Dystopias and Reality

“…we ought to read only the kind of books that wound or stab us. If the book we’re reading doesn’t wake us up with a blow to the head, what are we reading it for? So that it will make us happy…? Good Lord, we would be happy precisely if we had no books, and the kind of books that make us happy are the kind we could write ourselves if we had to. But we need books that affect us like a disaster, that grieve us deeply, like the death of someone we loved more than ourselves, like being banished into forests far from everyone, like a suicide. A book must be the axe for the frozen sea within us. That is my belief.” – Franz Kafka

Harrison Bergeron audio

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBnwqmJdrsU

  1. SAFEeye  surveillance and privacy
  2. Imagining the Future: The Perfect City.   10 Failed Utopian Cities
  3. The Elements of Dystopia: An Inquiry Lesson  What is DYSTOPIA?  10 Elements of Dystopia.
    dystopian examples:

    1. Elysium Trailer:  http://youtu.be/LNhdDDTY6Lk?list=PLOMsq6qKKJICnVUagbK-y5wtG8YKCSfr1
    2. Short film “Sight”:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lK_cdkpazjI&index=2&list=PLOMsq6qKKJICnVUagbK-y5wtG8YKCSfr1
    3. Divergent Trailer:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sutgWjz10sM
    4. 1984 Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4rBDUJTnNU
    5. Scene from Wall-E:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1BQPV-iCkU
    6. A  beautiful trailer for “Harrison Bergeron”  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FE_nr2t6fKQ
    7. Coca Cola Security Cameras:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKy4utFUN-k
    8. Image 1:  http://www.livemaguk.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Dystopian-Feature-Image.png
    9. Image 2:  http://inktank.fi/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/1984.jpg
    10. Image 3:  http://www.occupy.com/sites/default/files/styles/slide_narrow/public/field/image/internet-surveillance-article.jpg?itok=EDQNi82J
    11. Image 4:  http://imagineathena.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/black-mirror-dystopia.png
  4. The Connotation of Genre
    Take the keywords of the 10 Elements of Dystopia and rank the intensity of the connotation of each word.
  5. “Low Battery”  view and discuss the spoken word poem “Low Battery” by Prince Ea.
  6.  The Tableau