I Robot Group 1: Jack, Brian, Alex, Anish, and Elaine
We talked about the use of language through out the book, words such as damn and hell that were said by the main two characters. We specifically talked about chapter three and Cutie reason for not being a "typical" robot. Our group mainly came up with the idea that Cutie believes and has faith with the so called idea of the Master and how even though he may have a different belief, his ations were not affected by his faith, and he still ran the station just fine. We also discussed the disbelief of Cutie, which he demonstrates as the reality of humanity of all humans which questions the root of their existence and the creation of life. This idea contrasts Evolution, which is another theme which the story displays. However, we also touch on the idea that in some part of chapter three may be viewed as a mocking of religion and faith, as well as some irony; the robots did not cease to believe in their faith. But the chapter does not mock religions, it just reveals different aspects of different beliefs, where robots say that human are more artificial than they are. We also discussed on thee idea that says that evolution is a prominent theme in the story, but its existence is acknowledged rather than vouched for.
This week in discussion over our book’s group, we discussed about quite a few things from the first couple of chapters of I Robot. As we read we discovered a few swear words, nothing too bad, just the word D**n. However, some people may find this word offensive, but considering our school can have a play, “Damn Yankees,” shown to elementary school students; there is no reason to ban the book for that purpose. The word isn’t even used offensively to hurt someone’s feelings, but instead the word was used like a mistake. So from context the word isn’t bad either. Another one of the controversies that may ban the book that popped into our discussion was how the parents lied to the character Gloria in the first chapter. That wasn’t the worst thing, but just to be safe we proved that the lying wasn’t bad. It was a simple lie for the greater good just to show Gloria that robots aren’t like people. A good portion of this book, possibly even the whole concept of it relates to the world in its current times to show that technology shouldn’t be used to replace humans. This action also connects with the part of our discussion involving the robots having feelings similar to a human. At this point in the book, the story seems to encourage the use of technology and sets a fear in the reader that technology will overcome human intelligence. However, our group believes that the book is intentionally setting it up that way to have it later fall so people realize the dangers of technology. Other than that, our group found nothing else that could strike up a controversy yet, unless there are some long term events that have not yet been foreseen.
1984 Group 2 -Michael, Jon, Christina, and Hailey P.
During our discussion today our group had tried to start sorting everything out. We had already made a good dent in the book and had a lot to talk about. What we ended up doing is we tried to see how events in the 1950's contributed to the ideology of the book. We started to see that Big Brother's society represented a socialist government that the U.S. had been fighting with Russia about during the Cold War. We also related Goldstein to Hitler due to the fact that they're both Jews that both were just trying to fix problems they saw. We didn't get into Winston Smith much because there is a lot of unknown mysteries in the book that we couldn't figure out how they intermingled with him. However, we did start to discuss how the book only talks about his thoughts and not much about his actions. Oh yeah, we also saw a real relationship with Fahrenheit 451 that we started to get into when the Lit. Circle was ending. Well, I guess that's it. Thanks for listenin'.
We talked about their language, Newspeak, and how they want to rewrite the dictionary to contain only newspeak. We made a couple connections to the idea that our language has changed over time. Especially after our Romeo and Juliet unit, how much words have changed. And today, even with words like "sketch", how we as teens have invented our own vocabulary. Then, we discussed the issue of government regulation, our main question: what should the government be allowed to control? In 1984, the government controls every aspect of the people's lives, and we were wondering if ours has taken the same precautions. Take the seatbelt or drug laws into account, should the government be allowed to regulate that, or should we be making those decisions for ourselves? Lastly, we found it interesting that they refer to one another a "comrade"; we decided that it’s in order to be politically correct. You don’t have to worry about offend someone if you call everyone the same thing.
