Fall 2019 Take-Home Final Exam

Instructions

• Create a separate file of your own to save in your own space containing your responses to this exam. You may wish to just copy and paste the questions from this page into your file. Because the exam is a private context (you are writing it on your own and I am responding to you in person with comments and my evaluation), it will be easiest for me to receive your work as a Word document: Save your work with the .docx file extension and submit it through the upload point for it on Courseweb.
• You may not collaborate with others on writing this exam, and essays will be screened for originality.
• Write your essay exam in a computer file as a word-processed document or text file, and save this with your last name in the file name, as in Yourlastname-MidtermExam.doc. Upload your file before the deadline at 11:59 PM on Thursday, December 12.
• To work efficiently, read the questions carefully and quickly outline your response to help guide your writing. Support your points by referring to specific characters, examples, and episodes from the readings and include quoted passages from the readings.

Short Answer Section (10 questions of 5 points each; total: 50 points)

Carefully read and select from each section the questions you are best prepared to answer. Record the number of the question you are answering your file (as A2. for the second question in part A, for example). Respond in precise phrases or a few sentences as required. To work efficiently, focus on giving only the information I am asking for! Bonus: You may answer ONE additional question in ANY section for extra credit.

Part A. Answer two of the following four

1. Explain what is necessary for the Oankali to be a complete family unit. What sexes / kinds of Oankali need to be present? How can humans fit into this?

2. Identify one experience in which Lilith’s presence was necessary to an incapacitated Nikanj.

3. What is the “Contradiction” the Oankali identify in humans? Why do they see this contradiction as problematic?

4. What is so interesting to the Oankali about human cancers?

Part B. Answer one of the following three

1. Why are human resister populations so interested in construct children, especially females?

2. Explain the difference between Toaht, Dinso, and Akjai among the Oankali. Who came up with the concept of Akjai humans, and how does this deviate from the Oankali’s original plan?

3. What is the Lo entity? What will happen when the Lo entity and other entities like it fully mature?

Part C. Answer two of the following three

1. Explain two formative experiences that Akin had in Phoenix that shaped his life as an adult.

2. Why is Akin’s relationship to his sibling disrupted—and what serious consequences does this have for Akin and Ti?

3. Give two examples of how constructs are beginning potentially to change the original “trade” relationship between Humans and Oankali.

Part D. Answer one of the following two

1. How are Raven and Hiro evenly matched as opponents? Explain three things they have in common.

2. Where does Raven come from, and how are his cultural origins reflected in his motivation and the weaponry he uses? Identify two of Raven’s weapons in your response.

Part E. Answer one of the following two

1. How did Y.T. get to know Uncle Enzo? What did the two of them learn or gain from each other?

2. Explain two things that Y.T. and Raven have in common.

Part F. Answer one of the following three

1. What unusual capacities does Juanita possess and retain as a result of her experiences as an “antennahead” on Rife’s ship?

2. How is the Metaverse version of Snow Crash related to or different from the “real” world version?

3. How does Hiro T. Protagonist save the Metaverse from Raven’s Snow Crash bomb?

Part G. Answer two of the following four

1. What is a nam-shub in Sumerian culture, and what is meant by the nam-shub of Enki? Why is this nam-shub important to the crisis and resolution of Snow Crash?

2. How does Stephenson link the biological concept of a virus with glossolalia? (Define the word glossolalia in your response.)

3. Why, according to Snow Crash, might Sumerians in their use of me have been especially susceptible to viruses? What makes people in the present time of the text vulnerable to the Snow Crash virus?

4. What forms of technology in Snow Crash help to bring about a happy ending? Identify two.

Long Essay Section (30 points)

Choose one question below to respond to in a multi-paragraph essay. You may want to take a few minutes to focus on the question and quickly outline your response and locate passages from the readings you’d like to use for support before you begin writing. Support your points by referring to specific characters, examples, and episodes from the readings. Accuracy, specificity, and reflection are key to doing well with this section.

1. In her book, Deconstructing the Starships: Science, Fiction and Reality, Gwyneth Jones proposed that science fiction is a “thought experiment” in which the science fiction writer investigates a “what if” question by setting up controlled conditions in the plot. Let’s investigate that idea and consider how it might apply to a science fiction game from the itch.io series we explored, and to a novel⁠—either Snow Crash or a passage of Lilith’s Brood. Consider how one or two main characters in the narrative of the novel vs. the game engage in experiments to solve a problem or to answer a question. What kinds of questions do the main characters investigate, and where and how do they conduct these tests? What aspects of the settings help to set up the testing conditions for the main characters’ experiments? Finally, consider to what extent science games are different from (or similar to) novels in the way the present experimentation. How does a game invite you as the player to conduct experiments in the controlled conditions of the game?

2. Following your experience with analyzing science fiction games on itch.io, consider how you might construct a video game scenario involving the main characters and important events in either Lilith’s Brood or Snow Crash. In your essay, sketch out a game scenario that represents a portion of the world of the novel you’ve chosen, and explain how you would engage a game player in a challenging scenario that reproduces in some way that is consistent with the novel a key theme, event, or crisis. Your planned adaptation will be evaluated for its precision in selecting details and events from the novel, and its reflection on how to adapt these to an interactive game environment.