion of a Georgian Mansion. Striking the house’s control centre demolishes the Swintons’ actual apartment, apparently leaving Monica Swinton, Jules, the serving-man, and Teddy in the rubble. If you address one or more of the Three Laws of Robotics in your analysis, the first mention should be followed by a quotation or paraphrase of that law with a parenthetical citation for Isaac’s Asimov’s story: (Asimov 51).
In “Runaround,” one of The Three Laws of Robotics states, “One, a robot may not injure a human being, or through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm” (Asimov 51). David breaks that law in “Supertoys When Winter Comes” when he goes rogue, and it leads to his Mom’s passing: “David struck the house’s control centre, wrenching it from the wall in a fury of pain and despair. Everything stopped playing”(21). That allows the readers to see that nothing is left except David. Note: The group states what David’s actions allow the readers to see, but their statement doesn’t convey the implications of that action. What does his violation of the first law indicate about the laws, the robots, and/or the humans they serve?
Henry Swinton’s words about obesity and malnutrition in “Supertoys Last All Summer Long” are repeated by him, almost verbatim, in “Supertoys When Winter Comes” and the Crosswell Tape and weight gain are also mentioned in “Supertoys in Other Seasons.” How are those issues linked to technology in Aldiss’s fictional world?
In Brian Aldiss’s “Supertoys Last All Summer Long,” Henry Swinton states, “Obesity’s our problem, not malnutrition” (3). That observation indicates how becoming reliant on technology leads to unique problems that are not typically faced in the modern day. Note: The group’s statement indicates a contrast between the advances in technology in Aldiss’s fictional world and real-world advancement. In both classes, however, we considered the similarities between Synthank’s Crosswell Tape–the company’s leading product–and the synthetic peptides of GLP-1 drugs.
Throughout Aldiss’s story “Supertoys When Winter Comes,” he connects the conflicts of obesity and malnourishment with technology by mentioning the “safe parasitic worm [that] enables anyone to eat up to one hundred per cent more food and still keep his or her figure” (18). Aldiss continuously references Crosswell Technology to emphasize how technology plays a role in the pursuit of unrealistic beauty standards and issues in population and malnutrition within all three stories. Note: The group’s statement essentially rephrases the prompt rather than moving from observation to analysis. The group introduces the idea of body image, but doesn’t convey how that preoccupation with appearance is linked to Henry Swinton’s Synth company or how the conflicting issues of obesity and malnutrition correlate with technological advancement.
In “Supertoys When Winter Comes,” Monica Swinton tells David he’s “only a little android” (20). Where in the story do her words or actions seem to contradict that assertion?
In “Supertoys When Winter Comes,” Monica Swinton faces terror when her android friend dies. She says, “Oh God! It’s Jules. Poor Jules! He was a friend to me” (20). That contradicts her feelings about David because Jules is an android, but Monica valued him as more than that. Note: The group does mention that Jules is the Swintons’ serving-man, an important detail because his function in the household is different from the supertoys.’ Jules’s role is to serve, but Monica thinks of him as a friend. What does that reveal about her ambivalence regarding AI?
Near the beginning of “Supertoys When Winter Comes,” Monica, says to David and Teddy, “Come in now, children. Go upstairs and play”(14), demonstrating her connection to the boy and bear, the other “little android” (20), as she mourns the loss of her human child. Note: In your analysis, if you choose to address the inconsistencies in Monica Swinton’s exchanges with the androids, you might consider how her desire for a human child in the first story and the death of that child, revealed in the second story, may affect her words and actions.
“Supertoys in Other Seasons” begins in Throwaway Town, which the narrator calls “the land of the obsolete” (24). Who besides the mechanicals becomes obsolete, and who or what leads to his demise?
In “Supertoys in Other Seasons,” there is a parallel between the mechanicals being trashed in “the land of the obsolete” and how Henry’s life values have become obsolete as well. As Henry became increasingly greedy, his work decreased. Henry gets pushed out of the company and is made obsolete by the robot he created. Henry not only loses his company, he loses his wife and his son too. Henry’s life becoming obsolete leads Henry to remember that family is the most important thing and that David is family. That is further demonstrated when Henry asks, “David? Are you David Swinton?” (31). His words show Henry still claims ownership of David and shows that while everything else was lost, David never left. Note: The group refers to Sam Savvy as a robot, but there is no indication that he/it is mobile. Sam Savvy, the Supersoftputer Mk. V. that essentially runs Worldsynth-Claws, may be a form of AI more akin to the agents of Copilot, ChatGPT, and Claude. Also, the group writes that David “never left,” but he does leave the crumbled remains of the Swinton’s apartment for Throwaway Town. Later, Henry finds him.