In our learning circle today, we discussed many of the underlying concepts as well as some possibly controversial topics. One unanimous decision, was that the society in which the character Equality 7-2521 lives is deeply communist. There is no personal choice in this world; your job is chosen for you, it is illegal to have a preference in people, and there is such a strong being of collectivism, that citizens speak saying "we" and "they" even though talking about a singular person. This display of lack of freedom could be possibly controversial seeing that America is individualistic. The novel was also compared to The Giver, seeing as it showed a similarity to the ambivalency of the citizen of that society as well. Another topic discussed was the concept of the Unmentionable times and the Forbidden Forest. "Could this possibly be set in the future, or is it the past?" It appeared as though society was repeating what we know today. There is no electricity in the society, but the main character discovers electric properties, and creates the first non-fire flame. WE also discussed if this society could be happening at the same time as our society, just as a seperate colony. Clearly, there are some evolving ideas about what is really going on in this deep, make-you-think book.
We talked about ways this book could be banned by the disterict. The plot line so far seems un-American, the tampering of school property, and violence and deathes all could be ways this book could be banned. However, the connections that can be formed can allow this book to fit the coriculem of the district. The connetions could include: TT with LOF and TW with the Wave. These connections my be one of the few ways this book and get into the distric coriculum.
Big Brother Group 3: Paige L., Brian F., Cali R., Kylee S.,
In our first discussion, we discussed what we thought the main plot of 1984 was, and what some of the details that Orwell incorporates in his book could later mean. We discussed the reality of 1984, and how little the actual year 1984 resembles the society George Orwell had in mind. We thought it was strange that in such a short time from the time he wrote the book, that Orwell could conjure of such a strange society that seems to be against everything that the world has worked so long to make prominent. We were also very confused as to why they renamed all of the continents and countries, and we were not sure as to what countries were which, besides London, England. We wondered if America was one of the countries they were at war with. All in all, we felt the book had a very confusing and unrealistic start, but we hope and think it will get better.
8 comments:
I Robot
Group 1: Jack, Brian, Alex, Anish, and Elaine
We talked about the use of language through out the book, words such as damn and hell that were said by the main two characters. We specifically talked about chapter three and Cutie reason for not being a "typical" robot. Our group mainly came up with the idea that Cutie believes and has faith with the so called idea of the Master and how even though he may have a different belief, his ations were not affected by his faith, and he still ran the station just fine. We also discussed the disbelief of Cutie, which he demonstrates as the reality of humanity of all humans which questions the root of their existence and the creation of life. This idea contrasts Evolution, which is another theme which the story displays. However, we also touch on the idea that in some part of chapter three may be viewed as a mocking of religion and faith, as well as some irony; the robots did not cease to believe in their faith. But the chapter does not mock religions, it just reveals different aspects of different beliefs, where robots say that human are more artificial than they are. We also discussed on thee idea that says that evolution is a prominent theme in the story, but its existence is acknowledged rather than vouched for.
I, Robot (Group II)
Tim Haas, Colton Greer, Drew ???, and Paige
4-23-09
This week in discussion over our book’s group, we discussed about quite a few things from the first couple of chapters of I Robot. As we read we discovered a few swear words, nothing too bad, just the word D**n. However, some people may find this word offensive, but considering our school can have a play, “Damn Yankees,” shown to elementary school students; there is no reason to ban the book for that purpose. The word isn’t even used offensively to hurt someone’s feelings, but instead the word was used like a mistake. So from context the word isn’t bad either. Another one of the controversies that may ban the book that popped into our discussion was how the parents lied to the character Gloria in the first chapter. That wasn’t the worst thing, but just to be safe we proved that the lying wasn’t bad. It was a simple lie for the greater good just to show Gloria that robots aren’t like people. A good portion of this book, possibly even the whole concept of it relates to the world in its current times to show that technology shouldn’t be used to replace humans. This action also connects with the part of our discussion involving the robots having feelings similar to a human. At this point in the book, the story seems to encourage the use of technology and sets a fear in the reader that technology will overcome human intelligence. However, our group believes that the book is intentionally setting it up that way to have it later fall so people realize the dangers of technology. Other than that, our group found nothing else that could strike up a controversy yet, unless there are some long term events that have not yet been foreseen.
