"A rousing tale of techno-geek rebellion"
NOVEL STUDY LITTLE BROTHER BY CORY DOCTOROW
Compiled by Mrs. D. Wittmann
ACTIVITY 1. On ONE side of a blank piece of paper, briefly describe your own utopia. What specific qualities of your society would make it "perfect"? Try to be as specific as possible. Then, sketch out a rough picture that illustrates your utopia. Leave the back of the paper blank. 2. Exchange your piece of paper with a classmate. After you have read your partner's description of their utopia, turn the piece of paper over and explain what might go wrong with those perfect qualities and change the society into a dystopia. In other words, what is the mirror image or worst-case scenario of the utopia described on the other side. Then, sketch a brief illustration of what this dystopia might look like.
Edward Hicks, The Peaceable Kingdom, (1834). National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. The painting by Edward Hicks presents a utopia world in which predator and prey lie side by side in peace. Notice the scene in the background in which William Penn is signing a treaty with the native inhabitants. The term "utopia" was coined in 1516 by British political philosopher Thomas More, who published a book about a fictional land of the same name. In it he laid out his ideals for the perfect government, social institutions, religion, and employment, all of which were intended to be a critique of the England of his day. More invented the word "utopia" by combining the Greek words ou and topos. An almost identical-sounding Greek word, eu-topos, means "a good place," but More's ou-topos means "no place" or "nowhere," slyly suggesting from the very beginning that the concept was both an ideal and an illusion.
1984 by George Orwell Reading 1984, George Orwell’s claustrophobic fable of totalitarianism, is still a shock. First comes the start of recognition: we recognise what he describes. Doublethink (holding two contradictory thoughts at the same time), Newspeak, the Thought Police, the Ministry of Love that deals in pain, despair and annihilates any dissident, the Ministry of Peace that wages war, the novel-writing machines that pump out pornography to buy off the masses: Orwell opens our eyes to how regimes work. Now we can read 1984 differently: with anxious apprehension, using it to measure where we, our nations and the world have got to on the road map to a hell Orwell described. Prophetic? Possibly, but stirring, moving, creative, undeniable and helpful? Yes. A book published on 8 June 1949, written out of the battered landscape of total war, in a nation hungry, tired and grey, feels more relevant than ever before, because Orwell’s 1984 also arms us.
The book, with its disorientating first sentence, “It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen”, defines the peculiar characteristics of modern tyranny. Winston Smith, the protagonist, works as a censor in the Ministry of Truth in a constant updating of history to suit present circumstances and shifting alliances. He and his fellow workers are controlled as a mass collective by the all-seeing and all-knowing presence of Big Brother. In 1984 television screens watch you, and everyone spies on everyone else. Today it is social media that collects every gesture, purchase, comment we make online, and feeds an omniscient presence in our lives that can predict our every preference. Modelled on consumer choices, where the user is the commodity that is being marketed, the harvesting of those preferences for political campaigns is now distorting democracy.
1984 by George Orwell (1949) and Little Brother by Cory Doctorow (2008) With a name such as Little Brother it is perhaps no surprise that parallels are made between the book and ‘Big Brother’ in George Orwell’s 1984. Another subtle and fun connection with Orwell (which may be lost on those who have not read 1984) is the alternative name of the lead character, Marcus. Throughout Little Brother Marcus uses the handle "w1n5t0n" (“Winston”), a reference to the main character in Orwell’s novel.
Doctorow has helpfully reframed many of the same issues Orwell addresses into an alternative narrative and context for 21st century society. Developing the play on kinship terminology which already exists between the two books, Little Brother is be no means a clone of 1984 but could be easily said to be a respectable cousin.
Little Brother, a novel by Canadian author Cory Doctorow, depicts the fight of a San Francisco teen against the policies of a government reeling from a terrorist attack on the Bay Bridge and Bay Area subway system. This provides the foil for Doctorow to explore the expansion of the surveillance and security states since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. There is a sequel to Little Brother called Homeland. You may also be interested in Pirate Cinema, which talks about the challenges of copyright law and intellectual property.
