For Wednesday: Van Eekhout, “On the Fringes of the Fractal” (pp.194-205)

Answer TWO of the following:

Q1: According to the story, Stat is “determined by a complicated algorithm that factored in wealth, race, genealogy, fat-to-muscle ratio, dentition, and dozens of other variables from femur length to facial symmetry to skull contours. It was determined by the attractiveness of one’s house. The suitability of one’s car” (195). Why is this satirical, and what specifically might it be satirizing in our own world?

Q2: A fractal, as the story explains, “is a pattern that repeats itself. Magnifty it, and you’ll see the same pattern as if you’d reduced it” (200). While the world they live in is clearly a fractal of interconnecting neighborhoods and divisions, what does the title mean—“On the Fringes of the Fractal?” Why might being on the fringe of something help you see reality more clearly—and when do our characters do this?

Q3: Why is the “future” of this story dominated by generic names and places? Why is everything a Peevs Drugs and a Peevs 24-Hour Whatevers—or in the next town, a Wiggins Drugs and a Wiggins 24-Hour Whatevers? Also, why do they seem unaware that another town—with the same stuff, but different names—exists just down the road from their own?

Q4”: When they ultimately find the city, they find not a thriving metropolis but a wasteland—“a sad place, a lost place, a haunted place” (202). Why, then, do they like it so much and never want to leave? What would this city represent to someone who had spent their entire life in Peevs or Wiggins-land?

For Monday: Wolven, “Caspar D. Luckinbill, What Are You Going to Do?” (pp.267-285)

Answer TWO of the following:

Q1: If the narrator of this story is introducing us to his world, how does he want us to see it? What kind of world does he think he lives in? What clues tell us the narrator (and the author’s) true feelings about “the future”?

Q2: When trying to figure out why Caspar has been targeted by mediaterrorism, his friend explains, “Computers don’t need explanations...Computers just do what they do” (270). What might this suggest is the greatest threat in an increasingly automated, technological civilization? (and why should we be afraid ourselves?)

Q3: What do you think was the point of the mediaterrorism campaign against Caspar? Was it trying to make him more aware of the world outside his creature comforts? Was he really responsible, in some way, for the terrors inflicted in the FRF? Or is there another explanation for targeting him?

Q4: At a few points in the story, Caspar learns to appreciate the silence of trees. As he remarks, “Only here I can be at peace, amid the indifferent, ignorant trees. They don’t recognize me, trees. They don’t care” (279). Besides not showing him images of violence, why do trees become an important symbol in this story? Note that the story ends with a vision of metaphorical trees of data.

Short Paper #1 Assignment: due in-class on Friday. Feb. 2nd

Short Paper #1: Society 2.0

“Recognition software doesn’t violate privacy. Recognition software expands privacy. When every machine recognizes every user, the lived environment becomes personal and unique…That’s what it says in the promotional materials my company sends to potential investors. I didn’t write it. I don’t believe it.” (Wolven 276).

For your first short paper, I want you to get your feet wet with the “pale blue dot” approach to science fiction. That is, to make us see our own society from a different perspective, the way an outsider would see it, but we no longer can. To do this, I want you to explain a modern innovation (something introduced into society no more than ten-fifteen years ago) to someone from 1918. It can be anything—Instagram, Facebook, Texting, Siri, Drones, Tinder, etc. The trick is to explain why it was invented, what problem it was supposed to solve or cure, and why people embraced it.

However, as you write, consider your AUDIENCE: this is a person who doesn’t know anything about modern technology. They didn’t have radios, television, computers, or anything other than rudimentary telephones and typewriters. So how can you explain to them why this is “good” when they might think it’s horrible? You might also consider whether you think it’s good, too! Assume that someone attending ECU in 1918 might be horrified that people “swipe” to meet people rather than go up and talk to them. How can you defend this? Why is this “better” or “improved” than dating in 1918?

