Rhetoric & Technical Communication
Rhetoric & Technical Communication
Toscano, Aaron, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Dept. of English

Resources and Daily Activities

  • Conference Presentations
    • SEACS 2021 Presentation
  • Dr. Toscano’s Homepage
  • ENGL 2116-083: Introduction to Technical Communication
    • ENGL 2116 sec. 083 Major Assignments (Summer 2020)
      • Final Portfolio Requirements
      • Oral Presentations
    • June 11th: Continue with I, Robot
    • June 15th: Ethics and Perspective Discussion
      • Ethical Dilemmas for Homework
      • Ethical Dilemmas to Ponder
      • Mapping Our Personal Ethics
    • June 16th: More on Ethics
    • June 1st: Effective Documents for Users
    • June 2nd: Final Project and Research Discussion
      • Epistemology and Other Fun Research Ideas
      • Making Résumés and Cover Letters Better
      • Research
    • June 3rd: Technology in a Social Context
    • June 8th: Information Design and Visuals
    • June 9th: Proposals, Marketing, and Rhetoric
    • May 18th: Introduction to the course
    • May 19th: Critical Technological Awareness
    • May 20th: Audience, Purpose, and General Introduction
    • May 21st: Résumé Stuff
      • Making Résumés and Cover Letters More Effective
      • Peter Profit’s Cover Letter
    • May 25th: More Resume Stuff
    • May 26th: Plain Language and Prose Revision
      • Euphemisms
      • Prose Practice for Next Class
      • Prose Revision Assignment
      • Revising Prose: Efficiency, Accuracy, and Good
      • Sentence Clarity
    • May 27th: More on Plain Language
    • May 28th: Review Prose Revision
  • ENGL 4182/5182: Information Design & Digital Publishing
    • August 21st: Introduction to the Course
      • Rhetorical Principles of Information Design
    • August 28th: Introduction to Information Design
      • Prejudice and Rhetoric
      • Robin Williams’s Principles of Design
    • Classmates Webpages (Fall 2017)
    • December 4th: Presentations
    • Major Assignments for ENGL 4182/5182 (Fall 2017)
    • November 13th: More on Color
      • Designing with Color
      • Important Images
    • November 20th: Extra-Textual Elements
    • November 27th: Presentation/Portfolio Workshop
    • November 6th: In Living Color
    • October 16th: Type Fever
      • Typography
    • October 23rd: More on Type
    • October 2nd: MIDTERM FUN!!!
    • October 30th: Working with Graphics
      • Beerknurd Calendar 2018
    • September 11th: Talking about Design without Using “Thingy”
      • Theory, theory, practice
    • September 18th: The Whole Document
    • September 25th: Page Design
  • ENGL 4183/5183: Editing with Digital Technologies
    • April 14th: Cohesive Rhythm
    • April 7th: Rhetorical Effects of Punctuation
    • Efficiency in Writing Reviews
    • February 17th: Verb is the Word!
    • February 24th: Coordination and Subordination
      • A Practical Editing Situation
    • February 3rd: I’m in Love with the Shape of You(r Sentences)
    • January 20th: Introduction to the Course
    • January 27th: Rhetoric, Words, and Composing
    • Major Assignments for ENGL 4183/5183 (Spring 2021)
      • Rhetoric of Fear
    • March 10th: Midterm Exam
    • March 17th: Choosing Adjectivals
    • March 24th: Choosing Nominals
    • March 31st: Stylistic Variations
    • March 3rd: Form and Function
  • ENGL 4275: Rhetoric of Technology
    • April 13th: Authorities in Science and Technology
    • April 15th: Articles on Violence in Video Games
    • April 20th: Presentations
    • April 6th: Technology in the home
    • April 8th: Writing Discussion
    • Assignments for ENGL 4275
    • February 10th: Religion of Technology Part 3 of 3
    • February 12th: Is Love a Technology?
    • February 17th: Technology and Gender
    • February 19th: Technology and Expediency
    • February 24th: Semester Review
    • February 3rd: Religion of Technology Part 1 of 3
    • February 5th: Religion of Technology Part 2 of 3
