Oryx and Crate Notes 4/6/2012

What is Snowman’s decision whether to talk to human or not after going to compound?

What Crake really is like since everything comes from Jimmy’s POV?

-similar to Lost = flashbacks = more questions

- book named Oryx and Crake to reflect importance of the two characters yet telling from Jimmy’s POV shows mysterious plot

- Uncle Pete were to die first before Crake’s mother since hatred/no blood connection to Uncle Pete

- Why Crake destroy human race?

- Use Crakers to create perfect human race

- BlyssPluss pill – super virus rather than advertised anti-STD pills

- “These people are specialists,” said Crake. “They wouldn’t have the empathy to deal with the Paradice models, they wouldn’t be any good at it, they’d get impatient. Even I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t begin to get onto their wavelength. But you’re more of a generalist.” – Crake wants Jimmy to take care of Crakers since they are both lower level in intelligence than Crake

- “zero hour” at end of book – countdown towards death or beginning of life

Oryx and Crate Notes 4/2/2012

Copyright

All intellectual properties are copyrighted.

Center for Internet and Society

- Fair use are factors of consideration to allow people use stuff

- Needs to be transformative to have high fair use of materials

- Parody needs to critique the original, needs to use fair amount of original to use parody, protected under fair use

Oryx and Crate

Why mother leave?

- flaw in society – ethical and moral issues in society

Oryx and Crate Notes 2 3/30/2012

Oryx and Crake: The General Public’s Reception

Atwood – Author, Canadian, won every major literary award, feminist,

Oryx and Crake – praised by technical aspects of genetics

- good bc flashbacks between Jimmy and Snowman

- “cast of memorable characters”

Negative Reception

- New York Times: calls Sci-Fi, not enjoy Jimmy or other characters bc does not flow with the “intelligence of the plot” and writing.

- Kakutani of New York Times – like Jimmy but does not like a world of Oryx and Crate, not realistic

Conclusion – polarize reviews

Jimmy – pleasure through suffering micro level, but mimics culture on macro level

Jimmy – word smith, quotes a lot,

*sorry, I forgot to publish.

Oryx and Crate Notes 1 3/28/2012

Bibilography line

Summary of bibliography. If old source, say why still relevant. (Summary and statement of relevance to project)

Plagiarism

-using somebody else’s writing = findings, ideas, research, interpretations, argument, work, w/o giving them credit

-take someone’s voice/structures

Paraphrase

-putting someone else’s idea in own words and giving credit to them.

-take same amount of words as original

Summarize

- condensed

- convey main ideas

- giving credit

Why cite?

- increase self ethos – being ethical

- shows credibility of self-research

- connection of ideas and work

Why paraphrase?

- keep your own voice consistence through the essay

- unless losing message of words, paraphrase

How?

- get some distance

- understand

- not rewording/ but restating

- cite while taking notes

-

Oryx and Crate

-Pre-apocalypse –

- dystopia bc gated community sponsored by companies, capitalism and science put together = not good

- no government entity

- scientist playing as God

- competing companies, people = pawns

-Post-apocalypse – dystopia for Children of Oryx and Children of Crate

Class Notes - Minority Report

Minority Report Movie vs Short Story

Similarities

Differences

John Anderton is the protagonist Anderton is the head of the pre-crime organization Witwer wants Anderton's job Futuristic, flying cars, etc Hasn't been any murder in a long time Page exists

John Anderton is significantly younger in the movie Pre-cogs names were different (Donna-Agatha, Jerry-Arthur, etc) Story is in New York, Movie is in DC Everyone in the movie is attractive (no overweight people, etc) Murders printed on wooden balls in movie, rather than cards Three minority reports in short story, no minority reports in movie Movie contained concept of “echos” In story, pre-crime had a week or two advance notice, in the movie, they only had barely enough time to stop the crime Anderton didn't have a son in the short story No Flemming in the movie No eyes being surgically removed Anderton kidnaps Donna in the movie The precogs are depicted as more human in the movie Changed name of victim from “Leopold Kaplin” to “Leo Crow” Witwer came from Department of Defense in movie Lamar Burgess is villain in movie, as opposed to Leopold Kaplin Anderton's a drug addict in the movie Movie has a lot of focus on drugs – drugs caused the precogs gifts/curses

