Sci Fi Story Assignment/ENG 220
Our next paper, a sci-fi story. Three pages, MLA style, due at the start of class. Criteria: coherence, mechanics, and innovation.
By innovation, I mean that you will need to choose at least one of the formats described below, or propose an alternative:
Avant-garde Story: Using Ray Bradbury’s “There Shall Come Soft Rains” as a model, write a sci-fi story without characters, or a setting, or a plot.
Dream Sequence: Describe your adventureds in a dream, real or invented, using Through the Looking Glass as a model (“Wool and Water” in particular). Include phantasmagorical elements: the constantly shifting scenes and events that make dreams “dreamlike.”
Dramatic Monlogue: Using Richard Matheson’s “Born of Man and Woman” as a model, write a narrative from the point of view of someone or something other than yourself: a sentient comet, Frankestein’s monster, etc. Feel free to use improvisations in spelling and grammar if that will help you deveope the character, as per Matheson.
Dialogue: Write a dialouge in which two characters discuss a scientific or sci-fi concept, e.g., Darwin and God on human origins, etc. Use standard prose dialogue format with paragraph breaks and quotation marks to distinguish the speakers, and a paragraph introduction to set the scene. See Alice’s conversation with Tweedledum and Tweedledee in Through the Looking Glass.
Parable: Using Kafka, Borges, or Jesus as models, write a story or narrative with a double meaning. Following the model of Mathew 13, please explain the coded message at the end of your text.
Assignment check-list: (* indicates graded criteria)
*___ Do you use at least one innovation in telling the story?
*___ Do you use correct mechanics – grammar, MLA, etc. – unless you have a rationale for not doing so?
*___ Minimum length?
*___ Is your story coherent? (It may be hard to balance coherence and innovation, but that’s the challenge)
___ Does your story allude to any other work?
___ Do you use symbolism or foreshadowing?
___ Does your story have a theme?
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