1984 Group 2 -Michael, Jon, Christina, and Hailey P.
During our discussion today our group had tried to start sorting everything out. We had already made a good dent in the book and had a lot to talk about. What we ended up doing is we tried to see how events in the 1950's contributed to the ideology of the book. We started to see that Big Brother's society represented a socialist government that the U.S. had been fighting with Russia about during the Cold War. We also related Goldstein to Hitler due to the fact that they're both Jews that both were just trying to fix problems they saw. We didn't get into Winston Smith much because there is a lot of unknown mysteries in the book that we couldn't figure out how they intermingled with him. However, we did start to discuss how the book only talks about his thoughts and not much about his actions. Oh yeah, we also saw a real relationship with Fahrenheit 451 that we started to get into when the Lit. Circle was ending. Well, I guess that's it. Thanks for listenin'.
1984 Group One
We talked about their language, Newspeak, and how they want to rewrite the dictionary to contain only newspeak. We made a couple connections to the idea that our language has changed over time. Especially after our Romeo and Juliet unit, how much words have changed. And today, even with words like "sketch", how we as teens have invented our own vocabulary. Then, we discussed the issue of government regulation, our main question: what should the government be allowed to control? In 1984, the government controls every aspect of the people's lives, and we were wondering if ours has taken the same precautions. Take the seatbelt or drug laws into account, should the government be allowed to regulate that, or should we be making those decisions for ourselves? Lastly, we found it interesting that they refer to one another a "comrade"; we decided that it’s in order to be politically correct. You don’t have to worry about offend someone if you call everyone the same thing.
Anthem
Emma, Melissa, Emerald, Blake
In our learning circle today, we discussed many of the underlying concepts as well as some possibly controversial topics. One unanimous decision, was that the society in which the character Equality 7-2521 lives is deeply communist. There is no personal choice in this world; your job is chosen for you, it is illegal to have a preference in people, and there is such a strong being of collectivism, that citizens speak saying "we" and "they" even though talking about a singular person. This display of lack of freedom could be possibly controversial seeing that America is individualistic. The novel was also compared to The Giver, seeing as it showed a similarity to the ambivalency of the citizen of that society as well. Another topic discussed was the concept of the Unmentionable times and the Forbidden Forest. "Could this possibly be set in the future, or is it the past?" It appeared as though society was repeating what we know today. There is no electricity in the society, but the main character discovers electric properties, and creates the first non-fire flame. WE also discussed if this society could be happening at the same time as our society, just as a seperate colony. Clearly, there are some evolving ideas about what is really going on in this deep, make-you-think book.
Little Brother
Aaron and Jillian
We talked about ways this book could be banned by the disterict. The plot line so far seems un-American, the tampering of school property, and violence and deathes all could be ways this book could be banned. However, the connections that can be formed can allow this book to fit the coriculem of the district. The connetions could include: TT with LOF and TW with the Wave. These connections my be one of the few ways this book and get into the distric coriculum.
Big Brother
Group 3: Paige L., Brian F., Cali R., Kylee S.,
In our first discussion, we discussed what we thought the main plot of 1984 was, and what some of the details that Orwell incorporates in his book could later mean. We discussed the reality of 1984, and how little the actual year 1984 resembles the society George Orwell had in mind. We thought it was strange that in such a short time from the time he wrote the book, that Orwell could conjure of such a strange society that seems to be against everything that the world has worked so long to make prominent. We were also very confused as to why they renamed all of the continents and countries, and we were not sure as to what countries were which, besides London, England. We wondered if America was one of the countries they were at war with. All in all, we felt the book had a very confusing and unrealistic start, but we hope and think it will get better.
Ooops! I posted our book name as Big Brother, I meant 1984! my bad =/
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