Poetry Paper Report

Briefly tell us about your paper #2. What is your thesis statement, your argument? What are your examples? What's the conclusion? [100 words]

Weekly Reading

Tell us 10 things you learned from this week's readings.

One Poem

1. Read a poem from pp. 887-972.
2. Briefly respond to the poem here using the questions on p. 860-67. You don't have to use each question, just get ideas on how to respond. [150 words]

Black Mirror -- response

In the Black Mirror episode, "The Entire History of You,"* lawyer Liam Foxwell is driven crazy by jealousy over his wife Ffio's ex-relationship with lady's man Jonas. If Liam hadn't had a "grain" neuro-record of his past to interrogate, we have to wonder if his jealously would have gone to such extremes. Or if he would have discovered the truth. Respond to this episode in 200 words keeping in mind the questions below:

1. In the Nathaniel Hawthorne story "The Birth-mark," a man of science, Aylmer, is obsessed with perfecting his lovely wife, Georgiana, and in finally eradicating the one "blemish," (a small, red, hand-shaped mark on her cheek) he kills Georgiana...forcing her soul to leave her body. Based on the first and last paragraphs of the story on which I expounded in class, what "lesson" did Aylmer fail to learn as an intellectual and man of science? How does his lesson compare that the one that Liam Foxwell learns (or fails to learn)?
2. How does the hypothetical "grain" in the show that records our individual histories differ from a ubiquitous computer-based virtual record of public events and personal histories, one that surrounds us this minute? Keep in mind social media archives, medical records, black-market software, exposed government documents, Google maps, etc. in answering this question.
3. Can you think of any time that you obsessed over a physical imperfection in yourself or someone else? What reasons lie behind this concern with physical perfection?
4. Can you think of a time when you relied on technology to solve a problem or mystery? How might you have solved the problem without technology?

*Notice that the titles of series are in italics and of episodes in quotes.

The Birthmark -- response

1. What is the symbolic significance of the birthmark? Note how it is shaped and changes.
2. How does the Hawthorne story tie into the myth of Pygmalion?-- or with science and technology?

[150 words, answer both questions]

Me and My Robot

Check out a blog (linked below) by famous economist, Robert Reich. Read the posts "Back to the Nineteenth Century" and "The Share-the-Scraps Economy" and give us some feedback here (100+ words).

We've been talking about identities and bodies and technology. What is your opinion of the computer/machine economy? Should we worry -- or will new jobs be created that we can't now foresee? How do you plan to make money in an economy based on machine-work?

http://robertreich.org/

King of the Bingo Game

1. What did you expect the story to be about based on the title? What is the symbolic significance of the title?
2. What happens in the story?
3. How is the story narrated?
4. What is the setting of the story?
5. What images do you think might have symbolic meaning?
6. Explain the role of body and racial identity.

[200 words]

A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings

1. Why is this story subtitled "A Tale for Children"?
2. Why do people stop going to see the winged man?
3. What insights into human behavior does the story reveal?
4. What themes might you assign to the story?
5. Is the man an angel? What is an angel? What might angels look like?

[200 words]