Posted: September 13th, 2017

http://www.rc.umd.edu/editions/frankenstein/1831_contents

http://www.rc.umd.edu/editions/frankenstein/1831_contents

This week, we’ll finish up reading Frankenstein. Please read Volume 2: Chapters I-IX (pp. 93-151) and Volume 3: Chapters I-VIII (pp. 155-225).

The Frankenstein Reading guide (Part 3) will help you work through the video lectures for this week by providing some structure as you view the lecture materials. You might read through the questions before you begin each lecture, so you know the kind of information you’re listening for.

read book and answer the questions.

Module 1: Experimentation
Frankenstein Reading guide (Part 3)

Please respond to the following questions as you view the video lectures for Module 1: Week 2. Remember to properly cite any direct quotations or paraphrases, using the MLA in-text citation style [more information on MLA style is available on D2L]. The reading guide is due to the correct D2L Dropbox by Monday, June 1, at 6:00 a.m. EDT.
1.    Before you begin, think about two most significant [useful, surprising, disturbing, meaningful] ideas you’ll take with you from reading Frankenstein. Why do these ideas stand out to you? How has the reading so far made you think about yourself and your relationship to technology in different or new ways? (That is, after all, the topic of this course: self, society, and technology!) Answer in about 150 words.

CrashCourse: Don’t Reanimate Corpses! Part II
In this video, John Green introduces a number of critical (as in engaged and analytical) readings of Shelley’s Frankenstein. The great thing about literature is that good literature opens more questions than it answers: we can use various theoretical approaches – for example, literary, autobiographical, cultural, or historical readings – to analyze Frankenstein (as Green does here). Each approach asks different questions of Frankenstein and shows us something new and interesting and relevant about the novel – even for us, reading the novel almost 200 years after it was first published. But most importantly, these different approaches give us some ideas about questions we might want to ask of the novel …
1.    What does Green mean when he says that “[s]ometimes we forget that we’re still in the middle of history”? How does this idea relate to Frankenstein? What does it tell us about the ethical and social questions that inform scientific innovation today? Answer in about 150 words.

2.    How would you answer Green’s last question? Why does Frankenstein’s experiment fail? As Green asks, “Is it because Victor’s aim are just unnatural and evil? Is it because he can’t love the creature he’s crated? Or is it because he let’s his ego run amok and dictate his motivations?” What do you think? Answer in about 150 words.

Science Britannica: Frankenstein’s Monsters
In the first episode of the BBC’s Science Britannica, we’ll follow Brian Cox, a professor of physics at the University of Manchester, to learn more about the dark side of science and “[confront] the idea that science can go ‘too far’” (BBC, “Frankenstein’s Monsters”). What does that mean? And what can Shelley’s Frankenstein show us about the limits, possibilities, and dangers of scientific innovation? What can the novel show us about the boundaries of human knowledge and humanity itself? Or about the consequences for transgressing these boundaries?
As you watch the episode, write down at least three connections you see to Frankenstein.

Video lecture: Module 1
1.    Respond to Freewrite #1 in about 150 words. Not sure what I’m talking about? Make sure you’ve watched the video lecture on Module 1: Experimentation!