Remember to finish the book for Friday's class, since we'll have our final Reading Exam (no questions otherwise). This will be our last 'business' class of the semester, though we will have class on Monday just to wrap things up.
Start thinking about your Final Project assignment, even though you still have until Finals week to complete it. Let me know if you have any questions or you simply get stuck!
See you tomorrow!
These are our LAST questions for the class! We'll just have a Reading Exam on Friday, so be sure to finish the book by then. Hopefully, these last readings will give you more ideas to help you approach the Final Project, which we'll talk a bit more about on Friday. Let me know if you have any questions...
Answer TWO of the following
Q1: To bring about a truce between the Khoush and the Meduse, Binti invokes "deep culture," something she claims "Never in a thousand years would I have believed it would move through me." What is deep culture in the story, and what might it represent outside of the story (esp. in terms of earlier works from the class--the Tao te Ching and the Prophet, for example)?
Q2: Why do the Himba elders decide to abandon Binti and sacrifice her to the two warring races? Don't they want peace, especially given the famous saying "When elephants fight, the grass suffers"? How does this confirm many of Binti's suspicions about the tribe (and the elders, especially)?
Q3: After Binti's death, Mywinyi remarks that "She's a master harmonizer, but what harmony did she bring? I couldn't understand her. She seemed broken." How might Binti have been broken prior to her death? Though she seemed to have finally found her identity, what conflict might have continued to unbalance her?
Q4: When Binti is resurrected by New Fish, she learns that she has become part of New Fish's biology; or, as the ship explains, "You are probably more microbes than human now." Does this suggest that 'Binti' is truly dead, and the new Binti is finally something else--something no longer tied to Himba or Meduse? Or can she be Binti in any body, even one that is scarcely a human being? (in the same way, if you could put someone's memories into a computer, would the computer be that person...or just a program?)
NOTE: This is our last week of reading, so just hang in there and finish the book and you'll be done! Remember the paper assignment is posted below, and if you get stumped on what to write about, the reading/questions should help you! I'm designing them with the Final Project in mind.
Answer TWO of the following:
Q1: How does the dream-vision of Kande (the Himba girl who first encountered the aliens) inform Binti's own situation in the present? Why is she almost another incarnation of Kande, in yet another cycle of "outsiders" forced inside?
Q2: There's a great passage early on in the book when Binti is told about the Icarus grasshoppers who jump into the flames, fly with burning wings until they fall off, recover, and then do it again. When she asks why they would do such a thing, Mwinyi responds, "It's how they were programmed by science, I guess," to which she responds, "But I'm sure they rationalize it somehow." How might this metaphor relate to certain habits of the Himba or even the Meduse? Or our own society?
Q3: Why does everyone on both sides of the conflict--Khoush and Himba--insist on seeing Binta as the partner, or mate, of Okwu? Do they have that kind of relationship? Or is that simply the only way to explain/rationalize what they do have?
Q4: When Binti is before the council of elders towards the end of the chapter, she explains that she never intended to run away from home, but instead, "I wanted to add to it all...I need it all, you, school, space." Why can't the Himba accept that leaving home is an addition rather than a subtraction? And why, too, did they assume she would never come home?
INTRO: In Binti,
Binti has her native hair replaced with the okuoko,
which are prehensile tentacles which allow her to not only speak with (and for)
the Meduse, but change how others see her and how she sees herself. Soon after,
she realizes that she is also Enyi Zinariya, a race with alien technology in
their blood. She now has to confront difficult questions of identity, rather
than accepting herself as a single, static being: I was Himba, a master
harmonizer. Then I was also Meduse, anger vibrating in my okuoko. Now I was
also Enyi Zinairya, of the Desert People gifted with alien technology. I was
worlds. But some only see the drawbacks of the complexity, as her brother
says, “You’re polluted…What man will marry you? What kind of children will you
have now?”
PROMPT: For your final project, I want to consider how parts
of you have been replaced and augmented (either consciously or unconsciously)
as you’ve gradually become the person you are today. What are the ‘okuoko’
which have been added to your intellectual, spiritual, emotional, or even
physical identity? In what way have you become a very different person from the
one you were ten years ago? Where did this ‘technology’ come from? Was it
entirely by choice? Did you choose to change your identity in subtle ways that
eventually led to a more drastic transformation? Or is this something that your
culture/education naturally replaced so that you could function more
efficiently in society? Do you feel that these are all improvements? Would you
ever want to have a reverse-operation?
EXAMPLES: getting a tattoo is a small but important way to transform your body and change its meaning (literally, by writing on the skin). Even a certain hair style or type of clothing can become an extension of your identity that changes how you see yourself (or how others do). But you could also say that devoting your life to a certain sport or activity can be an augmentation to your initial self that results in a change of life and ideas. Even books and fields of study can become okuoko!