In “Supertoys in Other Seasons,”Henry says, “My ambition got the better of me . . . my life is a complete cock-up” (33), showing how Henry becomes obsolete and how he leads himself to his demise. Note: The group does not mention that when Henry Swinton is forced into retirement by Worldsynth-Claws, it is Sam Savvy, the Supersoftputer Mk. V.–a product of Henry Swinton’s own company–that dismisses him. It is not only the decisions Henry makes but also his unwelcome proposals (decisions he isn’t permitted to make) that lead to his downfall.
In your brainstorming exercise last Wednesday, all of your groups developed analysis prompts that featured humans’ relationships with robots and the impact of artificial intelligence. Whatever you choose as the focus of your analysis, those two ideas are ones that you will be able to address in your conclusion. There, in your final paragraphs, you can express what your observations about the story (or stories) reveal about humans’ relationships with robots and the impact of A.I.
If your analysis focuses on “Runaround” and I, Robot cover art, you are also welcome to incorporate a study of one or both of the I, Robot covers pictured in the September 14 blog post: the 2020 Del Rey cover designed by Charles Brock and the 2004 Bantam cover designed by Jamie S. Warren Youll.
Seeing Letters and Words Anew
Seeing anew–which means seeing in a different, fresh, or modified way–is an important practice when you are studying your options for Scrabble play or analysis. When you play Scrabble, don’t hold some of the tiles in your hand. Keep all seven on the rack so your teammate can see them. And rearrange them as you consider options. Leaving the letters in one order may lead you and your teammate unable to see other possibilities (such as evil, which the second team missed in the September 4 game).
On the rack above, I have spelled a word, toy, as many players will when they first recognize a word among the seven letters. But leaving a word on the rack may prevent you from seeing other possibilities: lover, over,rove, toyer, very, vet, and one that’s far more valuable. What is it? See the end of this post for the answer.
In tomorrow’s class drawing, you will have the chance to win one of the copies of Brian Aldiss’s short story collection pictured above.
Next Up
On Wednesday, we will briefly examine some additional details in Asimov’s and Aldiss’s stories. Afterward, you will begin drafting your analyses longhand. Next Wednesday, September 30, I will return your drafts, and you will have the remainder of the class period to begin revising on your laptops. Because the following week is Fall Break, you will have two additional weeks to continue revising before posting to Blackboard and WordPress. The due date for your analysis is Wednesday, October 14, before class; the hard deadline is Friday, October 16, before class.
Answer
Repeatedly rearranging the letters on your rack can lead you to discover new potential plays. Looking beyond toy and finding overtly could mean a play of more than fifty points if you were able to play all seven letters at once.
Just as rearranging the letters on your rack enables you to see them anew, rereading the story that’s the subject of your analysis and posing questions–for instance, What else might that detail indicate?–allows you to see the words and phrases anew and can lead you to more material for your analysis, details that had previously escaped your notice.
Yesterday in class, after you wrote your individual observations about the paperbacks from the Asimov Collection, you developed talking points for our discussions of “Runaround” and “Supertoys Last All Summer Long.”
Today’s blog post includes the talking points you generated, along with pictures of your observation work.
If you would like to revisit the cover art that you examined yesterday, remember that all the paperbacks are included in the images in yesterday’s blog post. Because there is a glare on the cover of I, Robot: The Illustrated Screenplay, that book figures prominently in the photo above. Notice that my copy has a slightly different cover from the one in the Asimov Collection. My edition has the same cover art by Mark Zug, but the image is framed by a black border with words of the Three Laws of Robotics in gray.
Foreground (L-R): Claire Jahnke, Ryder Pitek, Hayden Porter; Background (L-R): Michael McNamara, Kel Wadley, Brenna Murphy, Bridgette Murphy, Gavin Godfrey-Ryan, Madison Haugk, Nicole Halucka, Grace Duffy, Oliver Henderson
Talking Points
“A common theme of forced space exploration. Why do authors use this topic?”
