becoming alien



Current Courses My Work Friends and Allies Contact Me	Becoming Alien: Rhetorics of Extraterrestrial Colonization in America, 1947-2000. Professor Richard Doyle mobius@psu.edu (814) 863-3754 Burrowes S-136 http://www.personal.psu.edu/rmd12 English 497 STS 4971 Becoming Alien Wicki! This course will map out the emergence of the "alien" and prospects of space colonization as figures in post war American consciousness. Since 1947 - the year the term "flying saucer" was coined - the role of extraterrestrials in America has been far from uniform. An invisible, ominpresent invader during the Cold War, the alien also becomes associated with a new form of American identity by the early 1980’s - the abductee. As prospects for human space colonization increase, homo sapiens are imagined as quite literally extraterrestrial. The course will be rhetorical in approach, focusing not on the truth or falsehood of alien phenomena and likely prospects of space colonization but on the factors that render these narratives and arguments plausible. These texts, images and authors will be respected and responded to like any other. Some questions the course will attempt to respond to include: What do contemporary abductee narratives teach us about contemporary apprehensions about technology? (They's stolen my DNA!) What do the extraordinary disruptions of time wrought by said technologies ( I woke up at the Hoss's salad bar and can't account for the past two days!) teach us about the character of contemporary "ordinary" time consciousness? How do prospects of space colonization intersect with contemporary apprehensions about the alien presence?( An alien cloned my DNA and put it to work in the mines of Alpha Centauri System, I just know it!) How have visions of space colonization altered with the emergence of planetary capitalism and internet shopping in the 1990's? A wide range of materials- science fiction novels, government documents, first person narratives, documentary films, blockbuster films, and conference proceedings- will constitute our archive. Students will produce two 5-7 page response papers and a 10-15 page paper ( or comparable multimedia work) based on original research. Some Texts And Links: Dick, Phillip K. Valis Finney, Jack. Invasion of the Body Snatchers Fuller, John.The Interrupted Journey The Island One Society Jung, Carl Gustav. Flying Saucers The L-5 Society Hopkins, Budd Witnessed Animal Astronauts! Mack, John. Abducted Steven Shaviro, "Abducted" Pritchard, David et. al. Alien Discussions: Proceedings of the Abduction Study Conference The Living Universe Foundation The Lunar Resource Society The Tragedy of Gordo Space Life Sciences Strieber, Whitley. Communion Von Braun, Werner. The Mars Project Notional Missile Defense Project National Missile Defense Nasa Watch Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space Association of Autonomous Astronauts! FAS Space Policy Project: The Challenger Accidentfe Rocketry Online Enos: Our Greatest Astronaut? or Was it Ham? The Right Stuff Ars Astronautica "If Armstrong Were Interesting", by Steve Aylett Edgar D. Mitchell, Astronaut and Psychonaut Nasa/TREK by Constance Penley Late for the Sky by David Lavery ( etext) Some Video: Close Encounters of the Third Kind Invasion of the Body Snatchers The Man Who Fell to Earth Alien Alien Autopsy Challenger Accident Some Extraterrestrial Links: The SETI Project The Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) Information on Phillip K. Dick A page on Jack Finney A comprehensive page on Carl Jung A page on Budd Hopkins A page on Whitley Strieber John Mack Radio Interview ( with Strieber)