    • January 13th: Technology and Meaning, a Humanist perspective
    • January 15th: Technology and Democracy
    • January 22nd: The Politics of Technology
    • January 27th: Discussion on Writing as Thinking
    • January 29th: Technology and Postmodernism
    • January 8th: Introduction to the Course
    • March 11th: Writing and Other Fun
    • March 16th: Neuromancer (1984) Day 1 of 2
    • March 18th: Neuromancer (1984) Day 2 of 2
    • March 23rd: Inception (2010)
    • March 25th: Writing and Reflecting Discussion
    • March 30th & April 1st: Count Zero
    • March 9th: William Gibson’s Neuromancer (1984)
  • ENGL 4750-090 & ENGL 5050-092 Video Games & Culture
    • Assignments for Video Games & Culture
    • August 25th: Introduction to the Course
    • November 10th: Aggression & Addiction
    • November 3rd: Moral Panics and Health Risks
    • October 13th: Narrative, ludology, f(r)iction
    • October 20th: Serious Games
    • October 27: Risky Business?
    • October 6th: Hyperreality
    • September 1st: History of Video Games
    • September 22nd: Video Game Aesthetics
    • September 29th: (sub)Cultures and Video Games
    • September 8th: Defining Video Games and Critical Theory Introduction
      • Marxism for Video Game Analysis
      • Postmodernism for Video Game Analysis
  • ENGL 6166: Rhetorical Theory
    • April 13th: Umberto Eco & Jean Baudrillard
    • April 20th: Moving Forward on Theory
    • April 27th: Last Day of Class
    • April 6th: Lyotard’s The Postmodern Condition
      • What is Postmodernism?
    • February 10th: St. Augustine, On Christian Doctrine [Rhetoric]
      • Oratory and Argument Analysis
    • February 17th: Knoblauch on Magical and Ontological Rhetoric
    • February 24th: Rene Descartes’ Discourse on Method
    • February 3rd: Aristotle’s On Rhetoric Books 2 and 3
      • Aristotle’s On Rhetoric, Book 2
      • Aristotle’s On Rhetoric, Book 3
    • January 13th: Introduction to Class
    • January 27th: Aristotle’s On Rhetoric Book 1
    • March 16th: Friedrich Nietzsche
    • March 23rd: Mythologies and Meaning of Meaning (part 2)
    • March 30th: Derrida’s (refusal to have) Positions
    • March 9th: Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Women
    • Rhetorical Theory Assignments
  • LBST 2212-124, 125, 126, & 127
    • August 21st: Introduction to Class
    • August 23rd: Humanistic Approach to Science Fiction
    • August 26th: Robots and Zombies
    • August 28th: Futurism, an Introduction
    • August 30th: R. A. Lafferty “Slow Tuesday Night” (1965)
    • December 2nd: Technological Augmentation
    • December 4th: Posthumanism
    • November 11th: Salt Fish Girl (Week 2)
    • November 13th: Salt Fish Girl (Week 2 con’t)
    • November 18th: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Part 1)
      • More Questions than Answers
    • November 1st: Games Reality Plays (part II)
    • November 20th: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Part 2)
    • November 6th: Salt Fish Girl (Week 1)
    • October 14th: More Autonomous Fun
    • October 16th: Autonomous Conclusion
    • October 21st: Sci Fi in the Domestic Sphere
    • October 23rd: Social Aphasia
    • October 25th: Dust in the Wind
    • October 28th: Gender Liminality and Roles
    • October 2nd: Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein
    • October 30th: Games Reality Plays (part I)
    • October 9th: Approaching Autonomous
      • Analyzing Prose in Autonomous
    • September 11th: The Time Machine
    • September 16th: The Alien Other
    • September 18th: Post-apocalyptic Worlds
    • September 20th: Dystopian Visions
    • September 23rd: World’s Beyond
    • September 25th: Gender Studies and Science Fiction
    • September 30th: Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein
    • September 4th: Science Fiction and Social Breakdown
      • More on Ellison
      • More on Forster
    • September 9th: The Time Machine
  • LBST 2213/HTAS 2100: Science, Technology, and Society
    • December 10th: Violence in Video Games
