Masterclass: Rene Denfeld

Today we will attend a masterclass with the author of The Enchanted. More information about Rene Denfeld can be found at the link. Here's an interview with the author as well.

HOMEWORK: Keep reading The Martian Chronicles. Aim to complete this book by the end of next week. There will be a test on the novel. 

The Fifth Element & The Tropes of Science Fiction

After our final trope reports, let's look at some advice for our upcoming writing project:

Some advice when creating worlds in science fiction/fantasy stories:

• How to Build a Fictional World (TedX video)

Film Screening:

The Fifth Element (1997) by Luc Besson (director, screenwriter)

Starring: Bruce Willis as Korben Dallas, Gary Oldman as Zorg, Ian Holm as Father Cornelius, Chris Tucker as Ruby Rhod, and Milla Jovovich as Leeloo. See full cast/credits at the link.

As you watch the film, use the graphic organizer to collect/list as many science fiction tropes as possible. You will be able to use your list for your upcoming sci-fi story draft.

HOMEWORK: Keep reading The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury.

Sci-Fi Motifs & Tropes; Building a Fictional World

Period 3:

Please turn in your suspense story drafts or other homework.

A literary motif is a distinctive feature or dominant idea found in a particular genre. For example, in the fantasy genre the literary motif of wizards and spells and monsters is a motif. Most fantasy stories include battles with swords and medieval weapons. They might include settings like castles and dark forests. All of these are motifs.

A literary trope is similar to a motif, except that it is usually a bit cliched or overused. Tropes are overused plot devices.

Go to the following padlet site. Add an object, event, setting, or character trope or motif often found in science fiction. There are a few examples already on the padlet. Try not to repeat a trope/motif. Refresh the site frequently to see what other students have added. NOTE: You can add a graphic image, text, or a video clip on a padlet site. Make sure you put your name on your contribution for participation credit.

Once you have completed that task, please continue with our next writing task. Complete both tasks by the end of period 3.

For today's sci-fi/speculative fiction prompt, choose a random topic to research at this website from the options on the front table. Use this index card topic to research your chosen topic at this website: TV Tropes.

During period 4: Please go next door to discuss what you learned about your chosen topic. We will work together to gather some options for our own sci-fi story project.

Present a summary of your trope to the class. Add details of possible sci-fi tropes to your journal.

Some advice when creating worlds in science fiction/fantasy stories:

• How to Build a Fictional World (TedX video)

Film Screening:

The Fifth Element (1997) by Luc Besson (director, screenwriter)

Starring: Bruce Willis as Korben Dallas, Gary Oldman as Zorg, Ian Holm as Father Cornelius, Chris Tucker as Ruby Rhod, and Milla Jovovich as Leeloo. See full cast/credits at the link.

As you watch the film, use the graphic organizer to collect/list as many science fiction tropes as possible. You will be able to use your list for your upcoming sci-fi story draft.

HOMEWORK: Keep reading The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury.

Suspense Story Draft Due; Martian Chronicles; Speculative Fiction - Sub Genres & Topics

LAB TASK #1: Please select a story from The Martian Chronicles that you have read so far. On your blog answer the following questions about the story:

A. What is the title of the chapter? Briefly, summarize the story. "This story is about..."
B. Find a passage in the chapter that describes the setting. Remember setting includes location, time, weather, and season. Identify that passage (rewrite or copy it into your post)
C. Identify where this passage is in relation to the rest of the story (does it occur in the beginning, middle, or end of the story for example?)
D. How does Bradbury use setting to comment on character, theme, tone or conflict in the story? (choose one, and explain how you think he's using setting to develop one of these components of a short story...)

Finally, please fill out the page #/question slip for Martian Chronicles and turn it in today for participation credit.

LAB TASK #2: Suspense short story draft. Please work to complete this project by the end of class* (or complete it by next class on your own as homework). Remember: your story should have at least 2 scenes (separated by white space) and utilize suspense in a meaningful way. Before you turn in your work, make sure you proofread and give your story a title. Identify this draft as draft #1.

