Book Groups; Lab; Horror Stories; The Black Cat; Disorders (day 2)

Lab:

10 minutes: Book Groups:
Book groups:

• One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey (the story of a criminal who pleads insanity, then has to question his own sanity in an asylum)
• The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath (a fictionalized memoir about Plath's descent into clinical depression and madness)
• Name All the Animals by Alison Smith (a memoir about Rochester native Alison Smith dealing with the traumatic death of her brother and her own sexual identity) 
• Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes (science fiction; a mentally disabled man undergoes experiments to "cure" him of his disability). 
• The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot (non-fiction scientific journalism about a black woman whose cells were used to cure diseases. Examines medical ethics & race)

Meet with your book group. Decide how far to read over the November break. Aim to finish the book by Dec. 1. Answer any questions that might arise. Then, note: 

• Each participant should come up with 3 discussion questions to bring back to the group. You may bring more than 3 questions to the group for discussion. 

Lab:

For the rest of the period, please use your time to work/write any of the following prompts from last class:

• Popular culture: Gun violence. Why is America so crazy for guns? Reflect on your discussion yesterday and write about the topic in some creative way during the lab.
• Popular culture: Education. Write about the future of education in America. Any hope? Why should we educate the poor--they don't take advantage of what's given to them anyway...? College visits versus the city school district. What's the difference? Reflect on your experience from the field trip. What's better, for example, SOTA or MCC; high school classes where the teacher thinks for you vs. seminar classes in college where people talk about stuff; high school students vs. college students; high school lunches vs. college lunches? Elementary teaching/learning vs. High school teaching/learning, etc.
• Write a story using slang. See how far you can push the idea (inspired by A Clockwork Orange)--one easier way to do this is write the story, then FIND and REPLACE certain nouns or adjectives with the usage of slang.

Read/research:

• 10 Famous Psychological Studies
• Research the following site (The 30 Most Disturbing Human Experiments in History) or find a psychological experiment from history, read & research the topic enough to get the general idea, reason for doing the experiment, and the outcome or what we learned from conducting the experiment. Jot down notes. Write a scene/story/poem, etc. about a person who might have gone through one of these experiments or write a scene about someone learning that someone they love(d) was involved in one of these experiments (or the cause of an experiment) or change some of the details to create a fictional story based loosely on the human experiment or psychological experiment or speculate what we might learn if this experiment was carried out (or further) today
• Pick a historical or literary figure and place them in a psychological experiment or "put them on the couch" in therapy and have that person "talk" about their problems. Does Hermione Granger have a complex, consisting of her mudblood parents? Write a scene or a monologue or a poem, or a story examining any of these issues.
• Examine any issue from the psychology pioneers we have learned about (Galen, Galton, Wundt, Ebbinghaus, Freud, etc. or those described in Crash Course Psychology...); create your own Crash Course video or podcast about this person and your thoughts on the topic.
• Design and create a psychological experiment (or fake psychological experiment--nothing dangerous or damaging, please!) and write about your findings. For example: Put a cupcake on the lunchroom table and see how long it takes for one of your friends to snatch it up or lick the frosting. Observe and take notes about your findings. You might make a short documentary film, for example. 
• If you know people in your life who are psychologists, or psychiatrists or have gone to see one of these people, or if you have experience undergoing therapy, feel free to interview or write a personal essay about the value (or non-value) of the activity. This is a touchy subject, so feel free to disguise names, situations, etc. This is only an option for those students who wish to conduct it.

Fake deadline for those who need it: Complete any one of these prompts by next class and turn the draft in.

Period 2:

Schizophrenia & Dissociative Disorders (crash course)
"The Black Cat" by Edgar Allan Poe

Horror stories start with an inciting incident that suggests that something is wrong with the status quo or setting or a character--a sense of imbalance. This is usually followed up at some point with an event that tends to threaten the protagonist. Hints and clues of impending danger are common. These things tend to occur before a turning point or crisis for the protagonist.

Horror stories also spend a lot of time establishing a mysterious or horrific tone. Use words that suggest or unearth our deepest subconscious fears. This is generally done by sprinkling your work with spurious meanness, as Joyce would put it: the subtle diction used in a passage to create a certain tone by repeating words or associations that conjure a feeling/mood for the reader.

• Consider words that evoke the five senses (imagery!) (words that create smell or taste: acrid, pungent, mildew, sour, fetid, rancid; or sound imagery using onomatopoeia: clank, guttural, piping, gurgle, hacking, etc.
• Use ambiguous descriptions to create a mysterious atmosphere (hazy, opaque, tenebrous, unintelligible, amorphous, etc.) Read H.P. Lovecraft for a whole host of good examples. 

In the event we finish before the end of class, please take a look at the comic short play "'dentity Crisis" by Christopher Durang.

HOMEWORK: Read any story or poem you would like in Edgar Allan Poe's collection. Bring your collection back with you next class (after break). Continue reading your chosen book group novel.