Choice Novels Work

Required for all:

1. Character analysis -- Pick a character, pick 3 scenes (roughly from the beginning, middle, and end), and show how the character changes. Use the good old LEAF format (3 paragraphs).
   
2. Conflict/resolution analysis -- Identify a major conflict. How is it resolved? Is it appropriate for the characters/story? Is it fulfilling (for you)? Discuss (1/2 - 1 "page").
   
3. Style analysis -- describe the style of the writing. Use specific examples to support your points (at least 3 passages).

Creative Options (or not):

1. Dramatize 4-8 scenes from your book (possibly with some partners) either in person or on video.
2. Script 4-8 scenes your book -- put the story into a NEW CONTEXT.
3. Story-board 4-8 scenes from book. If you were adapting the novella to film, how would you "shoot" the scenes -- either use colonial context OR put the story in a new context.
4. Write the good old critical essay.

Don't forget your Q2 goals!

Heart of Darkness Work

Required for all readers:

1. Close-read the novella
2. Complete Moodle E/A work.
   
3. "Translate" HoD into 1-3 Haiku. This poetic form is often reduced to "3 lines of 5, 7, and 5 syllables each." While this is true, a more important aspect of haiku -- in my humble opinion -- is the volta, or "turn", or sudden and brief "illumination", which usually occurs in the second or third lines. There is a brief epiphany, in other words. Aside from the volta, a haiku is also a series of "image bursts" -- because it is to brief and terse, a good haiku suggests and points to way more than it actually "says."
4. Pick an essay from the Pitt State college syllabus here -- http://faculty.pittstate.edu/~knichols/colonial3d.html -- (The first of which is the famous critique of HoD by Chinua Achebe). Engage with one -- agree or disagree with 3-5+ points that the writer makes and say why.

Choose one (or more):

1. Dramatize 4-8 scenes from HoD (possibly with some partners) either in person or on video -- put the story into a NEW CONTEXT.
2. Script 4-8 scenes from HoD -- put the story into a NEW CONTEXT.
3. Story-board 4-8 scenes from HoD. If you were adapting the novella to film, how would you "shoot" the scenes -- either use colonial context OR put the story in a new context.
4. Write the good old critical essay.
   

Last option: Pick one of the four above and do the critical essay.

Don't forget your Q2 goals!

Blade Runner and Maltese Falcon Assignments

Finish The Maltese Falcon for Tues/Wed October 26/27. Be ready for seriously ridiculous quizzes of stupefying magnitude(s)!

Respond to one of the following prompts:

• Look up a review for Blade Runner -- agree/disagree with it (provide the link).
• Discuss Gaff's origami and match-stick work.
• So... Deckard's an android, eh? So what?
• Discuss Scott's artistic choices in adapting the novel to the screen.
• Discuss Scott's choice of pervasive darkness for the tone -- does it work?
• Discuss the retro/noir elements of BR -- do they work?
• Come up w/your own question and discuss it.

***Extra Credit Prompt: Examine Roy's use (misquote) of William Blake's poem "America: A Prophesy" ("Fiery the angels fell...) -- how does it inform the narrative of BR?

And respond to one of these following prompts:

• Compare and Contrast Spade and Deckard (novel Deckard).
• Compare and Contrast the writing styles of Hammett and Dick. (Either of these is "essay-worthy" if you're up for it.)
• Put a character from DADOES in a scene with a character from TMF.
• If Brigid were an android, would Spade still love/hate her?

7 Samurai Response

Using specific examples from the film respond to one of the following questions, either in your blogs or as a doc -- 1 page (more or less), and an informal tone/style is fine:

• What does Katsushiro at the end? Does he get together with Shino or take off? What leads you to believe this? What does it say (What does Kurosawa say) about the tension between farmers and samurai?
  
• Why does Kambei say, essentially, "The victory does not belong to us -- it belongs to the farmers"? What does it connect back to (and how) in the film?
• Is Kikuchiyo a "real" samurai by the end of the film? How so?
• Seven Samurai is widely regarded as one of the greatest films of all time -- do you agree or disagree with this assessment -- why/why not?
• Discuss Kurosawa's use of the symbolism of triangles and circles -- what's he getting at?
• Pick your favorite samurai and examine his character -- what makes him a good/great samurai according to the Bushido (code of the warrior)?
  

DADOES End of the Book Options

Post options -- Respond to one of the following questions:

1. Is Deckard an android?
2. Is Mercer real?
3. Do androids deserve rights on earth 2021?
4. Is the ending real?
5. What's up with the toad?
6. Or come up with your own question...
   

DADOES End of the Book Options:

• Critical essay, straight up*
• Allusion exploration: take any allusion in DADOES, and explore it more deeply by addressing the following questions: What is the original context of the allusion? How was it received by the public? What kind of themes arose? How does it inform DADOES?
  
• Create a new allusion: What else might have PKD included to inform his DADOES narrative? Where would it fit and how? What would it bring to the story?
• Create a sound-track for DADOES. Provide copious liner-notes.
• Redesign the book cover. Provide an explanation of your artistic choices.
• Write yourself into a scene in DADOES.
• Rewrite a chapter as a part of a screenplay. Provide stage directions.
• Choreograph an interpretive dance and perform it.
• Shoot a scene for DADOES the movie. Or create the trailer.
  
• Pitch me a new idea...

Due Friday 9/30.

*If you are gunning for an A in this class, you have to have a critical essay on file for the text of your choice by the end of the semester.

List of Stuff You Should Have

1. 1-3 Notes
2. 4-6 Notes
3. 1 Blog post
4. 7-10 Notes, post, email, or whatever
5. 11-13 Notes, post, etc.
6. Predictions post
   
7. 14-17 Notes, posts, etc.
   
8. 17 - end You know the drill

Last post/write-up:
Explore one theme in DADOES, and examine how it plays out. You should select at least 3 quotes from roughly the beginning, middle, and end of the novel.

All of the above will comprise the DADOES reading/critical thinking assessment.