Science Fiction and American Culture » March 25th: Synthesizing Sources; Writing Gooder

March 25th: Synthesizing Sources; Writing Gooder

Announcements

  • Braver Angels Debate: Is the American Dream Still Achievable?
    • Wednesday, April 9th, 3:30pm-5:30pm
    • Food is at 3:30pm; event starts at 4:00pm
    • Student Union Room 200
    • Food!!! Registration link
    • I will give you extra credit for attending. If you’ve missed (or plan to miss) more than four (4) classes,* it would be VERY good for you to show up.
  • American Forensics Association Nationals
    • April 4, 5, and 6th

*Please review the syllabus Attendance policy for more information on absences.

Plan for Today

Essay #1 Observations

The main thing to take away is that you need to define a doable topic for the required page length. Aim to be more thorough on a smaller topic than to scratch the surface of many topics. The feedback below doesn’t apply to every essay, but I saw the following areas to be prevalent:

  • Explain the significance of your argument.
    • Don’t just list a bunch of observations about a text, technology, or American culture.
    • Why are you analyzing the topic?
    • Be able to explain your argument, and consider a “so what” question.
    • Possible Thesis:
      Colson Whitehead’s Zone One reflects the tedium and meaninglessness of labor in many professional, so-called “white-collar” jobs.
    • Great…so what? Work sucks. That’s really profound. Make me understand its significance.
  • Don’t summarize.
  • Don’t drop in quotations and expect the reader to know what you mean.
  • Don’t summarize.
  • Aim for reader-based prose and not writer-based prose.
  • Don’t summarize.
  • Scrutinize all your assertions: don’t just state something without proof or sound reasoning.
  • Don’t summarize.
  • Be careful attributing cause and effect or authorial motivation to your arguments.
    • Authors don’t set out to be sexist, unartful, and heteronormative, but sometimes their writing reflects those values.
    • Remember, values aren’t always valuable.
    • Avoid phrase like…
      “The author wants to show…”
      “The novel was written to demonstrate…”
      “The author asks the audience to engage in…”
  • Don’t summarize.
  • Don’t pad your essay with long quotations.
    • Technically, the 5-page requirement does not include quotations, so aim to go a little over.
    • Triple-spacing between paragraphs doesn’t count either.
  • Don’t summarize.
  • Your ideas should be grouped together and not dropped in with no transitions or thrown in randomly because they kind of sort of fit.
  • Don’t summarize.
  • On Canvas, I made comments and annotations directly onto your Essay #1 submissions, so make sure you’re looking at both.
  • Finally, don’t summarize.

Current Events to Relate to Our Readings

I was surprised that very few of you related current events to your essays. The William Gibson short stories and The Matrix were the main texts at the time Essay #1 was assigned, and they are perfect to relate to issues about employment. Zone One also has a lot to say about jobs. The major labor disputes in recent years–SAG-AFTRA and UAW and, possibly, Starbucks–are relevant to the control employers (“Johnny Mnemonic”) and technology imposes on workers (Neo’s reality in The Matrix). For instance, one protection SAG-AFTRA workers want is compensation if artificial intelligence (AI) or related technologies use their likeness; another concern is studios using AI instead of human voice actors for video games and audiobooks. It’s VERY easy to replicate voice and generate hundreds and thousands of AI extras to storm the beaches of Normandy or display a zombie horde of shoppers. It’s getting easier to create entire characters from AI. Most of you have seen films that use computer-generated imagery (CGI) to make an actor portraying a younger version of the character look younger (no wrinkles or pores)–this has been going on for decades.

Some possible questions to ponder…

  • How is the nature of Neo’s work and reality related to AI in digital creation?
    • I mean, it’s called “artificial” intelligence, right?
  • How are the rogue hackers relevant to ransomware and espionage?
    • Would the characters from Hackers (1995) ever steal from everyday people like the bad guys in The Beekeeper (2024)?
    • Exactly the kind of movie Jason Statham would star in–excellent stuff!
  • How are employees tied to their employers through non-compete and non-disclosure agreements?
    • Are employees autonomous? No? So what does that mean?
    • Consider the significance in relation to American culture and values.
  • How is Hollywood both a dream factory and a trash producer, which parallels our zombie existence?
    • Have you ever asked yourself, “do they ever not produce films, TV shows, etc.?”
    • The same can be asked of books and articles.

Full disclosure: The above suggestions for topics in no way express support for or objection to any of the claims the unions or management/owners are making or have made. I present this as one place to relate topics you’ve brought up to current events. I am perpetually committed to “institution neutrality,” which is mandated by the State of North Carolina.

Swift’s “A Modest Proposal”

This famous piece of satire shows up in many English classes. What value does it have for our class on Science Fiction and American Culture?

I desire those politicians who dislike my overture, and may perhaps be so bold to attempt an answer, that they will first ask the parents of these mortals, whether they would not at this day think it a great happiness to have been sold for food at a year old, in the manner I prescribe, and thereby have avoided such a perpetual scene of misfortunes, as they have since gone through, by the oppression of landlords, the impossibility of paying rent without money or trade, the want of common sustenance, with neither house nor clothes to cover them from the inclemencies of the weather, and the most inevitable prospect of intailing the like, or greater miseries, upon their breed for ever.

Swift, Jonathan. “A Modest Proposal” 1729, The Gutenberg Project.

Obviously, Swift isn’t serious about selling kids for food, but he’s very serious about agitating that the British government do something about poverty. But notice Swift’s argument. Even if you’ve never heard of this essay, this passage has his thesis. What is it?

I know it’s hard to imagine that a country, an empire, as strong as Great Britain circa 1729 would have poor people. I mean, could you imagine there being poverty in the United States, the richest country in the world today? Wouldn’t happen. If you’re still missing the point, re-read Asimov’s “A Cult of Ignorance.”

Celebrating Ignorance (time permitting)

Let’s discuss how these texts reflect anti-intellectualism and trite, nationalistic ideology. In addition to the links below, if you have time, you can read a short piece about “American Contradiction” from a rather interesting book (opens as a PDF).

Gender Analysis in Pop Culture (time permitting)

Images of Gender vs. (normal) Behavior

It seems we live in binary worlds, the feminine and masculine, the gay and straight, the liberal and conservative, the red and the blue. While there are more complex arrangements in the “real world,” our menus for gender and sexuality are usually dualistic. Those spheres (and their duality) are socially constructed–they are made up of what is considered normal, and any deviation is considered abnormal. Some say media influence our understanding of what it means to be a man or woman, but others point out that it merely reflects what is already considered normal, or, more importantly, ideal. That’s fairly easily seen with images of men and women–we’ve discussed the limited standards of beauty that are simulated and repeated throughout media–but it’s not as easily seen when we analyze behavioral patterns.

What are normal behaviors and where do they come from?

He-Man and She-Ra

Compare the two introductions to He-Man and She-Ra. Are they the same–meaning no difference in the portrayal of the masculine character vs. the feminine character?

Are the representations congruent with your understanding of masculine and feminine roles? Don’t forget your psychoanalytic hat either: What’s going on with the ways the two hold their swords?

Next Class

Remember, we’re not meeting as a class on Thursday (3/27) and Tuesday (4/01), but watch the films on the syllabus: Inception (2010) and Interstellar (2014). Do your Weekly Discussion Post #10: Prewriting for Essay #2 by Friday, 3/28, 11:00pm.