March 10

Dystopia/Propaganda/Censorship

EQ:   What is a Dystopia?  What does it look like?

Today in class:

• We took a Pre-test (Link to file)
• OPTIC Charts for Thomas Cole's "The Course of an Empire" series (Link to OPTIC file)  (Link to Cole's Pictures)

The prefix “dys” means “apart, away, negative, bad.” We use it in words like “dysfunctional” or “disappear.” When paired with “utopia” to give us “dystopia,” we have an image of a place that is the opposite of ideal, or ideal gone bad. 

The painter Thomas Cole did a series of works called "The Course of the Empire. " It was based on a few lines from a poem by the poet Byron about the rise and fall of humanity.   Byron wrote: 
 
There is the moral of all human tales; 
This but the same rehearsal of the past 
First Freedom, and then Glory: when that fails 
Wealth, vice, corruption 
 
Look through the paintings in the series, noticing how the sun rises and moves through the sky like a day beginning with the sun rise and ending with the sunset. The mountain in the background is a constant, but the foreground changes drastically. As you look through the paintings, think about the parallels between them and the rise and fall of civilizations. 

Discussion

1. Do you think that they are an appropriate metaphor for the rise and fall of America? If so, what stage do you think America is in? 
   
2. Are the paintings utopic or dystopic? Can the same place be both utopic and dystopic? 

• Video on banning F451 "Religious Nuts in Texas..." (see below)
• Reasons for banning a book/Where does it go from there?
• Special "Guests"

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