Bloodchild Qs

1) Monsters are created through the imagination of humans, and reflect our fears about the world around us. For example, one of the things that inspired Butler when writing Bloodchild was the botfly, an insect that lays its eggs inside a human host body. However, her monsters (the Tlics) can also represent certain aspects of the human body that we are afraid of. What are those elements? 

2) What particular categories or type of real world human relationships in particular might Butler be exploring in this story? What is the essential tension in those relationships? Make sure to list at least three.

3) Why do you think Butler focuses on male pregnancy in particular for her story? What does this reversal tell us about the cultural conditions and challenges for pregnant women in our world, historically and presently?

4) Who are the aliens in the story, and why? 

Presentation Dates

Please note that the day on which you present is the day your project is due. Before the beginning of class, you need to submit your project to Moodle. Upload one file for the entire project, so make sure to put it all in one document. Pdf preferred; docx or doc is acceptable (just make sure to check the formatting).

12:00 Class

Monday, Dec 2

Mark
Ashley
Jayson
Victor
Dane
Akuti
Alex
Mena

Wednesday, Dec 4

Shengyi
Emily
Dhiraj
Gisselle
Raymond
Kyle
Matthew 

3:00 Class

Monday, Dec 2

Maddie
Andrew
Sam
Anthony
Inez
Mark M
Alyssa
Josh

Wednesday, Dec 4

Lucia
Jonathan
Mark S
Veiva
Patrick
Misi
Jeanette

Final Project Workshop

For this workshop/peer review please follow the same guidelines as prior workshops: focus on one person at a time. Read through the proposal and then begin answering the following questions in order to best help/support them. Please answer the questions in complete sentences, with specific suggestions for improvement.

Please note that there are two different sets of questions, depending on whether the person is rewriting a fairy tale, or creating a monster. Use the appropriate set of questions and answers for your partner.

Fairy Tale Questions

1) Is the cultural problem, social issue, or real life situation that the fairy tale was inspired by a tangible, specific issue that can be traced to an event or series of events in our world today? Is there any way this problem or issue can be more specific/narrow? For example, if the social issue is "social media," that is not specific enough. Instead it could be something like "online trolling or bullying" or "body image pressure for girls on sites like Instagram" or "the influence of Russian hackers on Facebook on the election of Donald Trump."

2) Does the writer have strong research into their cultural problem or issue that inspired their fairy tale, and/or the fairy tale itself? What are some other angles they might research? Give at least one suggestion.

3) Does the fairy tale itself seem to mesh well with the social issue and cultural values the writer wants to focus on? Does the tale type seem to logically mesh with these issues?

4) How can the cultural values themselves be more precise? What specific culture or sub-culture do they reflect? (People, place) Ex. upper middle class, Ivy League college students; Mexican immigrants facing discrimination in the wake of Trumps' election

5) Is the writer altering aspects of the fairy tale in interesting ways, in order to reflect this current cultural moment? Look at the setting, the character's job/life situation, etc. Suggest a few ideas for making the story even more contemporary, in ways that align with the cultural problem and focus of the narrative.

6) What is the role of magic in the story? Will there be magic, or will the tale be totally realist? If so, what aspects of our real world does the magic reflect? Ex. the role of money; the need for a miracle to get out of poverty, etc.

7) Does the writer have a clear sense of the tale type? Are they missing any key elements of it?

Monster Questions

1) What cultural problem, social issue, or real life situation was the monster inspired by? Is this a tangible, specific issue that can be traced to an event or series of events in our world today? Is there any way this problem or issue can be more specific/narrow? For example, if the social issue is "social media," that is not specific enough. Instead it could be something like "online trolling or bullying of children" or "body image pressure for girls on sites like Instagram" or "the influence of Russian hackers on Facebook on the election of Donald Trump."

2) Does the writer have strong research into their cultural problem or issue that inspired their monster? What are some other angles they might research? Give at least one suggestion.

3)  What are the cultural fears/desires the monster embodies? How can these be more precisely stated? How can they be better tied to the cultural problem? For example, if the cultural desire is "fame," and the cultural problem is "social media," then the cultural desire can be stated as "desire for social media fame."

4) Are there more fears or desires that connect to the ones stated, that the writer should think about? And if they only stated a fear, what is the corresponding desire? (And vice versa). For example, the desire for social media fame directly connects to the fear of being alone and unloved. It also can connect to a fear of fame as well, for example being cyberstalked and judged and criticized.