Added from class discussion:

Similarities	Differences
Idea of free will – choice Concept of minority report and alternate futures Futuristic, sci-fi Precrime works in relatively same way future setting Witwer = Danny/Anderton Leo/Leopold Kaplan/Leo Crow	Precrime is preserved in the story but not in the movie drug problem Anderton has a son in the movie Three minority reports in story, none in movie Anderton is different age + plays different roles Lisa/Laura Agatha, Dashiel, Arthur (named after writers) Advertising, surveillance

Security vs Privacy

Backstory of Son – used against Anderton to make him kill, rather than in the story where the “bad guys” didn't want him to actually kill anyone

Wife Divorced – makes it possible for things to appear healed in the happy Hollywood ending when they get back together

John Anderton made into the “good guy” - negative aspects of Anderton in the story put on Lamar.

"The Minority Report" - Class Notes

The Minority Report – Film

• Summary

o Precrime system that works the same way

 Mechanisms the same

o Anderton’s name is printed as murderer

• Characters

o Witwer

o Anderton

• Theme

o Freewill

o Knowledge of the future and its effects

Differences

• Summary

o Happy ending

 Precrime ends

o Person against Anderton

 In the story, the character attempts to get rid of the Precrime system

 In the film, the character attempts to keep the Precrime system

• Cover up murder of precog’s parent

o Does drugs – neuroin

o Steals Agatha

 Agatha is necessary in film

 Need 3 precogs in story; less than 3 only leads to uncertainty

o Witwer dies

o No minority report

o More technology and gadgets in the film

o Story changes after encounter with Leo Crowe

• Characters

o Anderton’s son

o Lamar Burgess

o New names

o Anderton’s victim

 Leo Crowe vs. Leopold Kaplan

o Precog names are based on mystery writers

 The function of the precogs similar to mystery writer – give information to solve a murder or mystery

• Theme

o Knowledge of future and its effects are present, but not emphasized

o Precogs are human

 Non-functional in story

o Security vs. Privacy

o Advertising – consumers

Philip K Dick's Minority Report

Phillip K. Dick

- death of twin sister inspired common theme in his stories of phantom twin

- lived in poverty most of his life

- 1955 – FBI visited his house bc Dick’s wife of socialist views

- Dislike Hollywood but Hollywood liked his works

- “Everybody runs!” – Minority Report

- Main common theme – free will

Characters – Anderton, Lisa, Witwer, Fleming, General Kaplan, Precogs: Mike, Donna, Jerry, Leopold

Summary

Anderton is 50 and bald. Leopold kidnaps him. There’s a crash and a man named Fleming gives hime a flase id and helps him escape. He realizes that there is a minority report that states that he is innocent, so he goes to the precogs to find the minority report. When he finds his minority report it says that he won’t kill the guy bc he’s already seen the majority report. While he’s there, the police close in on him, his wife helps him escape. Fleming tells Anderton that his wife is behind the plot, however Anderton doesn’t believe him and knocks him out. He then discovers that Fleming works for Kaplan. He finds out that Kaplan wants to prove Precrime doesn’t work and take the funding for the military. They then return to the police station where Anderton decides to kill Kaplan to prevent discreditation of Precrime. Anderton finds out that majority report is 2 minority reports. Anderton and Lisa are going to go off world.

Themes:

Fate, free will, idea of act of manipulating future can change future/present

Phillip K. Dick notes

He hated the idea of going mainstream and changing his stories for Hollywood. He lived in poverty his entire life, even though he could have made millions of dollars from making movies. The movies strayed significantly from the original stories and it would have made Dick particularly angry.

