Visualizing the Brave New World

Assemble into groups of no more than 3-4. Take a large piece of construction paper and fold into six different sections. Complete the following in the six different sections. Fill up each rectangle and make it visually pleasing using markers and any other materials available to you.

1. Depict what you imagine the Brave New World looks like. You might create a cityscape of London with games, cars, and buildings or you might imagine the inside of the Central London Hatchery and Conditioning Center. Include at least three key terms associated with the setting and one significant quote that would help a reader interpret the scene.

2. Depict Bernard Marx. Surround his portrait with at least five key words or phrases that help us understand his character.

3. Depict the character of Lenina Crowne. Surround her portrait with at least five key words or phrases that help us understand her character.

4. Depict the Savage Reservation. Include at least three key terms associated with the setting and one significant quote that would help a reader interpret the scene.

5. Depict the character of John, the Savage. Surround his portrait with at least five key words or phrases that help us understand his character.

6. Design a new book cover and original title for the novel. Keep it simple, focusing on one or two key concepts from the book.

Visualizing the Brave New World

Brave New World

Introductory Notes on Brave New World by Aldous Huxley


Novel of ideas: Less emphasis on plot and character development

Satire (a literary work or writing style in which human vice or folly is attacked through irony, derision, or wit. What is Brave New World attacking?

Society functions as a character

Point of View: third person omniscient (all knowing); narrator is not one of the characters and thus has the ability to tell us what is going on within any of the character's minds.

Tone (attitude of the writer): Everything is great! Be aware of the irony here,
questioning the assumptions about the brave new world.

Major Values: Community, Identity, Stability (motto of World State). How are these values achieved?

Setting: London, AF 632 (2540 Current Era)

Utopia: an ideally perfect place, especially in its social, political, and moral aspects

*
From Thomas More's Utopia (1516)
*
Title from the Greek ou or "not" and topos or place, i.e. "no place; a pun on
the Greek eutopia or "happy place"
*
Utopian fiction reveals need for contemporary social reform

Dystopia: an imaginary place or state in which the condition of life is extremely bad, with deprivation, oppression, or terror.

*
Literaly, "bad place"
* In dystopias, an agency or authority (often the government) is frequently shown
to be in total control--the consent of the citizens is irrelevant. There may be
chaos and total social breakdown with no form of social control or security.

Homework: Read Chapter 3 and complete questions from handout. About 3/4 of the way through Chapter 3, you may get confused about who is talking. Huxley uses paragraph breaks to show conversations that are going on simultaneously between Mustapha Mond, the DHC, and the students; Bernard Marx and Henry Foster; Lenina Crowne and her friend Fanny. I suggest highlighting the different sections so you can better follow the dialogue.

Prepare for quiz on Chapters 1-3 and notes for Friday.

Examining Film Stills

1. The large blue eye. Whose eye is this? Why do you think the film begins with this image?


2. The Tyrell Corporation ziggurat. What might this architecture tell us about the future?


3. The video billboard of Asian woman taking a pill. How might this image relate to Huxley's Brave New World?


4. The neon dragon. How might this image relate to a larger theme in the film?




5. Tyrell with glasses and the interior of the Tyrell complex. What themes do these images of Tyrell and his headquarters help support?


6. Bryant's office. How does the interior of Bryant's office compare to Tyrell's headquarters? What other features do you notice?


7. Rachael's eye framed by the Voigt-Kampff machine. Why is this image and the voigt-Kampff machine ironic?


8. The picture found in Leon's apartment. Does this image remind you of anything? What are some of the features of the photograph?






9. Deckard's unicorn dream sequence, the pictures on his piano, and the origami unicorn. What might these images suggest about the character of Rick Deckard?




10. Crowded street scenes. What are some of the significant features of the street scenes?






11. Images of Zhora, Rachel, and Pris. What do the depictions of the three female replicants suggest? Brainstorm similarities and differences.




12. Roy Batty's pierced hand and the dove. Why does Roy Batty injure his hand? Why is the dove significant? Why does Roy save Deckard?

