Midterm
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english 2308mm07 midterm exam | in class and open text n ame: emai l: THAT IS WHEN EVERYTHING BECAME PERFECTLY CLEAR. EVERYTHING BUT THE MALICE IMPLANTED BY THE CREATOR. WE CANNOT RESIST THAT WHICH IS. WE SIMPLY... WE SIMPLY HAVE TO PUNISH THEM. —NARRATOR'S VOICE/VINCENT LAW (?), ERGO PROXY.MEDITATIO 01."AWAKENING" Don't you love that epigraph from Ergo Proxy to start an exam? Kinda says everything I have to say about exams and how they make me feel when I'm on the receiving end. That said, I don't intend any malice with this one. I hope you can think of it as an opportunity to show me what you can think and write after a week and half in 2308. Draw on the texts you enjoyed or were challenged by, and you'll find you have plenty to say. Be specific and take responsibility for your ideas; don't apply your perspective to some general group or "everyone." Try to write in ways that will pull me in. Engaging in-class writing will win you more points with your future teachers than you can imagine right now. Hopefully, I'll have grades and feedback by tomorrow. Good writing, and remember Re-L's advice to Vincent at the disposal unit office—Stop relying so heavily on your entourage!
Q01.Being: What is SF? This isn't a trick question, though it may seem like one considering what we’ve read from James Gunn, Gary Wolfe, and Darko Suvin. In the world of literary studies, I would bet that SF is the most contended and contentious category of any that people pay attention to. That’s what makes this prompt an interesting one. Drawing on the essays, films, short stories, and the novel you’ve read so far this semester, I would like you to craft a definition of “science fiction.” Do I want you to just summarize others’ positions? No. Do I want you to just pull a definition out of a wormhole and smile in relativistic glee? No. What you craft will be a bit of both. I want to see how you do working through the intricacies of such a slippery phrase. You have the history from the essays we’ve read, and some theories of how SF works, and you have more than enough examples of themes, structures, characters, settings, etc. from the texts we've been working with. So make a considered argument about how we should define this “thing” we’re studying in English 2308. Your response here. Q02.Reflection: How do you read SF? In "The Protocols of Science Fiction," James Gunn extends Delany's original ideas about SF reading protocols and discusses how to have a close and satisfying reading of an SF text. Whether or not you agree with his particular reading protocol (which I would rather call a strategy), each of you has had to develop a reading process to survive our last seven days of intense study and discussion. We've worked with fiction, non-fiction, visual arts, short films, feature films, etc. We have not been shy or reserved in terms of genre or range. I would like you to describe in detail your theory of how to read an unfamiliar SF text. You will need to think about a realistic audience for your theory (for instance, future 2308 students of mine), and you will need to draw on and explicitly use texts from our class (ones you've read and ones you've written) to explain how you approach reading. I'm not looking for a definitive strategy (Everyone can benefit from reading SF by blah, blah, blah.); I'm looking for a reflection by you on how you read it, and what that process allows you to do with particular SF texts we've worked with. Your response here. Q03.BECOMING: What can you make of SF? Time to play. Every genre needs a slogan, right? Just think, “Modern British Lit: Read it when you think you’ve got it bad,” or “Romance Fiction: We’re all reading it behind closed doors.” Then there’s “Manga: Sure, you think it’s just big eyes and breasts...but what about the giant killer robots?!” Or “Beef: It’s what’s for dinner.” Now that’s not about literature... For this part, I want you to come up with a slogan for science fiction that nutshells (captures) an
insight you’ve reached after studying it so far in 2308—and explain how you want it to work on readers of it. Present this slogan however you want in whatever design you want. Really, have fun here. But make sure that you think about the design and that you’re doing a tad bit more than, say, being sarcastic. Be sarcastic with an underlying argument that teaches us something. For instance, I thought of taking a cell phone ad off the Internet that has a hand holding a cell phone and superimposing UR SF on the screen as a received text message. The idea is that we're already eliminating unnecessary parts of language to make processing easier. We're getting SMPLR to move FRWRD. I might even try to subtly put a power button on the hand instead of the phone. Now, if messing with images quickly in a computer lab ain't your thing, you can just describe what your slogan would be and how you would design it in as much detail as possible. We'll say a picture is worth 250 words, so work it however you can. Your response here.
Q01.Being: What is SF? This isn't a trick question, though it may seem like one considering what we’ve read from James Gunn, Gary Wolfe, and Darko Suvin. In the world of literary studies, I would bet that SF is the most contended and contentious category of any that people pay attention to. That’s what makes this prompt an interesting one. Drawing on the essays, films, short stories, and the novel you’ve read so far this semester, I would like you to craft a definition of “science fiction.” Do I want you to just summarize others’ positions? No. Do I want you to just pull a definition out of a wormhole and smile in relativistic glee? No. What you craft will be a bit of both. I want to see how you do working through the intricacies of such a slippery phrase. You have the history from the essays we’ve read, and some theories of how SF works, and you have more than enough examples of themes, structures, characters, settings, etc. from the texts we've been working with. So make a considered argument about how we should define this “thing” we’re studying in English 2308. Your response here. Q02.Reflection: How do you read SF? In "The Protocols of Science Fiction," James Gunn extends Delany's original ideas about SF reading protocols and discusses how to have a close and satisfying reading of an SF text. Whether or not you agree with his particular reading protocol (which I would rather call a strategy), each of you has had to develop a reading process to survive our last seven days of intense study and discussion. We've worked with fiction, non-fiction, visual arts, short films, feature films, etc. We have not been shy or reserved in terms of genre or range. I would like you to describe in detail your theory of how to read an unfamiliar SF text. You will need to think about a realistic audience for your theory (for instance, future 2308 students of mine), and you will need to draw on and explicitly use texts from our class (ones you've read and ones you've written) to explain how you approach reading. I'm not looking for a definitive strategy (Everyone can benefit from reading SF by blah, blah, blah.); I'm looking for a reflection by you on how you read it, and what that process allows you to do with particular SF texts we've worked with. Your response here. Q03.BECOMING: What can you make of SF? Time to play. Every genre needs a slogan, right? Just think, “Modern British Lit: Read it when you think you’ve got it bad,” or “Romance Fiction: We’re all reading it behind closed doors.” Then there’s “Manga: Sure, you think it’s just big eyes and breasts...but what about the giant killer robots?!” Or “Beef: It’s what’s for dinner.” Now that’s not about literature... For this part, I want you to come up with a slogan for science fiction that nutshells (captures) an
insight you’ve reached after studying it so far in 2308—and explain how you want it to work on readers of it. Present this slogan however you want in whatever design you want. Really, have fun here. But make sure that you think about the design and that you’re doing a tad bit more than, say, being sarcastic. Be sarcastic with an underlying argument that teaches us something. For instance, I thought of taking a cell phone ad off the Internet that has a hand holding a cell phone and superimposing UR SF on the screen as a received text message. The idea is that we're already eliminating unnecessary parts of language to make processing easier. We're getting SMPLR to move FRWRD. I might even try to subtly put a power button on the hand instead of the phone. Now, if messing with images quickly in a computer lab ain't your thing, you can just describe what your slogan would be and how you would design it in as much detail as possible. We'll say a picture is worth 250 words, so work it however you can. Your response here.