REMEMBER, too, that the three stories in this conversation, “Openness,” “Caspar D. Luckinbill,” and “On the Fringes of the Fractal” don’t exactly celebrate the future. They’re explaining it to us, the outsiders, but always want us to see what’s wrong with these societal innovations.

REQUIREMENTS

• About 3-4 pages, double spaced
• Only choose ONE innovation (don’t move from one to another)
• Think about your 1918 audience: what would they understand and not understand? What would confuse them? Disturb them?
• Be sure we know how you feel about this innovation by the time we finish your paper. Are you excited to show this to your ECU ancestors…or ashamed?
• DUE IN-CLASS ON FRIDAY, FEB 2^nd (we’ll discuss them in class!)

A Few Changes and Wednesday's Class

"Revise the syllabus, we will..."

Just a reminder--the course calendar has changed slightly. Here are the changes I discussed in class for the next two weeks (the only weeks affected):

Wed, 24  Writing Workshop (no story due)
Fri, 26    No Class (I have to cancel due to a prior obligation)

Mon 29  BASFF, Story TBA
Wed 31  BASFF, Story TBA
Fri 2      Writing Workshop / Short Paper #1 due (bring to class!)

I will give you the Short Paper #1 assignment on Wednesday and we'll discuss some ideas about writing papers for Comp 2. I'll also let you know what stories to read for Monday's class. Remember that I pushed back the due date of the paper from Monday to Friday, so don't get worried when you look at your syllabus!

See you on Wednesday!

For Monday: Weinsten, “Openness” (pp.141-151)

NOTE: Answer TWO of the following questions with a short response, at least a few sentences. Be specific, and try to respond to the story, not just what you think I want to hear. There are no ‘right’ answers, just honest responses. These questions will form the basis of our in-class discussion on Monday. Questions are due IN CLASS on Monday, and turning them in afterward counts as a missed response.

Q1: What are the “layers” that the narrator constantly refers to in this story? How does it relate to our own processes of displaying our identities on-line today? Do you think we could ever get this this point (and would you want to)?

Q2: Once the narrator becomes involved with Katie, he remarks, “There was something beautiful about sharing things in the old way—the two of us walking by the shore, the smell of the pine sap, the summer air cooling in the afternoon—and for the first time in years, I wished I had a sketchpad with me” (145). Why do the layers prevent this kind of interaction with other people and the world? Do we have the same problem with our own “layers”?

Q3: What does the author mean when he writes, “We were the first generation to grow up with layers, a group of kids who’d produced thousands of tutorials on blocking unwanted users but not a single one on empathy” (148)? Why might we consider this one of the main ideas of the story—and what the narrator, himself, learns through this relationship?

Q4: How could we argue that this story, for all its science fiction technology, is actually about a completely different kind of “layers” that we all have? In other words, how is this story about the difficulty of having meaningful relationships in general, even aside from technology? 

Welcome to the Course!

Welcome to the Course! So what is Freshman Composition 2, "Writing in the Outer Limits"? In my writing classes, I like to ask students to enter different 'conversations' out society finds important, since the world is shaped by what we talk about--and how we say it. In popular culture, the conversation is dominated by a single form of entertainment--Science Fiction and Fantasy. From Star Trek to Game of Thrones, these genres are used as a frame to discuss the realities of our 21st century world. Behind the masks of wizards, aliens, Jedis, and Hobbits, we can find ourselves and our own problems staring back at us...though it's often easier to tackle these problems in fiction, where the dangers seem less real and threatening.

The great science fiction writer, Ursula K. Le Guin, once wrote that "all fiction is metaphor," and this is certainly true for both genres, as they allow us to predict the future and understand the past--all without a time machine. For this class, we'll read several books that initiate us into the various conversations of SF/F, and respond in a series of informal and researched papers that help us answer the question, "who are we, and what is our role in the universe?"

Be sure to buy the three books for class as soon as possible, since we'll start reading--and writing--next week. Please contact me at jgrasso@ecok.edu with any questions or concerns. See you in class!