I think I have decided to write my paper on the exploration of authority and the maintenance of order in science fiction. This is mostly predicated on Cory Doctorow's Little Brother, but also with some supporting examples like Minnericht's control over Seattle and the Union's use of super weapons in The Clockwork Century, the calorie monopolies from The Windup Girl, and possibly the curator from "Restoration." I also have some sources from outside class such as 1984, Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, the Dominion from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, the Republic and the Empire from Star Wars, and Bane's breaking down of authority in "Batman: the Dark Knight Rises." That may end up being too much, which is okay; I can pare it down.
I intend to talk specifically about the different means of keeping and maintaining power, the relative success of these various means, and why they may or may not fail. I also plan to discuss the effect that the existence of fictional works like these have on the possibility of power grabs like the ones described actually being carried out. And, as allowed specifically by science fiction, I intend to talk about the use of technology to take power, or alternately subvert authority. This is explored very well in Little Brother.
I think this is a great idea! I'll be very interested to see what you discuss about the Windup girl and the calorie monopolies, since that's what my paper mainly discusses. You said that you will talk about keeping and maintaining power, but do you plan on discussing how these people/organizations came into power and people willingly submitted? Just a thought.
ReplyDeleteSounds good, but I think you're going to have to limit the number of works. Otherwise you could be writing a book about it.
ReplyDeleteI think this sounds like a great paper topic! Should be really interesting to hear about tomorrow in class. You have a lot of works mentioned, I would pick the ones you have the best arguments about and run with it. I really like this topic!
ReplyDeleteI have a few broad themes in mind, and I'll likely pick the works that best fit in with those.
ReplyDeleteAny number of political-science theories could inform your argument and help you shape this. I don't mean overarching ideologies in the sense of Marxism, federalism, populism, etc., but more specific approaches -- like the "big man" theory, or public-choice theory. Wikipedia has a decent starter list of political-science theories.
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