READING THE BOOK Tests 1. Chapters 1 - 8 2. Chapters 9 - 16 3. Chapters 17 - Epilogue
Annotating a Text: Read Actively Reading actively helps you get to know the text better, how it makes its meaning and affects, understand its inner workings, and builds a relationship with that text. 1. Emotional sparks (immediate responses) 2. Figurative Language, Tone, Diction, Syntax, Imagery 3. Pattern and Repetitions (motifs) 4. Turns and Shifts (narration, dialogue) 5. Genre (textual features) 6. Allusions and Connections 7. Questions and Difficulties NOTE: You will keep a reading journal to demonstrate an on-going relationship with the book.
BACKGROUND TASK The students go to Cesar Chavez High school – do a quick Internet search to find out who he was. This kind of cultural context information is important to understanding anything you read.
The Characters (throughout the reading): Create a list of characters – as we are introduced to each new character, detail how she/he fits into the social hierarchy of the novel. Who has power over whom? How do these individuals have power? How do these individuals use power?
Making Four-Squares Fold your paper into four. On the front-side label each square: Marcus Yallow, Drew Yallow, Lillian Yallow, Barbara Stratford On the back-side label each square: Darryl Glover, Vanessa Pak (Van), Jose-Luis Torrez (Jolu), Angela Carvelli (Ange) As you progress through the novel, fill in the squares. Include both physical and personality traits and their role. APPLY the acronym S.T.E.A.L.
Writing a Formal Paragraph QUESTION: What is learned about Marcus Yallow from Chapter One? Select two adjectives, provide an example from the text for each, and explain how the quote helps reveal the character trait. ANSWER: From Chapter One, it is learned that Marcus is both intelligent and rebellious. His intelligence is first seen ______________________ . He explains, "__________________________________" ( ). He is smart _______________________ . He is also shown to be rebellious. He persuasively says, "___________________" ( ). His resistance of authority _________________________________________. As the protagonist, Marcus Yallow is a complex character with further development yet to come. Begin with a topic sentence, including supporting details - facts, reasons, examples - to develop and support the topic sentence, and a concluding sentence (8 – 10 sentence answer is required).
Marcus found a bug in his computer, but that’s not the only way that governments have looked for information about terrorists. Split into groups and research the following topics: Levitation surveillance program Five Eyes Edward Snowden Anti-Terrorism Act, 2015 (Bill C-51)
https://www.cbc.ca/listen/shows/metro-morning/segment/15593101
Luke Harding is a journalist, writer and award-winning correspondent with the Guardian. He has reported from Delhi, Berlin and Moscow and covered wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Ukraine. Between 2007 and 2011 he was the Guardian's Moscow bureau chief. The Kremlin expelled him from the country in the first case of its kind since the Cold War. His latest book "The Snowden Files: The Inside Story of the World's Most Wanted Man" was published in February by Guardian Faber. In June Oliver Stone bought film rights. Luke is the author of three previous non-fiction books. They are "The Liar: The Fall of Jonathan Aitken" (1997), nominated for the Orwell Prize; and "WikiLeaks: Inside Julian Assange's War on Secrecy" (2011), both written with David Leigh. The screen rights to Wikileaks were sold to Hollywood and the film, "The Fifth Estate", starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Daniel Bruhl, came out in 2013. "Mafia State: How One Reporter Became an Enemy of the Brutal New Russia" appeared in 2011. His books have been translated into 20 languages.
Tips for Strong, Secure Passwords Never give out your password to anyone.* Never give it to friends, even if they’re really good friends. A friend can – maybe even accidentally – pass your password along to others or even become an ex-friend and abuse it. Don’t just use one password. It’s possible that someone working at a site where you use that password could pass it on or use it to break into your accounts at other sites. Newest advice: Use a pass phrase. Security experts are now recommending a “pass phrase” rather than simply a password. Such a phrase should be relatively long – perhaps 20 characters or so and consist of seemingly random words strung together along with numbers, symbols and upper and lower case letters. Think of something that you can remember but others couldn’t guess such as YellowChocolate#56CadillacFi$h. that’s relatively long – perhaps 20 characters or so — using seemingly random words strung together along with numbers, symbols and upper and lower case letters. Think of something that you can remember but others couldn’t guess such as YellowChocolate#56CadillacFi$h. Avoid using famous quotations that might be easy to guess. Make the password at least 12 characters long. The longer the better. Longer passwords are harder for thieves to crack. Include numbers, capital letters and symbols. Consider using a $ instead of an S or a 1 instead of an L, or including an & or % – but note that $1ngle is NOT a good password. Password thieves are onto this. But Mf$J1ravng (short for “My friend Sam Jones is really a very nice guy) is an excellent password.
