2019 Why Read Sci Fi

1) What have we learned about the border? Where is it? How stable is it? How might these revelations about the nature of the border connect to the larger theme of climate change in the novel? 2) The California Mastadon roamed the land on which we sit right now up until the end of the last Ice Age, along with sabercats, giant ground sloths, and other megafauna (large versions of the animals you see today such as bears, etc). Discuss specific moments throughout the novel when the theme of transformation of the earth and landscape are prominent. What literary tools does Vandermeer use to remind us that the earth is constantly transforming, and always has been? 3) Reread the biologists experience staring at the destroyer of worlds starfish on page 175, then reread her experience staring at the Crawler on 177 and 178. Why does the biologist say that she cannot truly "see" the Crawler? What might be the deeper implications of her being unable to process what she is seeing? ...

Exercise: As a member of this future expedition, write your journal entry upon discovering the pile of journals and tell us how Area X has continued to evolve . C onsider particularly how  the environment has continued to change and how it has continued to change the people who come to visit it .  All the main elements are there: the lighthouse, the tower, the village. But w hat  else  is there? Fill in some of the spaces not currently "on the map."   You may choose to use some of your climate change research as inspiration, particularly if you are seeing this place as the result of "The Event." 

1) Re-read the story of the origin of Area X on page 94, and "The Event." What do we know about it? What do we still want to know? What types of narratives in our world does this origin story remind you of? 2)  How does this origin story connect to the larger theme of climate change in the novel? 3) Continue discussing the theme of the uncanny in the novel. What other moments, situations, or circumstances employ use of the uncanny? Why might the uncanny be a good literary mechanism to use in a book about climate change? 4) How does the role of the reader change on page 106? What multiple discoveries do you make on that page, looking into the pit of journals? How do these discoveries alter our understanding of Area X? 5) Discuss the Crawler and the discovery that its body is made up of human brain tissue. What might be significant about that? What is significant about the fact that ecosystems live inside its words, and that is is an organism inside a larger organism? H...

1) Discuss how the characters understanding of the tower/tunnel changes over time. What might be significant about the fact that the biologist is the only one who can see the Tower's true nature? Why is it important that its true nature is not revealed to her right away? What has to happen first? 2) Discuss the disciplines of the main characters, their fields of study. Why is it significant that they are not named directly? What is meaningful about their fields of study in relationship to Area X? 3) What is uncanny about the environment of Area X? (See definition on board). 4) What might be significant about the fact that the map is not accurate from the moment the characters enter Area X? What does this tell us about what kind of place this is? 5) Jeff Vandermeer is from Florida, a place that is under high threat from climate change. How do you see the climate and environment of Florida reflected in Area X?

The ANTHROPOCENE is an unofficial, debated term between geologists and environmentalists that describes the epoch (time period) we are living in. It assumes that we have moved out of the Holocene (the epoch that began 11,700 years ago after the last Ice Age) and into a new epoch where humankind has caused significant changes to the environment, such as  mass extinctions of plant and animal species, polluting the oceans and altering the atmosphere, among other lasting impacts. It has sometimes been linked to the start of the atomic age (1950s) or the start of the Industrial Revolution (1800s).   Meaning: Anthro-man  Cene -new   Vandermeer: "I wanted to provide a glimpse o f mid-Collapse in the Anthropocene—a transitional state in which those affected may not even realize the progression of decay  in the moment ."    Vandermeer  talks further about how weird fiction in particular can help us to understand a concept like c...

1) Describe the Machine at the center of the story. What are its functions? List as many as you can. 2) This story was written in 1909, prior to the advent of much of the communication technologies we have today. For example, the radio was not mass used then, the telephone existed but was not in every home, there were no televisions, etc. However, Forster was able to see these forms of technology of his day and project them into an imagined future. He also looked at industrialization itself, and saw how it changed the lives of people (in the story, he mostly focused on negative changes.) The Industrial Revolution, which took place from the 18th to 19th centuries, was a period during which predominantly agrarian, rural societies in Europe and America became industrial and urban. Prior to the Industrial Revolution, which began in Britain in the late 1700s, manufacturing was often done in people’s homes, using hand tools or basic machines. Industrialization marked a shift to powe...