The chalkboard is covered with differing philosophies and ideologies. The professor, a short, older man with inch-thick glasses and a grey beard trimmed with rust-colored hair, draws lines and connects ideas.
Hands raise and a discussion begins. The professor plays mediator and devil's advocate, always bouncing one idea off another.
"I've been very, very pleased with the quality of discussion in this class over the years," said Guy Beckwith in his Thach office. It's a typical professor's office-- desk covered with papers, book-lined walls, limited seating space.
Beckwith, who teaches in the history department, said Science Fiction as Intellectual History was originally started by another Auburn professor several years back.
The class is structured around science fiction novels and attempts to "provide the historical context within which these writers were writing."
The reading list stretches from 1816, Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein," to 1984, William Gibson's "Neuromancer," with stalwarts of the science fiction world--Huxley, Heinlein and Clarke-- scattered in between.
"(W)e're talking about the 19th century and the 20th century up to 1984 when 'Neuromancer' was published," Beckwith said. "A lot of exciting, disturbing and challenging things are going on at that time. And we wrestle with some of those things in the class." Beckwith sees science fiction, as well as his class, as chiefly concerned with ideas. "We often think of science fiction as existing in a kind of world of its own," Beckwith said. "You know, it's a genre; it's got its fans, and it's kind of insulated from other interests. But what you find out, in its origin and in its development, it's often very, very engaged with ideas of the time."
Beckwith's zeal for teaching, his love of ideas and knowledge, has been noticed by his students.
"Dr. Beckwith can think about things from more than one angle, and he can present it from more than one angle," said Ben Pierce, senior in philosophy. "He can look at some particular situation in a novel and bring to bear perspectives from across the human condition."
He pauses half a heartbeat.
"And he has a cool beard."
John McMeans, senior in history, considers himself a science fiction fan.
He said the class sounded interesting, unlike a lot of the other classes in the history department.
"Guy is my guy," McMeans said. "Guy is cool. He's a really energetic guy. Guy is the most energetic guy. He seems really passionate about science fiction. Love his voice. Love his karate moves."
Beckwith, sitting in his office, surrounded by Thucydides and Gibbon, but also Herbert and Verne, said the diversity is part of what he enjoys about teaching the class.
"The other thing I really enjoy about the class is that a lot of people come to me and say I've never read these novels," Beckwith said. "They'll really be encountering some of these novels for the very first time."
The class isn't offered every year. More like every three or just whenever it happens, Beckwith said with a smile and a shrug.
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