From Dreaming to Running: Putting the Android on Screen

Last week I got to attend a very nice panel from DePaul and One Book One Chicago: three scholars discussing aspects of adaptation, with Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and Scott's Blade Runner as the focus.

Paul Booth (who runs the wonderful DePaul Pop Culture Conference, among other virtues) chaired the panel. These were really engaging, fast-moving talks, with lots of visual aids, so notes below are just sketches and highlights.

Think Galactic- Kelly Sue DeConnick & Amal El-Mohtar

For the May meeting of Think Galactic, we read selections from the Guests of Honor at the upcoming Wiscon: Kelly Sue DeConnick and Amal El-Mohtar. For DeConnick, we read Bitch Planet, and for El-Mohtar we read a selection of short stories and poems.

Think Galactic's original formation was inspired by Wiscon, and there's usually a good number of us in attendance, and these two creators have a lot of interesting work.

Brief notes and discussion below:

Recap: Science, Science Fiction, & Imagining Nature's Future

Currier & Ives print

Yesterday, I got to catch a joint lecture—part of the SAIC's series on the anthropocene. Dr. Chuck Cannon, botanist & director of the Center for Tree Science at the Morton Arboretum, shared some views on conservation, ecosystem thinking, and some science fictional ideas on bioengineering. Writer, artist, and Sector 2337 co-director Caroline Picard then discussed some ideas about our shifting relation to the anthropocene, and shared a brief graphic novel.

Brief notes:

Think Galactic- Buffy Season 8

For our first graphic novel discussion since "Saga", Think Galactic discussed "Buffy: Season 8" (2007-2011) by Joss Whedon, Georges Jeanty & many more writers/artists.

Taking place a bit after the events of the television show (which ended with Buffy & co. empowering thousands of other young women to have Slayer strength & abilities), "Season 8" follows the Scoobies in a much more global conflict with new villains. Possible spoilers below!

Think Galactic: Saga

For the last meeting of Think Galactic, we discussed "Saga" (2012-), the comic series by Brian K. Vaughan & Fiona Staples. We focused on the earlier volumes, but a few of us had read out as far as Volume 5/Issue 30 or so.

Fun discussion. We were pretty forthright about not being terribly versed in the current state of comics and graphic novels, which made it a little interesting. One of the more interesting parts of our discussion was looking at reading strategies when visual art is present, some of us noting that we missed details in the imagery while rushing to the next text-bubble.

We definitely mostly liked it. Definitely mostly. Much discussion of the core themes of parenthood, violence, sex, and the nature of open-ended serial works. Possible spoilers below!