LAB TASK #3: If you have completed tasks 1 & 2, please begin your planning for a science fiction story (our next project).

Science fiction (SF or Sci-Fi) is a sub-category or sub-genre of speculative fiction (speculative fiction is a sub-genre of fiction). It is one of the broadest categories. Orson Scott Card (author of Ender's Game) defines speculative fiction as "all stories that take place in a setting contrary to known reality" and would include all stories set in the future (since the future is not known), all stories set in an alternate history, stories set on other worlds, all stories set on earth but before recorded history or time, and all stories that contradict or break rules of physics or laws of nature.

Before we delve too far into our project, let's get some perspective. Research the following sources. Read and learn about science fiction at the links provided. Each link section has a post idea for your own blog. Use your time in the lab to research and prepare and write on your blog. In your physical journal or online blog, discuss what you learn here about science fiction as a speculative fiction genre.

Subgenres of science fiction. PROMPT: What subgenres of sci-fi sound the most intriguing or interesting to you? Why?

Analog Science Fiction Magazine. PROMPT: read about the history of this popular sci-fi magazine. Then check the submission guidelines for authors. Submission guidelines are the rules a publisher insists upon when authors/agents send writing to them. If you break these rules, you will not get published by that magazine. It's an important reminder for a writer to know what the publisher wants--and to give it to them... Read Analog's submission guidelines here. Compare the writer guidelines to their competitor...Fantasy and Science Fiction: guidelines. On your blog or journal write about what you might need to change or do in your writing to make a living writing or publishing in magazines like these.

Daily Science Fiction. PROMPT: Read one of the short, short stories on the website. In a post summarize the story and evaluate what you thought about the speculative idea that inspired the story. What did you like/dislike about the story? Why?

Science Fiction Book Club. PROMPT: After looking at the titles and covers of these bestsellers, what opinion or observation can you make about what is currently selling in this literary genre? Which book(s) would you buy if you had the money or interest? Why?

Resources for Science Fiction:

• A Short Writing Lesson from Ray Bradbury & Ray Bradbury on Writing Persistently
• Crash Course Science (Astronomy) Choose any video and watch it--you might be inspired!
• Crash Course Science (Physics) Choose any video and watch it--you might be inspired!
• Crash Course Science (Biology) Choose any video and watch it--you might be inspired!
• Superhero Science (TEDx) Choose any video and watch it--you might be inspired!
• How to Build a Fictional World (TedX video)
• Unbound Worlds: The Landscapes of Science Fiction (article)
• Science Fiction Landscapes (graphics)
• Science Fiction Encyclopedia (theme)

HOMEWORK: Continue reading The Martian Chronicles. Complete any task you did not complete in class. 

Just a reminder: the end of the marking period occurs next week. Please begin to prepare your blog & journal by Wednesday of next week!

Suspense Story Draft; Context in The Martian Chronicles

Period 3/4:

LAB TASK #1:

• Please read the following article: "How Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles Changed Science Fiction (and Literature)" by Tyler Miller
• Post a short response to the article on your personal blog (blog post #7) before the end of today's class. Remember to summarize or paraphrase the article's main points to help your readers understand the CONTEXT of your post. Attributing your source can also be helpful.

A writer never writes anything that isn't connected to his/her life experience, memories, or topics that are happening while he/she is living. To better understand what we read, it is important to check the context of any literature we read. 

Knowing stuff makes us better informed and better able to appreciate the art that someone took the time to create. 

If you haven't checked this before, please do so now:

Martian Chronicles CONTEXT: Here's a little important history to help you understand how Bradbury uses issues of his day and infuses them into his work:

• The Frontier in American History
• 1940's American History
• Sputnik
• 1950's (look particularly at 1957 & 1959)

TASK: Please continue writing your suspense story draft. Your story, as all stories, should have a beginning, middle, end--and have at least two scenes separated by white space to indicate the shift in time, POV, or setting. You may have more than two scenes in your story.

