The shared Google doc is available here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1lK9dULA7rAq9bEhxGgDWtSzDbPacLweJziJMQAu6HFs/edit?usp=sharing

Please feel free to add your thoughts!

• what is her relationship to sex?
  • has sex with Tommy very thoughtfully
  • doesn’t have other people to give good information
• why does she look for her own face in porn magazines?
  • looking for an existential sense of self, identity, someone to be like
  • if she’s a clone, is she really exactly the same? is everything from her genetics?
  • if she’s abnormal, is it genetic?
• why was Hailsham closed?
  • not the only school — there are others
  • Hailsham is special
    • others had worse conditions
  • cruelty to the clones maintains distinction between clones and human
  • Madame calls them “creatures” — maintaining distinction
  • clones make the individual expendable
    • death/mortality is what makes us individuals
    • clones never die — they “complete” — fulfilled their purpose — not a life cut short
• starts with Kathy remembering Hailsham for donor
  • establishes Hailsham as special, establishes key relationships
  • why does this unnamed donor want Kathy’s memories?
    • he wants better memories than he has — happy way to end his life — wants imaginary life before he dies
    • he got the life that was set out for him
    • wants to live vicariously through her
    • wants to feel love
  • clones don’t have memories of who they’re based on — looking for their “potentials” — trying to figure out memories, identities
• centrality of memory to the novel — why is the novel organized the way it is?
  • the whole thing is a memory
  • “Never Let Me Go” — reference to a memory
    • special tape that she kept hidden, lost it — joke was that all lost things go to Norfolk — Tommy finds it for her at a thrift store later
    • as a child, danced to it like she was holding a baby; thinks for a while Madame knew she was thinking about a miracle baby; later thinks Madame thought she was pretending to hold a lover; it turns out Madame perceived a girl clinging to an old world
    • symbolism of memory shifts throughout the novel
    • can’t detach yourself from humanity of clones — each repeat gets closer and closer to understanding
    • Kathy imagines a character clinging to a future; Madame imagines a character clinging to the past — dystopian — loss
    • “a little girl” ” creatures” — recognizing and not recognizing humanity
    • who vs/ what
• what is the significance of rumor?
  • went to see the boat
• how do they control the clones?
  • it’s normal
  • desire to be normal — don’t want to be deviant
  • group — threat of being excluded/shunned
  • everyone filling their roles — performativity, even down to Kathy and Tommy’s relationship
  • keep them happy so they don’t ask questions
• role of education?
  • tapping into creativity, imagination
  • gallery
    • to prove that they have souls
    • indicates that souls can be interpreted — abstract thinking — thinking symbolically
    • “they do something like us”

• repetition of words “donor” and “carer” throughout, but not defined
  • indicates that it’s normal to her
    • normalization = dehuminization
    • ethics of normalization
  • audience = people who consider it normal too
    • creates distance/detachment for “real” readers
• set in late 1990s, England
  • near past
  • what are the political things happening in England in the 1990s, 2005?
  • could it relate to pro-choice/pro-life debate? — use value of life
  • movie came out the same year as The Island starring Ewan MacGregor and Scarlett Johansson — coincidence
  • Dolly the Sheep 1996-2003
    • demonstrated the feasibility of cloning (even though it was born to a mother)
    • comparison to now — Barbara Streisand’s cloned dog
    • have our attitudes toward cloning changed significantly since 2005? maybe it’s just new — it will be normal someday. next generation might also think robots that look like people are normal
• clones raise the question of what is a person?
• we see cloning etc. as the emergent future
  • there’s no markers of the 1990s in the novel (except the Walkman) — feels out of time even though the time period is so specific — which makes it seem like it should be a commentary on current events — but it could also be a parallel present
• in order for this to be normal, we must either be (a) ignorant, or (b) have defined “human” or “personhood” — people doing what they’re told, following the group, assuming that what we’re doing is right — abandoning morals for utility — next step is there’s no purpose for old people etc.
  • humanity is undefined
• issues of responsibility — people would be careless with their own bodies if they can be replaced — lack of responsibility for the self
  • but there are organ donors now
• are the clones human? they have thoughts and feelings, like the Creature in Frankenstein — part of purpose of life is survival, and they don’t have that — why don’t they fight to survive (the clones) the way, for example, Frankenstein does?
  • if you’re making an organ in a lab it’s just an object
  • we would as a group prefer a fresh (grown) organ to a second-hand organ
  • we’re also making lab-grown meat now
    • someday people will look back and wonder how we could eat meat
    • but wouldn’t other “natural” processes be different as well? — if people start living longer, then will humanity exist any longer — we would run out of resources
  • at the moment of donation body parts become objects
  • growing clones for use — certain animals are bred just for research — you can order them with particular ages etc. — sometimes you have to raise them — but often these are fruit flies — de-personification? negotiating line between anthropormoization and dehumanization
• who would benefit from these donors?
• why are they sending clones to school if they’re going to be killed?
  • appeasing a guilty conscience?
  • better for the organs?
    • literate kidneys
  • big emphasis on creativity and art
    • artwork represents inner self and what they’re feeling
      • control — we can predict the clone revolution if we know what they think
      • experiment- do they think like “normal” humans?
      • can interpret art, symbolism, judging the moods of the clones?
• sad that they don’t fight back — but it’s normal, it goes without question

What do these words mean?

