I am currently taking Fantasy and Science Fiction: The Human Mind, Our Modern World from Coursera. If you don't know what Coursera is, it's a online hub of university classes from leading institutions throughout Europe and the US.This class is a deeper inspection of some of the classical Fantasy and Science Fiction classics. We just finished Grimm Fairy Tales, which truthfully was one of the hardest things for me to actually sit down and read.
We will be going over the following readings within the next nine weeks:
- Carroll — Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass
- Stoker — Dracula (This reading is somewhat longer than most of the others. You may want to begin it in advance.)
- Shelley — Frankenstein
- Hawthorne & Poe — Stories and Poems (Hawthorne's Mosses from an Old Manse includes "The Birthmark," "Rappaccini's Daughter," and "The Artist of the Beautiful" and his Twice-Told Tales includes "Dr. Heidegger's Experiment"; The Portable Poe includes all the suggested Poe stories and poems
- Wells — The Island of Dr. Moreau, The Invisible Man, "The Country of the Blind," "The Star"
- Burroughs & Gilman — A Princess of Mars & Herland
- Bradbury — The Martian Chronicles (not available for legal, free download)
- LeGuin — The Left Hand of Darkness (not available for legal, free download)
- Doctorow — Little Brother (This reading is somewhat longer than most of the others. You may want to begin it in advance.)
Is anyone else taking this class? Have you ever taken a class from Coursera? Any opinions on the books we are to be reading?
Categories: discussion
I just heard of Coursera thanks to another blogger, and I think it's really neat. Once I check it out more I might take a class or two.
ReplyDeleteI studied both Dracula and Frankenstein in college, although in different courses. Frankenstein was for one on technology and writing, and Dracula was in a vampire class. Actually, I think I did Frankenstein for two classes.