Assigned fictions
This page has links to the text or video of the assigned fictions. Pick one in this survey (survey link removed) in the first week of class.
Several later assignments will ask you to relate this fiction to the topics of that module. You will do a final project about the fiction at the end of the term (roughly a 10 minute video, or other creative idea).
The assignment spreadsheet (link removed) will show you which you have been assigned to.
Short Stories
- The Sorcerer’s Apprentice (Der Zauberlehrling) by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1797)
- 1955 translation by Edwin Zeydel, original text and more contemporary translation by Sandra Rösner
- Performance by Mickey Mouse in Fantasia (1940)
- Maelzel’s Chess Player, by Edgar Allen Poe (1836)
- There is a 1927 film you might be able to track down, if you are interested
- The Machine Stops, by E.M. Forster (1909)
- A Logic Named Joe, by Murray Leinster (1946) (in HTML) (in PDF - this is a whole book, but the story itself is just 12 pages, you have to scroll a bit to find it)
- The Great Automatic Grammatizator, by Roald Dahl (1954)
- The Last Question, by Isaac Asimov (1956)
- Silicon Muse (scan removed), by Hilbert Schenck (1985)
- Learning To Be Me, by Greg Egan (1990)
- Cat Pictures Please, by Naomi Kritzer (2015)
Short Films
- Slaughterbots, by the Future of Life Institute (2017)
- Zima Blue, Season 1, Episode 14 of “Love, Death, and Robots” (2019)
- Available on Netflix
Feature Films
- Metropolis (1927)
- Available in restored length on Kanopy, likely also from other sources. Note that some sources have a different music track added, like Giorgio Moroder’s disco version from 1984.
- The Stepford Wives (1975)
- Available at various sites with subscription or payment, or for free (with ads) on Tubi
- Smart House (1999)
- Available on Disney+, or for $3.99 on Amazon. I haven’t found a free site.
- Her (2013)
- Available on Paramount+, or for $5.99 on Amazon. I haven’t found a free site.
Other works
- The 1870 ballet Coppélia, by Léo Delibes
- Any performance of the ballet will be fine - here are some available in their entirety on YouTube:
- Bolshoi ballet, (2011) - traditional performance
- Victor Ullate Ballet de Madrid, (2013) - updated with a sci-fi theme
- Les Contes d’Hoffmann (Tales of Hoffmann), 1881 opera by Jacques Offenbach
- The following are some good performances of the entire opera, available online for free with subtitles (only one scene is relevant, so I have indicated the times in each video for that scene)
- College of Charleston opera, (2023) (26:08-53:05)
- Monte Carlo Opera, (2022) (33:10-1:10:21) (subtitles in French, YouTube can auto-translate to English)
- Teatro Real de Madrid, (2018) (47:18-1:26:10) (subtitles in Spanish)
- Compañía Nacional de Ópera Mexico, (2021) (34:30-1:10:50) (subtitles in Spanish)
- There are some delightfully over-the-top performances of the climactic aria
- Two from the Metropolitan Opera’s more recent production, one by Kathleen Kim in 2009, and one by Erin Morley in 2015.
- Natalie Dessay at the Vienna State Opera in 1993
- Elizabeth Futral at the Florida Grand Opera in 2011
- The 2021 film Coppélia, by Maurizio Balagnini and the Dutch National Ballet
- Film available through the UCI Library on Kanopy
- (In case you’re interested, all three of these are adaptations of the story The Sandman (Der Sandmann), by E.T.A. Hoffmann (1817))
- Film available through the UCI Library on Kanopy
- Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley (1818) (also many films)
- The character of the Sorting Hat, in all their appearances throughout the Harry Potter novels (1997-2007)
- The character of Janet, from throughout the TV show The Good Place (2016-2020)
- Detroit: Become Human (2020)