Remember that a suspense story usually hints at something dangerous for the protagonist. Satisfaction is delayed to create suspense. Use the graphic organizers and the class notes for guidance. If you complete your suspense story today, please print out and turn in--and then work on reading or a project for Ms. Gamzon.

Not interested in writing today? Read The Martian Chronicles. When you are ready to go back to writing, do so. When writing and you get stuck or don't want to write anymore: read The Martian Chronicles (or even The Bean Trees). Repeat.

HOMEWORK: Read The Martian Chronicles. You will be posting about some of the stories on your blog next class. Bring your books with you to class on Tuesday.

Dandelion Wine: A Final Discussion; Preparing for Martian Chronicles

Period 3: Discussion

A moment to discuss some comments from your blogs concerning Dandelion Wine.

• "This particular novel is set in Green Town, Illinois, 1928. It follows a sort of "alter ego" based on Ray Bradbury himself, Douglas Spaulding. Douglas sees the world with an optimistic and naive outlook on the world. Summers for children [are] usually just sweating, air conditioned rooms, video games, and sticky hands from melting ice cream. Ray Bradbury truly captures being a simple kid again in the summer of 1928 through evocative language and vivid story telling."
• "Dandelion Wine's stronger traits include its language, imagery. Ray Bradbury is a very unique writer in terms of being able to do these things and format it into a story. Dandelion Wine also amazingly includes an interesting cast of characters...from a lurking and menacing murderer to a seemingly enchanted woman. Another thing that can be enjoyed is the book's philosophy on life and death and being a human...Douglas comes to an epiphany that he is really here, living on Earth. Heart beating, lungs expanding and contracting, lying in the flowing grass..."
• "It was almost like a collection of stories that all intertwined with each other. As a writer and reader, I respect the format of the story and enjoy how they all connect."
• "Dandelion Wine is a beautiful written, and poetic book, but it's somewhat of an acquired taste. I enjoyed many of the stories but it took me a long time to get into them."
• The things that caught my eye about the [novel] "Dandelion Wine" was the way [Bradbury] used the killer, The lonely one...making it interesting and...suspens[ful].
• "I think the title is clever...since it's a recollection of all summer memories in the form of dandelion wine."
• "There wasn't any plot or point to many of the stories. Many characters are brought in but never return again. I didn't like how detailed some parts were because I didn't feel that it contributed to anything. Some chapters were dragged out. Because the story was so detailed, it slowed the story and I didn't find anything worth mentioning in Douglas's summer."
• "The author used good description and good characterization. The book got more interesting closer to the end."
• "I didn't really understand the book. At all. I mean, sure it was pretty descriptive and well written, but I just really didn't understand some of the stories (like the lawnmower one for example, or the one that's about buying ice cream). I couldn't really read into the meaning behind the words sometimes, which isn't something that I liked."
• "I was a confused being that there was so much figurative language and I just was not interested in the book when I first started it. As you get more and more into the novel, though, the different stories become interesting and a good read. I love the fact that each chapter was like a different story and that it was like reading a diary being that this book was about Ray Bradbury's childhood. Then the stories themselves were great stories and well written."
• "Overall I'd say this book would probably be better for an older audience."
• There were moments where I wanted to stop reading and where I couldn't bring myself to even open a book. I would read one page and turn the next page to a completely different story, having no idea what just happened. You could miss one sentence and be completely thrown off. Which is also a reason I liked the book."
• "You can't skim a page and get away with [it]. Every paragraph, every sentence, has something that adds to the gist of the story. If you miss an important detail, you miss the story. I liked this because it taught me to read the full story...I skipped some stories because I thought they were irrelevant to the book. When I got to an interesting story, I would be confused because it contain[ed] details from the story I skipped."
• "The author was constantly jacking off to metaphors and 5 syllable words...it gets annoying when it's every other sentence and it completely limits [my] ability to understand...if you are constantly trying to understand what a sentence means literally, it is generally very hard to translate that into what it means in the context of the story, or [its] deeper meaning. I also noticed that it seemed to change topic very suddenly... for instance, one time the [author] was describing the interaction between Douglas and Mr. Sanderson, the owner of the shoe store, and he only went on for a few sentences before saying, "There was a sound of growing thunder." Which, by the way, added nothing to the story."
• I did not like this book very much it was really boring to me and it was very confusing...like every chapter was a whole new story based on the story before"
• "it seemed very...redundant. It was all about people who have experienced different things during the summer of 1928. To me, I want something with a little more action."