Allusions in Blade Runner

Edward Hopper's "Nighthawks"


Humphrey Bogart in The Maltese Falcon


Monster from Frankenstein


Christ on crucifix


Aztec Pyramid


Emanuel de Witte's "Interior with a Woman Playing the Virginals"


Jan Van Eyck's "The Arnolfini Wedding"


William Blake's poem "The Tyger"

Line from William Blake’s America: A Prophecy
“Fiery the Angels rose while thunder roared around their shores, burning with the fires of Orc.”


Adam and Even in the Garden of Eden

Passage from John Milton’s Paradise Lost (Book I: 61-69)

A Dungeon horrible, on all sides round
As on great Furnace flam’d, yet from those flames
No light, but rather darkness visible
Serv’d only to discover sights of woe,
Regions of sorrow, doleful shades, where peace
And rest can never dwell, hope never comes
That comes at all, but torture without end
Still urges, and a fiery Deluge, fed
With ever-burning Sulphur unconsumed


Unicorn

Blade Runner and Film Noir

Stylistically, Blade Runner is connected to the tradition of film noir. This term is applied to certain American films during and after World War II that are "dark" in tone. The often intricate narrative generally involve a gruff private detective investigating a crime. Alienated and living out the law, he is driven by his own moral code. Voice over narration (original to the theatrical release of Blade Runner but removed from the 1991 Director's Cut) is common, as is an emphasis on a realistic urban setting and the use of flashbacks. A beautiful femme fatale is commonplace. She might be read as a sexist backlash against the societal shift of the 1940s when women joined the workforce, becoming an unconscious threat to male power.

The aesthetic considerations include chiaroscuro lighting with shadows, silhouettes, and high contrast lighting. Light is accentuated by the smoke wafting from the outlaw characters who drink as much as they smoke. Venetian blinds, fans, and the patterns they create are hallmarks of the lighting design. Unbalanced compositions are also evident, with directorsusing odd camera angles to create interesting frames.

Film Adaptation and Blade Runner

We're now turning our attention to the film Blade Runner, a loose adaptation of PKD's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?. I want us to contemplate what the film does, that the novel does not and vice versa.

The film scholar Dudley Andrew suggests that where literature elaborates a world out of a story, cinema carves a story out of a world. This distinction is fascinating to consider (and the kind of conundrum that PKD might have appreciated). How doe novels and films tell different kinds of stories? Lets consider for a moment the artistic, ideological, and economic issues that arise when works are adapted. Which novels are you familiar with that have been adapted into film? What choices did the director make? Why do you think these choices were made? What were the results?

According to Andrew, there are three primary methods of film adaptation: borrowing, intersecting, and transforming. If we apply these terms to science fiction film, Star Wars can be viewed as a film that "borrows" its basic narrative from the legend of King Arthur, relying on the mythic power of an original source. A sci-film like Solaris "intersects" with an original text, that is "the uniqueness of the original text is preserved to such an extent that it is intentionally left unassimilated in adaptation." The adaptation of H.G. Wells' The Time Machine on the other hand, "transforms" an original source into the medium of film, attempting to remain faithful to the literary experience.

Why is Blade Runner considered such an important sci-fi film? Perhaps its biggest achievement is the creation of a future Los Angeles (versus San Francisco in novel) the that is imaginative and at the same time believable. One scholar, Brooks Landon, suggests thinking about the film as an adaptation that "frames" its antecedent, serving as "a lens for better understanding its source and as a mirror for better studying ourselves." Consider the city of the future. What would your visual design look like?

Viewing Strategies

Consider the literary, dramatic, and cinematic aspects of film.

Literary elements include characterization, theme, and symbolism.
Dramatic elements include mise-en
scene (costume, props, acting)
Cinematic elements include camera angle/movement, light, color, sound, editing, special effects


Playing Detective with Film Allusions

Each of you will receive a textual or pictorial "clue" to the film's meaning. You will conduct research on your clue. What is it? You must complete independent online research. As detectives, you must then write a short report on your clue, prior to viewing the film. After viewing the film you will amend your report providing observations and possible connections to the film. You will then present your findings to the class and lead a discussion on your clue. Scenes can be replayed at this time. Please post your report on your blog and include images or text when appropriate.

DADES 13-22

Please complete a blog entry for Chapters 13-22. Also complete free writing on the topic below. Use textual evidence from the novel and your notes, including those blow. Be prepared to discuss.

