Professor R.C. Metro-Shivetts will discuss the history of writing and making films about Mars. He will compare the NASA-science approach used in the bestselling novel The Martian by Andy Weir to the 2015 film adaptation by Ridley Scott. Professor Shivetts will expand on this discussion, Monday, September 16, in Cyber-Fiction: The Martian’s Guide to the Red Planet - Part 2.
Professor Shivetts has taught full-time for over twenty years at two universities in Oregon and three colleges in Washington. He created and taught his first science-fiction course as an undergraduate in the 1960's and has written curriculum for fantasy and speculative fiction studies. Specializing in global film history of the years 1939-1959, he continues to provide critical review writing about 21st century novels and their cinema adaptations.
He also worked for ten years in Europe and North Africa as a field-archaeologist, and was trained to copy Native American & prehistoric art. He has taught French, e-Commerce, Mass Media Communications, Marketing, Moral Philosophy, Advanced Expository Writing, and Comparative Religions. He continues to work as an infomediary for commercial and not-for-profit organizations.
Copies of the Martian By Andy Weir are available through the Library or in eBook format in the Washington Anytime Library.
An audio introduction to the course is available here. Audio Introduction