Feed by M.T. Anderson: How can writers use fiction to make an argument about the world we live in?

To be prepared for class on Wednesday, January 7, you need to have selected a passage from each of the Feed's four sections--"moon," "eden," "utopia," slumberland"--that you think we must discuss in order to deal with Anderson's strategies and the book's big themes. Be ready to talk about the passages.

Read and take notes on Feed by M.T. Anderson by class time on Tuesday, January 6. (January 6 is the second day back from the holiday break, fifteen days from today. For those of you who like to plan ahead, if you read twenty pages each of the fifteen nights you'll finish on time. For those of you with a more obsessive relationship to books, eager students have often finished Feed in a few binge-reading sessions.)

What should you take notes on?
* How does Feed critique (or satirize) aspects of American culture in the 21st century?
In Feed, written in 2001 and published in 2002, M.T. Anderson creates a speculative future setting that is based on "cultural conditions as they already were then [in 2001]."   How does the speculative future Anderson creates critique present day "cultural conditions," especially related to technology, consumerism, and interpersonal relationships?
Since Anderson seems critical of the future he creates, Feed is often called a dystopian novel. It has also been called a satirical novel. What makes the novel dystopian? What makes the novel satirical? Are there ways that the novel does not fit these labels?

* How do the choices Anderson has made about language, structure, and various fiction writing elements contribute to the critique (or satire) of American culture in the 21st century? Consider point of view, narrative voice & style, setting, characterization, narrative structure (including not only events & plot, but also titles--the book, the parts, the chapters--and strange mini-chapters in italics).

* Feed's narrative and message are directed toward a young adult audience (14 and up) though adults have enjoyed and have been enlightened by the novel too. How has Anderson seemed to consider the audience when making literary and rhetorical choices? 

* Take notes on anything else that you think about while reading and that you want to talk and write about later that I haven't mentioned above, particularly connections between Feed and your own experiences, observations, studies, and other readings.

How should you take notes?
* Make a bookmark for taking notes by folding a piece of paper in half. This will give you four blocks for notes and questions, one block for each part of the book. Label the blocks "moon," "eden," "utopia," "slumberland".
* Use sticky notes to record your observations, ideas, and questions.
* Take notes in Google Docs or a notebook.
* Buy a physical copy and write in it; buy an electronic copy (with a sense of irony) and highlight, etc.

Hamlet Assessments (from now until holiday break)

Unit Work (Formative Assessments) (30%)

0. All of the "Odds & Ends," "Hamlet's Soliloquies," "Motif/Thread," and "Ophelia Speaks" work is due Monday, December 15.

End-of-Unit Work (Summative Assessments) for Hamlet (70%)

1. Test
Take the Hamlet test on Tuesday, December 16. Use the Hamlet 2014 review (click here) to study in class on Monday and Monday night. (I filled in all the things we didn't get to while reviewing on Friday.) [Assessment worth one end-of-unit grade.]

2. Take-Home Passage Analysis (Q2) Essay
STEP ONE (Annotate the prompt: In class on Monday, December 15 circle what you are being asked to do. Underline key information.)

AP English Language Q2/AP English Literature Q2 Style Essay

Choose a passage from Hamlet that is rich in content and style. Write a formal essay in which you explain how William Shakespeare’s use of literary strategies in the passage contributes to the play's exploration of how the human mind concocts a range of responses to the inherent imperfections of the world, such as deceit, corruption, loss, mortality, and uncertainty.

STEP TWO (Annotate a passage with the prompt in mind)

In class on Monday, December 15, begin annotating a passage of your choice* (50 to 200 lines, give or take). Annotate with the prompt in mind. Pay particular attention to how particular literary strategies contribute to thematic development in the passage. In other words, make sure you apply what you've learned about literary strategies to your analysis of the passage. Don't just point out the strategies but explain how they're thematically significant.

* You cannot choose Hamlet's soliloquies in 1.2, 2.2, 3.1, or 4.4.
[Assessment worth two end-of-unit grades.]

STEP THREE (Plan your essay. Use notes from your annotation of the prompt in your plan.)

STEP FOUR (Write your essay.)

STEP FIVE (Revise. Edit.) Due Tuesday, December 23 (or before you leave for winter holiday break.)

[Click here for the peer-assessment and self-assessment activities that we did earlier in the year when revising our analytical essays about Baldwin and Kincaid.]

3. Motif/Thread Writing and Discussion
Participate in the motif/thread discussion on Wednesday, December 17. (We will use thread to physically connect the desks of the people who participate in the discussion It's fun.) You have already prepared for this discussion by writing about your motif/thread in each of the five chapters in a Google Doc/paper. 

[Assessment worth one end-of-unit grade.]