Some things to consider when reading a book:

• We might not be the audience the author intended. [This is often the case for required school reading...] When we choose books ourselves, we can select books we think we might like. When we're required to read, we often resent it.
• Teenagers generally resent anything they are told or forced to do. This will likely clear up as you mature. Teenager's are also developing their abstract brains. This makes symbols, metaphors, and abstract ideas found in literary themes hard to comprehend sometimes. 
• There is a bargain that all writers must make with their audience. A writer promises to tell a story as honestly and as skillfully as talent allows. A reader is hoping for something--sometimes unknown. A reader usually does not trust an author until well into the book, if at all. Unless a book hooks our attention or offers us something we need or want, we are less inclined to continue reading. This can be used to our advantage as writers of genre fiction.
• Books do not handle action like movies or plays do. They are more inclined to develop character, setting, theme, or plot instead of action.
• Inexperienced readers (having read very little literature) may find vocabulary difficult, thus making the experience of reading tedious or stressful. Yes, it takes time and effort to read and understand--especially when the reader encounters words he or she is not familiar with. As a metaphor, unless you're introduced to it effectively, eating sushi for the first time is horrible. The more you get used to the "taste", the more you might like the flavor. Having no time to eat it is another problem.
• Books written outside our contemporary time period can be difficult to read. Understanding some context can help us appreciate what the author is attempting to do with his or her art.

Strategies to help us read actively:

• Read actively by thinking about how and why the author wrote a sentence, scene, chapter, or part of a book like he or she did. By thinking like a writer, you will learn a lot more from your reading. This is essential practice for would-be writers.
• Ask questions. Your teachers are trained to read closely and have a little more experience concerning life than you might. If something doesn't make sense, it is your responsibility to ask. There are no stupid questions...
• Take notes. Make lists. Draw. Use graphic organizers. Write down quotes or page #'s of effective or confusing passages.
• Manage your time. This may be extremely difficult for students, but it's essential. Set time aside in your life to read. Especially if you want to be a professional writer. [You'll never become a professional football player if you don't practice and work out! The same goes for any profession or art...no motivation to excel or learn, no progress. It's just that simple.] 

Some things to consider before you forget about Dandelion Wine forever...

