Fall 2019 Take-Home Science Fiction Midterm Exam

Instructions

Short Answer Section (five questions of 5 points each; total: 25 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 one of the following two

  1. How do the aliens in H. G. Wells’s The War of the Worlds reflect the author’s speculations about Charles Darwin’s theories of evolution?

  2. How did The War of the Worlds specifically respond to the actions taken by the British empire? Support your response with a specific reference in the text.

Part B. Answer two of the following four

  1. How is the concept of the simulacrum important to the world of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Explain with a vivid supporting example.

  2. What is a palimpsest, and how is the concept exemplified in any of our course readings so far?

  3. How does the Keane Act in Watchmen reflect a tension between the concept of the Ubermensch (or Superman) and society? Explain.

  4. Explain how William S. Burroughs’ “cut-up technique” is reflected on any page featuring the pirate comic in Watchmen. Explain one way this cut-up technique communicates key ideas or motifs to the reader.

Part C. Answer one of the following two

  1. Which of our readings represent their own narrators delivering their stories out of reach from controlling authorities? Briefly explain. (There are at least two.)

  2. Explain the novum concept from Darko Suvin’s theory of science fiction, and provide examples of a novum from two of our readings.

Part D. Answer one of the following two

  1. Identify and briefly describe two technologies featured in each of our readings thus far that appear to be central to operational activities for controlling the world and explain how they work as a mechanism for control. Locate specific evidence (by page in your books, or chapter/paragraph in the War of the Worlds) describing these technologies in each text.

  2. Identify and briefly describe specific environmental and health-related issues that characterize an altered secondary world (distinct from our reality, though perhaps related to it) discussed in each of our texts. Locate specific evidence (by page in your books, or chapter/paragraph in the War of the Worlds) describing environmental concerns in each text.

Concept Mapping Section (20 points)

Prepare a concept map in Kumu.io to network our reading so far based on recurring concepts and motifs that you identify. Begin this with a Google Sheet you create and share with me in your Google Drive space: On your sheet, start by representing each of our readings so far as one kind of element. Make another kind of element that represents concepts or motifs that you find key to these books. Draw connections (using the Connections tab) between the readings and these concepts, and design your map so that it indicates at least four concepts or motifs that connect our readings so far, as well as at least two concepts or motifs that distinguish the books from each other. (Two books might be connected to each other but not to all the others in your map, depending on what you want to describe in your map.)

Here is a Google Sheet you may use as a template to get you started, listing each of our books. Google Sheet Starter Template

Paste links to your Google Sheet and to your Kumu.io map in your exam file. Make sure that each is visible to me, following the process you’ve begun for Digital Project 4.

Long Essay Section (30 points)

*Choose one question below to respond to in a multi-paragraph essay. Each essay asks you to compare and/or contrast two of our readings on a key issue so far. 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. Compare and/or contrast the artificial invention of new people and identities in any two of the following three: Watchmen, The Handmaid’s Tale, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep. Choose one or two specific examples that strike you as especially worth comparing or contrasting in your discussion of these texts. Be sure to develop a clear conclusion explaining your sense of the comparison and/or contrast.

  2. In some way, each of our readings has addressed the topic of human evolution. Choose two readings to investigate how they address this topic, whether in addressing degradation or advancement of humanity (or both). How does the encounter with alien forms in these readings show us something significant about humanity? In your conclusion, compare and/or contrast the perspective on humanity’s weaknesses and/or potential in these readings. Work with at least one or two representative examples per text, and be sure to develop a comparison or contrast in your response.

  3. “It’s the end of the world as we know it.” —R. E. M. Our readings frequently explore in stark detail the experience of conquest by war and resistance, whether in the form of world or regional domination. Compare and/or contrast the way The Handmaid’s Tale and one other reading represent mechanisms of conquest, their alteration of people, and the possibilities for resistance. To what extent do we see evidence of each world changing significantly by the end of the text?