A few weeks ago Melanie and Sarah set me a blog post. It arrived at a perfect time. I had just finished Jason Reynolds newest, Look Both Ways, and I can stop thinking about short stories and short story cycles.
Many of us who have taught or who teach in ELA classrooms realize how often the short story is used. Classrooms are few of anthologies that are full of great story stories from "The Scarlet Ibis," "The Most Dangerous Game," or "The Gift of the Magi." Teaching stories like these and other can go a long way to teaching or refreshing student understanding of basic literary components--setting, plot, character, symbols, and other components of literature. They are often taught independently or grouped together by theme.
From time to time some of the short stories included as "stand-alone" are in reality often part of connected collection or a short story cycle. For example, think about how often Joyce's "Clay," Steinbeck's "Flight," Hemingway's "Soldier's Home." and even more recently O'Brien's "The Things They Carried." How much richer would the reading experience be if student read the short story in its full context? Would student benefit from a bigger introduction to the context of Joyce's Dubliners or of the Salinas valley as depicted in Steinbeck's The Long Valley.
Chief among these collections of short story cycles, and perhaps, the inspiration for many of these is Sherwood Anderson's Winesburg Ohio. There are many things to consider when teaching the short story. What is our instructional goal? What these short stories? Are we using them to introduce students to a specific author? If the latter is the case, should we be considering the short stories of many of today's YA authors--those that stand-alone as independent shorts and those are a deliberate part of short story cycle.
Below, Melanie and Sarah introduce us to a collection of short stories that focus on technology. Take it away.
Many of us who have taught or who teach in ELA classrooms realize how often the short story is used. Classrooms are few of anthologies that are full of great story stories from "The Scarlet Ibis," "The Most Dangerous Game," or "The Gift of the Magi." Teaching stories like these and other can go a long way to teaching or refreshing student understanding of basic literary components--setting, plot, character, symbols, and other components of literature. They are often taught independently or grouped together by theme.
From time to time some of the short stories included as "stand-alone" are in reality often part of connected collection or a short story cycle. For example, think about how often Joyce's "Clay," Steinbeck's "Flight," Hemingway's "Soldier's Home." and even more recently O'Brien's "The Things They Carried." How much richer would the reading experience be if student read the short story in its full context? Would student benefit from a bigger introduction to the context of Joyce's Dubliners or of the Salinas valley as depicted in Steinbeck's The Long Valley.
Chief among these collections of short story cycles, and perhaps, the inspiration for many of these is Sherwood Anderson's Winesburg Ohio. There are many things to consider when teaching the short story. What is our instructional goal? What these short stories? Are we using them to introduce students to a specific author? If the latter is the case, should we be considering the short stories of many of today's YA authors--those that stand-alone as independent shorts and those are a deliberate part of short story cycle.
Below, Melanie and Sarah introduce us to a collection of short stories that focus on technology. Take it away.
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Stronger, Faster, and More Beautiful: Technology and YA
“They were just like us,” she told him, when she could speak. “They pretended we were different, and we accepted it. But we were the same” (p. 365).
Stronger, Faster, and More Beautiful by Arwen Elys Dayton began, Dayton says, “with a revelation” (p. 369) she had after reading articles about gene editing, gene manipulation, and new ways to grow human organs. She thought both about possibilities for curing disease and saving lives and also about the multiple ways in which things could go horribly wrong. The stories in the novel focus on teenagers who experience the wonders and horrors of genetic modifications. These stories raise questions about what makes us human and who gets to decide what responsibilities we have toward humanity. In addition to raising questions, the stories show what can happen when the focus shifts from saving lives to modifying bodies to make them stronger, smarter, or more attractive. The stories highlight ethical, moral, and religious issues raised when people begin to use technology to modify, adapt, or change the human body.
