Rubric

Here it is!

HW Reminder for this Weekend

• Bring in a copy of your rough draft for peer review/editing on Tuesday.
• Read "When it Changed" in time for Wednesday's class.
• Post one 150-word blog entry by Wednesday at 11:59pm.

Feel free to email me over the weekend with any questions you have as you are writing your reports!

Goodbye, Gethen!

I'm so happy to hear that many of you ended up enjoying reading Left Hand! I know it was extremely confusing to read at first (and elements of the book will probably remain confusing), but I'm glad to see how you all stuck with it and gave it a chance. Some of the things we get the most enjoyment from in life end up being--and excuse my non-academic language here--a "pain in the ass." But the act of overcoming a challenge can be part of what gives us that satisfaction.

Since many of you have expressed some dissatisfaction with the abrupt ending (or that we've reached the end in general), I just wanted to let you know that this book was part of a series Le Guin did know as the Hainish Cycle. The other books in the cycle (none of which I have read myself) do not take place on Gethen, but rather other planets which belong to the Ekumen. If you do want to read more involving the society of Gethen, she did write two short stories, "Winter's King" and "Coming of Age in Karhide," which take place on the planet we have come to know so well. I have a collection of hers which contains "Winter's King" and I'm happy to make a copy for anyone who's interested. I might even entertain the idea of giving extra credit for anyone who wants to read it over spring break and blog about it. I'm also happy to make copies of her other short stories in the collection.

"Soul Food" by Ursula Le Guin

I just wanted to share that poem from class today with you all, since I didn't make copies:

Soul Food

Everybody on earth knowing
that beauty is beautiful
makes ugliness.

Everybody knowing
that goodness is good
makes wickedness.

For being and nonbeing
arise together;
hard and easy
complete each other;
long and short
shape each other;
high and low
depend on each other;
note and voice
make the music together;
before and after
follow each other.

That's why the wise soul
does without doing,
teaches without talking.

The things of this world
exist, they are;
you can't refuse them.

To bear and not to own;
to act and not lay claim;
to do the work and let it go;
for just letting it go
is what makes it stay.


On the subject of yin/yang, you may be interested in checking out this page someone made addressing some of the themes in Left Hand. If you scroll down to the bottom of the page, you will find a pretty neat breakdown of aspects of Gethenian society into the yin/yang dichotomy.

Gender-Fair/Gender-Neutral Pronouns

Here is the link to the NPR feature on "yo."

Here are also a few links:
Guidelines for Gender-Fair Language from the NCTE
Purdue OWL handout on gender-fair language from class
Wikipedia: Non-sexist language

Reflection Homework for Tonight

Sorry--forgot to post this until now! Anyway here it is:

What do you notice now about the language that you used in your narrative that you didn't notice when you originally wrote it, and how does your use of pronouns play a role in what you notice?

You should write about one full page, and it's informal. I will be grading on how much effort you put into your reflection. You can also extend your reflection to what you learned generally about language and its relationship to culture if you like.

Left Hand of Darkness Glossary

Here is the list of key terms, people and places we created as a class on Wednesday. As these definitions each group's interpretations, I encourage you all to think of this as an ongoing discussion. If you think something needs to be added to or changed in a definition, please leave a comment in the comment section of this post (this is a great way to earn participation points). I also added a few links to terms which have information on wikipedia.

ansible—a communication radio rhat does not involve radio waves or any form of energy. It produces a message at any two points simultaneously, anywhere.

androgynous—being both male and female, meaning having both genitalia

Arek of Estre—Saves Therem of Stok from the cold. He warms him up and then the two kemmer. Bears a kemmer child with Therem of Stok. Brings baby to Lord Harish rem ir Stokven; the baby is Therem of Estre

Ashe Foreth—a Foreteller and the kemmering of Estraven and they also had a son together. There is also something going on between Ashe and Estraven that caused Estraven to be angry with him. Ashe also gave money to Estraven although he knew the risks of helping a traitor.

bisexual—a society which has two separate sexes

celibate—someone who doesn't participate in kemmer (i.e. Ashe Foreth); a job as a Foreteller—wears a gold chain

the Commensals—Thirty-three (33) heads of the Orgota government

commensality—regions of Great Commensality of Orgoreyn; similar word structure as “community” or “communism.” Root means “to eat together”—all Orgota government and institutions

domain—a vast amount of land, territory with borders. There are many domains. A very big neighborhood (domain)

dothe—a phase when your body goes through exhaustion and deep relaxation of your muscles; “hysterical strength” (59) a.k.a adrenaline

Ehrenrang—the capital city of Karhide; the king that ruled Ehrenrang was pregnant and after he gave birth the baby died. It has a parade every year, to celebrate.