5) How can the monster's body more precisely reflect the cultural fears/desires? What about it's skills and attributes? How can the writer be more creative in considering how to "embody" these problems? For example, is this a monster created out of revenge? Ex. Ocean coral that is angry at its death due to acidification, who has grown sharp knife-like razors to cut swimmers. Is it a monster created out of the results of a problem? Ex. a monster that is the result of garbage in the coean, which is a giant patchwork of various types of garbage.

6) How can the monster's living situation/home better reflect the cultural problem it represents? Remember "monsters exist at the margins of the world, both conceptually/geographically" (Cohen).

7) Is the creative component the best possible choice for reflecting this monster, or would another option make more sense, given the cultural problem and cultural fears/desires the monster embodies? What are some problems the writer might run into with their choice of creative component, and how can they overcome these? Ex. using video editing equipment may require some youtube tutorials

Citing Dialogue

Here is how you should format the dialogue for your stories.

Citing Monster Theory

For your final essay, please make sure to properly cite Monster Theory, by Jeffrey Jerome Cohen. Here is the information: In the parenthetical citation, simply use his last name (Cohen). You do not need to include the page numbers, since you don't have those. For the Works Cited page, here is the info to plug in:

Cohen, Jeffrey Jerome. Monster Theory. Minneapolis, Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press, 1996.

Lastly, please note that the works cited page citation above is not formatted with the proper indentation (I can't do that in blogger), so make sure you indent the second line.

1) What creates the monsters in the novel from a scientific standpoint? What about from a superstitious standpoint? How do these two systems intersect, and what do they have to tell us about how monsters are created? 

2) What is the significance of the title? Would the meaning have changed if the book was called "I Am a Legend"? How does Robert Neville become a legend? 

3) Why does the new society in the book decide to kill Robert Neville? What does their decision to kill him reflect about their new society?
4) Robert Neville sees himself as superior to the new society's methods and motives and morals. Is he really? He also sees Ruth as a coldhearted messenger, particularly when she points out some things about himself he would rather not see. Is she really coldhearted? (Look at the final few pages of the novel). 
5) How might we connect the significance of the ending of the novel to Robert Neville's identity as a white male in the 1950s, pre-Civil Rights era?

Pairs Questions II for I Am Legend

1) Describe the vampire-zombies, looking at each and every aspect of their physicality. What do each of their attributes represent, in terms of cultural fears and desires?

2) How does Robert Neville treat women vampires, and women more generally?(This will become important in relationship to the ending of the novel).

3) What happens to the dog? What does this encounter tell us about who Robert Neville is, and what his existential situation is?

Writing Titles: Exercise

It's important to remember that your essay needs a strong title. 

There is a general formula you can follow to create solid academic paper titles, as well as some general guidelines about titles that should give you some clues as to how to craft yours.

Rule 1: Your title should essentially be your thesis statement, albeit condensed to its most essential parts. In other words, your title should give your reader a clue as to what the main purpose of your paper is.

Example:

Yours, Mine, or Ours? Perrault, the Brothers Grimm, and the Ownership of Fairy Tales

Rule 2: If you are writing about a work of literature (or art, or a film, or a scientific phenomenon, or anything really) you should include the name of that work of literature in the title, and most of the time the author as well.

Example:

Poisoned Apples and Mean Mirrors: Reconsidering the Wicked Stepmother in Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarves

Rule 3: This rule goes after Rule 2 for a reason. While it is necessary to include the thing you are focusing your paper on, you should not let that thing alone be your title. The reasons for this should be obvious: if you call your paper "Cinderella" you are basically saying that it is, in fact, Cinderella. It is not. What about Cinderella are you trying to say? The answer to that question should be your title.

Example:

Upward Mobility and the American Dream in Gary Marshall's Pretty Woman

*Remember, Pretty Woman is a Cinderella story

Rule 4: When considering how to "sum up" your paper in your title, try and think of several words or a brief phrase encapsulate the main idea of the paper. You will combine this phrase with your subject (in this case, the fairy tale and it's author).

Example: From Naive Girl to Ferocious Wolf: Little Red as Feminist Hero in Once Upon a Time

For additional support on title creation, I recommend this Wiki How, which is actually pretty solid and helpful. Just don't read the bad title suggestions in the comments.

Now, rewrite the title for your first or second essay, using this formula.

Design a Vampire-Zombie for Today

In order to practice constructing imaginative and critically designed monsters that embody specific cultural fears and desires, we are going to design a vampire/zombie for today.

This exercise is intended to help us work on connecting specific cultural fears and desires to a physical, monstrous embodiment. Creativity with physicality, environment, goals, and prey is the goal here. We don't want to slip into cliches or boring metaphors, but rather to think about how we can make our vampire/zombie truly a unique representation of the present moment.