“All very technologically centered, and show humans’ relationships with technology.”
“We discussed that the covers all convey a sense of danger.”
“The covers all also represent exploration, adventures, and discovering the unknown.”
“The covers convey a negative effect on humanity through artwork.”
(L-R): Ryder Pitek, Seb Olander, Kai Jarvis, Claire Jahnke, Michael McNamara, Brenna Murphy
“These books relate to the excerpts [sic] by showing the long-lasting detrimental affect [sic] technology has on humans.”
“One talking point is why do you think these authors/illustrators depict a sense of eerie loneliness when taling [sic] about the future?”
“How technology affects how society (high and lower class people) interact/ daily life/ and beliefs.”
“How sci-fi books influence technological development and our view of technology today.”
(L-R): Baylee Shattenberg, Madi Stone, Kel Wadley, Bridgette Murphy, and Oliver Henderson
“Very future orientated with robots and space.”
“The one group of books focused more on aging and time rather than space and technology.”
“The covers from the books we looked at today connect with ‘Runaround’ and ‘Supertoys Last All Summer Long’ by projecting and predicting visions of space and the possible future.”
“The covers of the books also connect to the short stories by visualizing adventure & possible danger.”
“How do humans view their relationships with technology in these novels?”
(Background to Foreground): Lance Morgan, Cole Wilhelmsen, Layla Rothberg
“Why do authors depict AI taking over society?”
“Most covers displayed a very optimistic view of the future through technology that allowed them to accomplish feats, even in space.”
“Some covers conveyed that the relationship between AI and humans was not good and might have caused conflict.”
“Supertoys Last All Summer Long”
Because our class time yesterday focused on the science fiction book covers in the Asimov Collection, we didn’t discuss Brian Aldiss’s short story. We will, however, examine it on Monday, along with his other two Supertoys stories: “Supertoys When Winter Comes” and “Supertoys in Other Seasons.”
As you prepare for Monday’s discussion of “Supertoys Last All Summer Long,” consider these questions:
Unlike Isaac Asimov’s method of presentation in “Runaround,” which maintains the focus on Mike Donovan and Gregory Powell, Aldiss employs cross-cutting: the technique of shifting back and forth between two locations: the Swintons’ apartment and the banquet hall where Henry Swinton, Managing Director of Synthank, delivers his speech. Why might Aldiss have chosen that technique? What does it achieve?
Near the end of the story, Aldiss reveals that Teddy is not the only robot in the Swinton household. What words reveal that fact?
What details foreshadow the story’s revelation?
Next Up
Wordplay Day! To prepare for class, revisit the Merriam-Webster Scrabble Word Finder page, and review your journal notes and the blog posts with Scrabble tips.
Coming Soon
For Monday’s class, you will read and annotate Brian Aldiss’s short stories “Supertoys When Winter Comes” and “Supertoys in Other Seasons,” which I distributed in class yesterday. If you were absent or misplaced your copies, print ones from Blackboard.
Top row: (l-r) Isaac Asimov’s I, Robot; Harlan Ellison and Asimov’s I, Robot: The Illustrated Screenplay Bottom row: (l-r) Philip K. Dick’s We Can Build You, The Simulacra, The Variable Man, and Ubik
Today’s class will meet on the lower level of Smith Library, where we will examine some of the science fiction novels and short story collections in the Asimov Collection, donated to the library by Dr. John L. Hubisz, a retired physics professor who taught at North Carolina State University. In your perusal of the novels’ covers, you will explore how artists have depicted science fiction in their cover illustrations and what those images reveal not only about the stories themselves but also about readers’ perceptions and marketing.
The books will be organized into four groups at four separate stations for your viewing and note-taking. For any students who are absent from class today, and for you to look back at later, I am including images of the books, along with the questions that you will address in your responses to the cover art.
Directions
Closely examine the paperbacks at one of the four stations.
Ask yourself which features are the most prominent. Do any details in the covers bring to mind characters or scenes in Isaac Asimov’s “Runaround” or Brian Aldiss’s “Supertoys Last All Summer Long”? What patterns do you notice? What do the covers convey about humans’ relationship to technology?
