How to format dialogue

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

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.

Presentation Dates

Go here.

Bloodchild Pairs Qs for 12:00 class only

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 category or type of real world human relationships in particular might Butler be exploring in this story? What is the essential tension in those relationships? 

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? 

I Am Legend Discussion Questions

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).

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

I Am Legend Discussion 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."