Literature and Technology

From Zeugma

Wiki Assignment: That Hideous Strength

 

ENGL 544: Technology and Literature
            MW 2:00-3:15, COM 206

This course examines the theme of technology and its effect on literature, the self, creativity, and society through both literature and real-life applications We will read traditional works, but we will also look at emerging forms of narrative through games, interactive fiction, and other new media. Most importantly, we will experiment with the tools for generating these narratives as a way of assessing the impact of technology on our own literary drives.

Required Texts:

The Time Machine (H. G. Wells)
That Hideous Strength (C. S. Lewis)
Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep (Philip K. Dick)
He, She, and It (Marge Piercy)
Pattern Recognition (William Gibson)
The Futurological Congress (Stanislaw Lem)
Amusing Ourselves to Death (Neil Postman)

Course Requirements:

Grades:

Participation and Class Discussion: 15%
Weekly Blog or Other Short Assignment: 20%
Computer Life Assignment: 10%
Collaborative Paper: 20%
Collaborative Digital Presentation: 20%
Final Exam: 15%

Participation and Class Discussion: Daily discussion is the single most vital component of this class. It allows you to assimilate the materials, and it allows me to evaluate your progress. For a grade of “C” or higher, you will need to participate actively in class. No one with more than four absences will be able to pass the course, regardless of the reason. Those who want to earn an “A” or a “B” should plan on having very few absences, if any. Please read all materials to be covered that day in class in advance, and be ready to discuss core problems or issues relevant to the materials assigned. Points may be deducted from your overall grade for any disruptive behaviors that I feel affect my teaching performance or distract your classmates, such as wandering in and out of the classroom; leaving early; sleeping or working on materials other than those assigned for class.

Weekly Blogs and/or other short assignments: Each student will be required to create a blog on blogger.com and to update it regularly. On some dates other technological applications, such as writing on a wiki, will be required instead. Blogs or other assignments are due before class begins on the date scheduled below. Thematic questions designed to engage your critical assessment of the materials are provided in the schedule of readings below. These assignments are intended to structure your reading and prepare you for class discussion, and they will be viewed and read out loud in class on a daily basis. Blogs will be graded satisfactory/not satisfactory. For an “A” on this assignment, all the assignments must be completed with a grade of “satisfactory”. For a “B,” nine assignments must be completed. For a “C,” seven assignments must be completed.

Computer Life Assignment: This short assignment requires you to interact via an avatar in a virtual world. You may choose one of the following options: either play an on online computer game such as EverQuest or World of Warcraft against real opponents, or join a virtual community such as Second Life or DeepGrid and experience a couple of hours as an avatar. Describe the experience in your blog, and attach pictures or other visuals documenting your time online. Due week 10.

Collaborative Paper: A ten page paper, composed collaboratively by groups of two or three, will be due at the end of the semester. The paper should compare a single theme or issue from THREE of the fictional works of the class. Activities designed to facilitate the writing of this project will be integrated throughout the course. Due week 15.
Possible Topics: Overpopulation and the need for social control; religion; the effect of technology on individuality; caste systems; the effect of drugs; the effect of industrialization on nature and how we react to the loss of nature; androids and social issues: what is the difference between human and machine? What makes us human? is it ethical to create intelligence specifically for the purpose of servitude? Can servitude be conditioned?

Collaborative Presentation: Throughout the semester, students will give digital presentations on a passage of fifteen lines from the assigned course reading. In groups of 2-3, you will read and annotate lines of your choice, and then conceptualize a digital presentation that conveys a particular interpretation of these lines. You will divide the lines as you wish, select images and music that relate a particular meaning to you, and design the layout. Presentation dates will vary according to the books selected.

 

Policies and Procedures:

 

Late Policy:

• One blog or short assignment may be turned in up to a week late. No exceptions. Two “tardy” assignments (that is, turned in later the same day) count as one late assignment.
• Late papers or presentations are penalized ½ grade per day—again, no exceptions.
• Exams: All students will be expected to take exams on the dates noted in the schedule. Special testing accommodations will be made only for students with disabilities--NO EXCEPTIONS. Exams may not be taken on dates other than those assigned except in case of medical or family emergency (documentation required). In such cases an alternate exam may be issued to minimize opportunities for cheating.

Office Hours: Please feel free to drop by my office hours at any point during the semester. No advance appointment is necessary. Unfortunately, because my schedule is extremely tight, I can see students only during regularly scheduled hours.