The Future of Terror 8

The poem depicts a gloomy and depressing scene. Presumably, the group of people lives underground and is oppressed by the "goddamned chiefs of staff." In the midst of this despair, there is lots of hope for the future. They dream of a boy that was raised by gazelles, and they long for the day that they will be able to "roam the rocky coasts" with the gazelle boy. They make kites, hoping that one day they will be able to see the sky again. The author uses this mix of hope and despair, along with a dictionary to make constant dystopic alliterations.

"Future of Terror" and "Terror of the Future" - Class Notes

The Future of Terror / 1

• Mention methods to forget or ignore problems

o Trying to forget or deal with bad news

• Italicization

• Sight of a schoolbag sends people scrambling

o Terrorism

o Against education

• Generalissimo’s glands guides his actions

o Irrational

 Acts on whim and impulse

o Referred to as “God”

 Dictator; has all the power

The Future of Terror / 2

• People do things they don’t want to do

• Poems of the time are not original due to government

o Even poets aren’t coming up with anything new; propaganda

• Go along with rules of government

• Mailing machine – very mechanical

o Humans are becoming machines

The Future of Terror / 4

• Alliteration

• Universal first person

o “We”

• Play to ignore the bad things in the world

• Birds – peace; freedom

• Lost all hope

o Did everything they could to protest, but surrender in the end

o Teleprompter – just end up reading off the words of others’ (the people in power)

The Future of Terror / 8

• Gazelle boy – escape from despair

o Wants to remain animal

o Blissful ignorance

• Hope

o Return to nature

o Kites

o Gazelle boy

Terror of the Future / 3

• Alliteration

• Protest – see how far they can rebel

• Upper class eating fancy pig

o Lower class don’t have anything to eat

o Contrast between upper and lower

• Use sir and mam to address the upper class

o Have to contain their rebellion?

• How to resist and survive?

Terror of the Future / 9

• Suicide or disease?

• Joking and angst in relationship

• Excess of spaces to live, but nothing else

o Blade Runner

o Evacuation of people

o People dying

3-7-12 Class Notes

Problems that arise when working in groups:

• Scheduling - most of the time everyone will not be able to meet at the same time
• Decision Making - a consensus must be reached before the group can move forward
• Division of Work - often times, one person ends up doing all of the work

How to fix these problems:

• Use different forms of communication to keep in touch
• Let everyone's ideas be heard and let everyone contribute to the group
• Make sure to divide the work evenly and hold people accountable

Metropolis Class Notes

Janelle Monae is inspired by Metropolis, the original story by Fritz Lang. There are direct parallels between her music and the original text. For example, a constant theme in her songs is the pursuit of freedom. The cyborg in Metropolis leads the rebellion and causes the flood. She uses the analogy of the androids to relate to society today.

Just Do It - Class Notes

The story is used as an allegory for subliminal messaging in today's materialistic culture. The author criticizes big corporations and capitalism in general by portraying these corporations as cold, profit-seeking machines that do not care about the consumers or the people that they hurt in the process. I am optimistic that this future will never come to fruition because of the competing advertisements of companies. However, if these companies merge and form monopolies the advertisements will get stronger. The modern day effectiveness of advertisements is made evident by the extremely high price of a one minute commercial that airs during the Super Bowl.

"Just Do It" (Group E)

Eric, you make a good point about the stories attempt to inform us about the power of advertisements. Although not as powerful and devious as in the story, many ads and marketing campaigns today affect us in ways we may not realize. Companies like Apple or Coca-Cola have done so much to ingrain their products into our minds that we don't notice the impact of their advertising. Their commercials don't have to have any real context about the product for us to know what it is for. Instantly recognizing these products is their form of the Crave darts, making us crave their products without our knowledge.

"Just Do It"

I absolutely agree that she is trying to talk about the way companies advertise by using some sort of subliminal messaging. She shows this at an extreme state in "Just Do It" with CraveTech and their darts. CraveTech forces its consumers to crave certain things which is used as a form of mind control. I do agree that because the consumers do not have any choice in what they want or don't want, the people do not have any control over their own mind. The consumers might believe that they are in control but in actuality CraveTech is controlling them. Many companies today use this sort of subliminal messaging. For example, every commercial that has either a catch phrase or a theme song is some sort of subliminal message. The companies are hoping that their song or phrase will stick in your head which makes them seem more like a familiar, safe company. It promotes name recognition and can help convince people to choose that company rather than one that they are not as familiar with. Even if the products of the familiar company are inferior to the products of the other. This is what the author was trying to show through her extreme world.