Ekumen—an alliance of planets—the people of Ekumen want to recruit everyone in Gethen (Planet Winter)

Estraven—Lord of Estre

Fastness—a prayer house that people can go to for a brief period or longer

Faxe—the Weaver of the Foretellers at Otherhord

female—a certain phase in the kemmering process; a female animal

foray gun—a gun that fires pieces of metal

the Foretellers—people that are vested with the power to see into the future; followers of Meshe

Genly Ai—main character; human from Terra serving as Envoy or representative of Ekumen in Aether. Tries to persuade King Argaven to join the union but ends up going to Orgoreyn as Tibe takes over.

Gethen—a city that has Gethenians that inhabit Gethen that have no defined gender

the Hainish—the experimenters that created the planet Winter. They eliminated different sexes.

Handdara—discipline of the presence; self-enlightenment

hearth—another place (karhosh was built like hearth, but not completely). They have genealogical stability—maybe meaning they have perfected their kemmering

hieb—type of clothing, possibly a coat

Karhide—state of Gethen

karhosh—an island that houses the greatest part of the urban populations of Karhide. There are 20 to 200 private rooms and inhabitants take communal meals. Some buildings are hotels, some are cooperative communities, some are a mixture of both.

kemmer—Gethenian sex cycle; specific part of the cycle entered on the 22^nd and 23^rd day whereupon a person becomes sexually active

kemmering—a partner after one vows kemmering; similar to a husband or wife in our society

King Argaven—King of Karhide

kyorremy—the upper chamber or parliament, which Estraven used to head (Estraven being prime minister). Now his position is with Tibe. The kyorremy position is also under the king.

Lord Harish—father of Therem (of Estre); grandfather of the character we know as “Estraven”

Lord Tibe—King Argaven's cousin; current ruler of Karhide

Mesche—all powerful, supernatural “being” (Orgoreyn religion?); center of time; Foreteller who can see the past, present, and future

Mishnory—a busy port; a city whose main livelihood is based on shipping and fishing or business that relies on the sea

mother—the person who carries the child from kemmer

NAFAL ship—spaceship on which Genly Ai travels, presumably method of travel by Ekumen

nusuth—“doesn't matter,” “no problem,” “no matter,” “whatever”

Oedipus/myth of Oedipus—myth in which a child has a psycho-sexual relationship to his mother or father; myth originated with a kind who thought his son would kill him so he sent him away and abandoned his own child (popularized in psychology by Sigmund Freud)

Orgoreyn—state with 33 substates or districts. The state is feuding with Karhide over land. Orgoreyn is also corrupt because Tibe says he learns to lie from them.

Otherhord—the main temple of Foretellers located in Karhide

pervert—one who has permanent gender/sex

rem ir—“son of”

shifgrethor—related to pride, prestige, self-esteem. A type of façade.

Sinoth Valley—area of dispute between Karhide and Orgoreyn; claimed by Argaven's grandfather but never recognized by Orgoreyn (fenced off and hard to enter)

somer—sexually inactive part of the kemmer cycle

Stabiles—the individual nations within the Ekumenical alliance

Terra—land, Earth, place where Genly Ai lives/comes from

Therem Harth rem ir Estraven—Former Prime Minister of Karhide. Exiled for treason, but details are unclear. He moves to Orgoreyn after he is exiled.

Therem of Stok—Saved by Arek of Estre. Kemmers with him. Killed by a group of men from Stok.

vow kemmering—an oral contract between people to only kemmer with one another and no one else; like marriage

xenophobic—afraid of strangers

Welcome to the blogosphere...

Here are all of your blogs:

Saruul
Steven
Paula
Polian
Sheryl
Kimberly
Amy
Safa
Vincent
DiMarco
Maybo
Holleigh
Lemons
Mary
Choisi
Jessi
Warren
Catriona
Stephanie
Raymond
Eileen
Shirlyn
Animosity
Luis
Anthony
Ashley
Larry
Jasmine
Nicole
John
Jennifer
Herman

Question Paper

Here is the overhead about the question paper I showed you in class. Again, the instructions are simply: ask an open-ended, interpretive question you have about the text, and try to answer it! Don't feel like you need to include lots of citations - I just want you to think about the text and try to make your own interpretation. Think of it as a higher-level freewrite!