Something we know about our vampire/zombie:

It is a Whittier College student, so we will want to consider the unique stresses, anxieties, and desires of Whittier College students.

Categories to design:

-Cultural fears/desires it represents

-Prey

-Environment (where it lives and what it's environment looks like, when it wakes and sleeps, etc.)

-Physicality (face, body, skills)

-Attitude/goals

Each of these should uniquely demonstrate the cultural fears/desires the student vampire/zombie represents.

Final Project Proposal

For you final project proposal, which is due next Thursday for workshop, you must write a two page proposal that answers the following questions. Make sure to use complete sentences, and to present your proposal in a clean, neat manner. This should not be rushed through or you will receive a zero.

Please remember that you are choosing one of the following options (fairy tale or monster); you should not answer both prompts.

Make sure to print and bring two copies!

Fairy Tale Project Proposal

What is the fairy tale you will re-write? State its primary title or titles. EX. Beauty and the Beast

What is the earliest iteration of this fairy tale? (Culture, time, place) EX. The Story of Grandmother, oral folk tale, medieval Europe

What is the essential tale type to the story? Remember, the tale type is the basic plot structure that remains the same in most re-tellings.

What changes do you plan to make to the fairy tale, to update it for today? Or, alternately, which cultural problems or issues do you plan to apply to the tale type? Why do they fit the tale type?

What inspired you in particular to write a story that deals with these cultural issues? Where did you "find" them? (i.e. news article, library research, etc). *Please note that you must not "guess" at what the issues are; they must reflect some real world cultural problem, condition, or set of beliefs held by a group of people.

Where will your story be set, and how will the setting reflect these cultural issues?

What will happen in your story (the plot), in order to best reflect these cultural issues while staying true to the tale type?

Which other aspects of the tale type do you see connecting to your story? What is their relationship?

Ex. Famine in Hansel and Gretel will connect to the high cost of living in NYC, absent parents will be overworked just as the parents in the older version were starved so could not care for their children, the witch who lures the children will be an online catfisher.

What changes will you make to the characters to best reflect these updated cultural values or issues?

Include as well a bibliography with three outside sources you plan to use for your analytical essay. These must be library-based research about either the fairy tale itself, or the cultural values/problems your fairy tale analyzes.

Monster Project Proposal

What cultural fears and desires does your monster represent? These should be as specific as possible, and you must connect them to a particular time and place. The "problem" that your monster reflects should be as specific as student loan debt in the US or pollution in the rivers of the Midwest; it should not be something vague and unrefined like "fear of the unknown" or "fear of death." Look for a real world problem--news articles are a good place to start--that is happening in our world today and use that as a jumping off point.

What is the time and place your monster represents? This should be as specific as Whittier, CA in 2018. (Please note your time must be contemporary).

How does your monster's physical body represent the cultural fears/desires? Be as specific as possible, and discuss multiple elements of its body.

How does the monster's powers (skills) represent the cultural fears/desires?

How does the monster's habitat (home) represent the cultural fears/desires?

What inspired you to focus on these cultural fears and desires? Where did you "find" them? (i.e. news article, library research, etc). *Please note that you must not "guess" at what the cultural fears and desires are; they must reflect some real world cultural problem or condition such as the imminent threat of a twitter-induced nuclear war, or the death of the polar bears due to the arctic ice melting.

What form will your creative component take? How does this form best reflect the cultural fears and desires your monster embodies?

Were you inspired by any other monsters when creating yours? If so, which ones and why?

Include as well an annotated bibliography with three outside sources you plan to use for your analytical essay. These must be library-based research about the cultural fears/desires your monster represents. Discuss how you will utilize each in your paper.

Pairs Questions

1) This novel is considered to be a precursor to many zombie films. What is zombie like about the monsters?  

What aspects of human nature might zombies represent more generally? 

2) What other monsters have we encountered that remind you of these vampire/zombies?

3) How might our understanding of the monsters shift if the POV of the novel was not Neville's?

4) What kind of person is Robert Neville? How does his personality and identity possibly affect our view of the monsters in the novel?

 

5) What is the relationship between beliefs/perception and monsters?  Please re-read page 17 and then respond.

 

“Fear is probably the key word in Matheson’s work, and the defining affective feature of horror fiction. It is a striking fact of human anxiety that the things we fear are non-randomly distributed: humans acquire fear not just of any old thing, but of things dangerous in our evolutionary past. That does not mean that we are born pre-programmed with a completely inflexible fear system. Like so many other human capacities (such as language), the innate fear system depends on interaction with the environment for its development and optimal functioning."