COLQ
2191
Professor: Matthew Silverman
Office: Russell Hall Room 215
Office Hours: TBA
Email: msilverman@gordonstate.edu
Phone: 678-359-5069 (office)
478-832-0056 (cell, prefer texts)
Paper Topics:
1.
Pick a movie that is based on a dystopian book. Compare and contrast the two
using literary elements and the dystopian characteristics. Think about what it
may be a criticism of.
2.
Pick a dystopian novel and analyze how it is dystopian, what it is a criticism
of, and use the literary elements.
Paper Novel Choices:
a)
The Girl with all the Gifts
by M. R. Carey (YA)
b)
Brave New World
by Aldolus Huxley
c)
The City of Ember
by Jean DuPrau (YA)
d)
Divergent
by Veronica Roth (YA)
e)
1984
by George Orwell
f)
Fahrenheit 451
by Ray Bradbury (classic sci-fi)
g)
The Girl Who Owned a City
by O T Nelson (YA)
h)
Handmaid's Tale
by Margaret Atwood (feminist)
i)
Clockwork Orange
by Anthony Burgess
j)
The Fifth Wave
by Rick Yancy (YA)
k)
The Giver
by Lois Lowry (YA)
l)
Legend by Marie Lu
m)
Maze Runner
by James Dashner (YA)
n)
The Darkest Minds
by Alexandra Bracken (YA)
o)
Parable of Sower
by Octavia Butler
p)
Planet of the Apes
by Pierre Boulle (1963)
q)
Pure
by Julianna Baggot (YA)
r)
The Road
by Cormac McCarthy (Pulitzer-winning literary)
s)
Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi (YA)
t) The Last Policeman
by Ben H. Winters (detective)
u)
Underground Airlines
by Ben H. Winters (historical fiction)
v)
The Knife of Never Letting Go
by Patrick Ness
w)
Wool
by Hugh Howey
x)
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes
(prequel)
y)
The Time Machine
by H G Wells (classic sci-fi)
Descriptions of Each Paper Topic Book:
a)
The Girl with all the Gifts
by M. R. Carey (YA)
Melanie is a little genius “hungry” girl in a post-apocalyptic classroom who
admires her teacher and distrusts the soldiers.
b)
Brave New World
by Aldolus Huxley (the "Granddaddy" of utopian sci-fi)
Ranked #5 on best 100 books of 20th Century. Set in a
technologically-advanced utopian future where humans are genetically bred,
socially indoctrinated, and pharmaceutically anesthetized to passively uphold an
authoritarian ruling order–all at the cost of our freedom, full humanity, and
perhaps also our souls. It begins with the 2 characters Bernard and Lenina
taking a holiday outside the World State to a Savage Reservation in New Mexico
and it unravels from there.
c)
The
City of Ember
by Jean DuPrau (YA)
Ember is the only light in a dark world. But when its lamps begin to flicker,
two friends must race to escape the dark. The city of Ember was built as a
last refuge for the human race. Two hundred years later, the great lamps that
light the city are beginning to dim. When Lina finds part of an ancient message,
she’s sure it holds a secret that will save the city. Now, she and her friend
Doon must race to figure out the clues to keep the lights on. If they succeed,
they will have to convince everyone to follow them into danger. But if they
fail? The lights will burn out and the darkness will close in forever.
d)
Divergent
by Veronica Roth (YA)
Set in a dystopian Chicago where one choice can transform you, Beatrice
Prior finds herself born into a society divided into five factions—Candor (the
honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful),
and Erudite (the intelligent). Beatrice must choose between staying with her
Abnegation family and transferring factions. Her choice will shock her community
and herself. But the newly christened Tris (Beatrice)also has a secret; one
she's determined to keep hidden, because in this world, what makes you
different makes you dangerous.
e)
1984
by George Orwell (the "Granddaddy" of dystopian sci-fi)
Written more than 70 years ago, 1984 was George Orwell’s chilling
prophecy about the future. And while 1984 has come and gone, his dystopian
vision of a government that will do anything to control the narrative is
timelier than ever. Nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS.