Humanity in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Discuss the problems of human identity Philip K. Dick addresses in the novel. What does Dick reveal about human beings as opposed to machines> How does he complicate the simple division between what is natural and what is unnatural?

The Problem of Human Identity

What characteristics make us distinctively human?

Androids and specials are persecuted “races” and DADES might be said to be an allegory of racial conflict, which includes urbanization and “white flight.”

Irony that a machine is used to test for humanness (Voight-Kampff test), an empathy box (machine) is needed to experience “fusion” with others, and a machine (Penfield mood organ) is used to regulate mood.

Recycling of Frankenstein myth—androids are human-created monsters on the loose

Is Deckard a human or an android and why?

Human (Natural) / Non-Human (Unnatural)

Birth/sexual reproduction / Artificially created
Empathy / Lack of empathy
Impulse/instinct / Programming
Love of animals / Animals as objects
Awareness of past / Lack of past; focus on present
Collective awareness / Self-preservation
Sisyphus mentality / Resignation to defeat
Ability to die / Shut down, retired
Human / Beyond human

DADES: Chapter 12

Edvard Munch's "The Scream"







How might this painting relate to androids? To humans?


"The painting showed a hairless, oppressed creature with a head like an inverted pear, its hands clapped in horror to its ears, its mouth open in a vast, soundless scream. Twisted ripples of the creature's torment, echoes of its cry, flooded out into the air surrounding it; the man or woman, whichever it was, had become contained by its own howl. It had covered its ears against its own sound. The creature stood on a bridge and no one else was present; the creature screamed in isolation. Cut off by--or despite--its outcry" (114).

Phil Resch says "I think...that this is how an andy must feel" (114).


Luba Luft, the opera singer, is absorbed by a picture of "a young girl, hands clasped together, seated on the edge of a bed, an expression of bewildered wonder and new, groping awe imprinted on the face" (115).

Edvard Munch's "Puberty"



Why is Luba Luft fascinated by this painting?

DADES: Chapter 10-11

These are the "twilight zone" chapters. It's here that PKD begins to play with his reader. What is real and how do we know? Who should we believe? Is Rick Deckard an android? What evidence do we have that he might be? What evidence do we have that he is indeed human? Is the fact that there a question what's important? What is PKD trying to suggest about the human condition?

Are androids trying to "retire" the humans, just as the humans are trying to "retire" the androids? If so, aren't they both "killers." Remember Mercerism claims that "you should kill only the killers" (pg. 27)Huh?

Traits of an android: cold, cerebral, detached, lacking in empathy, cannot fuse with Mercer, don't care what happens to other androids, synthetic memory systems,

DADES: Chapter 9

Read and complete a journal posting for Chapter 9 for Friday. Post by 9pm Thursday evening and give feedback to two of your classmates.

DADES: Chapter 8

Write another entry for Chapter 8.

Consider Deckard's feelings at the end of the novel. What are we learning about our protagonist? How does he compare to J.R. Isidore? For your journal posting, consider using SOAP. Identify paragraphs, sentences, phrases, or words that Surprise, Offend, Amuse, or Puzzle you.

I still want to see video clips from everyone. Quiz tomorrow 3/4.

DADES: Chapter 7 and Video Posting

For Monday, 3/2

Please read Chapter 7 and complete a journal posting (multiple paragraphs on your ideas, questions, and musings).

You must check out other students' blogs! They're fantastic! Both Beersheba and Malcom have posted youTube videos, which were very interesting. Now I would like each of you to do this. Find a video clip that in some way relates to our class and then briefly explain why it's worth watching. You can make the video a "Page Element" or you can insert within a post. Either way is fine.

Each of you should then respond to one journal posting and one video. Please post these by 8pm on Sunday so that everyone has a chance to respond. Have fun!!!

DADES: Chapter 6

Here we here more about John Isidore, the chickenhead. I'm curious about how his story will intersect with the Rick Deckard/Rachel Rosen plot. After all, Rachel is mentioned when Pris Stratton gives Rachel as her first name. Strange stuff!

What do you think Dick thought about television and celebrity culture (which is of course MUCH more pronounced today than in 1968). Keep an eye on Buster Friendly. Is he friendly?