Don’t post it in plain sight. This might seem obvious but studies have found that a lot of people post their password on their monitor with a sticky note. Bad idea. If you must write it down, hide the note somewhere where no one can find it. Consider using a password manager. Programs or web services like RoboForm (Windows only) or Lastpass (Windows and Mac) let you create a different very strong password for each of your sites. But you only have to remember the one password to access the program or secure site that stores your passwords for you. Consider using multi-factor authentication. Many services offer an option to verify your identity if someone logs on to your account from an unrecognized device. The typical method is to send a text or other type of message to a mobile device registered to you with a code you need to type in to verity it’s really you. In most cases, you will not be required to use this code when logging on from a known device such as your own computer, tablet or phone. Don’t fall for “phishing” attacks. Be very careful before clicking on a link (even if it appears to be from a legitimate site) asking you to log in, change your password or provide any other personal information. It might be legit or it might be a “phishing” scam where the information you enter goes to a hacker. When in doubt, log on manually by typing what you know to be the site’s URL into your browser window.
Make sure your devices are secure. The best password in the world might not do you any good if someone is looking over your shoulder while you type or if you forget to log out on a cybercafe computer. Malicious software, including “keyboard loggers” that record all of your keystrokes, has been used to steal passwords and other information. To increase security, make sure you’re using up-to-date anti-malware software and that your operating system is up-to-date. Use a “password” or fingerprints for your phone too. Most phones can be locked so that the only way to use them is to type in a code, typically a string of numbers or maybe a pattern you draw on the screen. Some new phones allow you to register fingerprints, which are quite secure. Sometimes when people with bad intentions find unlocked phones, they use them to steal the owners’ information, make a lot of calls, or send texts that look like they’re coming from the owner. Someone posing as you could send texts that make it look like you’re bullying or harassing someone in your address book with inappropriate images or words. W1N5T0N = Winston M1K3Y = Mikey
Torture is Bad So Psychologists Helped the US Redefine It (WIRED) Does how we talk about ‘enhanced interrogation’ or torture affect how we think about it? Is there any role for health care professionals in these techniques? If not, what does that mean for what can be done?
https://www.wired.com/2015/07/torture-bad-psychologists-helped-us-redefine/
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/cse-tracks-millions-of-downloads-daily-snowden-documents-1.2930120
CBC News: CSE tracks millions of downloads daily: Snowden documents (Includes 1:45 minute video) Do you believe that the programs were only being used on terrorists, or do you think information is being collected about Canadians, as has been revealed in the United States? If information is being collected, do you think it’s worth it?
THE BLOG 11/18/2010 06:55 pm ET Updated Dec 06, 2017 Guilty Until Proven Guilty: Threatening the Presumption of Innocence By Karen J. Greenberg Liberty versus security, that initial heated debate over the war on terror, is again rearing its head with much bravado, nowhere more so than in our nation’s courtrooms where American justice continues to pay the price.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/karen-j-greenberg/guilty-until-proven-guilt_b_785728.html
READING THE BOOK Test Chapters 1 - 8
The Constitution of the United States: The Bill of Rights & All Amendments
http://constitutionus.com/
https://www.canada.ca/en/canadian-heritage/services/how-rights-protected/guide-canadian-charter-rights-freedoms.html
Your Guide to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/does-racial-profiling-exist-at-the-canada-u-s-border-1.2843758
Does racial profiling exist at the Canada-U.S. border? Four men claim they were turned back at border for the colour of their skin CBC News · Posted: Nov 20, 2014 4:38 PM ET | Last Updated: November 20, 2014 (with 3:50 video) U.S. customs say that they don’t racially profile. It could be that this happens often and these men felt discriminated against because of their appearance, but there is a lot of evidence that how you look affects the likelihood that you will be questioned or detained. Do you think customs officials are telling the truth? Does racial profiling make sense for directing police resources?