"Just Do It" Response

Tony, I definitely agree with you in that the title, "Just Do It", makes people subconsciously make decisions and buy into advertising.  As you mentioned, companies today use similar tactics, yet not nearly as extreme.  "Just do it" is Nike's advertising terminology, and like many others it is a command, whether people realize it or not.  Advertising is about subliminal messages and mind control, but this short story takes it to a new extreme by explicitly controlling the subjects' minds.  They know that it is not their true beliefs or desires to buy a product, but the chemical is making them do so anyways.  Aside from warning people about the power of advertising and the direction in which it's going, I feel like this story is warning about medical and technological advancement.  Rather than just having the consumer see an ad, companies want to manipulate them mentally to actually buy the product.  This plays off of fear of mind control and brainwashing.  Alex is forced to marry Mr. Avery against her will, and the end reveals that everyone has the power to manipulate others.  If that is the case, then does this story eradicate all forms of thought if you don't have control over your mind?  People have no form of self control if all of their actions are made at the will of others.  It turns everyone, not only consumers, into puppets.

"Just Do It"

"Just Do It" has a major theme of trickery in order to gain results. CraveTech invents a dart which makes consumers have an undesirable crave for something , as well as a cure for the cravings, in order to make a huge profit. The protagonist, Alex Monroe, uses seduction to trick the CEO of CraveTech, Tom, to love Monroe in order for Monroe to gain information about CraveTech. These tricks goes against people's wants. CraveTech consumers do not want to crave for french fires, but the dart makes people want them. Monroe does not want to date Tom, but her friend Sandra makes her in order to rebel against Cravetech. The title "Just Do It" echoes the things the consumers and Monroe does not want to do, but has to do "it" with very little resistances towards "it". The message within "Just Do It" makes readers think about what desires do they succumb into such as cigarettes and chocolate, yet the additional element of a corporation controlling the consumer's desire makes readers questions how do corporations today control their desires indirectly through commercials and other different advertisements. CraveTech's dart shows the extremeness of the corporations control on consumer's desires through direct control rather than indirect.

Parable of the Sower - Conclusion

Differences in age, race, and religion play a very important part in the story. Much of the violence that occurs outside of Acorn occurs because of racial differences. On the other hand, Lauren's Earthseed community is extremely diverse, yet these differences do not cause any problems.

Parable of the Sower is the first book of a trilogy, so it is to be expected for the author to leave much to be desired at the end. There are lots of unanswered questions, but I believe that the group settling down on Bankole's land is a good stopping point for this book. This book is about the journey, and the next is about the growth of the community.

Parable of the Sower Notes 2/20/2012 - Tony Trinh

Concept of Voice

Voice = attire/ depending on context of who you are reading for.

Unique/ Orality/ Personality/ Individuality/ enthusiasm/ energy / natural/ Confidence

Development through: word choice, sentence structure, syntax, know the material, consistency, avoid chiche, original to you

“Even though we don’t know each other, we need to stay together to survive and face the challenges. Together, we are a unit.”

- made Lauren into a decisive leader, instead of an indecisive individual of the group.

Why is Lauren reluctant to show Harry her diary?

- Lauren wants to subtly share Earthseed with Harry

- Testing Harry to see what kind of soil he is, testing of Harry is willing to learn Earthseed .

- Wants Harry to take part in the process of learning Earthseed

- Doesn’t want to force Earthseed on him

- Easier to remember if phrases are short and sweet

- Following father’s footsteps to push ideals on someone/ consequences of rebelling against idea.

