Class Handouts:
Reading Schedule--2007
By:
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Have Read:
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Thursday, 23 Aug.
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Ch. 1, 2
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Monday, 27 Aug.
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Ch. 3, 4
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Wednesday, 29 Aug.
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Ch. 5
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Friday, 31 Aug.
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Ch. 6
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Tuesday, 4 Sept.
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Ch. 11
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Thursday, 6 Sept.
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Ch. 13
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Tuesday, 11 Sept.
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End
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Internet Resources:
- The Wikipedia article on Brave New World has a synopsis and a section comparing 1984 to BNW.
- Forget your copy of the book at school? Drat! Don't fear; it's online in lots of places. Including here at the above-mentioned BLTC site.
- There's a lot to click on over at the SomaWeb, exploring "The intellectual, satirical, spiritual, hypnotic and philosophical world of Aldous Huxley."
- In 1956, Brave New World was broadcast, in an adapted form, for the radio. Aldous Huxley narrated the adaptation; it's an hour long; and you can listen to it online at SciFi.com's "Seeing Ear" Theater.
- Read Caitrin Nicol's "Brave New World at 75" not only for ideas about the book, but also for the writing style. Originally published in The New Atlantis: A Journal of Technology and Society.
- In the Wikipedia entry on Aldous Huxley, we learn that he studied ballet for several years. Who knew?
- A couple of British filmmakers made a documentary called Brand New World, relating modern television and advertising to Huxley's ideas. I haven't seen it, and their website doesn't give a lot of information, but judging from the film clip they have available, I'd really like to see the film. You can run it in either QuickTime or Windows Media Player.
- For Oral Presentations:
- Here's a British site called Information Liberation ("The news you're not supposed to know"), with a page about news articles that seem to warn of Brave New World-ish happenings. For example: "Female Mice Turned Into Male Mice" and "Child Use of Anti-Depressants Up Fourfold" and "New Drug Deletes Bad Memories". Some interesting stuff here, maybe for an oral presentation.
- Two articles from one of my favorite sites on the Web, How Stuff Works: "How Designer Babies Will Work," and "How Human Cloning Will Work".
- BioNet is another good site with information on "Designer Babies".
- About making drugs available more freely (as well as other things): "If it's technically feasible, what's wrong with using biotechnology to get rid of mental pain altogether?" asks a long, interesting essay on different aspects of the novel, by David Pearce. It's part of a website for something called BLTC Research, which promotes something called "paradise engineering". Read through some of their ideas and see what you think.
- This article from Washington Monthly on "Designer Babies" claims, "Bioengineered kids are already here."
- This 1999 article from Time magazine on "designer babies" is already somewhat out of date, but does frame some issues for you.
- Ellie Lee, in an article from the British site Spiked Science, says that "reproductive choices should not be a matter for legal regulation," and frames her essay around a famous legal case: "The Hashmis have a child with a rare blood disorder, who urgently needs a bone marrow transplant. Through using PGD [Pre-implantation Genetic Diagnosis; sounds a lot like Brave New World, doesn't it?], the Hashmis may be able to have a child that is free from the disorder suffered by their existing child. The child yet to be born could also donate tissue to cure its sibling."
- Spiked Science also has a section on genetics, including this essay which argues "Why We Have a Moral Obligation to Develop Therapeutic Cloning".
- Another Spiked essay deals with drugs, noting that there are new claims that marijuana is more harmful than previously thought, but then what's the difference between dope and alcohol? "A few years back, there was a cannabis bar experiment in Stockport, England...Rather than this dope bar crackling with noise, laughter and unpredictable behaviour, it was sanguine, becalmed and devoid of anything edgy or uproarious. In fact, it was all a bit like a scene from Invasion of the Body Snatchers...It certainly didn’t look like a great night out. But that, of course, is the whole point." Perhaps marijuana is some people's soma? [This article contains some bad language.]
- There is way too much information on the Internet about legalizing, or not legalizing, drugs--especially marijuana. From "Just Say No to Drug Legalization" and "Don't Legalize Drugs" to "Twelve Reasons to Legalize Drugs" and "Legalize Drugs Now!". Good luck sorting through all the conflicting claims.
- "Learn while you sleep!" This site is an advertisement which claims you can "reclaim a third of your life" learning languages and other things with the pillow speakers and CD's you can buy from them. Take a look and see if it sounds like science or salesmanship. You can also check out Hypnotic Tapes, based on something called the post-hypnotic cue--"The hypnotic recording implants the suggestions into your subconscious mind as well as a post hypnotic suggestion that triggers the suggestions when you listen to the clearing, subliminal and/or sleep learning recordings." It's guaranteed! But check it out and see if you think it might work, or is just for people who don't mind wasting money.
- Here is a short, more scientifically-based article on Hypnopaedia from the Encyclopedia of Educational Technology.
- Much of what you'll find on the Internet claims that sleep-learning itself is questionable, but that getting a good night's sleep does help you to retain and memorize what you learned when you're awake. So says the Society for Neuroscience. Get to bed early tonight.
- Here's a good Cloning Fact Sheet from the Human Genome Project (click around on the site for other information on the topic).
- Learn about cloning and genetics at this nice interactive page, "Cloning in Focus," from the University of Utah's Genetic Science Learning Center. It's written for young students, so it's fairly easy to understand, but the science is sound, and it gets pretty in-depth.
- In 1993, Time's cover story was "Cloning: Where Do We Draw the Line?".