Consider Pris Stratton's manner: no shirt, no knowledge of Buster Friendly or kipple, no empathy box. She's an odd one. Why did she call herself Rachel Rosen at first? What does she think of J.R. Isidore. One of you said that even though she can be mean ("more of your chickenhead imagination") she seemed to warm up to Isidore as there conversation continues. At the very least, she seems less fearful that she does when she first opens the door.

And how about the "kipple." Isidore defines it for us as "useless objects, like junk mail or match folders after you use the last match or gum wrappers....When nobody's around, kipple reproduces itself." Also, "There's the First Law of Kipple...Kipple drives out nonkipple." Remember that earlier, in Chapter 2, the narrator tells us that everything falls into "entropic ruin. Eventually everything within the building would merge, would be faceless and identical, mere pudding-like kipple piled to the ceiling of each apartment." Would this include humans?

DADES: Chapter 5

For Tuesday, 2/26

Questions to consider for your blog:

1. What can be concluded from the questions that Rick Deckard asked Rachael Rosen? What is significant about her responses?

2. Do humans simulate responses? Discuss how and why? What does this say about human nature?

3. Check out the PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) website. What do you think about their position with regard to animals? Do you believe in animal testing for medical purposes? What are the advantages and disadvantages of being a vegetarian?

4. What do you make of Eldon Rosen’s statement “We produced what the colonist wanted…We followed the time-honored principle underlying every commercial venture”?

5. If only a bone-marrow test can distinguish an android from a human, can there be much l difference between the two?

6. What qualities distinguish human beings from animals and/or machines? What aspects of humanity have artificial substitutes and why? How did the ideas of Copernicus and Darwin shape and revise our understanding of humanities place in the world? Will technology force a reassessment of how we see ourselves?

DADES: Chapter 4

For Monday, 2/25

Write five open-ended questions you have about the novel so far. Then, try to answer (or discuss) five questions written by your peers on their blogs.

Other thoughts on DADES:

Machines are used to regulate, heal, and test human beings! Isn't this ironic?
Penfield Mood Organ
Empathy Box
Voigt-Kampff Test

Who was Sisyphus and how might he relate to Mercerism? What might Dick be suggesting about human nature in his use of this allusion?

Empathy means one's ability to recognize, perceive and feel directly the emotion of another; Empathy comes from the Greek work pathos or "to suffer."

Other questions to consider:

1. How many androids have illegally returned to earth? Why would they return?
2. Who is Max Polokov?
3. What is a “flattening of affect” and who displays this?
4. Who is Rachael Rosen?
5. What is the “tyranny of the object”?
6. Rick compares the electric sheep to the android: “Like the androids, it (the electric sheep) had no ability to appreciate the existence of another. He had never thought of this before, the similarity between an electric animal and an andy.” Why is this significant?
7. What do you make of this statement: “the manufacture of androids, in fact, has become so linked to the colonization effort that if one dropped into ruin, so would the other in time.” What might this tell us about today’s economy?

Survey Results: Technology and You

Here are the survey results that 8 of you completed:

1. Technological advances make life better for everyone.
Agree 50%
Disagree 50%

2. It would be great to have my own personal robot to take care of my needs.
Agree 62.5%
Disagree 37.5%

3. It is dangerous to place too much faith in technology.
Agree 87.5%
Disagree 12.5%
4. Having the latest technology is important to success.
Agree 62.5%Disagree 37.5%

5. The conveniences of modern technology outweigh the disadvantages.
Agree 25%
Disagree 75%

6. Online networks (like MySpace) help develop and maintain friendships with other people.
Agree 75%
Disagree 25%

7. If people let machines do too much for them, eventually people will no longer be able to do things for themselves.
Agree 100%
Disagree 0%

8. It is possible for a human to love a
machine.
Agree 62.5%
Disagree 37.5 %

9. Eventually, artificial intelligence will surpass human intelligence.
Agree 71.4%
Disagree 28.6%

10. Eventually, humans and machines will merge, creating a new species.
Agree 62.5%
Disagree 37.5%

DADES: Chapter 2-3

Some questions to consider as you read:

1. "No one today remembered why the war had come about or who, if anyone, had won." What novel does this remind you of? What recent current event does this remind you of? What comment might Dick be making about human memory?

2. Why might it be significant or symbolic that the "dust" first killed the owls? What other natural crisis has occurred?

