Page Created: 09/23/10. Last Update: 09/23/10. Last Google Group Page Update: 05/22/10.
KAY FOWLER
PAUL LEVINSON
Novels:
Borrowed Tides
The Consciousness Plague
The Pixel Eye
The Plot to Kill Socrates
The Silk Code
The Author's website is: http://www.sff.net/people/paullevinson/
MEETING SUMMARY:
Meeting Date: February 9, 2002.
Meeting Site: Bergen Highlands United Methodist Church, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey.
Official Attendance: 42.
Meeting Program: Talk by College Science Fiction Teacher.
Notes:
Paul Levinson also spoke at the January 8, 2000 General Meeting.
Meeting Memories:
Newsletter Account:
The following account is reprinted with permission from THE STARSHIP EXPRESS Copyright 2002 Philip J De Parto:
The Science Fiction Association of Bergen County met on Saturday, February 9, 2008 at the Methodist Church in Upper Saddle River. We were pleased to have a strong turnout for our pre meeting activiites and our two guests.
The Bergen County chapter of The Final Frontier held its second meeting since being revived. Gary Blog led a well attended 7:00 PM discussion of recent movies on the coaches and chairs of the first section of the Fellowship Hall. We will continue to use this space for the Frontier when we meet at the Church. Turnout was a bit light for the Anime Associates screening of LUPIN 3: THE DARK ORDER OF ASSASSINS, but those who watched the flick enjoyed it.
After the usual preliminaries, Dr Kay Fowler was introduced. Ms Fowler has taught a number of courses at nearby Ramapo College. Three of them--Survey of Science Fiction, Feminism and Science Fiction, and Teaching Science Fiction--formed the basis of her talk.
The three courses are targeted at different groups of students. Survey of Science Fiction is offered at the Junior level. It is one of several courses which fulfill a "science in culture" requirement for science majors. Most people in the class have a minimal exposure to written sf, although there are always a couple of sf enthusiasts in the group. Her goals in Survey are to teach students how to read sf (how to construct a timeline, how to pick up clues about the world of the novel, to trust the author will fill in missing information over the rest of the book) and to develop an appetite to read more of it.
Feminism and Science Fiction is an interdisciplinary Senior seminar offering. There are almost never men in this class as the feminist title scares them off. While much science fiction can be characterized as "What If," feminist sf is typically "If Only."
Teaching Science Fiction is for Teachers and Education Majors. Many in the class already teach and wish to incorporate science fiction into their bag of instructional tools. There is a fair amount of customization of this course to the individual as the first grade teacher has different requirements than someone teaching high school seniors.
Author Paul Levinson addressed the group after Kay Fowler's talk. Mr Levinson updated the group on his career since he was our guest in January of 2000. BORROWED TIDES, a novel of first contact, was published by Tor Books last year. Next month will bring THE CONSCIOUSNESS PLAGUE, a near future novel featuring New York City forensic detective Phil D'Amato, who has appeared in a number of short stories and Mr Levinson's first novel, THE SILK CODE.
The theme of Mr Levinson's talk was science fiction as the literature of the exploration of the imagination. He called September 11th a failure of the imagination of our country's leadership to anticipate threats. Tom Clancy suggested terrorists crashing planes into buildings in one of his books, but no one in authority took this or a number of other scenarios as a possibility.
Mr Levinson read a section of THE CONSCIOUSNESS PLAGUE to conclude his presentation. He also suggested leaving the site of the World Trade Center fallow until future generations could construct a spaceport there.