Science Fiction and American Culture » February 4th: Writing Discussion: Ideas & Arguments

February 4th: Writing Discussion: Ideas & Arguments

Plan for the Day

Focus on Gender and Sexuality

We’re going to return to this topic throughout the semester, so I figured I should bring up some points that aren’t obvious on a first reading of “Aye, and Gomorrah…” and “All You Zombies–.” What I was hoping to convey to you last week was to radically rethink not just hegemonic notions of sexuality (i.e. heteronormativity) but also assumptions of sexual activity. We seem to define people based on their romantic proclivities, but we don’t often recognize people who have no or little desire: asexual is the “A” in LGBTQIA+. Also, heterosexism, usually defined as the belief that ONLY male-female coupling is appropriate, tends to consider its practice as normal and all others as deviant. Even people who assume they’re “gay friendly” may hyperfocus on sexuality being a person’s dominant identity. Consider the following scenarios:

  • Hetero “friends” pointing out individuals who must be of interest: “wouldn’t you like him?”
  • A gay couple leaves a group and is told “be safe,” which is a pathologizing frame related to HIV/AIDS.
  • The F/fascist belief that the LGBTQIA+ community is inherently immoral and will groom children.

In Delany’s “Aye, and Gomorrah,” the Spacer narrator goes off with a woman, assuming she’ll pay him* for sex. She claims:

  • “You don’t choose your perversions. You have no perversions at all. You’re free of the whole business. I love you for that, Spacer. My love starts with the fear of love.”
    • Think about the assumptions loaded in her statement: “You have no perversions at all.”
    • This reinforces the idea that sexuality governs a person’s entire identity.
    • Again, if heterosexuality is dominant, everything else is abnormal.
  • “I want you because you can’t want me. That’s the pleasure.”
    • She uses him in a peculiar way here.
    • Could Delany be commenting on “the game”?
  • “When you leave, I am going to visit my friends and talk about . . . ah, yes, the beautiful one that got away.”

*The narrator answers “Male….It doesn’t matter” when the woman he meets asks, “Did you start out male or female?” (p. 410).

Sexual Politics

Don’t worry, you’re not going to be asked to vote. Earlier on I mentioned that we would discuss the difference between Big-P “Politics” and little-p “politics,” and today seems like it’s a good time. Traditionally, you associate “politics” with governing the country, and that’s a good definition, which I’ll refer to as Big-P (think Democrats and Republicans). However, what’s more useful for us is the following definition: “the total complex of relations between people living in society” (“politics” 5a, Merriam-Webster).

Consider the following sexual relations between people:

  • Dating, marriage, and divorce (a popular sociology class)
  • Hegemonic patriarchy
    • conquests
    • locker room talk
    • hypermasculinity
  • Mrs. Degree
  • Fabrication (the rule of three, half truths, “my buddy is such a scum bag…”)
  • Contradiction: American cultural obsession and repression

You probably know of some unwritten rules that relate to the situations and concepts above. Think about dating? What traditional practices come to mind?

Writing Discussion: Ideas & Arguments

Although I teach classes with more writing requirements, I want to focus on writing this semester. We’re not covering everything, but I’d like to guide you on thinking about generating ideas and arguing from a perspective as opposed to summarizing texts. Basically, this semester’s essays ask you to have something to say. You’ve all probably had to come up with a thesis statement at some point, so we’ll start there. By the way, your Weekly Discussion Post #4 this week asks you to start generating ideas for Essay #1. Don’t forget about the 250-word requirement.

Perhaps we should read the requirements for Essay #1: American Culture on Canvas. Because we’re focusing on big picture ideas and the potential arguments to support them, consider the following:

  1. What American cultural values have come up in our readings?
    • Remember, not all values are valuable (e.g., racism, sexism, anti-intellectualism)
  2. What cultural activities reflect the value or values you’re settling on?
  3. What instances from our texts support your assertions?

Building Arguments

On Canvas, I have an example of identifying American values and cultural phenomena from The Matrix with the Essay #1 guidelines. Below, I outline the argument to help you see the structure. I’m not trying to prescribe a specific writing style for you; instead, I’m offering ways to approach the essay to help you if you’re stuck. Also, the examples below are not supposed to be airtight ones that can’t be refuted. All thesis statements can have a counter response. Remember, you supply the evidence or sound argumentation.

American Values in The Matrix

  • Instant gratification
  • Ignorance is bliss
  • Capitalism

American Cultural Activities Reflected in The Matrix

  • Cellphone ubiquity
  • Somnambulism: existing in a system one doesn’t fully understand
  • Supporting the economic system through one’s labor

American Cultural Analysis

  • Instant gratification is an American value
    • Fast food, the internet, next-day delivery
    • Supports the economy
  • Cellphones are our personal(ized) devices for information and convenience
    • Social media, online ordering/dating, news sources
    • Supports the economy
  • Algorithms tailor our experiences
    • Echo chambers, self-selected groups, lack of viewpoint diversity
    • Supports the economy (consumerism)

Thesis: The American phenomenon of living a blissfully, willfully ignorant life–often from a position of privilege–reflects the illusion of reality in which Neo is immersed in The Matrix.
Alternative: In The Matrix, Neo’s immersion in a false reality parallels the blissfully ignorant state of American somnambulism.

Support from The Matrix

  • In order to experience reality, characters in The Matrix must make the difficult choice to abandon the comforts of the collective illusion in order to grasp reality.
    • After unplugging from the machine, humans no longer have the support of the comforts of civilization.
  • The character Cypher, who betrays the group to Agent Smith, reflects the anti-intellectualism of a portion of American culture that would rather not think critically about the mechanisms of society and indulge in the illusion of comforts and conveniences.
  • In the film, when Agents want to “jump” to other places in the matrix, they inhabit a human’s avatar, which effectively kills the human because their construct is deleted. Therefore, the humans wandering the matrix are essentially sleepwalking and fueling the powers that be through their conscious electrical impulses, a type of surplus or slave labor.

Using Sources

Time permitting, we’ll hop on over to a webpage devoted to How to Make an Argument with Sources.

Next Class

We’ll discuss Delany’s “Racism and Science Fiction” on Thursday, 2/6, and then get into posthumanism and William Gibson. We should be all caught up by Tuesday, 2/11. On Thursday, 2/13, we don’t have class, but you do have your Essay #1 due on Canvas before 11:00pm.