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The first story, “Matched Pair,” introduces the twins Evan and Julia, both of whom are dying. Their parents and doctors have made the choice to save one of them by using the organs from the other. The question of whether or not Evan will still be human after this is raised by Reverend Tadd who has made a career of preaching against any sort of procedure that alters or changes a body. He tells Evan that he is doing a selfish thing and asks if Evan wants to be a demon but the question of whether or not Evan should have the procedure is not Evan’s to make because he is young and his parents have made the choice for him. Doctors see him as a medical marvel—a potential miracle. Tadd and his followers see him as an abomination. The use of religious language around the choices highlight how potentially challenging this kind of situation can be. At what point does Evan stop being human? Do the organs that are used to repair him make him more than human? Is Evan still Evan, or is he something—or someone—else now that Julia’s organs have become part of him? Does tinkering with our biology indicate a desire to be more than human, to be godlike? What “tinkering” is okay, and what is dangerous?
Questions around religion and science continue in “St. Ludmilla.” Medical advances and robotic body parts are used to save Milla’s life; while Milla does not hide that there are changes in her body since her accident, she does not share the extent to which she has been altered. She and Gabriel have an argument on their first date about modifications. She asks, “But what’s the difference between a half-real heart and taking antibiotics, or getting a doctor to set a broken bone?” (p. 49). The question becomes one of morality as the teens hear Reverend Tadd condemning the science that allows modifications to happen. Gabriel replies, “How are they drawing the line?” (p. 49). What is the moral and ethical line here? Again, we are prompted to wonder: how much modification becomes too much? What is the line between saving a life using artificial organs and completely rebuilding a person who was nearly dead? Are scientists creating medical miracles or are they playing god with lives?
Reverend Tadd gets his own story in “The Reverend Mr. Tad Tadd’s Love Story.” When the Reverend and his family—his wife, son, and daughter—are attacked, the Reverend’s views on modifications flip. He says that he was wrong, that he “defied the holy design...when I told [Evan] he was turning himself into a demon” (p. 92), and that he should not have opposed modifications. Elsie—his daughter and the only other survivor—questions his shift in beliefs. She discovers that the Reverend has made modifications to both of them using body parts, skin, and hair from his wife and son. They did not need these components to survive. Rather, these parts served as memorials to the dead, parts of them that live on. Tadd now argues that “evolution is not a side note. It is not something to be accepted begrudgingly” (p. 93), implying that man should be able to adapt and modify as part of divine design. Elsie refuses this idea and explains that her father has made them both into monsters, creating a schism that reverberates throughout the next stories.
What makes us human? What makes us monsters? Where is the line? Just because we can do a thing with science, does that mean we should? Science has developed to the point that genetic modifications and alterations can save lives. Because the technology is available, it can also be used to change and adapt people to make them stronger or faster. This raises questions about whether genetic modifications should be allowed by choice rather than necessity. Who gets to decide? As genetic modifications become more prevalent, the world of the novel shifts. Modifications become money-making tools and issues to go to war over. Corporations, countries, and scientists argue over whether modifications should happen and whether or not these modifications make someone not human.
In “Eight Waded,” Alexios has been genetically modified to be extremely smart. He can see and breathe underwater, talk to animals, and learn at an accelerated rate. He is, however, physically very different with fins instead of feet and an overly large head, and he cannot connect with other humans the way his parents expect him to. His mother, disappointed with the results of the genetic modifications, calls him “dead weight” and intelligent, but not “in a way that matters” (p. 129)”. Alexios is part human and part animal. He is treated as a commodity to be used, and a curiosity to be tested endlessly by researchers. He is kept in what he calls his “sea prison” and interacts with both people and animals, struggling with where he might truly belong. The questions of how far to go or what changes to the human body should be allowed and who should make those decisions thread through this story. How do we deal with unforeseen consequences of alterations we impose on our children, presumably made for their own good, but with unpredictable results? How do we deal with consent in these scenarios?
“California” propels us further into this future with the story of Jake, a California teen who chooses to be frozen in the hopes that scientists will develop a cure for his cancer. Geopolitical upheaval foils this plan, though, as Russia takes over the Estonian center where Jake’s body is stored, and all of the people housed there are re-animated and re-tooled to become platinum-mining “slaves.” We follow Jake’s escape as he tries to discover who he is now in this new body and new time period. This story raises questions about choice and outcomes. Jake chose to preserve his body in the hopes that a cure for his disease could be found. The Russians chose to modify Jake and change him into a slave. Who has the right to make decisions about Jake’s body?