REQUIREMENTS: This is a ‘project,’ so it can take various
forms: (a) a traditional paper that charts the ways that you augmented (or were
augmented); (b) a more creative approach—a story, a poem; (c) a presentation
either via Powerpoint, Prezi, etc., or something more creative; (d) a work of
art such as a drawing, painting, etc.
The only CATCH is that your project must somehow incorporate
Binti as part of your conversation: you should relate your experience with
hers, and use passages in the text to help explain your experience, even if it
seems radically different. Look at the metaphors—the way Okorafor translates a universal
experience into a particular story about a specific woman.
DUE: Not later than the last day of Final Exam
Week—Friday, May 6th by
REMEMBER that I had to cancel class on Wednesday, so try to finish Binti: Home for Friday's class. No questions, since we'll try to stay on schedule and do a Reading Exam for the second book (since we didn't do one for the first!). As long as you're more or less finished with it you should have no trouble responding.
I'll also be posting the Final Project assignment so stay tuned...
NOTE: Feel free to finish Binti: Home, for next time, though we'll only discuss the chapters above. We'll finish the book on the following class. The questions below are only for the next few chapters.
Answer TWO of the following:
Q1: Though most of Khoush culture looks down upon the Himba as savage and uncivilized, how are the Himba guilty of their own cultural subjectification? How does their own ethnocentricity affect Binti and her own family--notably, her father?
Q2: When Binti returns home, her old friend, Dele, accuses her of being "too complex," and all of them find her dangerous. What do they most fear about her new identity? How might she upset the careful cultural balance of the Himba people, merely because she left the planet to go to Oomza Uni?
Q3: Why do you think Binti returned to go on a pilgrimage, which is what a traditional Himba woman does once she comes of age (and before marriage)? Especially since, as she reflects, "No man wanted a girl who ran away." What does she think such a pilgrimage will accomplish when most people already reject her?
Q4: In the desert at eight years old, Binti finds the edan buried in the sand, and is told that she has found a "god stone." What might the edan, and the manner in which she found it, remind you of (what other stories)? How might this chapter be Okorafor's way of setting this story in a very traditional, familiar setting?
If you missed class on Wednesday (or forgot), we won't have any questions for Friday, and you can take a break on reading, or simply keep reading Binti: Home. I'll give you more reading and questions for Monday's class.
We're a little ahead of schedule, so here's the new, updated schedule (below). On Friday, we're going to do some in-class writing and talk about some ideas that might lead to our Final Project for the class (don't worry--it's not a group assignment). See you then!
6 Okorafor, Binti: Home, Part 1
8 In-Class Writing/Discussion
11 Okorafor, Binti, Book 2, Part 2
13 Okorafor, Binti, Book 2, Part 3
15 Writing Exam #5
18 Okorafor, Binti, Book 3, Part 1
20 Okorafor, Binti, Book 3, Part 2
22 Okorafor, Binti, Book 3, Part 3
25 Okorafor, Binti, Book 3, Part 4 (if needed)
27 Writing Exam #6
29 Project Discussion/Wrap-Up
Final Project due TBA
REMEMBER: You can skip the story between "Binti" and "Binti:Home" since its not part of the original narrative. Read the first four chapters for next class, stopping at the chapter, "The Root."
Answer TWO of the following:
Q1: Though Binti is anxious to return home for the first time in a year, and though her parents seem to accept her back into the family, what if she most worried about? What complications might get in the way of her homecoming (and how might this relate to our own world, and our own trips back home after a long separation)?
Q2: After talking with the Khoush therapist, Dr. Nywanyi, Binti learns that "in matters of girlhood and womanhood and control, we were the same. What a surprise this was to me." Why might gender roles and expectations be almost universal across species? And how is this true of different races and cultures in our own world? In other words, why might women bond across cultures more easily than men?
Q3: The second chapter is called "Humans. Always Performing," after a comment an alien makes when observing Binti and her friend. Why might there be more than a grain of truth in this statement? How many of our social actions could be chalked up to 'performances' of one kind or another? What kind of performances are most important to these very interactions?
Q4: The great irony during her trip back home is that she is not only on the same ship that was attacked by the Meduse, but she's making the voyage with her best friend, who is also the cause of her PTSD nightmares. Why might this storyline evoke memories of The Ramayana and Hinduism in general? Why might your best friend also be your worst enemy?
Last time, I had you read the first 56 pages of the book, which was actually my book--not yours. The first 56 pages of your book is apparently the entire first book of Binti (it's three books). However, your edition includes the first book (which ends at page 56--smaller font?) and a new short story "Sacred Fire" sandwiched between the first book and the second ("Home"). Since we're not done talking about the first book yet, let's spend one more day discussing it, especially since we had low attendance on Wednesday due to various over-scheduled events.
So NO QUESTIONS...however, if you didn't turn in Wednesday's questions, you can still do so. Just make sure to read the first book ("Binti") which ends around page 56, before the story "Sacred Fire." If you want to read ahead, skip "Sacred Fire" and start reading "Home," which we'll discuss on Wednesday.
Take care!