Compose a short response, a minimum of one complete sentence, that addresses some of the questions in item two.
Repeat steps one, two, and three with the paperbacks at the other stations
I, Robot; I, Robot: The Illustrated Screenplay; We Can Build You; The Simulacra; The Variable Man and Other Stories; Ubik: Along with the questions in item two, consider how the covers make artificial life appear. (How do color, composition, bodies, machines, and typography shape the readers’ expectations about AI or artificial life?)
(l-r): Brian Aldiss’s Starship, Galaxies Like Grains of Sand, and Starswarm
Starship; Galaxies Like Grains of Sand; Starswarm: Along with the questions in item two, consider how the covers indicate that the author’s science fiction interests span a variety of subgenres. What kind of sci-fi story does the cover seem to promise? (Is it one of adventure, exploration, danger, social speculation, or cosmic wonder?)
Top row: (l-r) Larry Niven’s Ringworld and Protector ; Arthur C. Clarke’s Childhood’s End Bottom row: Arthur C. Clarke’s Reach for Tomorrow and The City and the Stars
Ringworld; Protector; Childhood’s End; Reach for Tomorrow; The City and the Stars: Along with the questions in item two, what impression of the future does each cover convey? (Does the future feel large, strange, and/or technologically advanced?)
(l-r): John Haldeman’s The Forever War; Alfred Bester’s The Stars My Destination; John Wyndham’s The Trouble with Lichen
Next Up
Wordplay Day! To prepare for class, revisit the Merriam-Webster Scrabble Word Finder page, and review your journal notes and the blog posts with Scrabble tips.
Coming Soon
For Monday’s class, you will read and annotate Brian Aldiss’s short stories “Supertoys When Winter Comes” and “Supertoys in Other Seasons,” which I will distribute in class today. If you were absent or misplaced your copies, print ones from Blackboard.
Astronauts Mike Donovan and Gregory Powell, as depicted by artist Mark Zug in I, Robot: The Illustrated Screenplay by Harlan Ellison and Isaac Asimov Ellison, Harlan, and Isaac Asimov. I, Robot: The Illustrated Screenplay, Illustrated by Mark Zug, 1987. ibooks/Simon & Schuster, 1994, pp. 106, 107.
Yesterday in class, in groups, you and two or three of your classmates began your examination of Isaac Asimov’s “Runaround” by identifying the central conflict in the short story and composing a short piece of writing that stated the conflict in your own words. In your statement, you included (1) the first and last name of the author, (2) the title of the short story, and (3) the first and last names of the characters. If you mentioned the malfunctioning robot, you named him as well.
Here is my version of that exercise:
In Isaac Asimov’s short story “Runaround,” astronauts Gregory Powell and Mike Donovan, stationed on Mercury, find their lives in jeopardy when the photo-cell banks on their life support shields begin to fail. To repair the shields, their robot, Speedy, must retrieve selenium from the Sunside of the planet, a place humans cannot withstand. But rather than completing his mission, Speedy circles the selenium pool, leaving Powell and Donovan in danger of burning alive.
Along with composing a statement that outlined the central conflict in Asimov’s story, you developed talking points for our discussion, including these:
The differences between Powell and Donovan
The differences between the treatment of the older robots from the first expedition in 2005 and Speedy, the new robot, the 2015 SPD 13
How did the older robots from the first expedition still work?
Why were the older robots left behind after the first expedition?
The need for Powell and Donovan to ride the old robots like horses
The status of robots in the hierarchy of work
Speedy’s malfunction–something akin to drunkenness–due to the conflicts between Laws Two and Three
The Three Laws of Robotics
What aspects of “Runaround” led it to be considered an influential work of science fiction?
At the end of the story, why did Asimov employ dark humor about the freezing cold when the robot couldn’t understand it?
Speedy, the SPD 13 robot, as depicted by artist Mark Zug Ellison, Harlan, and Isaac Asimov. I, Robot: The Illustrated Screenplay, Illustrated by Mark Zug, 1987. ibooks/Simon & Schuster, 1994, p. 109.
