Seriously... tell me about your final papers!

[AlexReid]

So we've danced around this issue for a while but I haven't heard much from you. A few rumblings. A few ideas thrown out. A few panicked moments.

Now your final paper is 9 days away! At this point you really ought to know what you are doing. So out with it.

[Lauren Steates]

I am writting about how cyberpunk authors often take the technology that exists at the time they are writing a book and project where it will go in the future. I found it interesting that more often than not, the technology leads to devastation and collapse. So these are the questions I am seeking to answer:

Why did each of these authors (Three cyberpunk books impeticular: Neuromancer, He, She and It, and Distraction) take technology that existed at the time and project a dysfunctional society? Is our technology going to lead us to distruction?

Does this sound ok? Any ideas?

[Judith Piccione]

I think it sounds great. I, too, find it horribly interesting that these authors seem to portray technology are ruining so many things for our future. I have to laugh when I think that these authors are like my grandparents. My husband has grandparents that are well into their 80's (almost 90) and his grandfather recently acquired his first computer. He's been reading like a mad man trying to find out "everything" there is to know about this amazing thing. He's even hooked up to the internet. However, my grandparents, who are only in their mid to late-60's refuse to have a computer in their house and don't want anything to do with the internet. My grandfather's content taking the 3 mile walk from his house to the library and looking things up in a book when he's got a question he needs answered. They think these crazy amounts of technology are less than necessary. I wonder what the difference is between his grandparents and mine. Mine are so much younger and think technology is unnecessary. His are pushing 90 and are like kids in a toystore with their new computer.

[Megan Morrissey-Kelley]

Ooooh, Laura that sounds really interesting!

i'm relieved to finally be able to say i have a topic and have begun writing my paper--called:

AI, Cyborgs: The Road to the Transhuman Condition; Ethics and Consciousness
Or
What the Cyberpunks Have Been Trying To Tell Us

[Judith Piccione]

Way to go!

[Rachel Glod]

I am writing about the idea that Distraction (and other cyberpunk literature as well) is indicative of America's fear of losing its power over the world. The idea of a global capitalistic society is a threat to American dominance, and I find that there is a thread of response to that fear in each of the novels we read. We are a very ethno-centric people, and I think that Distraction particularly reflects that idea. That's what I'm thinking - I guess I'll see how it goes!

[Nicole Brady]

Not going well. Planning on sitting down at the library for 9 hours on Saturday. I have a lot of ideas floating around in my head. Wrote some things down. I still love Neuromancer the best as the starting point. I may use it as a basis for laying out the rest of cyberpunk for the audience (other teachers).

[Nicole Brady]

Changed my mind. Hated how it was flowing. I have no idea what I am doing.

[Lauren Steates]

I'm done with the draft of my paper...I just need to edit it. I am pleased with the topic I picked because I could use alot of ideas from my book reviews. Almost done!

[Nicole Brady]

I know it's down to the wire...ANyone else having trouble? I'm writing about: Survival of the Fittest: Outlaw Darwinism in Cyberpunk.

I'm basically writing about how the future as portrayed in cyberpunk works is a harsher reality where law-breaking is necessary and even rewarded with success and longevity. LIke technology did this but we also did it to ourselves. This is true in nearly every work we have read but I am focusing on Neuromancer and Little Brother.

[Judith Piccione]

Maybe you should post where you're really getting stuck. It sounds like you definitely have the BONES all worked out...you're getting bogged down somewhere. Scale back and maybe just jot down a ton of examples, then go from there and weave in sources later...they're the least important when you're stuck. I find that the sources are where I get nervous and shut down most of the time. I know what I want to say, but then I freak out trying to put sources in too early.

[Nicole Brady]

Yeah I wrote a bit more away from the topic and now just have to go back and connect the sections somehow.