Relative weight: 40-50% of final grade

Format: In-class or email; open-book and open-notebook

Date: Thursday, 9 July, during or around regular class schedule.

Essay lengths: Better essays are usually longer, more substantial, more developed, and therefore longer--usually 6-10 paragraphs, depending on paragraph length, but acceptable essays often run 4-7 paragraphs.

Time:

• In-class students begin at 9am, turn exam in by 11:59.

• Email students take the final in any time period(s) after class on Tuesday 7 July. Deadline is 6pm, 9 July.

Special requirements:

• Refer to at least one previous final exam from a previous class on the course webpage.
   

• Please provide a title to your essays.

Content / Assignment: Two Essays of 1-2 hours each

Essay 1

Referring to 4 (or more) texts mostly since the midterm, organize a discussion of 1 or more of objective 2's “visions or scenarios of the future” or some other theme, issue, or thread in the texts and scenarios.

Objective 2—Visions / Scenarios of the Future

2.     To identify, describe, and criticize typical visions or scenarios of the future (seen from 2009).

a.      high tech; virtual reality—slick, cool, unreal, easy with power (+ cyberpunk style)

b.     low tech; actual reality—rough, intimate, messy, hungry, warm, real

c.    utopia / dystopia / ecotopia—perfectly planned worlds / dysfunctional world / + ecology

d.     off-planet / alien contact—exploring and being explored

Some possible organizing themes—but you may develop your own standards or priorities:

• Short-term—long-term
   

• Likely—unlikely (or probable—improbable)
   

• Utopian—dystopian (or hope—fear)
   

• Friendly—unfriendly (or warm—cold)
   

• Mechanical—organic
   

• Virtual reality—actual reality
   

• High tech—low tech / ecotopia
   

• "Learning Path"--What did you know, what did you learn, what do you wonder?

Essay 2

Conclude the course with an expansive overview or an intensive refocus of your experience with Literature of the Future. Concentrate on readings, objectives, presentations, discussions, and / or your own personal reflections on the course and your experience.

What aspects of the course mattered the most, and why? What can you do with the knowledge or imagination you've developed? Any frustrations or complications? Hope or fear? Welcome to apply to your teaching career, reading interests, or your sense of the world.

"Expansive overview": Survey a wide range of learning to which you've been exposed, but connect the parts into an overall vision.

Reconnect to pre-midterm readings & discussions + revisit and extend your midterm exam

"Intensive refocus": Choose a specific lesson or exploration of a topic that you're inspired to develop.

This 2nd essay may refer to and extend materials in your midterm, especially the midterm's conclusion (not required)

• If there is one idea or insight this course has given you regarding literature or the future, what is it? What will you keep thinking about regarding the future? (Explain.)
   

• How has the course altered either your perception of the future or its literature?
   

• Is the future written or being written?
   

Required textual references: Across the exam you must refer to at least 7 texts overall, and at least four stories since the midterm (see Essay 1). References to texts before the midterm are encouraged, but your choices of contents may dictate otherwise.

Welcome to refer to texts in abbreviated form, e. g. "The Logical Legend of Heliopause and Cyberfiddle" > "Cyberfiddle."

No page references necessary unless you're citing something very surprising or obscure.

You are welcome to refer briefly to outside readings, but not required.

Texts since midterm

"Johnny Mnemonic," (BC 1-22);  "Burning Chrome," (BC 168-191); "The Logical Legend of Heliopause and Cyberfiddle" (VN 159-180)

"The Onion and I," (VN 8-21)."Drapes and Folds," (VN 126-139)."Speech Sounds"(VN 91-108).

K. S. Robinson, “Introduction” to Future Primitive. "Chocco," (FP 189-214); "House of Bones," (FP 85-110)

"Newton's Sleep" (FP, 311-338); "Men on the Moon" (VN 238-247); "Hinterlands" (BC 58-79).

"Homelanding," (VN 3-7)."They're Made out of Meat," (VN 69-72)."The Poplar Street Study" (VN 140-148); "The Belonging Kind" (BC 43-57).

Texts before midterm

Genesis and Revelation; Parable of the Sower; Time Machine; "Stone Lives"; "Bears Discover Fire"; "Somebody up there Likes Me"; "Garden of Forking Paths"; "Gernsback Continuum"; "Mozart in Mirrorshades"; "Better Be Ready 'bout Half Past Eight"

Email issues? In a class this size, a problem or two with email is normal. I'm used to dealing with such problems, so don't panic. Just keep trying and communicating and we'll work things out.

Email: email a copy of your answers to instructor at whitec@uhcl.edu.

•        The mistake students are most likely to make is to send it to “white” rather than “whitec”; if you send it to “white,” it goes to another teacher.

•         Attach appropriate word processing file(s) to an email for whitec@uhcl.edu.

•         Copy the contents of your word processing file, then paste them into an email message to me at whitec@uhcl.edu

Prep time and writing time: Spend only about 3 hours writing the exam you will submit, but spend as much time preparing as you like (or can find). Preparations could include the usual review of notes and texts, but you are also permitted to outline and practice drafting. Outlines and previous drafts count as notes, which you may consult as you write your midterm for submission.

Spacing: No need to double-space, but OK if you do. I convert all electronic submissions to single-space for reading onscreen.

Evaluation standards: As in most Literature courses, quality of reading and writing is the key to judging excellent work from competent work--not just reproducing data but organizing it into a unified, compelling essay. Don't just march through--let me see you thinking and putting the parts together. As for reading, use your resources: the texts, objectives,

Unity and transitions are essential. The best exams connect parts to form larger ideas. Pause between paragraphs to review what you've written or to preview what comes next. Summarize. Explain. Explore.

Combine your language with the language of the course, which is expressed most directly in the course objectives but also in class discussions and lectures.

Audience: Write so that someone in our class could recognize your terms and explanations and enjoy your personal contributions or styles. The instructor has to be kept in sight--connect with shared terms and texts, and "write up" in terms of organization and ambition of thought.