Week7: Building Worlds of Your Own

The Writing assignment for this week is to represent a world that you know. Provide us what we need to know to envision your world as you know it. Be specific and concrete in what you represent. You only have to create the world, you don't have to people it with characters or create any plot, events or action. 

We will be reading in-class and responding there as well so please bring your laptop or tablet.

You Love Pizza Rat but You Don't Own Pizza Rat--article

In Class: In relation to worldbuilding, we will undertake to examine the following questions (feel free to think about them before coming to class):
(From the syllabus of Junot Diaz for his course in world-building for the Writing program at M.I.T.)
What are the primary features of this world--spatial, cultural, biological, fantastic, cosmological? 
What is the world’s ethos (the guiding beliefs or ideals that characterize the world)? 
What are the precise strategies that are used by its creator to convey the world to us and us to the world? 
How are our characters connected to the world? 
And how are we the viewer or reader or player connected to the world?”
A Map of the Literary World

Week6: Reading in Present Tense

Junot Diaz 

This week we will be reading one of the most notable novels of the 21st century, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz. The focus will be on reading this week. There is no writing assignment due this week, all your time should be spent on reading as much of novel as you can before coming to class. Consult the course resource page. 

Salon Interview with Junot Diaz