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.

Comments