Winston Smith toes the Party line, rewriting history to satisfy the demands of
the Ministry of Truth. With each lie he writes, Winston grows to hate the Party
that seeks power for its own sake and persecutes those who dare to commit
thought crimes. But as he starts to think for himself, Winston can’t escape the
fact that Big Brother is always watching.
f)
Fahrenheit 451
by Ray Bradbury (classic dystopian sci-fi)
Sixty years after its originally publication, Ray Bradbury’s internationally
acclaimed novel Fahrenheit 451 stands as a classic of world literature
set in a bleak, dystopian future. Today its message has grown more relevant than
ever before. Guy Montag is a fireman. His job is to destroy the most illegal
of commodities, the printed book, along with the houses in which they are
hidden. Montag never questions the destruction and ruin his actions produce,
returning each day to his bland life and wife, Mildred, who spends all day with
her television “family.” But when he meets an eccentric young neighbor,
Clarisse, who introduces him to a past where people didn’t live in fear and to a
present where one sees the world through the ideas in books instead of the
mindless chatter of television, Montag begins to question everything he has ever
known.
g)
The Girl Who Owned a City
by O T Nelson (very young YA)
A deadly plague has devastated Earth, killing all the adults. Lisa and her
younger brother Todd are struggling to stay alive in a world where no one is
safe. Other children along Grand Avenue need help as well. They band together to
find food, shelter, and protection from dangerous gangs invading their
neighborhood. When Tom Logan and his army start making threats, Lisa comes up
with a plan and leads her group to a safer place. But how far is she willing to
go to protect what's hers?
h)
Handmaid's Tale
by Margaret Atwood (feminist)
In a dystopian future, environmental disasters and declining birthrates have led
to a Second American Civil War. The result is the rise of the Republic of
Gilead, a totalitarian regime that enforces rigid social roles and enslaves the
few remaining fertile women. Offred is one of these, a Handmaid bound to produce
children for one of Gilead’s commanders. Deprived of her husband, her child, her
freedom, and even her own name, Offred clings to her memories and her will to
survive. At once a scathing satire, an ominous warning, and a tour de force of
narrative suspense... The Handmaid’s Tale is a modern classic.
i)
Clockwork Orange
by Anthony Burgess
In a
nightmare vision of the future, where the criminals take over after dark, the
story is told by the central character, Alex, a teen who talks in a
fantastically inventive slang that evocatively renders his and his friends’
intense reaction against their society. A Clockwork Orange is a
frightening, gritty and dark fable about good and evil and the meaning of human
freedom. (Note: There is an edition that includes the controversial last chapter
not published in the first edition).
j)
The Fifth Wave
by Rick Yancy (YA)
After the 1st wave, only darkness remains. After the 2nd, only the lucky escape.
And after the 3rd, only the unlucky survive. After the 4th wave, only one
rule applies: trust no one. Now, it's the dawn of the 5th wave, and on a lonely
stretch of highway, Cassie runs from Them. The beings who only look human, who
roam the countryside killing anyone they see. Who have scattered Earth's last
survivors. To stay alone is to stay alive, Cassie believes, until she meets Evan
Walker. Beguiling and mysterious, Evan Walker may be Cassie's only hope for
rescuing her brother--or even saving herself. But Cassie must choose: between
trust and despair, between defiance and surrender, between life and death. To
give up or to get up. With a surprising plot twist, the book is
entertaining.
k)
The Giver
by Lois Lowry (Utopian YA)
The Giver, the 1994 Newbery Medal winner, has become one of the most
influential novels of our time. The haunting story centers on twelve-year-old
Jonas, who lives in a seemingly ideal, if colorless, world of conformity and
contentment. Not until he is given his life assignment as the Receiver of Memory
does he begin to understand the dark, complex secrets behind his fragile
community.
l)
Legend by Marie Lu
What was
once the western United States is now home to the Republic, a nation
perpetually at war with its neighbors. Born into an elite family in one of
the Republic's wealthiest districts, fifteen-year-old June is an Asian prodigy
being groomed for success in the Republic's highest military
circles. Born into the slums, fifteen-year-old Day is the country's most
wanted criminal. But his motives may not be as malicious as they seem. From
very different worlds, June and Day have no reason to cross paths - until
the day June's brother, Metias, is murdered and Day becomes the prime
suspect. Caught in the ultimate game of cat and mouse, Day is in a race for
his family's survival, while June seeks to avenge Metias's death. But in a
shocking turn of events, the two uncover the truth of what has really
brought them together, and the sinister lengths their country will go to
keep its secrets. Full of nonstop action, suspense, and romance, this novel
is sure to move readers as much as it thrills.
m)
Maze Runner
by James Dashner (YA)
Outside the towering stone walls that surround the Glade is a limitless,
ever-changing maze. It’s the only way out—and no one’s ever made it through
alive. No one can remember anything but their names. They don't know why they
are here. All boys. But everything is going to change when a girl arrives.
The first girl ever. And the message she delivers is terrifying. Remember.
