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.