4. Hamlet Screenplay (excerpt)

You are applying to be the director of a new film version of Hamlet set to begin production in 2014. After studying parts of several versions of Hamlet you have begun work on an application consisting of (1) a screenplay excerpt based on a passage you’ve chosen from the play and (2) an explanation of the choices (including relevance of setting, significance of acting directions, character motivations, subtext, obstacles, and perhaps even proposed actors, music, etc.) for your screenplay.

Additional Directions (READ THE DIRECTIONS)

(1) screenplay excerpt:

Turn the excerpt you have chosen into a screenplay with interpolated film directions about elements such as setting, movement, speaking, facial expression, sound, music, camera shot selection, etc. Use the screenplay format. (See screenplay format handouts.)

(2) screenplay explanation:

Explain and justify the choices you've made in the screenplay excerpt. Consider your setting descriptions, camera shot selection, acting directions, sounds and music, etc. Consider how these choices relate to each important character’s objectives/motivations, subtext, obstacles, and adjustments in the scene. You might also consider how these choices relate to other aspects of the text, like the imagery, motifs, metaphors, puns, etc. You might also discuss specific, meaningful ways your Hamlet will differ from and/or build upon famous productions of Hamlet by the likes of Olivier, Zeffirelli, Branagh, Almereyda, and Doran.

All of this is due by the end of the day Tuesday, December 23 (pumpkin time Christmas Eve Eve).[Assessment worth two end-of-unit grades.]

Hamlet Review 2014

Hamlet Review 2014
[Copy these active listener notes into a Google Doc and fill in the blanks.]

What have we learned about how language works in literature, about Elizabethan theatre, about Shakespeare’s writing, and about Hamlet itself? What's so great about Shakespeare? What's so great about Hamlet?

How does the play illustrate the complexity and variety of human responses to corrupt acts, traumatic loss, and the realization of human mortality (including one’s own)? What does the play suggest about these responses? 

I.                     Hamlet’s sound

   A.      _______________ _______________ provide memorable closure and summation

      1.     “The time is out of joint: O cursed spite / That ever I was born to set it right.” (1.5)

2.   “The play’s the thing  / Wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the king.” (2.2)

   B.       _______________ _______________ / _______________ _________________________

      1.        provides structure, unity

      2.        provides potential for emphasis by way of variation: “to be or not to be; that is the question.”

II.                   Hamlet’s language

   A.      Pun

      1.        5.1 “lie”: lie down & tell lies (Gravedigger and Hamlet)

      2.        4.7 “too much of water”:  tears & drowning (Laertes)
      3.    4.3 "At supper...Not where he eats but where he is eaten" (Hamlet to Claudius about Polonius)

   B.       Double entendre
      1. "her privates we" (Guildenstern 2.2)
      2. Hamlet talking to Ophelia during the Murder of Gonzago. (3.2)
   C.    Paradox
        “more than kin and less than kind” (1.2) [This is also an aside.]
   D.    Oxymoron
        "defeated joy" "mirth in funeral...dirge in marriage" (Claudius 1.2)

   E.       Metaphors:
       "slings and arrows of outrageous fortune" (Hamlet 3.1)
   F.    Hyperbole
        "I loved Ophelia. Forty thousand brothers/Could not with all their quality of love/Make up my sum." (Hamlet 5.1)
   G.    Analogy
       "The harlot's cheek beautied with plast'ring art/Is not more ugly to the thing that helps it/Than is my deed to my most painted word." (Claudius 3.1) [This is also an aside.]
   H. Other figurative language
      king > worm > fish > beggar can be seen as a figurative way inverting the Elizabethan social structure (Hamlet 4.3)

   I.     Syntax

       1. inverted sentence: “O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I.” (Hamlet 2.2)

       2. periodic (delayed) sentence: “Within a month, / Ere yet the salt of most unrighteous tears / Had left the flushing in her galled eyes, / She married.” (Hamlet 1.2)

       3. interrupted sentence: "But two months dead--nay, not so much not two." "Any yet, within a month/(Let me not think on't; frailty, thy name is woman!) (Hamlet 1.2)

III.                 Hamlet as theatre

   A.      Acting Choices (interpretations)

      1.        Laurence Olivier (director and Hamlet)

      2.    Franco Zeffirelli (director), Mel Gibson (Hamlet)

      3.    Kenneth Branagh (director and Hamlet)

      4.    Michael Almereyda (director), Ethan Hawke (Hamlet)

      5.    Gregory Doran (director), David Tennant (Hamlet)

   
   B.       Visual Choices (interpretations)

   Ex. “to be or not to be”

      1.       Olivier's spiral stairs, cliff, crashing waves, bodkin = confusion, conflict, drama

      2.        Zefferelli’s catacombs= death “the undiscovered country”

      3.        Branagh’s mirror, bodkin= deceit, also outward action v. self-directed action
      4.    Almereyda’s Blockbuster= “Action” / “Go Home Happy” (irony)
      5.    Tennant's eyes=looked at, looking at; relationship with audience

