Why Read Spring 2020

Please write down your answers for these, providing specific examples from the novel in your response. 1) Why do the firemen burn books in the novel? What effect does this have on society? Why is it seen as a good thing? p.56 2) What forms of our technology do the wall families resemble? What is the effect on the people of the Farenheit world, interacting with the wall families all day? Do we have any similar effects in our society, due to the types of technological, social media, and mass media interactions we experience in our daily lives? How have TV, email, and social media changed the way we interact with one another? 3) What role does conformity play in the society of the novel? 4) What parallels can you see between this world and the world of Nosedive? What about Stepford?

How does the narrator invite the reader (“you”) to imagine the utopian city of  Omelas ? Why does the narrator want the reader to co-create this utopia? What purpose might it serve in the context of what happens later in the text?   Why does the narrator keep asking the readers if they believe him/her? How have things changed in the story (and the readers’ perception of it) by the time the questions are asked the second time around towards the end of the story?   Discuss the characterization of the child in the room. Why does everyone in the city have to be aware of the existence of the child?  Is it possible to have a happy/good/just society at the expense of someone else?   Is ignorance bliss? Would the people in the story be better off not knowing of its existence? What would be gained from this ignorance? What would be lost?   Can you think if any analogy of the child in the room in our society? If so, who i...

A utopia is a fictive ideal society based around notions of equality, social harmony, economic prosperity, and political stability.  The word came from novel by Thomas More about a completely planned community based upon controlling individual impulses that could be destructive to the public good. In a utopia there is no private property, and everyone wears the same clothes, so there’s no envy of wealth or social status, no poverty, hunger, violence, no bars or hiding places.  There is always a concept of slave labor in a utopia. The word comes from two Greek words that mean "no place." When pronounced in Latin it means "good place."  A utopia is an ideal place we can create, that does not yet exist.  Utopias often include the following elements: • Information, independent thought, and freedom are promoted (at least in theory.) There is still a level of conformity however (such as everyone wearing the same clothing). • A figurehead or...

What kind of society must those who leave Omelas envision?    To understand the story requires the labor of one’s moral imagination as well as one’s political imagination – how ought we treat one another, and what does a just society provide? W hat would it take to put communities and societies, our cultures and institutions, in the service of ending suffering and restoring the dignity of the brutalized? What would we organize if we cared about liberation as much as normative ethical treatment and rational political justice, all three as mutually reinforcing? Describe - much as Le Guin does - a society that takes all of these things into account. You can describe their laws, the set-up or organization of their cities, their technologies, their stance on war and healthcare, their education system, and more. 

1) How does the rating system at the heart of the episode work to organize society?  2) What values, behaviors, and beliefs does the system promote? 3) What values, beliefs, and behaviors does the system actively or passively punish or discourage? What are the consequences for those who behave outside the norm? 4) How is the rating system a form of currency in this society? Do they also use "real money"? How are the two related? 5) What parallels do you see between this system and current forms of social media in our world? What about other forms of surveillance or social control in our society? 6) How does the pastel aesthetic complement the themes of the episode? 7) What utopian elements does the society possess? What dystopian elements? 8) The episode seems to encourage a kind of freedom or escape from the system as a solution to it. Is freedom or escape really possible in this society? What would be the consequences of a life lived bucking the syst...

The book is titled The Stepford Wives, but it could also be titled The Stepford Husbands. What do you make of the husbands in the novel, and what are their goals?       How is this a book about domestic labor and the invisible work that housewives and mothers do? What are the forms of labor that they do that are uncompensated and often not seen or appreciated?    How do media and pornographic representations of women inform the men’s vision of the “perfect” Stepford Wives? The Disney animatronics play a role in the narrative, as the creator of the women robots is a Disney animatronics engineer. In addition to being known for their  cutting-edge  innovations, Disney has also long been a huge influencer in terms of the American imagination. How might Disney’s “worldview” have also influenced the men in the novel? Do you see any parallels between The S tepford  W ives  robots and early Disney princesses such as Sn...

DIRECTIONS: Work on one person's paper at a time. Please answer in complete sentences and take time and care in responding, as you will be graded on your answers. You do not need to write down the questions. You should address all questions within a given section. Give the notes to the Paper Author when finished. They will hand it in to me next week at the beginning of class on the day your final paper is due, and you will both get credit for the assignment. 1)  Is the essay's thesis clear? Point out any areas where it could be clearer. Is it arguable? Is it well-qualified (specific)? Even if the thesis seems to be specific enough, suggest a way for the writer to make it even more specific and narrow (i.e. do they list the topics they plan to discuss in the body paragraphs?). Also note any awkward grammar or unclear word choice. (Note: the thesis should not just be a list of topics with no indication of why they matter and what ties them together). 2) D...