Choose another dystopian novel to read on your own

Hamlet’s Dilemma & Dystopian Fiction
"How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable seem to me all the uses of [these] world[s]"

(Books followed by an asterisk* are books that are in the GHS English department book room. Books followed by # are in the GHS Library. Books followed by ^ can be found at Sawyer Free Library.)

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood#^
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury#^
1984 by George Orwell*
Player Piano by Kurt Vonnegut*
We by Yevgeny Zemyatin (spelling of his name varies)^

{Addition #1: for the past few years I've wanted to add Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood to the list, because I wanted a reason to have to read it myself. It deals with a lot of contemporary issues: commercialization, organ transplants, genetic engineering, online sexuality, online games, etc. I steered clear because a friend said it might be too racy for high schoolers, but then today I found that Mrs. Saunders bought the book for the GHS library. So if it's good enough for her it's good enough for me.}

{Addition #2: Thinking about it a bit I also thought I might include Cormac McCarthy's novel The Road which is more post-apocalyptic than dystopian but is still relevant to question we will explore: when one discovers the world is corrupted (deeply flawed, "fallen," etc.) how should one respond? How should one act?}

The GHS library and the Sawyer Free Library have both of these books.

Brave New World: Two Papers

Brave New World Final Assessments

As we’ve been reading on Brave New World, we’ve focused our discussions and commentaries on addressing three questions:

• What is the world in Aldous Huxley’s novel like? Why is it that way?
• How do characters respond to living in this world? Why?
• How is Huxley's novel relevant to our world? How does Huxley use the world he creates and the character’s responses to satirize aspects of modern civilization?

The final assessments for the novel will give you an opportunity to address each of these three essential questions: analytically and creatively.

1. EXPOSITORY ESSAY (1000ish words)

Utilitarianism is an ethical theory, first proposed by Jeremy Bentham and James Mill, which states that all action should be directed toward achieving the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people. How might Aldous Huxley’s novel Brave New World be viewed as a satire of paternalistic technological utilitarianism*? In other words, how does Huxley use literary techniques—tone (achieved especially through diction and word play, selection of detail (description of setting, characterization, and dialogue for example), plot (especially how characters respond to the World State’s paternalistic technological utilitarianism and what happens to them)— to critique and mock the World State in which technology has made it possible for the vast majority of people to be happy nearly all of the time? How does he show the horrors of such a world? How does he show its limitations?)

* I’m defining technological utilitarianism as a form of nearly universal happiness that is achieved through various technological advances in industrial reproduction, pharmaceutical biochemistry, industrial production, transportation, even entertainment. The "technological utilitarianism" that Huxley satirizes is also paternalistic in that the technology is used by parent-like controllers who direct the citizens toward infantile contentment and pleasure, that constitute a kind of debased happiness. {For more on "paternalistic technological utilitarianism" check out the comment box.}

2. DYSTOPIAN SATIRE (1000ish words)

Choose an aspect of modern American civilization to mock in a short piece of satirical dystopian fiction. Your tone (diction and word play), selection of details (setting, characterization, dialogue), and plot should be appropriate for satire. In the satire you should create a world, show characters responding to living in that world. Also, make sure that the aspect of our civilization that you satirize is worth critiquing. (In other words, choose to satirize something about which you feel strongly.)

You will turn in one of these assignments on Friday (2/15) and the other assignment on the Tuesday after we return from vacation (2/25). You are expected to meet these due dates even if you are not in school and even if you do not have English on these days.