Discussion questions

Use complete sentences and provide examples from the book in your responses. 

1) The book is titled The Stepford Wives, but it could also be titled The Stepford Husbands. Analyze the husbands in the novel, and their goals. Why don't they simply make robots to help their wives cook and clean? If this is a satire, what might these "exaggerated" men represent about society-at-large in the 1970s?

2) What role does domestic labor and the invisible work that housewives and mothers do play in the novel? What are the forms of labor that they do that are uncompensated and often not seen or appreciated?  

3) How do media and pornographic representations of women inform the men’s vision of the “perfect” Stepford Wives? 

4) Just as the environment and systemic structure of slavery influenced Rufus in Kindred, how does the environment and ideals of Stepford influence Walter? What does this tell us about how susceptible humans are to their environments? 

Workshop Questions

DIRECTIONS: Please answer in complete sentences and take time and care in responding, as you will be graded on your answers. You do not need to write down the questions.
You should address all questions within a given section. Give the notes to the Paper Author when finished. They will hand it in to me next week at the beginning of class on the day your final paper is due, and you will both get credit for the assignment.

1) Is the essay's thesis clear? Point out any areas where it could be clearer. Is it arguable? Is it well-qualified (specific)? Even if the thesis seems to be specific enough, suggest a way for the writer to make it even more specific and narrow (i.e. do they list the topics they plan to discuss in the body paragraphs?). Also note any awkward grammar or unclear word choice. 

2) Does the writer incorporate research from scholarly sources into the essay? Do the sources seem to be strong and relevant for the thesis at hand? Do not ask the writer to tell you about them, but judge them based solely on what is in the paper. Write what you know about the sources below and give any suggestions for what you need to know more about. Also please note if they seem to be forcing irrelevant sources onto their paper.

3) Does the writer incorporate plenty of quotes/paraphrases from Kindred and the outside sources examples in the essay? They should! Are those quotes strong enough to use? Which quote is the strongest and which is the weakest? Why? 

4) Does the writer provide convincing, sufficient analysis for each and every one of their quotations/paraphrases? Remember, analysis is as important than the quote itself. Make suggestions for improvement below, and be specific. The analysis should of course connect back to the thesis.

5) Is the paper organized? Do the main topics of the body paragraphs seem to build logically upon one another? Are the quotations logically organized? Give at least one suggestion for improvement.

6) What are some ways in which the author might expand their ideas further? Are there any logical connections they could be making that are missing from the essay? Is their critical thinking going deep enough, or are they staying at a surface level with their interpretations of the text? Give suggestions for at least two places in the essay where they can go deeper.

Hi everyone,

As a courtesy, I’ve decided to  remind you about the expectations for the workshop next class session. Workshops are valuable days as they offer you a lot of insights into your writing process and how you can improve as a writer. Reading the work of others and critiquing it also offers insight into your own writing. Take this process seriously, and I promise you it will pay off.

Please not that only those students who have completed their rough drafts will be permitted to participate in the workshop and will receive attendance and participation credit for the day. 

Those who did not complete their rough draft, or have an incomplete rough draft, will not be permitted to participate. 

All of the following requirements should be followed for participation:

1)      Rough draft should be printed in two physical copies (make sure to staple them).

2)      Rough draft should be three full pages, at minimum, typed and double spaced. 

3)      Rough draft should include a Works Cited page with your two library sources (at minimum, you may use more if you like), and Kindred.

4)      It should go without saying, but include your research in the essay itself—don’t just list sources you “plan to use later” on the Works Cited page. Always research first, then write.

5)      Show up to class on time. I assign the pairs at the beginning of class, and won’t interrupt pairs for latecomers.

Thanks everyone! Let me know if you have questions. See you next class!

Sci Fi notes

Some basic notes on the genre and key sub-genres within it:

*What is science fiction? The definition is actually somewhat up for debate! One that your professor likes is Serdar Yegulalp's: "A kind of fiction that could only result from a scientifically-influenced worldview."

*According to Octavia Butler, one of the first rules of science fiction was that if you use science, you have to use it accurately. Of course, scientific theory is always developing, which means science fiction from the past may no longer apply the further back you go. Old sci fi novels may seem prophetic in certain ways, and really, really off in others.

As science fiction has developed as a category--basically since the age of Reason and the development of modern science itself--it has become more "open" than being just about science. Generally this rule is now primarily applied to what is called "hard science fiction," which is science fiction that sticks really closely to science in its writing, often dealing with cutting edge physics, etc.

Science fiction is sometimes called "the literature of ideas," although what literature isn't about ideas? This basically means it uses imagination and doesn't take the world as we live in it today for a limitation.

*As I mentioned on the first day of class, we are using the term science fiction somewhat loosely in this class. Some of the novels you are reading deal directly with science fiction themes (like robots), and others would fall more into the broader category of speculative fiction. Speculative fiction is fiction that speculates upon what is real or possible in the world in some significant way. For example, Kindred is speculative in that it posits the possibility of time travel. In a speculative novel, the laws of the universe are called into question in some major way. A science fiction novel where two astronauts get lost in space isn't speculative, because it could happen. A science fiction novel where they encounter alien life is, because this has not happened yet. Speculative fiction also encompasses some other genres: some (but not all) horror, some (but not all) historical fiction (Kindred is also historical fiction), and (all) fantasy.

*Soft science fiction is science fiction that deals with the social sciences such as economics, psychology, political science, and anthropology. Dystopian/utopian narratives fall under this umbrella.

One note on hard vs soft: sometimes these lines are broken down in a way that makes critics (including your professor) uncomfortable. After all "soft" sounds weak and "hard" sounds much more serious and important; they even have gendered elements to them at times (almost all the "hard" science fiction writers are male. Just as the sciences have struggled to create a more gender inclusive environment, it's important to consider each work of science fiction and its relationship to science as a field on its own terms, looking at what it offers and why.

It's also worthy to note that just as many of the inventions and "prophecies" in hard sci fi have turned out to be bunk as they have in soft--and soft often gets to the heart of human nature in a very "real" way.

Time Travel Exercise

A lot of time travel narratives deal with what is called "The Grandfather Paradox."

From Wikipedia: "The grandfather paradox is a paradox of time travel in which inconsistencies emerge through changing the past. The name comes from the paradox's common description as a person who travels to the past and kills their own grandfather, preventing the existence of their father or mother and therefore their own existence. Any inconsistency in past events may be regarded as a grandfather paradox."

One of the things I asked you to think about with Kindred is how the past is already always alive in the present. One reason I asked you to think about this is because it necessarily points to how this novel is about a truth about past and present that goes deeper than The Grandfather Paradox, as the paradox is about linear time.

In order to start understanding these distinctions, I'd like you, along with the person I paired you with, to create the basic plot summary for a time travel narrative in which someone changes something in the past (whether small or large), and for you to articulate how that practically affects the present.

Your write up should be well thought through--give this a good page.

Discuss together all the various ways in which this situation could go wrong, all the variables that might be unknown.

Your character should start off from TODAY and go backward to some time of your choosing in human history. The significance of the time period matters, too. Why did you choose it?