November 3rd – 7th

For Wednesday, Nov. 5th, BRING FINAL ESSAY # 2 to class!!

Also, please read and respond to the following (blog response to questions due by Monday, November 10th):

Begin reading Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World (can also be found online at http://www.huxley.net/bnw/index.html):

Discuss some of the similarities and dissimilarities between Frankenstein and Brave New World. DO NOT simply compare each and summarize the two – ANALYZE and DISCUSS the two in relationship to each other (talk about WHY you think the two texts might be similar or different and what the texts might be trying to do, suggest, or imply). Use examples and/or quotes from the text to illustrate your points!

Some topics/ideas you might think and write about are:

1) the creation of a “being” versus the conditioning of a being – what’s the difference, in terms of the impact each has on the “being” itself and/or the society in which such a being is being created or “conditioned”?

2) What were the goals of each creator/controller (Dr. Frankenstein’s goals versus Mustapha Mond (the World Controller in Brave New World) in their attempts to create another being versus condition other beings? Make sure you reference the text.

3) How did these concepts (of creation and conditioning) forsee any of what is happening in digital media technology today? MAKE SURE YOU REFERENCE BOTH TEXTS.

4) Compare what each text implies or suggests about human “feelings” and independent thinking. Do you think it is important to either feel or think independently in either of these two texts? Why or why not?

5) In Frankenstein, everyone is miserable; in Brave New World, supposedly, “everybody’s happy.” What does “happy” mean in Brave New World? Is it really an emotion? And how does that experience of happiness in Brave New World compare to the misery both Dr. Frankenstein and the monster feel?

6) In Frankenstein, the “monster” is feared and hated because he’s not at all human-like. Conversely, in Brave New World, it is “John the Savage” (and all from whence he came) that are feared and hated because they are TOO human. What do you make of this radical narrative difference? And which, in your opinion, more closely resembles our current societal fears and perceptions (and why, do you think?)?

For Friday, November 7th: please read up to Chapter 5.  (http://huxley.net/bnw/two.html).

For Monday, November 10th: please read up to Chapter 10.(http://huxley.net/bnw/two.html).

For Wednesday, November 12th, please read up to Chapter 14.

Friday, November 14th, instead of meeting in class, please use that time to work on your last essay.

On Monday, November 17th, you should come into class with a full paragraph or two that describes how you plan to approach your last essay. (Could even be a rough draft version of your final paper’s first two paragraphs). Also, please finish reading Brave New World, so we can wrap up discussion of the book.

Response Assignment #6

Your draft Essay #2 is due on Monday, October 24th. Please bring three copies to class with you; I will assign peer review groups in class on Monday (tell you who to give your essay to).

By Monday, October 24th: Read Frankenstein up to Chapter 8 (which you should be up to by Friday, anyway).

By Wednesday, October 26th: Read Frankenstein up to Chapter 16.

For your blog response, due by NEXT WEDNESDAY (Oct. 29th), please consider some of the following questions:

1. Discuss Dr. Frankenstein’s obsession with creating another being as it relates to contemporary issues of science and technology today. What parallels seem to exist between today’s reality and this fictional story? What are the parallel ethical issues? Provide examples and quotes.

2. In what ways does the monster exemplify or seem to describe the contemporary idea of the cyborg? Is the monster an early literary version of the cyborg? Why or why not? Provide examples and quotes.

For Friday, October 31st: please have the rest of Frankenstein read; also, have your comments ready to hand back to your peers.

Monday, November 3rd: NO CLASS; Final ESSAY # 2 papers due IN CLASS ON WEDNESDAY, November 5th!

Week of October 13-17th

Hi folks – For Wednesday, October 15th, please continue reading Winterson’s Written on the Body. By Friday, you should have finished reading the book. Also, for Wednesday’s class, please write a blog response that addresses any theme, narrative method or style that particularly draws your attention. This is a free-writing exercise, so I am not posting any particular questions. If you’d like, write a sort of stream-of-consciousness response. Feel free to have fun with it, too . . . be creative . . . ).

Response Assignment # 4

Hi folks — here’s the schedule of reading for next week (October 6-10), along with blog response questions:

By Monday, 10/6, please finish reading The Shawl (and see questions below for blog response).

By Wednesday, 10/8: Read up to page 55 in Jeanette Winterson’s Written on the Body.

By Friday, 10/10: Read up to page 111 in Written on the Body (up to second section, “The Cells, Tissues, Systems and Cavities of the Body”)

For Monday, 10/6, please respond to any one of the following questions (or you may discuss anything else that takes your attention):

1. Why doesn’t Rosa run to protect Magda at the end?  Is it because she fears death?  Because she is traumatized?  Because she is physically exhausted?
2. What do we make of Magda’s physical appearance?
3. What is the significance of the shawl?
4. Has Rosa’s opinion of Stella changed since they were in the concentration camp?  How do we know?  What has changed?
5. What is the significance of Rosa’s writing letters in different languages?
6. Why does Rosa constantly tell Persky, “Your Warsaw isn’t my Warsaw”?
7. Why is Rosa so reluctant to participate in Dr. Tree’s study?
8. What is the significance of Ozick’s detailed description of Miami’s hot night (pp. 45-50)?
9. Why is Rosa obsessed with finding her underwear?  What might it represent?
10. What is the significance of the WWII memories Rosa tries to share with her customers, especially the tram car scene (pp. 66-69)?  Why does Rosa say, “I became like the woman with the lettuce” (69)?