1. What is a question paper?

A question paper is an alternative to "study questions" about a work of literature. It's a piece of focused freewriting in which you think on paper a sort of dialogue between the writer and yourself. The question paper begins with a question you have about the work (possibly from your reading logs) and proceeds through a series of possible answers and further questions these answers generate--a free-wheeling alternation of questions and possible answers.

2. Why do a question paper?

By asking your own questions about a text, you will have to look at the piece closely and find your own answers in a text, rather than trying to figure out what I am thinking or what the "right" answer is. In becoming able to ask your own questions about a text, you will be better prepared to interpret a text in the future without my help. This skill is crucial in order to succeed in college (whatever your major is), and also to make sense of any text as an adult.

Writing a question paper will also provide for a better discussion, because you can bring your questions and ideas to your fellow classmates. You can use this approach to any text, including science texts, films, newspaper articles, visual art, blogs, government documents, and non-fiction books.

If you would like to see a sample, log in to the nicenet page for our class (login is on the syllabus) and look under "Documents."

Please type your question papers if you can. If typed, your paper should be 1-2 pages single-spaced (and in 12 pt. font). If you write it by hand, it needs to be at least 2 pages.
Due Wednesday, March 4th

For this task, you do have the option to post your question paper on your blog. If you decide to do this, I will leave feedback and the points you earned in the comments section of your blog (if you don't want anyone to see, you can choose to delete or not to approve my comment).

Left Hand of Darkness Discussion Leading

To discuss Ursula K. Le Geuin's Left Hand of Darkness, our class will organize into small groups of three (3) students each, with each group being responsible for facilitating a discussion of 1-2 chapters for a full class period. To lead your class, you may adopt any format you wish: regular English class, nonviolent talk show format, town hall meeting, courtroom, small group-whole class, whole class circle, or any other mode of your choice. Your discussion should meet all of the following requirements:

• Each group member should take an equal part in leading the discussion.

• You should make an effort to include each other class member in your discussion.

• The questions you pose should not ask for factual information from those story, unless those facts serve to help explore open-ended questions (i.e. those without a single correct answer).

• The questions you pose should include at least one of each of the following categories:

  • inferences about characters or events within the text (e.g., Why doesn't Genly trust Estraven at first?)

  • generalizations from the text to society at large (e.g., How are Estraven's views on patriotism similar or different to our society's?)

  • the effects of literary form or technique (e.g., Why does Le Guin make recurring references to the season of winter throughout the story?)

  • the purpose of a particular event in terms of the text's meaning (e.g., What is the significance of the parade in Chapter One and what does it tell the reader about Karhide?)

  • evaluations of the literature (e.g., What do you think about Le Guin's use of fluid gender in the story?)

  • emotions that students have in response to the story (e.g., How do you feel about Genly's dislike of Gethenians?)

  • personal connections to the story, including connections to other texts and opportunities for your classmates to bring in other related knowledge they may have (e.g., Has there ever been a time when you felt you were an alien in a situation?, What do you know about different forms of gender expression?)

• During the discussion, you should also work on getting students to elaborate on their initial comments.

Discussion Schedule
(I will add the rest of the names Monday)

3/2* - Ch. 5 - Warren, Jessi, John
3/3 - Chs. 6 & 7 - Holleigh, Nicole
3/5 - Ch. 8 - Eileen, Kim, Shirlyn
3/9* - Chs. 9 & 10 - Ashley, Larry, Vincent
3/10 - Chs. 11 & 12 - Steven, Herman, Luis
3/12 - Ch. 13 - Amanda, Jennifer, Stephanie
3/13* - Ch. 14 - Polian, Mary, Sheryl
3/17 - Ch. 15 - Paula, Jasmine, Maybo
3/18* - Chs. 16 & 17 - Catriona, Saruul, Amy
3/20 - Ch. 18 - Duc, Victor, Raymond
3/23 - Ch. 19 - Anthony, Safa, Dimarco

Don't forget: you have 2 reading logs due each day on the discussion schedule, unless there is a blog due! Blog days are marked with (*).