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

Resources and Daily Activities

  • 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
    • 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)
  • 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)
    • 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)
  • 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
    • 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 2213/HTAS 2100: Science, Technology, and Society » October 29th: H.G. Wells and Adaptations

October 29th: H.G. Wells and Adaptations

For best results, I recommend reading through these notes and then going to Canvas to watch the films clips from the 1960 and 2002 film adaptations of The Time Machine. On our class’s Canvas homepage, you’ll find a link to the “Time Machine Video Clips” page at the bottom under the heading Film Clips for Class. As long as my Adobe Premiere Pro skills keep up, I hope to have more clips for adaptations of our next sci-fi readings, Planet of the Apes and Frankenstein. Yes, you must watch these clips because there will be questions about them on Test 2 and the Final Exam. Of course, you can’t substitute the clips (or the entire films) for reading. I’ll have questions to test whether or not you read or just watched the films.

Plan for the day

  • Midterm Grades Reported
    • I submitted midterm grades last week for those of you who have overall grades below 70% or below a C. The BIGGEST reason students get below 70% is from not doing the work. Missing discussion posts and tests affects your grade tremendously. If you haven’t set reminders for your assignments, do so now.
    • Remember, you have a discussion post due by tomorrow (10/30) at 11:00 pm.
  • Finish up The Time Machine
    • Wells’s Cultural and Social Context
    • Wells’s Biography
    • Devolution
    • The Problem of Utopia

Yes, I do expect that you have read The Time Machine before watching the film clips.

Products of the Culture from which They Come

One way to think about texts as products of the cultures from which they come, is to consider Wells’s original text alongside the 1960 and 2002 films. Establishing science seems to be the most important part of the 1960 film, but all of the texts–the novella, 1960 film, and 2002 film–try to show the Time Traveller’s motivation. His motivations are slightly different in each text, but each Time Traveller wants to transcend his place in time.

Questions to consider for the film clips:

  • Representations of war or social collapse
  • Preoccupation with death
  • Problems with attempting to change the past
  • Role of women in the world(s) of science

A Little More about H.G. Wells

Time permitting, I’d like to read you a bit more from the author bio introduction of my copy of The Time Machine. Wells was naughty and had an affair with another writer, Dame Rebecca West. In 1912, Rebecca West wrote a scathing critique of H.G. Wells’s novel Marriage. Wells invited her to his home to discuss her review, and they hit it off…

Timeline of Wells’s “formal” relationships:

  • 1891–Married Isabel Mary Wells; divorced/separated 1894
  • 1895–Married Amy Catherine Robbins; she died in 1927
    • Fathered two sons, George and Frank
  • 1909–Fathered Anna-Jane, with the writer Amber Reeves
  • 1914–Fathered Anthony with novelist Rebecca West
  • 1920–Affair with Margaret Sangar…not surprisingly, fathered no children with her

As mentioned in the previous class notes, the editor of my version of The Time Machine mentions that Wells had a lifelong pursuit for the “ideal woman” with whom he could have “a perfect relationship.” Although we can’t claim an author’s personal life is THE answer to what a text means, we can interpret a work to some extent using a psychoanalytic lens. Artists–painters, musician, writers, etc.–often portray their unconscious feelings and anxieties through their works. Again, their personal lives aren’t the only place to find meaning, but it is obviously a source of inspiration. If you watch the full 2002 film adaptation, you’ll notice that pursuing love is a major theme, but the other texts still have love as a component of the Time Traveller’s motivation.

What Drives the Future?

The three different texts propose three different ways to get to the Eloi-Murlock split. Below I have brief discussions on how to read the texts from different cultural contexts.

The 1895 Novella

In the original novella, The Eloi and Morlocks split on economic grounds. Wells was most likely commenting on the problems he saw with capitalism, specifically the growing gap between rich and poor–the haves and the have nots. By having a future with two distinct classes, represented as different species, Wells projects the common science fiction theme of “if this continues…” This theme projects the author’s time period into a different setting where they speculate on possible outcomes if the contemporary condition persists. In the novella, Wells basically claims that the economic divide will enslave workers who will one day turn out to feed off the leisure class. Although Wells was a socialist, he wasn’t promoting a Soviet-style authoritarian system; instead, like many American and British socialists at the time, he championed the cause of labor, a group he felt got a raw deal in the economy. Circa 1900, there were little to no worker protections, yet laborers were the backbone of industrialized nations who worked in factories, coal mines, steel plants, and infrastructure.

The 1960 Film

The 1960 film was ahead of it’s time–Ha! That’s a little time travel joke. Although the special effects look cheesy to us, consider the time. There was no CGI in 1960. In fact, most films weren’t even in color. Editors had to improvise in order to pull off the special effects they had. In the scene where George meets Filby’s son as an old man in 1966, the town is destroyed by an earthquake and volcano that were caused by a nuclear weapon. This reflects the growing anxieties of nuclear holocaust during the height of the Cold War. The United States and the Soviet Union were the two superpowers locked in a struggle for dominance. The Space Race was a rivalry to see which nation could develop technologies to explore beyond the atmosphere, technologies that could be weapons, too. While watching the film clips, notice how George reacts to newspaper headlines about war and what he thinks about the wars he encounters on his journey. The fears of nuclear annihilation were very much on the minds of Western culture during the Cold War. The 1960 film adaptation of The Time Machine reflects those fears.

The 2002 Film

A surface discussion of the 2002 film would focus on the obvious special effects differences…but we’re not interested in a “surface reading,” so let’s go deeper. When the new time traveler, Dr. Alexander Hartdegen, played by Guy Pierce, makes it to 2037, something goes wrong. You’ll have to watch to see exactly what goes wrong, but–unlike the previous two adaptations that had the Eloi-Morlock split happen because of economics and nuclear war, respectively–this adaptation comments on human destruction of the environment. While there have been environment concerns for several decades, it wasn’t until the 1990s before global environmental catastrophes (unrelated to nuclear war) became reflected in popular culture entertainment. Global warming, now referred to as climate change, moved further onto the political scene by 2000. Although terrorism would take center stage as a cultural anxiety after 9/11, human-induced environmental destruction became talked about more. Hurricane Katrina in 2005 was something climatologists pointed to as a possible future problem: more and more severe hurricanes would come unless we slow the rate of greenhouse gas emissions that warm the planet. This film reflects the growing awareness of future environmental catastrophes caused by humans wreaking the environment.

By the way, there is a 1978 made-for-TV movie on the Time Machine, but it’s nearly unwatchable. I found it on YouTube but can’t recommend it.

Next Week

We’re going to continue with the science fiction theme and cover Planet of the Apes next week; then, we’ll discuss Frankenstein the week after. Perhaps I should have planned better and had Frankenstein before Halloween…What ever you do for Halloween, be safe and practice social distancing.

Also, I hope you were able to vote. Last chance in Nov. 3rd!

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