THE GULAG The Gulag was a system of forced labor camps established during Joseph Stalin’s long reign as dictator of the Soviet Union. The word “Gulag” is an acronym for Glavnoe Upravlenie Lagerei, or Main Camp Administration. The notorious prisons, which incarcerated about 18 million people throughout their history, operated from the 1920s until shortly after Stalin’s death in 1953. At its height, the Gulag network included hundreds of labor camps that held anywhere from 2,000 to 10,000 people each. Conditions at the Gulag were brutal: Prisoners could be required to work up to 14 hours a day, often in extreme weather. Many died of starvation, disease or exhaustion—others were simply executed. The atrocities of the Gulag system have had a long-lasting impact that still permeates Russian society today. https://www.history.com/topics/russia/gulag (Allusion to Gulag - page 191)
Ask Steve: Hippie vs Yippie HISTORY.COM EDITORSTV-PG1:48 On Ask Steve, the differences between Yippies and Hippies are discussed. In the 1960's the hippies had long hair, experienced with sex and drugs, and ultimately wanted out of society. Yippies were hippies that were politically active. It could be said that these groups had a profound impact on society, even more than some politicians because by the 1970's everybody was a hippie, it became mainstream.
"Howl" by Allen Ginsberg (see page 219) Howl", also known as "Howl for Carl Solomon", is a poem written by Allen Ginsberg in 1954–1955 and published in his 1956 collection Howl and Other Poems. The poem is dedicated to Carl Solomon. Ginsberg began work on "Howl" in 1954. In the Paul Blackburn Tape Archive at the University of California, San Diego, Ginsberg can be heard reading early drafts of his poem to his fellow writing associates. "Howl" is considered to be one of the great works of American literature. It came to be associated with the group of writers known as the Beat Generation.
(see page 220)
READING THE BOOK Test Chapters 9 - 16
Fact Sheet: Extraordinary Rendition Beginning in the early 1990s and continuing to this day, the Central Intelligence Agency, together with other U.S. government agencies, has utilized an intelligence-gathering program involving the transfer of foreign nationals suspected of involvement in terrorism to detention and interrogation in countries where -- in the CIA's view -- federal and international legal safeguards do not apply. Suspects are detained and interrogated either by U.S. personnel at U.S.-run detention facilities outside U.S. sovereign territory or, alternatively, are handed over to the custody of foreign agents for interrogation. In both instances, interrogation methods are employed that do not comport with federal and internationally recognized standards. This program is commonly known as "extraordinary rendition." https://www.aclu.org/other/fact-sheet-extraordinary-rendition
10 whistleblowers and the scandals they spurred A history of informants from Deep Throat to Edward Snowden
Edward Snowden Job at time of leak: Employee of defence contractor Booz Allen Hamilton, former technical assistant for the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency Pseudonym: Verax, which means "truth teller" in Latin The reveal: Snowden, 29, revealed that the National Security Agency's Prism program is monitoring cellphone logs in a counter-terrorism effort. He also revealed the NSA can access emails, file transfers and live chats from Google, Facebook, Apple and other internet companies. The tech expert spoke to reporters from The Guardian and the Washington Post in hiding at a hotel in Hong Kong. Quote: "I understand that I will be made to suffer for my actions," but "I will be satisfied if the federation of secret law, unequal pardon and irresistible executive powers that rule the world that I love are revealed even for an instant," Snowden told The Guardian.
