Anyone Else NOT done?? Please read!

[Nicole Brady]

At the library right now feeling sorry for myself. FInished about 5 pages but just can't get the flow going-perhaps I picked the wrong topic or maybe I am just a bit rusty from not writing for a couple of years. ANyone else having trouble. I picked the topic of 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.

Any thoughts??

[Megan Morrissey-Kelley]

Not sure if you're still stuck or have time to do this, but i was just thinking about your thesis and The Diamond Age kept coming into my brain. i'm sure you've already thought of this and, again, not sure if you have th eneed/time to add another text to your anaysis, but something in your post immediately made me think of the primer--the part about crime and the link to reward and longevity. it made me think of the enormous effect of that one small act--the scene where the primer was initally stolen on the street--really set off this huge series of events that changed the course of so many lives.

[Nicole Brady]

WOW THANKS EVERYONE!! I REALLY APPRECIATE ALL THIS...

[Rebecca Burtram]

Another thought, if you don't have enough to fill 10 pages, add a third book that fits the thesis.

[Judith Piccione]

I'm absolutely enticed by the title of your paper. I wish I had thought of something that interesting. Blame it on my nervousness about being in an English class again after 4 years of no "English" writing at all. I really think it sounds like there'd be lots of things to talk about. You could talk about the kids in Little Brother. They were a sort of outlaw. Plus, they pretty much were the "fittest" in their situation. They outsmarted federal agents! I hope these are some ideas that might get your creative juices flowing!!

[AlexReid]

Sounds like a worthy topic to me. Neuromancer is certainly about a kind of evolutionary experiment. You've got the emerging intelligence of Wintermute and the twisted evolutionary aspirations of the Tessier-Ashpool clan. However I can see where you are coming from with the outlaw thing as well. The whole Hacker ethos is heavily libertarian: anti-government, personal responsibility.

You might try going in that direction with your research. See what you can find on the Hacker Manifesto or Bruce Sterling's Hacker Crackdown. Also Cory Doctorow is very active in stuff like that, with the Electronic Frontier Foundation (eff.org) and such.

[Megan Morrissey-Kelley]

I feel for you. i thought i'd be exactly where you are, but luckily i had 1 more personal day at work and spent the entire day researching and writing. it gave me the ability to step away for a few days and then jump back in and finish. it's so hard between work and kids. i wish i had some great idea or source for your paper. Good luck!