    • December 15th: Video Games and Violence, a more nuanced view
    • December 1st: COVID-19 facial covering rhetoric
    • December 3rd: COVID-19 Transmission and Pandemics
    • December 8th: 500-word Essay
    • November 10th: Planet of the Apes. (1964) Ch. 27-end
    • November 12th: Frankenstein (1818) Preface-Ch. 8
    • November 17th: Frankenstein (1818) Ch. 9-Ch. 16
    • November 19th: Frankenstein (1818) Ch. 17-Ch. 24
    • November 3rd: Planet of the Apes. (1964) Ch. 1-17
    • November 5th: Planet of the Apes (1964) Ch. 18-26
    • October 13th: Collins & Pinch’s The Golem at Large (Technology), Ch. 5 and 6
    • October 15th: Collins & Pinch’s The Golem at Large (Technology), Ch. 7 and Conclusion
    • October 1st: The Golem at Large Introduction & Ch. 1
    • October 22nd: The Time Machine
    • October 29th: H.G. Wells and Adaptations
    • October 6th: Collins & Pinch’s The Golem at Large (Technology) Ch. 2
    • October 8th: Collins & Pinch’s The Golem at Large (Technology), Ch. 3 & 4
    • September 10th: Science and Technology, a Humanistic Approach
    • September 15th: Collins & Pinch’s The Golem (Science), Ch. 2
    • September 17th: Collins & Pinch’s The Golem (Science), Ch. 3 and 4
    • September 22nd: Collins & Pinch Ch. 5 & 6
    • September 24th: Collins & Pinch Ch. 7 & Conclusion
    • September 29th: Test 1
    • September 8th: Introduction to Class
  • New Media: Gender, Culture, Technology (Spring 2021)
    • April 6th: Capitalist Realism
    • February 16: Misunderstanding the Internet
    • February 23rd: Our Public Sphere and the Media
    • February 2nd: Introduction to Cultural Studies
    • January 26th: Introduction to New Media
    • Major Assignments for New Media (Spring 2021)
    • March 16th: Identity Politics
    • March 23rd: Social Construction of Gender and Sexuality
    • March 2nd: Foundational Thinkers in Cultural Studies
    • March 30th: Hyperreality
    • March 9th: Globalization & Postmodernism
  • Science Fiction in American Culture (Summer I–2020)
    • Assignments for Science Fiction in American Culture
    • Cultural Studies and Science Fiction Films
    • June 10th: Interstellar and Exploration themes
    • June 11th: Bicentennial Man
    • June 15th: I’m Only Human…Or am I?
    • June 16th: Wall-E and Environment
    • June 17th: Wall-E (2008) and Technology
    • June 18th: Interactivity in Video Games
    • June 1st: Firefly (2002) and Myth
    • June 2nd: “Johnny Mnemonic”
    • June 3rd: “New Rose Hotel”
    • June 4th: “Burning Chrome”
    • June 8th: Conformity and Monotony
    • June 9th: Cultural Constructions of Beauty
    • May 18th: Introduction to Class
    • May 19th: American Culture, an Introduction
    • May 20th: The Matrix
    • May 21st: Gender and Science Fiction
    • May 25th: Goals for I, Robot
    • May 26th: Isaac Asimov’s I, Robot
    • May 27th: Hackers and Slackers
    • May 30th: Inception
  • Teaching Portfolio
  • Topics for Analysis
    • American Culture, an Introduction
    • Feminism, An Introduction
    • Fordism/Taylorism
    • Frankenstein Part I
    • Frankenstein Part II
    • Futurism Introduction
    • Langdon Winner Summary: The Politics of Technology
    • Marxist Theory (cultural analysis)
    • Oral Presentations
    • Our Public Sphere
    • Postmodernism Introduction
    • Protesting Confederate Place
    • Punctuation Refresher
    • QT, the Existential Robot
    • Religion of Technology Discussion
    • Rhetoric, an Introduction
      • Analyzing the Culture of Technical Writer Ads
      • Rhetoric of Technology
      • Visual Culture
      • Visual Perception
      • Visual Perception, Culture, and Rhetoric
      • Visual Rhetoric
      • Visuals for Technical Communication
      • World War I Propaganda
    • The Great I, Robot Discussion
      • I, Robot Short Essay Topics
    • The Rhetoric of Video Games: A Cultural Perspective
      • Civilization, an Analysis
    • The Sopranos
    • Why Science Fiction?
    • Zombies and Consumption Satire