The illustrations in today’s blog post were drawn by Mark Zug for I, Robot: The Illustrated Screenplay, by Harlan Ellison and Isaac Asimov. The screenplay was never produced as a film, but it was serialized in Asimov’s Science Fiction magazine in 1987. In 1994, it appeared in book form under the title I, Robot: The Illustrated Screenplay. That book is one of the paperbacks you will examine when we visit Smith Library on Wednesday.
Though the film I, Robot (2004), starring Will Smith, shares its name with Asimov’s short story collection, it isn’t an adaptation of the book. It includes elements of Asimov’s story “Little Lost Robot,” some of Asimov’s character names, and the Three Laws figure in the film as well, but the similarities end there.
For Wednesday’s class, you will read and annotate Brian Aldiss’s short story “Supertoys Last All Summer Long,” which I distributed in class yesterday. If you were absent or misplaced your copy, print one from Blackboard.
Wednesday, we will meet on the lower level of Smith Library, where we will examine some of the science fiction books in the Asimov Collection, donated to the library by Dr. John L. Hubisz, a retired physics professor who taught at North Carolina State University. In your perusal of the novels’ and short story collections’ covers, you will explore how artists have depicted science fiction in their cover illustrations and what those images reveal not only about the stories themselves but also about readers’ perceptions and marketing.
Isaac Asimov’s “Runaround” was first published in the March 1942 issue of Science Fiction magazine.
Isaac Asimov’s short story “Runaround” introduces his Three Laws of Robotics, the fictional rules that figure prominently in his short stories exploring the relationships between humans and robots. For Gregory Powell and Mike Donovan, the astronauts in “Runaround,” reexamining their application of those three laws–in a sense, tinkering with them as they would a machine–enables them to resolve the central conflict in the story.
Identifying that central conflict and expressing it in your own words will be the focus of your group exercise in the first half of today’s class. In groups, you will also develop talking points for the full-class discussion that will follow in the second half of class.
Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics as the epigraph for I, Robot (1950)
Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics appear both in the stories collected in his book I, Robot (1950) and as the book’s epigraph: a short quotation at the beginning of a book intended to suggest its theme.
What do the Three Laws of Robotics indicate about Asimov’s vision of humans’ relationships to artificial intelligence?
As a model for your own ethical use of generative AI for English 1103, the August 25 blog post featured screenshots of a conversation in which I developed ideas for my literacy narrative with the help of ChatGPT. After you read my literacy narrative, it should have been apparent that despite the AI assistant’s wealth of information, one of its answers revealed a lack of knowledge about the comic strip Henry. What did the AI assistant not know? (What did it say about Henry that was false?)
The September 7 class notes included a bonus assignment for correctly answering the question above. What is the answer?
Panels of Henry by Carl Thomas Anderson
Henry, created by Carl Thomas Anderson in 1932, is a comic strip in which the title character communicates through pantomime. The AI’s observation that I could “‘read’ the strip even though [I] could not yet read its words” reveals the agent’s lack of knowledge about the comic; it did not know that Henry is wordless.
Kudos to Claire Jahnke and Devyn Jones for correctly identifying that error in ChatGPT’s response. For their efforts, they received a bonus assignment credit.
Today’s class marks the beginning of our study of science fiction exploring the nature of artificial intelligence: Isaac Asimov’s “Runaround,” followed by Brian Aldiss’s “Supertoys” stories and Ted Chiang’s “The Lifecycle of Software Objects” in Exhalation.
In a drawing in the second half of today’s class, you will have the chance to win a copy of the book pictured above: Isaac Asimov’s short story collection I, Robot, which includes “Runaround.”
As we continue our study of science fiction, consider how Asimov, Aldis, and Chiang use their imaginations as testing grounds for questions about humanity and the future.
Next Up
For Wednesday’s class, you will read Brian Aldiss’s short story “Supertoys Last All Summer Long,” which I will distribute in class today. If you are absent or misplace your copy, print one from Blackboard.
Wednesday, we will meet on the lower level of Smith Library, where we will examine some of the science fiction novels in the Asimov Collection, donated to the library by Dr. John L. Hubisz, a retired physics professor who taught at North Carolina State University. In your perusal of the novels’ and short story collections’ covers, you will explore how artists have depicted science fiction in their cover illustrations and what those images reveal not only about the stories themselves but also about readers’ perceptions and marketing.