Why does Snowman collect them?

What is their significance in the context of the novel?

Group 1: pp. 84-85 “Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow…” OR “sere” and “incarnadine”

Group 2: “cork-nut”

Group 3: p. 148 “mephitic, metronome, mastitis, metatarsal, maudlin”

Group 4: “bogus” and “awesome”

• More accessible and modern
• Picks up on the theme of creator and creation that we’ve seen in other texts
  • In other texts, creators were trying to prove a point, but it this text it’s to eradicate a problem
• What do you notice about the structure of the narrative?
  • Separated into different segments – each one has a theme; jumps around a bit; hard to follow
  • Not chronological
  • Organized according to Snowman’s train of associations; almost stream of consciousness
  • Thinking aloud rather than structuring a narrative
  • Story told in a broken way – makes sense if you’re him, difficult to follow for us – disorienting
  • Setting: there’s nothing else to do but remember
  • Reminiscent of Catch-22: jumps around
  • Trying to show chaos: reflects the chaos of the post-apocalyptic world
• Old world and new world coexisting – things are repurposed; new meanings in new context
• What is the significance of Snowman’s name?
  • Snow is a sign of death – everything dies in the winter; but of course we expect spring to come – and snowmen to melt
  • So maybe it’s reflective of humanity’s demise
  • Snowmen could not exist in the post-apocalyptic world because of climate change
  • Abominable is a secret joke – but snow is as imaginary to the Crakers as the abominable snowman
  • Abominable has a negative connotation – reflects his true nature (or feelings about himself) – powerful stance to be able to say it – he’s telling them that he’s bad, but not telling them
• What’s going on with the “feathers”?
  • He’s different from the Crakers
  • He’s also messing with them; he knows something more – they take everything seriously; the power of knowing
  • Almost like a god or god-send; he has the answers; he creates the answers
  • It’s almost like they’re making up a religion – they make things up to explain the world; the explanations are simplistic; rationalizing why he’s here and so on; but never questioning the source; reconciling the “facts” he gives them with what they know of the world; generating cosmology and trying to keep it consistent
  • Human nature to try to explain the world, to make sense, to make a narrative
• Could lack of consistency reflect the unreliability of the narrator? We don’t have any evidence that he’s not lying to us as well as the Crakers
  • Fragmentary narrative
• Are the Crakers human?
  • Maybe not? Something new? Theme of making up a religion – restarting again – parody of creation – new
  • Have characteristics of “human nature”
  • Might be? Next version of humans?
  • does it matter if they’re human?
    • We perceive humanity based off ourselves; they could be intellectual dinosaurs and it wouldn’t change the novel
  • Clearly capable of learning
• Is Frankenstein’s creature human?
  • No, he’s a monster
  • He had the mental capacity of a human, ability to learn and grow – he had an identity, intangible humanity
  • He’s made of human body parts, so he’s anatomically human
• Are the pigoons more or less human than Crakers?
• Were the Crakers looked down upon?
• Similarity to I Am Legend – last man narrative
• Chapter headings
  • Seem to be random
  • “Flotsam”
    • she might perceive himself as human flotsam – debris left of humanity’s shipwreck
    • literally debris that the Crakers go through
  • importance of words
    • holding onto words; once the words are gone, the meaning will be gone too – tend to relate to art, music, myth sense of destiny, hope, sex – or he just likes the way they sound

Group 1

Group 2

Group 3

Group 4

Group 5

Interpreting media

• thesis? what is the purpose — collect writing, collaborate, central hub
• website as a whole doesn’t have an argument, but individual pages do
• title doesn’t accurately represent the website
  • doesn’t establish key terms in a way that helps orient the audience
  • not always clear if it’s morning or afternoon site
• assumes audience is class
• is purpose of website to disseminate information? or to produce information?

• if creature is Adam/the devil, does that make Frankenstein God? If so, he’s a very out-of-control god – inverse of Paradise Lost – but then again Victor isn’t God
• what happens when humans play god – climate, something that humans can’t control
• Themes of mental illness?
  • Thinking about creature as an aspect of VF that he doesn’t want to face
  • When he calls the creature daemon, he’s putting the creature in such a negative light – does that make the creator also a daemon?
• When creature asks for a female companion
  • When VF destroys the female creature, parallels to Eve? Eve as Adam’s downfall – fear of reproduction, new race of creatures – scared that female creature might not like creature, might not abide by creature’s promise
• Can we have sympathy for creature despite his crimes?
  • Begins life with innocence and curiosity
  • VF as father figure with moral responsibility to creature’s wellbeing
  • Parallel to VF’s experiences with his own father
  • Fear of creature gaining intelligence, becoming more social, learning language, etc.
  • Chain reaction of moral culpability
  • Sympathy vs. compassion vs. pity
• Frame narrative – why does the story begin and end with Walton?
  • Observations – outsider – similar to travel narratives
  • Affirms the validity of the tale – creates a way for us to suspend our disbelief – he doubts the story so we don’t have to
  • We’re made aware of another manuscript version that we don’t have access to

Group 1

Group 2

Group 3

Group 4

Group 5

Write down one observation that you made about the text (such as a repeated image, a striking scene, a theme, or even a single word that you think deserves further inquiry).

Write down one question that you have about the text.