Survive. Run.
n)
The Darkest Minds
by Alexandra Bracken (YA)
When Ruby, a young African-American girl, woke up on her tenth birthday,
something about her had changed. Something alarming enough to make her parents
lock her in the garage and call the police. Something that got her sent to
Thurmond, a brutal government "rehabilitation camp." She might have survived the
mysterious disease that killed most of America's children, but she and the
others emerged with something far worse: frightening abilities they cannot
control. Now sixteen, Ruby is one of the dangerous ones. But when the truth
about Ruby's abilities—the truth she's hidden from everyone, even the camp
authorities—comes out, Ruby barely escapes Thurmond with her life. On the run,
she joins a group of kids who escaped their own camp: Zu, a young girl haunted
by her past; Chubs, a standoffish brainiac; and Liam, their fearless leader, who
is falling hard for Ruby. But no matter how much she aches for him, Ruby can't
risk getting close. Not after what happened to her parents. While they journey
to find the one safe haven left for kids like them—East River—they must evade
their determined pursuers, including an organization that will stop at nothing
to use Ruby in their fight against the government. But as they get closer to
grasping the things they've dreamed of, Ruby will be faced with a terrible
choice, one that may mean giving up her only chance at a life worth living.
o)
Parable of Sower
by Octavia Butler
When global climate change and economic crises lead to social chaos in the early
2020s, California becomes full of dangers, from pervasive water shortage to
masses of vagabonds who will do anything to live to see another day.
Fifteen-year-old Lauren Olamina,a young African-American daughter of a preacher,
lives inside a gated community with her family and neighbors, sheltered from the
surrounding anarchy. In a society where any vulnerability is a risk, she suffers
from hyperempathy, a debilitating sensitivity to others' emotions. Precocious
and clear-eyed, Lauren must make her voice heard in order to protect her loved
ones from the imminent disasters her small community stubbornly ignores. But
what begins as a fight for survival soon leads to something much more: the birth
of a new faith . . . and a startling vision of human destiny.
p)
Planet of the Apes
by Pierre Boulle (1963)
First published more than fifty years ago, Pierre Boulle’s chilling novel
launched one of the greatest science fiction sagas in motion picture history. In
the not-too-distant future, three astronauts land on what appears to be a planet
just like Earth, with lush forests, a temperate climate, and breathable air. But
while it appears to be a paradise, nothing is what it seems. They soon
discover the terrifying truth: On this world humans are savage beasts, and apes
rule as their civilized masters. In an ironic novel of nonstop action and
breathless intrigue, one man struggles to unlock the secret of a terrifying
civilization, all the while wondering: Will he become the savior of the human
race, or the final witness to its damnation? In a shocking climax that rivals
that of the original movie, Boulle delivers the answer in a masterpiece of
adventure, satire, and suspense.
q)
Pure
by Julianna Baggot (YA)
We know you are here, our brothers and sisters . . . Pressia
barely remembers the Detonations or much about life during the Before. In her
sleeping cabinet behind the rubble of an old barbershop where she lives with her
grandfather, she thinks about what is lost--how the world went from amusement
parks, movie theaters, birthday parties, fathers and mothers . . . to ash and
dust, scars, permanent burns, and fused, damaged bodies. And now, at an age when
everyone is required to turn themselves over to the militia to either be trained
as a soldier or, if they are too damaged and weak, to be used as live targets,
Pressia can no longer pretend to be small. Pressia is on the run.
There are those who escaped the apocalypse unmarked: Pures. They are
tucked safely inside the Dome that protects their healthy, superior bodies. Yet
Partridge, whose father is one of the most influential men in the Dome, feels
isolated and lonely. Different. He thinks about loss--maybe just because his
family is broken; his father is emotionally distant; his brother killed himself;
and his mother never made it inside their shelter. Or maybe it's his
claustrophobia: his feeling that this Dome has become a swaddling of intensely
rigid order. So when a slipped phrase suggests his mother might still be alive,
Partridge risks his life to leave the Dome to find her. When Pressia meets
Partridge, their worlds shatter all over again.
r)
The Road
by Cormac McCarthy (Pulitzer-winning literary)
A father and his son walk alone through burned America. Nothing moves in the
ravaged landscape save the ash on the wind. It is cold enough to crack stones,
and when the snow falls it is gray. The sky is dark. Their destination is the
coast, although they don't know what, if anything, awaits them there. They have
nothing; just a pistol to defend themselves against the lawless bands that stalk
the road, the clothes they are wearing, a cart of scavenged food—and each other.