In the final story, “Curiosities,” Luck and Starlock are “Protos,” or unmodified people who are told they are a separate species from the highly modified humans who keep them on a reservation. When a catastrophic disease kills their human contacts, Luck and Starlock venture off the reservation to see how they might help. Luck and Starlock have grown up believing that they are not human, that humans are a species apart and evolutionarily beyond Protos. However, what seemed like truth turns out to be a form of human oppression as it becomes apparent that one group has been using physical differences as a way to keep themselves separate from another group.
In the final story, “Curiosities,” Luck and Starlock are “Protos,” or unmodified people who are told they are a separate species from the highly modified humans who keep them on a reservation. When a catastrophic disease kills their human contacts, Luck and Starlock venture off the reservation to see how they might help. Luck and Starlock have grown up believing that they are not human, that humans are a species apart and evolutionarily beyond Protos. However, what seemed like truth turns out to be a form of human oppression as it becomes apparent that one group has been using physical differences as a way to keep themselves separate from another group.
The final stories focus the question of what it means to be human; the characters themselves wrestle directly with what makes someone human? What makes them more or less than someone else? Where does technology start and end in the shaping and reshaping of humanity?
As readers, we see connections to familiar and frequently discussed tropes about human morality: pride and/or vanity will come before a fall (e.g., an apocalyptic plague); those who meddle with their bodies will be punished; those who oppress others will ultimately suffer; youth and innocence, hope and love will save humanity. Dayton offers the reader a complicated and nuanced way to think about technology—not as the savior or the cause of suffering but rather a tool to be used by humanity. This shifts the focus to how technology changes how we think about the technology itself. The moral question developed across these stories is not whether or not technology is right or wrong; it is, rather, the question of who makes the decisions about technology and how that technology gets used. Technology has been used to free and enslave and to kill and to cure; this young adult novel highlights those uses but also raises questions that challenge reader perceptions of technology and the ethical use of it in a society. Perhaps it is our human attitudes and human choices in how we apply both morality and technology that cause the harm attributed to technological development.
As readers, we see connections to familiar and frequently discussed tropes about human morality: pride and/or vanity will come before a fall (e.g., an apocalyptic plague); those who meddle with their bodies will be punished; those who oppress others will ultimately suffer; youth and innocence, hope and love will save humanity. Dayton offers the reader a complicated and nuanced way to think about technology—not as the savior or the cause of suffering but rather a tool to be used by humanity. This shifts the focus to how technology changes how we think about the technology itself. The moral question developed across these stories is not whether or not technology is right or wrong; it is, rather, the question of who makes the decisions about technology and how that technology gets used. Technology has been used to free and enslave and to kill and to cure; this young adult novel highlights those uses but also raises questions that challenge reader perceptions of technology and the ethical use of it in a society. Perhaps it is our human attitudes and human choices in how we apply both morality and technology that cause the harm attributed to technological development.
References
Dayton, A. E. (2018). Stronger, Faster, and More Beautiful. Delacorte Press, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books: New York, New York.
Dayton, A. E. (2018). Stronger, Faster, and More Beautiful. Delacorte Press, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books: New York, New York.
Sarah Burriss is a doctoral student in the Department of Teaching and Learning at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. Her research focuses on teaching and learning about ethics and advanced computational technologies, like artificial intelligence. Sarah came from the public library world, where she was a young adult and adult services librarian.
Dr. Melanie Hundley is an Associate Professor in the Practice of Language and Literacy Education at Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College; her research examines how digital and multimodal composition informs the development of pre-service teachers’ writing pedagogy. Additionally, she explores the use of digital and social media in young adult literature. She teaches writing methods courses that focus on digital and multimodal composition and young adult literature courses that explore race, class, gender, and sexual identity in young adult texts. She has taught both middle and high school English Language Arts and currently co-directs Patterson RAPS, a reading program for middle school students.
Dr. Melanie Hundley is an Associate Professor in the Practice of Language and Literacy Education at Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College; her research examines how digital and multimodal composition informs the development of pre-service teachers’ writing pedagogy. Additionally, she explores the use of digital and social media in young adult literature. She teaches writing methods courses that focus on digital and multimodal composition and young adult literature courses that explore race, class, gender, and sexual identity in young adult texts. She has taught both middle and high school English Language Arts and currently co-directs Patterson RAPS, a reading program for middle school students.
Until next week.
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