Weekly Agenda: November 7-9

Monday, November 7
Discuss homework reading and story conventions
Read and discuss “The Nine Billion Names of God” and “There Will Be Soft Rains”
- plot, characters and setting?
- science fiction conventions?
- purpose, theme or message?
HW:
Journal Prompt: In all the examples of science fiction we have read, the course of human (and sometimes the universe’s) history is shifted because people have somehow tampered with science or technology. Brainstorm types of technology or forms of science that strike you as potentially destructive if abused. Then select one from your list and cluster out some ideas until you have a rough idea of a plot. Finally, write a 1 or 2 page scene (NOT whole story) that depicts the moment a) right before something goes terribly and irrevocably wrong; b) the moment when the characters or human race realize something has just gone disastrously wrong; or c) long after the turning point in human history, from the point of view of whoever or whatever remains. Complete by Wednesday, 11/9.


Wednesday, November 9
Volunteers share journals
Introduction to Conventions of Fantasy & Speculative Fiction
Partner Work:
Read and discuss excerpts from Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities (handout)
- determine purpose and message for each vignette
- highlight use of conventions for each
- summarize setting & locate vivid and/or sensory description
Share/discuss
HW: Read “The Dome” (handout). Write a ½ page journal entry discussing fantasy conventions used, whether obvious or subtle. What in this story seems fantastic (in other words, stretches or defies believability, and asks us to suspend our disbelief)? What moral or message does the writer seem to be getting at through the spin on our world that he creates?