September 24th: Post-Apocalyptic Narratives

Announcements

• IFest: International Festival (this is quite a good time)
  Sat., 9/28 from from 10:00 am - 6:00 pm
  Barnhardt Student Activity Center
• Engagement Seminar
  "There are no Jobs for English Majors"
  Wed., 9/25 from from 12:30 am - 1:30 pm
  (I assure you the title is a joke, and you don't have to be an English Major to attend, and, no, this isn't for extra credit)

Moodle2 Posts

You're posts have started to slack, so you need to reinvigorate your critical thinking skills and post about more than surface details. Yes, the prompts are guides, but you need to fit the 250-word requirement (stated in the syllabus). You won't get full credit if your initial posts aren't at least 250 words. Some of you post in response to others, and that's great, but you need to have an initial post that meets the 250-word requirement.

Grunge Fashion

The Process of Interpretation

As I've mentioned before, we're not looking at the surface features of these texts (our short stories and novels). Meaning comes to readers from various perspectives: the reader's worldview, the author's worldview, and the cultural condition in which the author wrote and the reader read. Notice that readers reading in different time periods may interpret differently. Although you could argue there are limitless interpretations, doing so would get as to absurd situations like we saw when discussing the burden of proof last week: Allowing for ANY possibility is a moving target that could lead us to absurd conclusions (remember the discussion on aliens?).

Much like you have to have boundaries when making formal arguments (e.g., courts of law), we need to have boundaries for interpretation. Otherwise, we have no focus and we lose sight of an interpretation that requires in-depth analysis. What I'm asking you to do is to understand the cultural context(s) in which the text exists. We will start by defining the context and then use that context to drive our interpretation. We may need to consider more than one context, but, regardless of the number of contexts, we have boundaries, and that will help us focus our interpretation.

I'm not just advocating critical thinking; I'm trying to model more sophisticated thinking. Knowing the context (the rules, boundaries, theories, etc.) of an interpretation isn't about knowing the facts--the words on a page. Instead, it helps you identify how an interpretation is made. We often just want the "what" does it mean, so we can memorize it and regurgitate it later. That's not sophisticated enough for college-level thinkers. Knowing how someone arrived at the interpretation--which means recognizing the biases, worldviews, theoretical penchants, etc. of the interpreter/reader--is higher-level thinking.

Post-Apocalyptic

The two stories from today are about what happens after the end of the world or what happens after major catastrophes--nuclear war being the catastrophe in each story. This is a common theme of science fiction, and it's usually brought about by the (mis)use of technology. Almost every author who uses the post-apocalyptic theme is commenting on a fear or apprehension about a contemporary technology. In the stories for today, nuclear weapons are the technologies that usher in destruction. Additionally, the stories were written during the beginning of the Cold War when the United States and the Soviet Union were gaining influence around the world and positioning themselves to be the ones with the biggest weapons and, therefore, the most power. Today the big fear is terrorism, but back then it was fears of global thermonuclear war--a war that would extinguish us all.

"Coming Attraction" (1950)

Written in the "post War Era," meaning after World War II, this story conveys the anxieties of the time period. The United States and the Soviets were racing to create more destructive weapons and assert dominance. Many thought we were always just on the brink of war, and the artists of the time period were no different.

Places in the text to consider:

• On the moon, "America and Russia are racing to develop their primary bases into fortresses capable of mutual assault and the launching of alphabet bombs toward Earth" (p. 226)
• "...two great nations of the world. Mutilated by each other...with their respective dreams of an impossible equality and an impossible success" (p. 226)

Treatment of Women:

• Fetish
• Rippers stealing women's skirts (p. 223)
• Cop: "Couple of years more and I'm going to make my wife wear hers [mask] around the house" (p. 224)
• Advertising: "Since the female face and form have been banned on American signs, the very letters of the advertiser's alphabet have begun to crawl with sex" (p. 225)
• Masks create mystery (p. 225)
• Ageism and appropriate fashion (p. 229)

What's the game that's played between men and women "dating"? There are the male wrestlers who need women to beat up on, there are the rippers who steal skirts, and then there's that strange interaction among Wysten Turner, Theda, and Little Zirk. Wysten called this a date, but Theda clearly is dating Little Zirk...is it ever a good idea to bring your significant other on a date with someone else?

Post-WWII acceptance of women working outside of the home. This story takes place after Women's Suffrage but before the heyday of Second-Wave Feminism in the 1960s and 1970s. What could that mean?

Bradbury's "There will Come Soft Rains" (1950)

This is also a post-apocalyptic narrative, but it doesn't have human characters--they're all gone. What's left behind is a robotic house that can't keep the dog alive or a fire from spreading. The Anthology editors tell us the author, Raymond Bradbury, doesn't science and technology (p. 234). For him, scientific and technological pursuits aren't necessarily good--we can harm the planet.

Key things to consider

• The Family's silhouette and Hiroshima
• The normal routine for the day...looks like Leave it to Beaver in 2026
• "self-protection which bordered on a mechanical paranoia" (p. 236)
• Allusion to Sara Teasdale's "There will come Soft Rains" (p. 238)
• The End

Next Class

Don't forget your Moodle2 prompt for Thursday (9/26). For Thursday, have read Arthur C. Clarke's "The Sentinel" (1951) and William Tenn's "The Liberation of Earth" (1953) both in the Anthology. Don't forget to read the Anthology editors' introductions to these (and all) short stories. Many test/exam questions come from the introductions, but, more importantly, they provide the context for the stories and even help with identifying interpretations.

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