Cheating/Plagiarism: The punishment for cheating or plagiarism in this class is immediate failure course and disciplinary action by the Office of Judicial Affairs.

What counts as plagiarism? Any time you use another person’s words or ideas and pass them off as your own. If you are going to paraphrase another person’s work, you must change every major word—every adjective, noun, and verb must be different. If you use ANY word from the original, it must be quoted. This includes words from websites and other students’ papers as well as words from published articles or books.

SCHEDULE:

Week 1 (Jan 23):
W: Introduction

Week 2 (Jan 28-30):
M: “The Mediums is the Metaphor” and “Typographic America,” from Amusing Ourselves to Death. Be thinking about your groups.
W: Blog #1 due before class.  Topic: What’s it like to have an online identity? What kinds of things did you think about when you created your blog? What do you want the world to see? What do you want the world to think about you? Reading: “The Age of Show Business” and “Teaching as an Amusing Activity,” from Amusing Ourselves to Death

Week 3 (Feb 4-6):
M: Group organization for projects. Reading: Time Machine.
W: Blog #2 due before class.. Topic: What is the narrator’s theory about how the human race has evolved into the Eloi and Morlocks? What characteristics support his hypothesis? Reading: Time Machine, cont.

Week 4 (Feb 11-13):
M: Reading: Brave New World, chs. 1-8
W: Blog #3 due before class. Topic: What does this mantra mean: “When the individual feels, the community reels”? How is it enacted in the book, and to what efffect? Reading: “The Huxleyan Warning,” from Amusing Ourselves to Death

Week 5 (Feb 18-20):
M: Reading: Brave New World, chs. 9-end
W: Blog #4 due. Topic: What happens to faith in an age of technology? Do we need God, as John the Savage claims? Can Ford/Freud replace God?

Week 6 (Feb 25-27):
M: Reading: “Brave New World Revisited”
W: Blog #5 Due. Topic: After reading Huxley, what would you say freedom depends on? How do we define it? What, ultimately, makes us happy?

Week 7 (Mar 3-5):
M: That Hideous Strength, chs. 1-8
W: Blog #6 Due. Topic: There are many important issues in That Hideous Strength. Which do you think are the most urgent today, and why?

Week 8 (Mar 10-12):
M: That Hideous Strength, chs. 9-end
W: Assignment #7 Due: wiki entry. Topic: That Hideous Strength turns into an allegorical continuation of the King Arthur legends. Do a little research on the web and define some of the terms that appear on the course wiki.

Week 9: (March 17-19)
M: Pattern Recognition chs. 1-16
W: Blog #7: Cayce sees the world as images so overladen with symbols and commercialism that she needs technology—a computer community--as a space for retreat. So far we’ve been reading about how technology erases individuality. In what ways does technology allow MORE spaces for the individual?

Week 10: (March 24-26)
M: Reading: online essays by Philip K. Dick: “How to Build a Universe That Doesn’t Fall Apart Two Days Later,” and “Man, Android, and Machine”
W: Computer Life Assignment Due on Blog. Do one of the following: play on online computer game against real opponents, or join a virtual community such as Second Life and experience a couple of hours as an avatar. Describe the experience in your blog. Attach pictures. (10% of overall grade)

Spring Break March 31-Apr 4

Week 11: (Apr 7-10)           
M: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep
W: Blog #8 Due. Topic: Is Dekker an android? Justify your position. 

Week 12: (Apr 14-16)
M: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep
W: Reading: The Futurological Congress.  Blog #9 Due: Topic: If you look inside your own memory, can you find pieces that don’t fit, or places where the narrative doesn’t jibe? Do you have any memories that may instead be dreams? Describe one of these, and analyze the effect this ambiguity has on you. Why do you think your memory might not be true?

Week 13: (Apr 21-23)
M: DRAFTS DUE. Peer Review Day. Reading: He, She, and It chs. 1-21
W:  Blog #10 Due. Topic: He, She, and It covers many of the issues of this class in different form. In this week’s blog, address the topic of your collaborative paper, discussing the issues intersected by Piercy’s novel.

 

Week 14: (Apr  28-30)
M: Reading: He, She, and It chs. 21-end. 
W: Blog #11 Due. Topic: Much of He, She, and It is taken with the Jewish concept of the Golem. What is this, and why do you think Piercy chooses this cultural symbol as a point of comparison for her cyborg? How does this symbol offer hope or the promise of freedom for a dystopian society?

Week 15: (May 5-7)
M:Final group work day for collaborative papers.
W: Collaborative Papers due.