THE FOLLOWING WORKSHEET APPLIES ONLY TO THE 3:30 CLASS ON WEDNESDAY


With a partner, please answer the following questions in response to the Black Mirror episode you watched.


1) What ethical problems does the episode raise?


2) Do you see any technology in our world that is heading in this direction? What is it?


3) What is appealing about this form of technology? What are its benefits?


4) What might happen if this technology were to get into the wrong hands?


5) Can you see any parallels between the choice to not use the device in the show, and some aspect of our world today? How reliant are we on our devices?


6) Come up with a scenario involving this form of technology that either 1) results in a negative consequence or 2) results in a positive consequence, directly as a result of the technology's existence.

Class Survey for Prof D

What was your favorite assignment and why?

What was your least favorite assignment and why?

What was your favorite book and why?

What was your least favorite book and why?

What was your favorite tv episode or film and why? What was your least favorite tv episode or film and why?

What did you think of the reading load?

What did you think of the watching load?

Do you have any specific ideas for improving the course? Are there any topics you'd like covered that we did not cover?

HW for Wednesday

Please look for a passage that you consider to be "dangerous" to the status quo, in a book that has affected you in some way. Bring the book to class on Wednesday, along with a one page, single-spaced write up explaining why that particular passage is "dangerous" and what aspects of society it threatens.

Note: don't look for an obvious passage that speaks to blowing things up or something. Consider "Dover Beach," the poem read in Farenheit 451 by Montag to the women. It is "dangerous" in that society because it encourages people to feel emotions from the past, to consider the brevity of life and its cruelty, and to place love as the most important thing above all. In that society, obedience to laws, cheap entertainment, and isolation are valued, and this is why the poem is dangerous.

1) Re-read "the firemen are hardly necessary" speech--how do you see this playing out in our world today? Can you think of any category of people or institutions that play the role of "firemen"? (p 83)

2) What does Faber mean when he says, "It's not the books you need, but some of the things that were once in books"? Do you think his criticism of TV and radio still holds up? Give some specific examples from mass media in your response. (p 78-80)

3) Break down the three things Faber says are missing from current media, and discuss whether each of these things is present or not present in our current mass media forms and society today. If they are not, what is impeding them? If they are, where can we find them? How might we create more of them? (p 79-81)

4) What is one thing you would add to Faber's list that books give us, that you see as missing in our world today?

Snapshot Presentations Schedule

1:30 class

4/25
Tori
Miranda
Danielle
Oliver


4/27

Bryan
Jake
Zeke
Delaney

4/29

Alex
Elise
Mia
Maria

 5/2

Gabriela
Jasmin
Li
Luis

3:30 class

4/25

Will
Arthur
Brie
Dominic
Kelsey 

4/27

Daniel
Nick
Tess
Sam

4/29

Alex
Ashton
Frankie
Mukewele

Reminder: there are two components to your presentation. 1) Your future "snapshot"--which is a creative story, video, website, etc that creates a speculative future. 2) A 3-4 page essay which analyzes your snapshot critically, discussing the elements of our world that inspired it, the influences on your work from our class (the novels and films and shows), your process, etc. 

“Give me a [person] who has read a thousand books and you give me an interesting companion. Give me a [person] who has read perhaps three and you give me a very dangerous enemy indeed.”

-Anne Rice