Contact Me

Office: Fretwell 280F
Phone: 704.687.0613
Email: atoscano@uncc.edu
LBST 2212-124, 125, 126, & 127 » September 4th: Science Fiction and Social Breakdown

September 4th: Science Fiction and Social Breakdown

Plan for the Day

  • Eat your veggies!
  • Retro Sci Fi
  • Readings
  • 30 second Test 1 preview

Retro Sci Fi: What they thought of today and beyond

Each of the short stories for today is about the Past’s view of the Future: The authors project their time period into a future setting to comment on their own time period and (sometimes) to make a case for a possible outcome if society continues down a particular path. I would place all these texts in the social science fiction category. As you read, there are some far-fetched ideas about what humans will do in the future. Also, like R. A. Lafferty, Harlan Ellison has a rather absurd vision of the future. Absurd situations, settings, characters, and events are part of the Sci Fi genre, and you’ll read about many more absurd situations in our (almost) last reading of the semester: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (1979).

Before we get into Ellison’s and Wells’s short stories, let’s consider E. M. Forster’s dystopian vision in “The Machine Stops” (1909). Who else published a future-oriented piece that year?

E. M. Forster’s “The Machine Stops” (1909)

This story centers around two characters–Vashti and her son, Kuno. They live in hive-like structures underground and on opposite sides of the Earth from each other. As we’ve read in other texts, in this future, humans don’t need to struggle because everything is provided for them by The Machine. What isn’t too clear is whether or not the Machine is an AI or if the Central Committee programs the Machine to carry out its functions–making sure the citizens are comfortable…a little too comfortable. Nearly all interaction is mediated by technology:

  • A Skype-like technology
  • Tubes for communicating
  • Music playing
  • Listening to lectures…all in the privacy of your honeycomb!

This story presents the opposite of a utopia (where technology leads us to paradise): What’s called a dystopia (technology leads us to…not paradise). Throughout the short story, Forster comments on the ways in which technologies are contrary to human needs. This brings up a concern that exists today where people think there needs to be humanistic values inherent in technological development. Simply put, a humanistic approach calls for technologies to fit in (seamlessly, perhaps) with human behaviors, practices, and values. Humanists (those advocating this approach) claim that technology is too often created contrary to humans values and, therefore, requires users to adapt to the technology. A somewhat related field to humanistic goals for technology is HCI: human computer interaction studies.

Although many interpretations are possible with this short story, consider the following as a way to think critically about the text’s meanings:

  • The Machine is simply a Matrix-like or Borg Collective system for ordering human lives, and many technologies, such as infrastructure technologies (stoplights, medians, automatic doors, etc.), control humans and keep things running smoothly.
  • The Machine is a metaphor for the ways we’re programmed in a culture and forced to adapt to social norms by nearly constant messages from agents of social control, such as the media, government, education, social praise/stigma, etc.

For the next few minutes, I’d like you to consider the two interpretations above. What are the ways we’re controlled by the technologies around us? Take notes because you may return to this on a Friday class.

  • Additional Key Parts of “The Machine Stops” (1909) (Time permitting)

Those of you who’ve read Aldus Huxley’s Brave New World (1931) might remember a peculiar phrase the characters used: “my Ford!”. This is a reference to Henry Ford (one of the major inventors of the automobile and, more importantly, the assembly line) that parallels the expression, “My god!” or “My word!” On p. 61 (and elsewhere), we read Vashti say something is “perfectly mechanical.” What could be a parallel expression for us? Perhaps there’s another opposite phrase you’ve used.

Of course, Science Fiction doesn’t have to predict the future to be valuable, but Forster is certainly ahead of his time when he uses the (assumed) progress of technology to be a factor in humans being unfit for strenuous activities. Take a look at this link from the Harvard School of Public Health (scroll down to “Advancing Technology, Declining Physical Activity”).

Harlan Ellison “‘Repent, Harlequin!’ Said the Ticktockman” (1965)

Avant-garde science fiction: experimenting new ways, ideas, texts, etc. that advance science fiction. What’s new? F. T. Marinetti was an avant-garde artist, and he wanted no connection to the past (quite a difficult aesthetic goal). Ellison (and Lafferty from last week) isn’t as extreme, but he experimented with absurdity. Then again, how absurd is his vision?

As the Anthology editors mention, Ellison was satirizing the cultural conformity he witnessed–a common complaint of the 1950s and early 1960s before the counterculture, student, and anti-war movements attempted to revolt against the establishment. He quotes the famous American author Henry David Thoreau, who is best known for bringing the idea of “civil disobedience” to America consciousness (circa 1849). Ellison provides a long quotation from “Civil Disobedience,” so here’s the first line:

“The mass of men serve the state thus, not as men mainly, but as machines, with their bodies. They are the standing army, and the militia, jailers, constables, posse comitatus, etc.” (Part 1, para. 5)

Man…machines…could Henry David Thoreau be a science fiction writer? No, but the idea of humans becoming machines is a common science fiction theme. Why? Notice what the blurb before the story mentions:

  • Ellison had a broad artistic commitment “to the enduring values of individual autonomy and unfettered self-expression” (p. 367)
  • Overall, the short story appears to comment on the way technology is a double-edged sword: everyone has a job and the economy prospers, but people are reduced to machine-like behavior always needing to be at maximum efficiency.
    • The punishment for wasting time becomes a capital offense!
    • Technological efficiency is so important and becomes an ordering principle for society.
    • This is definitely a social science fiction text.
  • Here are some more details about Ellison’s text

H. G. Wells’s “The Star” (1897)

I’m sure we’re going to run out of time (need a Time Machine, I guess) to talk about H. G. Wells “The Star,” but let’s at least consider the major themes that come from the short story. Also, here’s a little bit about Wells from my copy of The Time Machine (Bantam Books reissue, 1991). The editor mentions that Wells had a lifelong pursuit for the “ideal woman” with whom he could have “a perfect relationship.” Wells died in 1946, so he saw the horrors of WWI and WWII, and “throughout the 1930s he took center stage in warning that humankind was on the brink of disaster, while zealously planning the reconstruction of society.” He warned against the pursuit of technologies that would destroy humanity and lived to see the development of the atomic bomb.

But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. “The Star,” published in 1897, came before the build up to WWI and nearly 50 years before the atomic bomb. So why would Wells be inspired to write such an apocalyptic story?

The Anthology’s Bio Blurb:

  • p. 39: Wells was very interested in evolution–biological and social and speculated “about the future of humanity from the perspective of both biological and social evolution.”
  • p. 39: “Wells addressed contemporary anxieties about the way technology and scientific theory were transforming the world and the human species, linking philosophical speculations based on science with Gothic effects.”
  • p. 39: Wells’s interest in socialism most likely led him to envision future worlds cooperating in utopias.
  • p. 40: The Anthology editors claim “The Star” is a “vision of humanity’s essential helplessness in the face of a catastrophe from space.”
    • We have to ask, why is this such a common theme in Science Fiction?
  • Making a plausible speculative argument about Wells’s story.
    • Even though a multiplicity of interpretations exist for texts, don’t misread that as “anything goes.”
    • Based on Wells’s background and this story’s focus on a natural disaster, we have evidence that the story indirectly communicates that people must come together to solve potential problems, especially catastrophes.
    • Going further…”the new brotherhood that grew presently among men” (p. 49) suggests that Wells is aware of human nature and knows that it take catastrophes to create drastic paradigm shifts.
    • When will humans take major steps towards protecting the environment? When a crisis is upon us.

Other topics:

  • pp. 40-41: People with a training in science. “Few people without a training in science can realize the huge isolation of the solar system.
    • Compare this with Isaac Asimov’s “Cult of Ignorance.”
    • Wells appears to be commenting on the masses’ willful ignorance of cutting edge science, which is represented in 1897 as not knowing Neptune exists. Neptune was discovered in 1846.
  • p. 42: Need to observe nature even in the face of doom.
  • pp. 42-43: “Pretty women…feigned an intelligent interest they did not feel.”
    • Hmmm…that’s sexist. Let’s explore that line. Culturally, what was the place of women in turn of the last century (1900) England?
    • Growing Women’s Suffrage Movement
  • p. 43: The homeless tramp wanting the comet nearer to bring heat. This reflects one only thinking of himself (and not the destruction of the world the comet would bring).
    • A contemporary example of misunderstanding the science behind potential global catastrophes.
  • p. 42: Human apathy when they don’t want to believe in impending doom. People look to faith/religion for comfort.
  • p. 45: “Nine human beings out of ten were still busy at their common occupations.”
    • What would you do?
  • pp. 45-46: People thought “The master mathematician’s grim warnings were…self advertisement.”
    • A note about science and grant money. The above is a comment on the assumption scientists just want attention but don’t have anything useful.
  • p. 49: Humans will band together after a crisis and rebuild…better.
  • p. 49: Martian astronomers observe the “little damage [to] the earth.”
    • And there’s a comment here. In the vast universe, we are only able to recognize immediate phenomena.

Where else have we heard that all the world needs is a “clean slate”?

Next Class

You won’t meet with Ms. Rogers on Friday (9/06); instead, you’ll take Test 1 on Canvas. I’ll open it at 8am, and you’ll have until 11pm to finish it. However, once you start the test, you’ll only have 60 minutes to do it.

Next week we’ll go back to the future and read H.G. Wells’s The Time Machine. I’ll even show you clips from the films. You don’t have to buy The Time Machine, but it’s available on Kindle for free and here.

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