The Road is the profoundly moving story of a journey. It boldly
imagines a future in which no hope remains, but in which the father and his son,
"each the other's world entire," are sustained by love. Awesome in the totality
of its vision, it is an unflinching meditation on the worst and the best that we
are capable of: ultimate destructiveness, desperate tenacity, and the tenderness
that keeps two people alive in the face of total devastation.
s)
The Last Policeman
by Ben H. Winters (detective)
Detective Hank Palace has faced this question ever since asteroid 2011GV1
hovered into view. There’s no chance left. No hope. Just six precious months
until impact. The Last Policeman presents a fascinating portrait of a
pre-apocalyptic United States. The economy spirals downward while crops rot in
the fields. Churches and synagogues are packed. People all over the world are
walking off the job—but not Hank Palace. He’s investigating a death by hanging
in a city that sees a dozen suicides every week—except this one feels
suspicious, and Palace is the only cop who cares. The first in a trilogy, The
Last Policeman offers a mystery set on the brink of an apocalypse. As
Palace’s investigation plays out under the shadow of 2011GV1, we’re confronted
by hard questions way beyond “whodunit.” What basis does civilization rest
upon? What is life worth? What would any of us do, what would we
really do, if our days were numbered?
t)
Shatter Me by
Tahereh Mafi (Romance Dystopian YA)
One touch is all it takes. One touch, and Juliette Ferrars can leave a
fully grown man gasping for air. One touch, and she can kill. No one knows why
Juliette has such incredible power. It feels like a curse, a burden that one
person alone could never bear. But The Reestablishment sees it as a gift, sees
her as an opportunity. An opportunity for a deadly weapon. Juliette has never
fought for herself before. But when she’s reunited with the one person who ever
cared about her, she finds a strength she never knew she had.
u)
Underground Airlines
by Ben H. Winters (historical fiction)
A young black man calling himself Victor has struck a bargain with federal law
enforcement, working as a bounty hunter for the US Marshall Service in exchange
for his freedom. He's got plenty of work. In this version of America, slavery
continues in four states called "the Hard Four." On the trail of a runaway known
as Jackdaw, Victor arrives in Indianapolis knowing that something isn't right --
with the case file, with his work, and with the country itself. As he works to
infiltrate the local cell of a abolitionist movement called the Underground
Airlines, tracking Jackdaw through the back rooms of churches, empty parking
garages, hotels, and medical offices, Victor believes he's hot on the trail. But
his strange, increasingly uncanny pursuit is complicated by a boss who won't
reveal the extraordinary stakes of Jackdaw's case, as well as by a heartbreaking
young woman and her child -- who may be Victor's salvation. Victor believes
himself to be a good man doing bad work, unwilling to give up the freedom he has
worked so hard to earn. But in pursuing Jackdaw, Victor discovers secrets at the
core of the country's arrangement with the Hard Four, secrets the government
will preserve at any cost. Underground Airlines is a ground-breaking
novel, a wickedly imaginative thriller, and a story of an America that is more
like our own than we'd like to believe.
v)
The Knife of Never Letting Go
by Patrick Ness
Todd Hewitt is the only boy in a town of men. Ever since the settlers were
infected with the Noise germ, Todd can hear everything the men think, and they
hear everything he thinks. Todd is just a month away from becoming a man, but in
the midst of the cacophony, he knows that the town is hiding something from him
— something so awful Todd is forced to flee with only his dog, whose simple,
loyal voice he hears too. With hostile men from the town in pursuit, the two
stumble upon a strange and eerily silent creature: a girl. Who is she? Why
wasn't she killed by the germ like all the females on New World? Propelled by
Todd's gritty narration, readers are in for a white-knuckle journey in which a
boy on the cusp of manhood must unlearn everything he knows in order to figure
out who he truly is
w)
Wool
by Hugh Howey
For suspense-filled, post-apocalyptic thrillers, Wool is the new standard
in classic science fiction. In a ruined and toxic future, a community exists in
a giant silo underground, hundreds of stories deep. There, men and women live in
a society full of regulations they believe are meant to protect them. Sheriff
Holston, who has unwaveringly upheld the silo’s rules for years, unexpectedly
breaks the greatest taboo of all: He asks to go outside. His fateful decision
unleashes a drastic series of events. An unlikely candidate is appointed to
replace him: Juliette, a mechanic with no training in law, whose special knack
is fixing machines. Now Juliette is about to be entrusted with fixing her silo,
and she will soon learn just how badly her world is broken. The silo is about to
confront what its history has only hinted about and its inhabitants have never
dared to whisper. Uprising.