IV.           Hamlet’s patterns

   A.      Characters

      1.        Hamlet’s foils (contrasting characters):
          a. sons responding to the deaths of fathers

 ____________________      ____________________

           b.  Another similarity and contrast: Hamlet (acts mad, wishes to die), Ophelia (is mad, allows herself to do die)

      2.      Hamlet's age 
       a. Is Hamlet's age (revealed in 5.1) symbolic of his growing maturity?
       b. Is it a reflection of Richard Burbage's age? (Burbage was the star actor in Lord Chamberlain's Men, Shakespeare's acting company. He would have been thirty around the time Hamlet was first performed.)

      3.        Who “spies”? How?

      4.   Who follows and obeys? Who flatters authority (kisses up to those in power)?

   B.       Plot*

      1.        Dramatic Irony (3.3)

         a.        Hamlet believes ____________________ is confessing for his sins and so does not kill him.

         b.       The reader/audience knows that ____________________ has failed to confess.

         c.        Mel Gibson claims that Hamlet’s failure to kill ____________________ here triggers all the other deaths in the play (triggers the tragedy as such).

      2.        Fitting deaths

         a.        ____________________ dies spying (3.4)

         b.       ____________________ dies passively (& in water) (4.7)

         c.        ____________________ dies drinking to Hamlet (Perhaps her death triggers Hamlet to action vs. Claudius.) (5.2)

         d.       ____________________ (“I am justly killed by my own treachery.”) (5.2)

         e.        ____________________ (by sword and drink) (5.2)

         f.         ____________________ (“the rest is silence”: Does Shakespeare intend this as a tragic and ironic contrast with Hamlet’s constant speaking) (5.2)

         g.       ____________________ ____________________ die as servants (4.6, 5.1, 5.2) ("They did make love to this employment.")

      3.        What is the significance of Fortinbras becoming king?

         a.        Elizabethan convention

         b.       Is Shakespeare suggesting something about fate and fortune?
         c.   Or about decisive action?
         d.   Or about deception? (See: Branagh's 5.2)
         e.   What do you think of Branagh's interpretation? 

   C.       Imagery (Who and/or what theme(s) is (are) associated with these images?)

      1.        water / liquid

      2.        weeds / flowers

      3.        Serpents, adders, rats and other animals:

      4.        painting  [make-up]

   D. Historical and Mythological Allusion
      1.        Hyperion (Sun God) to Satyr (Goat Man) (1.2 soliloquy)): 

             Hyperion: King Hamlet and Satyr: Claudius

      2.        Priam and Hecuba (2.2 Player’s speech and Hamlet’s second soliloquy):
                          Priam: King Hamlet (but also like Claudius in that he is killed by a son (Pyrrhus) as revenge for the deah of his father (Achilles) and Hecuba: Gertrude [Pyrrhus slaughtering Priam & Hecuba weeping inconsolably for her husband's death continue the theme of responses to tragedy/wrongdoing/death.]
      3.        Julius Caesar (3.2 Murder of Gonzago/Mouse Trap scene, 5.2 graveyard scene) Inside joke? Shakespeare likely wrote JC shortly before Hamlet. Thematic connection: murder, betrayal, revenge
      4.        Alexander the Great (5.1 graveyard scene): Alexander the Great

   E.       Themes

      1.        Fallen world

         a.        Hamlet sees the world as corrupt.

            aa.     “How weary, flat, stale, and unprofitable seem to me all the uses of this world.”

            bb.    “tis an unweeded garden”

            cc.     “Man delights not me nor woman neither”

         b.       This view is triggered – it seems – by his mother’s overhasty marriage (and later by Ophelia’s lying).

            aa.     “Frailty thy name is woman”

            bb.    “Get thee to a nunnery.”     

      2. Deception: Appearance and Reality, Seems and Is
          a. Examples of the gap between appearance and reality in the play
          b. The effect of the gap between appearance and reality in the play
                   Seems to be x but actually is y which causes z.]
      3. Responses to corruption & trauma: Thought and Action 
         a.        Hamlet's Soliloquies 1.2, 2.2, 3.1, 4.4 
         b.       Ophelia's singing, flowers, and drowning / Laertes' attack & deceptive plan 4.5, 4.7  
         c.        Fortinbras plans to attack Denmark, attacks Poland, becomes King of Denmark (Did he attack? Did he just benefit from fortunate fate?) 1.2, 4.4, 5.2

* In order to draw out the thematic significance of characters and events. You must have a mastery of the character's names and the role each character plays in the logical sequence of events (plot).