• Titles are important. Dandelion wine is a symbol or metaphor. Bradbury isn't trying to hide this fact. He's ringing a loud bell about what's important in the book by printing the metaphor in big letters on the cover. Dandelion wine is the distillation (the action of purifying liquid by heating and cooling; or 2nd meaning: the extraction of essential meaning--Bradbury intends both these definitions) of Bradbury's memories of his childhood. Each dandelion is a memory of his life. Distilled wine is preserved. What better way to preserve our childhood memories but to make a wine out of them to drink later when we get old? Children don't like wine. It doesn't taste good to them. But when you're older, it's pretty fine. 
• This book, like most of Bradbury's writing, is all about death. The dynamic change in Bradbury's alter-ego character [Douglas] is that 1928 was an important summer for him because he learned about death. It is the summer he realizes he is mortal. When did you discover that?
• Technology and magic cannot make us happy. No happiness machine exists. No time machine but our elders telling us stories about what it was like to live in a different time and place, no machine can save us, no magic spell can change us, nothing but family and love and friendship seems to matter--that's what happiness is. The lonely one is the absence of family, love, and friendship. He is quite literally 'death'--the absence of these essential things.
• Most stories in his collection end with an ellipsis. The ellipsis...omits [leaves out] words that conclude an idea. An unfinished life is left unfinished...it is a fragment, a memory, a part of the whole experience...the ellipsis suggests this. Hence Bradbury's use of it.
• Memory is fragmentary. Hence the structure of this book being told in snippets or fragments.
• Overall, the book is a coming of age story. Douglas goes through the 4 stages of all coming of age stories: REALIZATION -- changing, emotional and mental preparation, growing, physical changes. He has to deal with the loss of his best friend, the realization that he is alive, and balance this happy idea with the deaths of friends and family members. 
• REMOVAL -- change of status quo or familiar environment; separation from support units (family, friends, social institutions). The ravine, for example, is a physical symbol of removal.
• CHALLENGE --- proving oneself; overcome a major problem or resolve a major conflict. Many of the adults have to face challenges in each story. Most overcome a problem, thus teaching Douglas that he, too, can overcome obstacles--like getting over his sickness...
• and REINTEGRATION - protagonist comes back into society; character undergoes a rebirth, new status, or new understanding or epiphany of his/her situation. Douglas learns this summer that he is mortal. He, like others he loves, will die. All his memories will be washed away to sea, but what matters is what he passes on to his family. Happiness machine! Tada!
• Characteristics of a Coming of Age experience or story: Usually the protagonist is between the ages of 12-18, but can be younger (Douglas and Tom and John Huff, etc.)
• Adults are either "bad guys" or not important--they represent society or laws or rules--the natural order of things; in some stories a parent is missing, absent, or dead. Authority figures are often antagonists to the protagonist. Bradbury turns this one on its head. Adults are nice, caring, and warm people--although some like the Lonely One (the name says it all) or characters like Elmira Brown might occasionally take the place of an antagonist. But it's really the end of summer that's the antagonist. Summer is a time of peace and tranquility, of freedom and warmth and sunshine and love, etc. What comes after the summer of our lives, if not the autumn of age and a winter of death?
• Protagonists must confront self-induced fears or weaknesses. Yep. Death. Lavinia, Miss Fern, Mrs. Loomis, Bill Forrester, Colonel Freighley, Great grandma, etc.
• The protagonist learns something important (usually about him/herself): we are mortal. 
• The ending may be bittersweet--there is often a loss of innocence as a protagonist matures. 

And now? When reading The Martian Chronicles, you will be treated to the same kind of themes and issues. Death. Exploration. Understanding. All science fiction includes the exploration or questioning spirit of the human race. It often criticizes our own social or technical mistakes and human flaws.

Title: Martian (someone who lives or comes from Mars, the 4th planet from the sun in our galaxy) + Chronicles (a "factual" account of important historical events in the order of their occurrence)

To help you find your footing while reading this book, please return to the lab to do the following:

• Please read the following article: "How Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles Changed Science Fiction (and Literature)"
• Watch a few film clips about movies we've made about Mars, the red planet:
• The Martian (2016)
• John Carter of Mars and the Mars books author: Edgar Rice Burroughs
• Red Planet and its author: Robert Heinlein.
• Mission to Mars (Brian De Palma)
• Life on Mars (David Bowie); and if you can't get enough of Bowie: Space Oddity
• The Martians Discover a Telephone (Sesame Street); Bert & Ernie Meet the Martians
• Learn about some Authors who have written about life on Mars. (website article)
• Learn a little science and astronomy: Mars: Crash Course (video)
• Why Should We Go to Mars? (video)

CONTEXT: Here's a little important history to help you understand how Bradbury uses issues of his day and infuses them into his work:

• The Frontier in American History
• 1940's American History
• Sputnik
• 1950's (look particularly at 1957 & 1959)

Please continue reading The Martian Chronicles.

You may also continue working on your suspense story draft.

HOMEWORK: Please read The Martian Chronicles. As you read, use graphic organizers, keep track of questions and passages, page #'s, look for examples of what we're talking about as fine writing in class in his book, enjoy the stories, apply the linked material I have set out for you to help you understand the novel. Dare to learn a lot!