- Inception

Parable of the Sower Notes 2/15/2012 - Tony Trinh

Thesis statement: Clear argument, arguable, needs to be specific, focused

-Ask myself a question that I can’t answer right away, then it is a good start for a thesis statement

Thesis statement: Clear argument, arguable, needs to be specific, focused

- Lauren doesn’t want to have babies because she wants to end the cycle of reproduction. She believes having a baby in a dystopian world is not good for survival.

- Metaphor between wombs and seeds

-Lauren = rebel?

- More separatist – offering alternative to live life

- not rebel = preparing for the inevitable fall

Parable of the Sower Notes 2/13/2012 - Tony Trinh

Earthseed = motto “God is change”.

Butler = born in Pasadena, CA; raised in strict Baptist household; one of few African American female sci-fi writers in 20^th Century.

Video: Many seeds get destroyed, but few survived and hundreds grew

Different soil = analogy with difficulty of spreading ideas. Different grounds of which to grow on means different people receiving the new ideas.

Lauren = Jesus

Earthseed = Christianity

Lauren’s father = Job (loyal to God despite suffering)

Parable = story/easier to remember yet need active listeners to interpret the stories

Lauren’s ideas of religion vs Dad’s ideas of religion

- different state of mind by different generations

- old traditions from her father’s is not applicable to new generation

- Lauren = living in post destruction/change is only hope

- Father = reminiscent of the past bc born before destruction

Pg 25: Lauren – trial and error in developing Earthseed through written verses since 12 yrs old

Lauren – hyperempathy syndrome – feeling pain of others – gain through mother’s drug abuse

-tries to make adult leave the past – threatening to people bc people don’t want to purge the good stuff in mind.

-need to play with people to guide them, to convince them,

Society – large class division

- water cost too much

- privatize commercial services

Group D

This short story is about the white man’s attempt to create a plague that targeted all blacks. The plague was one hundred percent fatal to anyone that was infected with it. A limited amount of the vaccine was made which back fired on the whites because the plagued they created actually targeted whites not blacks. Anybody with 12.5 percent African Negro DNA and up survived the plague. Not all Caucasians were killed by disease those who survive either receive the vaccine or had 12.5 or more African DNA. Although people were dying, riots still broke out throughout the country with whites fighting blacks. The few whites remaining although they were no longer the majority race still tried to attached and killed blacks. Like the critical race theory we discussed in class mentioned racism will always be an issue. Whites feel their lighter skin color makes them better than others but this also is an issue in brown skin community as well.

Group D

I very much agree with Alex’s point about race and racism being social in nature. I take this story to be more of a comment on the social nature of racism in general, racism by whites against blacks being the racism the author and his intended audience have the most experience with, Mosley being African American and his audience most likely being American. I think the (mostly) white man shooting at Harold at the end says the most about Mosley’s overall point than anything else in the story. He obviously has some a lot of rage about all the white people dying, likely all his friends and family, which he directs towards Harold and likely all black people. It’s ironic that he blames black people for the plague, when white people are the ones who created it in the first place. This is a comment on the cyclical nature of racism itself, and how unfounded and pointless it is in the first place. Racism throughout history is a series of retaliations and blame games, humans trying to blame one another for their problems, and the oppressed group retaliating against an entire race. I take Mosley’s final statement; that the “world started over again” to mean that people were already repeating their mistakes, that racism was still alive and that the white man at  the end of the story was blaming black people for the mistakes of his own people.

Group D

Alex brought up that the poem ended with "The world had started over" and that was what really struck me when I read the story. Throughout the story you see all of the races getting eliminated except for the African Americans. In the end you are left with only the people who had African American blood in them, but still some people have different skin colors. This ties in perfectly with the Critical Race Theory we were discussing in class that a lot of our ideas about race come from a social standpoint. Even though no two people are the same someone still notices the most prominent difference, skin color, and decided that is less "fit" for society. I have always wondered how it came about that skin color was the main objective for racism even though eye color and hair color varies just as much. I think that when Walter Mosely states at the end that the world had started over he means that things have come full circle and there is no escaping social prejudice. The world has gotten itself down to one race so essentially everyone is on the same level, but some people still manage to find superiority in any way they can. This is demonstrated perfectly by the people at the end of the story with the white skin tone trying to capture Harold. Also as far as I could tell from the story even before the epidemic broke out there were no African American people in higher company positions. As Cameron said in his first blog post it is extremely ironic that the white people were the ones who created the virus to destroy the black race but it backfired on them. It is a be careful what you wish for type of scenario.

