Textual (Novel) Analysis

Using your initial timed-writing essay, develop your ideas more fully and completely, assuming readers from future 305 classes. Your readers, then, will have read a number of the same articles, will have also read the Mayr handout, Le Guin's critical article, and will have watched The Matrix or District 9, or Avatar but might not have read the novel or seen the movie recently. So while it may be safe to assume they have understood the "gist" of the common materials, they also might benefit from your closer analysis. You might also spark an interest in others to actually read your novel if they have not done so before. Do not write an extended plot summary. Consider how certain scenes can be evidence that supports your analysis, and certain statements or lines (quotes) can be revealing details.

If, upon reflection, you do not like the topic you chose to write about in the timed-writing, feel free to change your topic. Constraints are: you must use your novel and one of the articles or one of the movies in some intelligent fashion.

Topic suggestions:

Compare and contrast your novel, the movie, and one of the articles you read. What are those societies like: their values and beliefs? In what particular ways are those societies similar to or different from your life?
Focus on a particular theme or character from the novel you read. Show how either reflects (or doesn't reflect) Le Guin's assertion about what science fiction ought to do. Have the writers been able to focus on any important trend or trends that you see occurring today?
OR choose one of the following statements. Identify the speaker, explain what the statement means, first in terms of the movie, then compare to theme, scenes or character/s in your novel. Finally, articulate the significance for our lives.
- "We never free a mind once it has reached a certain stage."
- "residual self image"
- "We lacked the language to describe utopia."
- "Never send a human to do an AI.s job."
- "Welcome to the desert of the real."
- "The matrix cannot tell you who you are."
- "Most people are not ready to be unplugged."

Further Topic Suggestions:

What is the "matrix" in your novel? Compare and contrast your novel to the movie The Matrix, (may also use any of the articles), in terms of a specific critical framework as a "matrix." How is that matrix the same as or different from the matrix you live in?
Discuss a character, theme, feature, or anything else you find especially compelling. Follow your bliss, but remember, your essay should still be focused, organized, and well developed.
If you are at a loss for possible topics, go down the rabbit hole:
- utopia / dystopia
- gender roles
- politics
- economics
- emergent, visionary or dangerous technologies
- myths
- environment
- religions
- belief systems - plugging into / unplugging from?

Please form workshop groups of three to four people and plan for your own strategy for feedback. Use the forum set up for this purpose. At least one workshop draft needs to be completed. Anyone having a problem joining a group should solicit partners on the forum. Once a group has been set up, post to the forum with group partners names in the subject line. This will be the thread your group will use, and will also help people who are still desperately seeking partners. The deadline for workshop is advisory, but most successful papers come from proactive group participation. Late posts rarely get adequate attention for full development.

Final draft will be a minimum five full pages, double spaced in MLA format with a works cited page followed by a self-evaluation. Final drafts are due the last day of class, May 11. Late submissions will not be accepted. Make sure your work is published on mahara with correct permissions, linked from your profile page. Docx files are not accepted.

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