If you did not turn in your three ads with analysis pages today, please do so tomorrow. I will take off some points for lateness, but that is better than a zero.

If you were absent Tuesday or Wednesday, get the rhetoric in advertising worksheet here. If you have any questions, email me or talk to me in class tomorrow.

We will be writing an essay on Friday over chapters 1-28, with an emphasis on content from 17-28. I have given you the prompt early for previous essays, but I will not be doing so this time. Your essays have improved dramatically since the beginning of the year, and I believe you can go into this one without knowing the prompt ahead of time. I want you to read closely and journal thoroughly in preparation for this exam. Remember:

• Write the name of the author (Nick Hornby) and title (About a Boy [underlined])
• Thesis statements are important. They should let your reader know how you will answer the prompt.
• Quotations from the text are necessary. Include page number and author for each quotation: (Hornby 7).
• Cover the story up to chapter 28. We are near the end of the novel, so everything is important.
• Watch grammar, spelling (look it up if you don’t know) and punctuation.
• Personal pronouns and contractions should never be used.

Write an organized, well-argued essay over one of the following topics. You do not need to answer every question under your chosen topic, but keep each in mind while writing your thesis.

1) Simulation and hyper-reality are prevalent in Don DeLillo’s White Noise. Explain how these concepts reflect an aspect of current popular culture, using one of your articles [or one you find tonight] as evidence of this. What is DeLillo’s argument? How does he present it? What does the Toxic Airborne Event have to do with simulation? SIMUVAC?

2) Human cloning is a very complex issue―one which involves moral choices and the direct application of manufacturing to human beings. What does Ishiguro’s stance on the cloning issue in Never Let Me Go seem to be? How does he use pathos to argue this stance? During their time at Hailsham, the students are asked to create original art. Why is this? Is this part of Ishiguro’s argument?

3) Both novels explore the theme of consumption versus creation in society. Using an article and one of the books -or- two chosen articles, discuss the arguments involved. How does consumption or reflection factor into a person’s identity, according to the texts?

4) Death is a strong presence in White Noise. Why does DeLillo choose to include this in a commentary on contemporary culture? How does Murray’s supermarket thesis fit into this? The family’s consumption? Jack’s position? The “most photographed barn in America?

These essays require insights into the novels and the world around us and evidence from the texts to support your arguments. Do not write a personal editorial. This means no anecdotal evidence from your lives and no personal pronouns. Keep the tone formal; you have good ideas so do not hesitate to state them without qualifiers.

We will be reading Klosterman’s “The Awe-Inspiring Beauty of Tom Cruise’s Shattered, Troll-like Face” over the weekend, but for those reading Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go who would like to delve deeper into the philosophy of identity, here is a link to Thomas Nagel’s classic essay “What is It Like to Be a Bat?,” published in 1974.

This reading is just for those interested. This is in no way required for a grade, and is not even required for in-class discussion purposes. Some of you showed some interest in this, and I am obliging.

This essay is on par with Hume’s ideas on identity, as both writers are materialists (they believe that mental processes can be reduced to physical phenomena), but in this essay Hegel moves away from typical materialist thinking in that he recognizes the subjective quality of experience. Since we don’t know what it is “like to be a bat,” since we don’t know how our friend interprets the taste of ice cream, there must be a degree of subjectivity involved.

Here is a link to a translation of Descartes’ Meditations. The translation is okay, though I prefer the Cambridge University Press edition, published in 1984. This is the seminal text on Cartesian dualism. If you are interested, read the first, second, and sixth meditations, which cover the basis of his mind/body interaction theory. (Try to ignore the fact that he claims that the “pineal gland” is the connection between mind and body. He has important ideas, whether or not they are absolutely accurate.

Keep the cute titles coming, Stallings.

I just found a great article [spoiler warning] on Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go by Margaret Atwood. (For those who have never read her, she is a brilliant writer, fiercely feminist, and her stories rarely have a happy ending. You have been warned; check a review of any book you wish to read that she has written.)

We will write our first essays tomorrow. If you would like a prompt, here are a few. Pick one:
1) Simulation and hyper-reality are prevalent in Don DeLillo’s White Noise. Explain how these concepts reflect an aspect of current popular culture, using one of your articles [or one you find tonight] as evidence of this.

2) Human cloning is a very complex issue―one which involves moral choices and the direct application of manufacturing to human beings. What does Ishiguro’s stance on the cloning issue in Never Let Me Go seem to be? How does he use pathos to argue this stance? During their time at Hailsham, the students are asked to create original art. Why is this? Is this part of Ishiguro’s argument?

3) Explore the theme of consumption versus creation in society using an article and one of the books -or- two chosen articles. Which is more prevalent? How does consumption or reflection factor into a person’s identity, according to the texts?

These essays require insights into the novels and the world around us and evidence from the texts to support your arguments. Do not write a personal editorial. This means no anecdotal evidence from your lives and no personal pronouns. Keep the tone formal; you have ideas, so do not hesitate to state them without qualifiers. We will do a bit of review before the exam tomorrow. If you have any questions, post them here or bring them to class.