Group D

Alex, you bring up some very good points. Taken in its entirety, the story definitely is a warning about what is to come if racism continues. The discussion today about Critical Race Theory suggested that racism is always a thought. I think that the end of the story shows that Mosley believes this to be the case. Even after the world is being wiped clean of all races except blacks, the white people who attacked Harold still had to be racist for some reason. They should have been concerned about completely different things, like staying alive or caring for loved ones, but instead they decided to attack an innocent young guy because he was black. Alex you are definitely right in the sense that the world may be starting over literally, but it is still the same in the sense of this segmented human nature.

Blog Group D

One of the most interesting things I noticed after reading this story was how, even after almost every single race on earth was destroyed, people still continued to hate one another based on their physical appearences. This ties in with our class discussion today about Critical Race Theory, which promotes the idea that race is a socially constructed concept. While there are still white people alive in the world after the disease has killed of hundreds of people, everyone is aware that those who are alive have only survived due to a percentage of African American blood in their veins. This being the case, there is essentially one race left on the whole planet, yet the story ends with "white people" shooting at Harold. People are continuing the idea of not only race itself (though there is but one race left), but also the idea of racism and all the hatred and violence that is associated with it in the midst of a worldwide epidemic caused by the very ideas and beliefs these people continue to follow. Because of this, I think it's quite ironic that the story ends with the phrase "The world had started over." To me, this doesn't seem to be the case at all. The world may have "started over" in a literal sense, but socially, it appears that people still have the same mindset that they always have. I think maybe that this story could be considerded less a critque on racsim and white supremacy, but rather a warning of what could happen if the hatred from racism continues - while it was a white supremacy group that originally created the disease, it was a black scientist who switched the disease's target rather than neutralizing it and avoiding the conflict and loss of life all together. I think this story can be interpreted more as a warning of things to come rather than simply a criticism of white racists.

Group D - "The Nig In Me"

Just something that I thought was interesting after reading this story was the hypocrisy displayed by the white race. The classic liberal/left-wing viewpoint is complete political correctness and this includes not using discriminatory words or phrases. In the story this political group was most likely responsible for the illegality and subsequent fines of using a racial slur, giving the impression that they cared about black people and wanted everyone to respect them. Later on the TV, XX Y says that the virus was created by white people, specifically the liberal socialist party, to wipe out African Americans. This shows a complete contradiction to the image of racial acceptance they had created before.  And then, for karma’s sake, the virus backfired and killed all the white people. I think this may tie in to the fact that Walter Mosley is African American. He was probably trying to make a point about white hypocrisy in race relations. What do you guys think?

Class Notes Little Boxes

Everything is the same:

• reference to Communism
• no substance
• cyclical nature of this life
• gender roles still old fashioned
• suburbs

There is a paradox between her use of the word university and the fact that the children in the university are put into boxes. When one goes to university, the common thought is that the education and higher thinking allows the student to express himself and to think for himself. On the other hand, if this happens to everyone, then the university could simply take the students out of one box and place them into a different box.

The different covers of the song are interesting because there are lots of different artists and different types of music playing the same song, adding to the homogeneity theme of the song. The covers give the allusion of variety, just like the community in Weeds.

Kurt Vonnegut - Class Notes

Kurt Vonnegut & Political Views

• Political Diamond

o Liberalism/Conservatism & Libertarianism/Statism

• Lenin vs. Sanders

o Communist vs. Socialist

 Communist – revolutionary; take power by force

 Socialist – want to be given power

• Against idea of war

o Protested Vietnam War

o Support WWII

• “Harrison Bergeron” written 1961 – 1962

o Red Scare

o Vietnam War

o Cold War

o MLK

• Democratic socialist

• Humanist – heightened respect for human life

Class Notes Vonnegut and Rush

Vonnegut is satirizing political power and the thoughts of the extreme communistic society.