Hamlet Act Four

* Take notes on your motif/thread.
* Take notes on characters and characterization; situation, events, and plot; essential question and other themes; interesting literary and rhetorical language; repetitions, contrasts, and other patterns. 
* 4.1-4.3 quote and explain the best joke/witty remark/mocking remark by Hamlet in these scenes.
* 4.4 By class time on Monday 12/8 in your "Hamlet's Soliloquies" document/paper follow the directions for writing responses to Hamlet's 4.4 soliloquy.
 * 4.5 & 4.7: Ophelia Speaks! In a Google doc/paper called "Ophelia Speaks," write an soliloquy for Ophelia by Thursday 12/11. We'll work on this in class on Tuesday too. Directions below:

Ophelia Speaks

Role: You are a playwright commissioned by a theatrical troupe to create a soliloquy (or monologue or letter written by Ophelia) that will be inserted into Hamlet.

Audience: Readers and viewers of Hamlet who want to understand Ophelia more deeply.

Format:       1. a soliloquy, monologue, or letter

                   2. 14+ lines*

3. The lines conclude with a rhyming couple in iambic pentameter. (*The other 12 or more lines may be in prose or in iambic pentameter# [blank verse).)

4. Try to use Elizabethan language (diction and syntax), or use language that does not stand out as obviously modern. (If you're looking to have some fun with Elizabethan language, here are a couple non-scholarly links to information for moderns about Elizabethan English: Faire Speak: Learn the Language and Speak Like a Pro: A Field Guide to Elizabethan English.) 

5. State where in the play you would insert the soliloquy (or monologue). (Would you create a 4.8? Would you place it somewhere in 4.5? Where? Be precise: act, scene, line. You could even, I suppose, create a 4.8 in which she returns as a ghost; or perhaps someone finds a letter she has written or a diary.)

6. Incorporate song lyrics and flower imagery. You do this a few different ways: you can make direct references to the songs and flowers referred to in 4.5); you can refer to other Elizabethan flower symbolism and other songs (more here).

7. Show Ophelia’s mind puzzling out and wrestling with her dramatic situation and inner consciousness (just as Hamlet does in his soliloquies). (Here is a link to a few Ophelia performances, some of which have been taken down by YouTube but others of which are still there. These might help you think about her shifting emotional state in relation to her situation after 3.4.)

Topic: What Ophelia is thinking and feeling at the moment in the play into which you decide to insert her soliloquy?

# Much of Hamlet is written in blank verse meaning most lines do not rhyme but they do follow a particular meter (a pattern of unstressed and stressed syllables). The meter is called iambic pentameter. “Iambic” means unstressed syllables are followed by stressed syllables: “And makes us rather bear those ills we have”. Pentameter means there are five iambs.

“…And makes us rather bear those ills we have,

than fly to others that we know not of…”

 
* 4.5 & 4.7: Compare how all the various characters react to trauma, tragedy, mystery, wrongdoing. We'll do this through conversation.
* 4.6 PIRATES!!!!!!!
*  In your "Hamlet Motif" document/paper do the following by class time on Wednesday 12/10:
1. Write down your motif.
2. Write down the act, scene, line of every place you noticed your motif in act four. (If you're thin on notes: Here you'll find searchable text.)
3. Write a paragraph in which you explore the role and significance of the motif in play so far.
4. Write down a quotation from act one that involves your motif. (Include act, scene, and line.)
Write a thorough explanation of what the quotation means (in context) and how the quotation develops the significance of the motif. 

 Coming next...
Act Five
* Take notes on your motif/thread.
* Take notes on characters and characterization; situation, events, and plot; essential question and other themes; interesting literary and rhetorical language; repetitions, contrasts, and other patterns. 
* 5.1 By Friday 12/12 in your "Odds & Ends" document explain how 5.1 explores various ways of reacting to death: Using at least one quotation explore how characters speak humorously about death in the first part of scene. Using at least one quotation explore how Hamlet speaks philosophically about death is the second part of the scene. Using at least one quotation explore how characters respond  personally  and emotionally to death in the final part of the scene.
* 5.1 Wait a minute...How did old it say Hamlet is? Nuh-uh. (Mr. Cook--surprise, surprise--has something to say about this.)
* 5.2 Who dies? (Or, perhaps, it would be easier to say who does not die?) How might the way people die be significant? How who doesn't die be significant? How does the way characters talk about death be significant?  

*  In your "Hamlet Motif" document/paper do the following by class time on Friday 12/12:
1. Write down your motif.
2. Write down the act, scene, line of every place you noticed your motif in act five. (If you're thin on notes: Here you'll find searchable text.)
3. Write a paragraph in which you explore the role and significance of the motif in play so far.
4. Write down a quotation from act one that involves your motif. (Include act, scene, and line.)
Write a thorough explanation of what the quotation means (in context) and how the quotation develops the significance of the motif.