http://www.cbc.ca/news2/interactives/WHO-whistleblowers/
Daniel Ellsberg credits Edward Snowden with catalysing US surveillance reform Prominent US whistleblowers applaud Snowden’s Patriot Act revelation for inciting Congress to take action, though they doubt he can ever return to the US NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden should be thanked for sparking the debate that forced Congress to change US surveillance law, Daniel Ellsberg, the man who leaked the Pentagon Papers, said Monday. Other prominent US whistleblowers also gave Snowden credit and argued that the curbs in the NSA’s surveillance powers by Congress – combined with a federal court ruling last month that bulk phone record collection is illegal – should open the way for him to be allowed to return to the US, although they conceded this was unlikely. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/jun/01/edward-snowden-nsa-surveillance-patriot-act-whistleblowers-daniel-ellsberg
READING THE BOOK Test Chapters 17 - Epilogue
Dan Bernstein and "Snuffle" In 1990, Daniel J. Bernstein, a graduate student in mathematics at the University of California at Berkeley, designed Snuffle, a system which converts a one-way hash function into a zero-delay private-key encryption system, also known as a cipher. Its use is intended, for example, for the exchange of text between two people who have previously exchanged keys, when those keys are combined with a one-way hash function. "Zero-delay" means that the technique can be used in interactive conversations, in which case each character a participant types can be encrypted, sent to the other participant, and immediately decrypted (see page 268).
LARP Live-action role-playing, a more widespread phenomenon in Europe, has steadily been gaining prominence in Canada, and the co-owners of Underworld LARP believe their organization may now be the largest in the country. Each weekend-long session — there are about eight per year, with a hiatus during the winter months — draws more than 100 participants. It is a complex and immersive game, mingling elements of fantasy and horror, with a 123-page rulebook outlining the various Underworld races, their skills and abilities, guidelines for combat, magic spells and more. Mr. Watt and co-owner David Ashby are among a group of writers who craft loose storylines for each Underworld LARP excursion, while a team of volunteers act out key plot points. The players, who join at a cost of about $50 per game, improvise the rest. “We basically write the game world, and as the players play that game world, they choose which direction it goes in,” explains Mr. Ashby, a network administrator by day. “We’ll paint the beginning of the picture and they will choose based on their reactions, whether they’re good or bad, or evil or moral, what actually happens to the end” (see page 285).
Live-action role-playing “We’ll paint the beginning of the picture" Your task: A. In a paragraph of approximately of 200 words, create a fictional game world. Use story elements to guide you: Setting Plot Characters Conflict BEGIN: My fictional game world is called _________________. It is set in _______________ B. In a second paragraph, create your character, your name, personality, background, costume, props, and role in the game. Write in full and complete sentences. BEGIN: My character name is ________________________. Be sure to include a TITLE for your LARP SUBMIT your two paragraphs to D2L Finish the book for Tuesday (to page 365)
MLA Format TNR12, double-spaced Your Name Mrs. D. Wittmann ENG3CI-01 5 October 2018
Majority of Canadians oppose state surveillance, new report says https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2015/03/23/majority-of-canadians-oppose-state-surveillance-new-report-says.html
The first article outlines some of what Canadians know about digital surveillance in our country from the Snowden leaks. Do these programs sound effective to you? Do they strike the right balance between freedom and safety? The second article says that the more people think they’re being surveilled Why do you think Canadians react so differently than Americans to learning they’re under surveillance? Is Little Brother relevant to the Canadian context?
Where is Canada's rage over digital surveillance? https://www.thestar.com/opinion/commentary/2014/05/01/where_is_canadas_rage_over_digital_surveillance.html
The NSA's Prism: why we should care by Cory Doctorow Politicians tell us the innocent need fear nothing from involuntary disclosure, but their actions threaten privacy and more https://www.theguardian.com/technology/blog/2013/jun/14/nsa-prism In this article, Doctorow lays out his argument for worrying about surveillance without the pretext of a novel. How has Little Brother made you think about these arguments?
Create a MIND MAP Use the following headings: Narrative Perspective (POV) Plot Characters Conflicts Settings Thematic Concepts You may use this on tomorrow's test
PARAGRAPH QUESTION STEP ONE: READ Answer in full sentences using proper paragraph format. “I will”... • State the main point (idea) in the first sentence = topic sentence • Provide supporting detail that is clear, specific, and contains relevant ideas and information • Have ideas/information organized in a logical order that makes sense • Write in full and complete sentences • Sentences will be free of spelling errors and punctuation will be used properly QUESTION: Do you think the story's Epilogue is necessary? Why or why not? Be sure to provide supporting details from the text in your answer (min. 2 reasons). STEP TWO: THINK STEP THREE: WRITE