• Over 200 amendments to the Constitution
• Everyone is equal, but at what costs
• Personal regulations, but no economic regulations
• People confuse Communism with Socialism, so they also confuse the purpose of the story

Politicians use Vonnegut's story to support Capitalism, so they are using Vonnegut's own story against him. His story can be easily misinterpreted, so if his purpose was to spread the views of Socialism then he has failed. However, readers who understand the true meaning of the story can appreciate Vonnegut's satire.

Rush's 2112 tells a dystopian story of a totalitarian state in the future. The red star on the album cover is an allusion to Communism, and the ending is up for interpretation. The computers that fill the hallways of the walls of the temple show the merging of technology and religion.

Class Notes: Lottery and Omelas

The two poems are very similar in that they have the theme of sacrifice. In each society, one person sacrifices for the good of the group and everyone else prospers. The positive effects are greatly highlighted in Omelas, but it takes place in a more modern setting than the Lottery. The Lottery is more old-fashioned, and had many more religious allusions than Omelas. In each story, there are people who talk of other towns that do not practice the same sacrificial rituals as they do, but these people do not do anything to stop these rituals. In Omelas, the people that cannot bear to live in this society with the knowledge of the child's suffering simply walk out of town, never to be heard from again. In the Lottery, those who speak of other towns simply go along with the traditions and do not actively stand against the old ways.

"The Lottery" Religious Symbolism - Class Notes

“The Lottery” Religious Symbolism

• Tessie Hutchinson – sacrificial victim

o Allusion to Anne Hutchinson

• Mrs. Delacroix – “of the cross”

o “selected a stone so large she had to pick it up with both hands”

o Conversation with Mrs. Graves

• Mr. Summers

o Dressed in all white

o Represents a priest – leader of lottery

o Coal miner – earthly profession

• Mr. Adams

o First family to draw from box

o Adam & Eve

o Brings up other villages stopping the lottery

o Goes along with the sin; front of the crowd

• Old Man Warner

o 77 years old – lucky number

o Strongly against changing the lottery

• The Black Box

o Resembles the Bible

o Box changes over the years

o Made by a carpenter

 Jesus – carpenter

• Stool

o Holy Trinity – three legs

o Stool and box are one

o God speaks through the Bible

• Ritual Symbolism

o “He who is without sin may cast the first stone”

o Willingness of townspeople to sacrifice as a sign of loyalty to God

 Abraham

o Use of stones

o Black dot – earthly sin

o Punishment by family and peers

• Blind Faith

o The Crusades

o Salem Witch Trials

Venus and the Ark

Question 2:

Sexton's recitation of Venus and the Ark I believe Sexton plays the part of any citizen of the Earth before it becomes a "forgotten pitted stone." When the Ph.Ds find a life sustaining planet, no one cares. The big news barely fits into a news cast in between the weather forecasts and more "relevant" news on Earth.  Sexton's very monotone, unemotional recitation of the poem portrays the citizens reaction on Earth.

A big part of this poem is the vastness of its idea. No reader can quite imagine what it would be like for life on Earth to end and life to be created elsewhere. So despite the very heavy scenarios that are presented (whether it be the destruction of the Earth, the introduction of Earthlings to Venus, or the fact that the Ph.Ds observe evolution at work) the reader really can't emotionally attach to the poem in a way that they would a tragedy seen on their local news.

Venus and the Ark

I believe Anne Sexton called her poem a spoof because of the outcome of the mission. It's like an aha moment. The smartest people (two men in this case), are sent to explore and understand Venus (the planet named after a goddess). The men bring life that is rendered useless to the planet, such as rats and snakes. They bring dirt but no seeds. They tell Earth that Venus is similar in climate to Earth, and the leaders of planet Earth destroy themselves. In addition, it is a spoof because to the new planet that sprouts life, the men bring snakes which are symbolized as sin in the Garden of Eden. They ended up causing their own destruction through greed, which is also green. One thing that confused me about the poem was the location. Did the men land on Venus which sprouted life, or back to the condemned world where life began again?