Suspense Short Story Project; Dandelion Wine Review & Test

Task #1: On your blog, take the first 5-10 minutes of the period to review the book Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury. Discuss what you liked and didn't like about the book. Discuss what you learned about writing from reading this book? What impression did the author make on you as a writer, if any? If not, why not?

Task #2: After reviewing the book, please continue writing your suspense short story. Add at least 1 scene to the story and continue your story & plot. Separate your "first" draft with your second "scene"--by using white space.

At the end of period 3, we will be returning Dandelion Wine and picking up Ray Bradbury's novel/short story collection The Martian Chronicles.

Period 4:

There will be a test on Dandelion Wine. After completing the test, you may begin reading The Martian Chronicles or use the rest of the time writing in your journal.

Please bring your Martian Chronicle books back with you to our next class.

HOMEWORK: None.

Suspense Story

Story Analysis (pg. 158-176). Get into groups of 2-3. Together read the short story on pages 158-176. As you read, answer the questions and examine the text to analyze Bradbury's use of suspense in this story. When you have completed the story, please turn in your notes for participation credit.

When your group has completed their analysis (and you've turned in your work), please go next door to complete the writing task below:

LAB: Write a short (200-300 word) scene that involves a specific character involved in a specific conflict. Keep your scene tight--in other words just focus on the now of the character in the conflict. For now, just write that scene...you will be adding to this scene in future classes. To get you started, use one of the hooks in the writing practice. You may also use the material from your journal as to character, situation, and setting.

After creating a scene of 200-300 words, skip a line (use white space) and move your story forward in time (an hour, a day, a year, or several years). Build suspense. Use the worksheet to plan your story.

HOMEWORK: None. There is a test on the Dandelion Wine.

Working With Suspense

Some things to remember about writing stories:

• We get our inspiration from our memories
• A good story surprises us in a plausible way
• Plot is not just this happened, then that happened, but this happened because of that happening...
• The shorter the story, the more concise--the more development of plot, characters, and theme the longer the short story
• Description slows down the reading process: you can control the pace of a reader
• Dialogue speeds up the reading process: you can control the pace of a reader
• Traditionally, conflict is person v. person, person v. self, person v. nature, person v. society

After discussing a few ways that you can open a short story, let's discuss and examine how to create suspense in your fiction.

Suspense: delaying the reader's gratification. The intense feeling (often of anxiety) a reader feels when characters in stories/films, etc. are either in danger, threatened, or the outcome of the story is in question. This uncertainty creates a feeling of suspense.

As writers, we want to make sure our readers ask: what's going to happen to my favorite character in this situation or what will happen because this is happening to my favorite character?

Some ways to create suspense:

• Show (describe) the danger or threat
• Hint at possibilities through your diction (careful word choice) and imagery
• Delay gratification by keeping your reader guessing as to what will happen next
• Use description as a way to break up or slow down resolution of events
• Use dialogue as a way to break up or distract characters from the resolution of events
• Cut to a different scene--use white space to transition from one scene to another
• Cut to the POV of a different character--this is called parallel action
• Stop the scene before you resolve it--this is often called a cliff hanger

Story Analysis (pg. 158-176). Get into groups of 2-3. Together read the short story on pages 158-176. As you read, answer the questions and examine the text to analyze Bradbury's use of suspense in this story. When you have completed the story, please turn in your notes for participation credit.

When your group has completed their analysis (and you've turned in your work), please go next door to complete the writing task below:

LAB: Write a short (200-300 word) scene that involves a specific character involved in a specific conflict. Keep your scene tight--in other words just focus on the now of the character in the conflict. For now, just write that scene...you will be adding to this scene in future classes. To get you started, use one of the hooks in the writing practice today. You may also use the material from your journal as to character, situation, and setting.

HOMEWORK: Please complete Dandelion Wine (there will be a test 4th period, Friday. Study your previous quizzes! Know major characters, events, conflicts, symbols, etc.)