3. What current government entity is at work in the future? What do you foresee aas the future role of this international body?

4. What was the "ultimate incentive of emigration"? Would this be an incentive today?

5. What does "halcyon days" mean, and what is the appeal of the TV advertisement for a "custom-tailored humanoid robot"? What civil rights issue is Dick interested in, both on the future Earth and on colonized planets? Is this a realistic concern in the future? How was slavery in America often justified? Where else do you see societies dehumanizing people in order to control them?

6. Who is John Isidore? Why is he considered a "special"? What's another name for a special? What does he do for a living? What do his surroundings look like? Why does silence have such an impact on Isidore? How would you describe "kipple"? What is entropy?

7. The Latin expression, "Mors certa, vita incerta" means "Death is certain, life uncertain." How might this idea be functioning in the novel?

8. When John Isidore fuses with Mercer he tells a story involving animals. What other religious/mythic stories are you reminded of here?

9. What is an "ersatz substitute"? Where do we see similar concepts in other novels? What does it mean for something to be "real"?

10. What has happened to Dave Holden?

11. What is the concern about the new "extra clever" andys with the Nexus 6 brain units? Who manufactures them?

12. What is the Voigt-Kampff Empathy Test? What Institute manufactures this? Why is the name significant? Why is the use of the test ironic? What do you make of the idea that the "servant had in some cases become more adroit than its master." What early science fiction novel does this remind you of?

13. What can chickenheads do that andys can't? Why might this be significant? Are humans the only beings that can experience empathy?

14. What is ironic about the statement "You shall kill only the killers"?

DADES: Chapter 1

If you're just joining the blog, please read the earlier posting explaining how to read critically and write a response. Here are questions you might consider pondering in your posting for Chapter 1:

1. What might be the significance of the epigraph?
2. What is the Penfield mood organ? Consider techniques we use in the 21st century to alter our mood.
3. Describe the characters of Rick Deckard and his wife, Iran. Describe their relationship. What do you predict will become of them?
4. What is the setting? Is the setting believable? Why or why not?
5. Why do people wear lead codpieces?
7. What has happened that has lead to the present state (half empty apartment buildings, mass emigration from Earth, fallout/dust)?
8. What is a "regular"? What is a "special"? What do you make of a society that makes such distinctions?
9. Why do you think animals are so important in this future society?
10. What do you think Mercerism might be?
11. What does it mean to be human? List as many qualities as you can think of that distinguish us from animals and/or machines.

Blogging with Androids

This semester you will be creating your own blog to use as a writing journal as we read our first novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K. Dick. Your class assignment (for 2/13) is to create your own blog by going to Blogger. The best way to learn your way around the blog is just to PLAY. You can customize the look of your blog with a variety of templates, pictures, lists, links, etc. Make these personal and you will enjoy this exercise more.

This novel (DADES for short) offers a confusing, even disorienting narrative, so if you're having trouble making sense of the text, you're not alone. The purpose of the blog will be to interact with the text. Like a detective, you will try to uncover possible meanings through the reading/ writing/thinking process. Please annotate your text as a regular practice. This means taking notes as you read. Since I'm giving you class texts, consider using post-its as you're reading to write down anything that grabs your attention. As you read, jot down questions, connections, definitions, and patterns. Consider the plot, setting, and characters. Developing the habit of close reading will make reading more enjoyable!

So, for each chapter, please write a minimum of three well-developed paragraphs. The range of interpretive options might include:

1) questioning text to clarify or probe
2) reflecting on possible meanings
3) making connections to other texts, to self, and to world
4) discussing literary techniques and their effects

There are no right answers, but your ideas should be grounded in the text itself. If you have trouble getting started, consider selecting three passages that you think are significant and explaining why. Be specific.

We will all link to each other's blogs so we can share our ideas. Please be mindful that this is an online classroom and language should be adjusted accordingly. Also, because we are writing for a wide audience, check your writing carefully for clarity and mechanical errors before you post. In addition, before you publish read your writing aloud. Please do not use the language of text messaging.


For homework, 2/15
Please complete the "Survey: Technology and You" on the right hand side of the screen. The anonymous results will be sent to me, and we'll discuss. Be honest! You must answer "I agree" or "I disagree" to each statement.

Have fun!