x)
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes
(prequel to The Hunger Games)
It is the morning of the reaping that will kick off the tenth annual
Hunger Games. In the Capitol, eighteen-year-old Coriolanus Snow is preparing for
his one shot at glory as a mentor in the Games. The once-mighty house of Snow
has fallen on hard times, its fate hanging on the slender chance that Coriolanus
will be able to out charm, outwit, and outmaneuver his fellow students to mentor
the winning tribute. The odds are against him. He’s been given the humiliating
assignment of mentoring the female tribute from District 12, the lowest of the
low. Their fates are now completely intertwined — every choice Coriolanus makes
could lead to favor or failure, triumph or ruin. Inside the arena, it will be a
fight to the death. Outside the arena, Coriolanus starts to feel for his doomed
tribute . . . and must weigh his need to follow the rules against his desire to
survive no matter what it takes.
y)
The Time Machine
by H G Wells (classic sci-fi)
There are really four dimensions, three which we call the three planes of
Space, and a fourth, Time. When an English Scientist, known only as the Time
Traveller, invents a machine that can travel through time, the most logical
outcome would be to test such a machine. After a trial run that saw him travel
three hours into the future, the Time Traveller pushes further into the future
to year 802,701, where he meets a mellow race of humans called the Eloi. Soon he
discovers that the Eloi are not the only human race left on earth...
Movie Choices (based on books):
Think about how many films are dystopian including
The Terminator,
Mad Max, The Blade Runner movies, The Watchmen, Xmen:
Days of Future Past,
Logan, The Lego Movie and all the zombie craze such as
The Walking Dead, 28 Days, and Warm Bodies. Others
include: The Matrix, Oblivion, and even the loveable cartoon
called Wall-E.
Click links below for trailers.
a)
The Hunger Games
b)
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
c)
Divergent
d)
The Road
e)
The City of Ember
f)
The Girl with all the Gifts
g)
Fahrenheit 451
(Michael B Jordan version)
h)
The Maze Runner
i)
The Giver
j)
Children of Men
k)
The Postman
l)
V for Vendetta
m)
Edge of Tomorrow
(based on All You Need Is Kill)
n)
Logan’s Run
o)
On the Beach
(1959) – might be full movie
p)
Planet of the Apes
(1968)
q)
Blade Runner
(1982) - loosely based on Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
r)
Equilibrium
(2002, based on Nineteen Eighty-Four)
s)
Snowpiercer
(2014 movie not TV show - based on French graphic novel Le
Transperceneige
later renamed The Escape
Presentation Day Choices (use creative media apps):
Creative Media Project with Response Paragraph
500
million hours of video are watched on YouTube each day! Videos and multimedia
are becoming central to learning and creative development. For this assignment,
you are to create a video project that includes both audio and visual components
with one goal in mind: to educate the class on a Victorian writer through one of
their published works found within our textbook. You will have time to work on
this in class, and if questions arise please do not hesitate to contact me to
discuss it further.
Objectives:
·
To promote student learning
of course concepts
·
To encourage active
learning and engagement with course materials
·
To understand course
concepts and Victorian ideals
·
To develop digital
communication skills
·
To promote creativity and
self-growth
Tools: (While
Prezzi and PowerPoint are okay, consider these others which I consider the
pathway to going above and beyond toward the A+ Pathway!)
Ø
Windows MovieMaker
Ø
Funanimation
Ø
PowToons
Ø
Moovly
Ø
My Simple Show
Ø
Go Animate
Ø
Camtasia
Ø
Micrsoft Photo Story
Ø
Animoto
Ø
Animaker
Ø
Doodly
Ø
CrazyTalk
Ø
VideoScribe
Ø
Wideo
Ø
Explee
Ø
Explaindio
Ø
Biteable (check out their
templates like the one for Claymation!)
Does
this mean you have to buy software or pay money to subscribe to anything?
No!
Absolutely Not! Most have trial periods and if you cancel in time, you won’t
be charged! Others are completely free! Investigate and see what you are capable
of! This will require TIME and careful PLANNING and EXPLORING
to see what you are capable of!
Thematic analysis:
Choose one dystopian theme (romantic love, propaganda, human nature, human
freedom, societal criticism, totalitarian governments, loss of
self/individuality, ecological devastation, technology as danger, protagonist as
aware hero, etc.) and analyze a short story text or book or film that is
pre-approved by the instructor in the context of this theme. Present your
findings in a visual format (creative media app) that includes: heading,
dystopian theme and text for title, images to support your findings, text to
show your analysis, and a works cited info at the end. While summary may be a
component, this should be an analysis.