Venus and the Ark

I think Anne sexton refers to this poem as a spoof because it is an alternate retelling of the original biblical story. She take out the faith factor of the story and converts it to science. It follows the original story of creation fairly accurately with the hand selected animals, a disaster striking, and things taking their own course. It seems to me that it is almost mocking creationism by having the scientists doing something similar. (73)Also since there is an ongoing debate from scientists about the lack of evidence behind creationism it seems fitting that she would have her spoof doing just that.

"Venus and the Ark"

I believe Anne Saxton calls her poem, “Venus and the Ark”, a spoof because she is creating a humorous rendition of Noah and the Ark, as noted by previous students.  The indication of the humorous nature in the poem, in my opinion, starts at the very beginning when Saxton lists the many creatures taken aboard the missile.   It is mentioned in the Bible that Noah brought along two of every kind of animal and creature on the Ark.  When I picture this scene, I imagine animals like tigers, elephants, goats, cows, etc.  However, Saxton tells only of the insects, bars of food, rats, and pouches of dirt brought on board the missile.  This doesn’t seem like much of an Ark in my opinion.  Much to what Colin said, her poem can also be seen as a spoof in that man, unlike God, brought about the destruction of the Earth.  In the Bible, God brought about the Flood that destroyed mankind.  This again harkens back to the controversy between religion and creationism discussed by Group C.  

"Venus and the Ark"

After reading “Venus and the Ark”, I noticed the same allusion to Noah and the Ark as did most people.  In response to Denton’s post answering Saharsh’s question, I agree with the existence of the allusion to Adam and Eve with the fruit dropping, but I do not think that it symbolizes the endless, continual cycle of human flaws and ceaseless human destruction.  I think that in writing this poem, Sexton is saying that humans will continue to destroy Earth, so the Ph.Ds started life on Venus so that a new planet could flourish without the negative influence of humans.  This is evident since the two humans sent on the mission were both males.  Whoever chose the Ph.Ds for the mission did so in order to protect Venus.  The only form of life that could develop on Venus would have to originate from the animals, and there is no telling what the animals would evolve into.  The fruit dropping symbolizes that the Venus is developing in its natural order without humans disrupting it.  Furthermore, I think the snakes alluded to the snake in the story of “Adam and Eve”, and the fact that the snakes had no influence on the humans solidifies that the habitation of Venus was going to be free of corruption.  “Adam and Eve” (or anybody else for that matter) were not there to take the fruit, and therefore the flaws of humans created in the biblical story were a nonissue on Venus.  

"Venus and the Ark"

Anne Sexton calls her “Venus and the Ark” a spoof because in reference to the story of Noah and his Ark in the Bible. The Rocket, to be sent to Venus is loaded with animals from Earth, along with two scientists. While the Rocket is on its way to Venus, Earth is destroyed by a nuclear war, like the world was flooded by God in Noah’s Ark. In Sexton’s poem, the people bring about their own demise, as a result of their petty disagreements and competitiveness, like the people in Noah’s Ark brought about their demise. However, in Sexton’s version, humanity was destroyed by its own creation, the Atom Bomb, rather than God punishing them. I think this is a commentary from Sexton on what can happen as a result of humanity “playing God” with nuclear weapons, or just technology in general.

"Venus and the Ark" Wed 25th

Venus and the Ark spoof

I think the reason Anne Sexton called her poem a spoof is because she is making fun of human nature in general.  Her pointed allusions to religion (Noah’s Ark) and science (Evolution) are there to make fun of human’s tendency to fight viciously over those topics instead of letting them co-exist.  Another way Sexton is making fun of mankind is by showing the violent tendencies we have.  When one country reached Venus, the other, jealous countries decided to bomb then to try to replicate their success.  This very well could be a shot at the Cold War and how two countries that were competing in space travel along with many other things, almost had a nuclear war.