Paper #4: Final Transmission

English 1213

Paper #4: Final Transmission

INTRO: “The contents of Voyager 1’s record were chosen by Carl Sagan...[he] and his team have assembled over a hundred images depicting what they decided were typical Earth scenes: a woman holding groceries, an insect on a leaf. The sounds include Chuck Berry’s “Johnny B. Goode,” the sorrowful cries of humpback whales, and recordings of the brain waves of Carl’s third wife. Footsteps, heartbeats, laughter.” (Beautyland, 4).

PROMPT: Imagine that we’re sending a Voyager-3 out into the cosmos with a new Golden Disc, this one with a lot more storage capacity and the potential for everyone on earth to upload at least 3 representative files. So now you have to choose: what do you upload to represent your own unique contribution to humanity, or what you simply feel represents the best that humanity has to offer? In a short paper, choose THREE items from the following categories: (1) any  kind of visual art; (2) any kind of sound or music; (3) any kind of media—show, movie, video clip, etc.

In your paper, you should list and describe each one, and then explain why you chose it to represent your snapshot of humanity. Explain what associations it has for you, and what you see/feel that other people might not, and what you think it says about humanity as a whole: either the best of us, the worst of us, or simply the ‘average’ of us.

No length requirement, but to get maximum points for this assignment, be thoughtful and give some detail. Remember, you won’t get to revise this one, so don’t turn in anything incomplete or late.

The paper is due NO LATER THAN Tuesday, December 9^th by 5pm! 

 

 

For Thursday and Next Week: Beautyland, "Supernova (New York)"

 

For Thursday/Tuesday: Beautyland, “Supernova (New York)”

For the next few days, we’ll be reading the longest section of the book, which follows most of Adina’s adult life in New York City. Don’t worry about finishing this section until next week, but at least start reading through it for Thursday’s class,. The questions below are for either Thursday or next Tuesday—just get to them as you complete enough of the reading to answer them. And as you read, keep Paper #3 in the back of your head, since Adina is doing the same thing you’re being asked to do.

Answer TWO of the following:

Q1: What does Adina seek in her “Other” (or “Possible”)? Who are potential candidates, and do you feel she’s looking for the right (or wrong) things? What makes her think she’s actually found one?

Q2: Even though Adina thinks of herself as a satellite of sorts, she is gradually becoming more and more ‘human,’ and less and less ‘alien.’ How is she growing throughout this chapter? What makes her more recognizably ‘human’ to others or to herself? Does anyone else notice this?

Q3: Why does her book, Alien Opus, become some surprisingly popular and attract a large fan base? Is it for the same reasons that we might like Beautyland ourselves (if you do)? What do people seem to respond to, even though she wasn’t writing to humans—she was writing to abstract alien beings? (and why might this be important)?

Q4: What do you feel is the most profound thing she learns about human beings in the heart of a big city like New York? Could she have learned this anywhere, or is it something you can only find in the biggest “forest” of people? Can you personally relate to this—and have you witnessed it in your own life?

Paper #3: Humanity 101 due November 25th

 

English 1213

Paper #3: Humanity 101

INTRO: “Human beings fetishize no organ more than the heart. This manifests in language, the heart has its own vocabulary. When they like someone they say: There’s a girl after my own heart. They will stand or sit very close to the person they love with their heart. Bless your heart. Cross my heart. When they are sad they say: My heart is broken…But the heart is just a muscle with an important job. Only an area in the body” (161).

PROMPT: For your third paper, I want you to play the ‘Adina’ game: pretend you’re an alien from another planet who is on an X-year mission (however old you are now) and are preparing to return ‘home.’ In your final transmission, you have to sum up the THREE most important things you’ve learned about humanity in your brief time here. These can be anything, but they should be SPECIFIC, and something you can support with evidence, rather than just a hunch/opinion. Your ‘superiors’ want to make sure you actually know what you’re talking about and were paying attention. However, these should be things drawn from your own life and experiences. Try to imagine you’re writing an ‘instruction manual’ about humanity, and if an alien was coming here fresh off the spaceship, what would they most need to know about how we think, feel, act, and react?

EXAMPLES: For example, if you feel that people are always attracted to the people least likely to make them happy, you should use a personal story to introduce this, AND use some source to back it up. This could be an article, a movie/show, a passage from one our books (or another book), etc. Just offer some ‘human’ evidence to back up each of your personal observations. However, do make this PERSONAL: make sure you can give your own eyewitness report about each one, because these should come from YOUR life. And taken together, all three should say something important about how you think about and view the world.

REQUIREMENTS:

• Try to be creative: you can write this as a series of ‘faxes’ or an actual report to the superiors, or it can be a more traditional essay. Your choice, but try to have fun with it.
• You need at least 3-4 sources and you MUST use Beautyland as one of these sources. Use it to help you see ‘big picture’ ideas about humanity and make connections to your own observations.
• Introduce quotes and cite all sources according to MLA or APA format. Include a Works Cited page for each source.
• DUE Tuesday, November 25^th by 5pm [no class that day]