JANUARY 12

STEAMPUNK
19TH CENTURY EVENTS
TED CHIANG’S “SEVENTY-TWO LETTERS”
 Grading will focus on the following:
READING RESPONSES
• Interpretation and Insight: Are you going
beyond like/dislike by making claims
• Meant as a way to generate ideas • Use of text: Are you pointing to specific
• Focus on analysis and interpretation: don’t passages and details to support your
just tell me, SHOW me claims?
• 600-800 words = 2-3 pages • Organization: Is your response organized
• Does not require an introduction and into paragraphs that focus on one specific
conclusion idea?

• Must include • Formatting and Conventions: Are you

• Claims about the text following MLA formatting guidelines? Is your
work free of errors – grammar, spelling,
• Specific support and evidence for those claims
punctuation, etc.
CHARACTERISTICS OF STEAMPUNK

• Focus on futuristic technologies implemented

in a past time
• Typically focuses on mechanized bodies
• Usually set in 19th century England
• Blurring of lines between human and
machine
• Often seeks to empower those outside of
traditionally excluded from – women,
minorities, nonhumans
• Focus on disrupting institutions and
corporations – hence the “punk”
MYTH OF THE GOLEM
• Figure from Jewish culture and myth that
originated in the Middle Ages
• An automaton (mechanical device that
imitates a human being) made from mud
and/or clay then brought to life.
• Frankenstein’s creation is one interpretation
of this figure
INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION (19TH CENTURY)
• Brought major changes to everyday life through:
• Mechanization of agriculture
• Increased reliance on machines in factories
• Changes to communication and travel
• Made daily tasks easier and expanded goods and
services through quicker and faster production.
• Resulted in cultural anxiety as production of items
moved from the home to the factory which resulted in
less control over items produced.
• Advances in technology that alter or improve the
human body play a larger role in our perceptions
and constructions of the body.
• The mechanization of labor blurred the lines
between human and machine where the worker was
often seen as little more than a human motor.
MONSTROUS BIRTHS
• 19th century saw the development of modern medicine as well as
modern obstetrics
• Prior to this, monstrous births and deformed bodies were blamed on the
behavior of the mother during conception or pregnancy.
• Seen as a punishment for actions or thoughts that involved adultery or
wantonness:
• “A mother’s thoughts and imagination were believed to influence
the shape of her unborn child not only during conception but also
through pregnancy” -- Surekha Davies, “The Unlucky, the Bad and
the Ugly: Categories of Monstrosity from the Renaissance to the
Enlightenment”
• Ideas that originated with Aristotle also directed cultural beliefs about
women until the 19th century. These included the idea that women and
their bodies were simply deformed versions of men.
DEFINITIONS

• Nomenclature: the devising or choosing of names for things, especially in a

science or other discipline.
• Euonym: a name well suited to the person, place, or thing named
• Autonym: one's own name, a person's real name or a name by which a
people or ethnic group refers to itself; a self designation
• Parthenogenesis: asexual reproduction
TED CHIANG’S “SEVENTY-TWO LETTERS”
• In groups of 3-4, complete the narrative elements worksheet with details from this
story. (5 min)
• Choose one narrative element to focus on for group discussion based on the questions
below. (5 min)
• On the back of the worksheet, respond to the following (5-10 min):
• How is this element developed within Chiang’s story?
• What claim can you make about the element you have chosen and its function in the story?
• Identify at least two pieces of evidence that support your claim.
FOR WEDNESDAY
• Read chapters 1-5 of Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go
• Keep in mind that this is considered a work of slipstream fiction as you read, and consider
how this work is combining both mainstream and science fiction.

• Reminders:
• Monday is a university holiday, so no classes will be held.
• If you want to write a Reading Response to either of this week’s stories, you must submit
your response via the link on the course website by 11:59 p.m. tonight.