There are two main threads to the plot: one covers the story of the narrator's involvement in the attempt to communicate with mysterious aliens. Structural Stuff: The class I sat in on spent a bit of time discussing the structure of the stories being studied, and the structure here is pretty interesting. This will include MASSIVE SPOILERS, so don't click through unless you've already read the story. Since I have this blog, I figure I might as well post them, and see if anybody has any useful suggestions (beyond "That's way too much for one hour-long class." which I already know). So that I don't make a complete ass of myself, I'm making some notes about the important features of the story. My usual mode involves lecturing and equations, so trying to lead a discussion of a literary work will be an unusual experience. It's been fifteen years since I took a literature class, and I've never really taught a discussion class. This will be a different experience for me. My guest spot will be this Friday, and I sat in on a class last week (where they discussed a Zelazny story and one of Bradbury's Martian Chronicles) to get an idea of what the class is usually like. I'm going to be talking about Ted Chiang's "Story of Your Life," whose connection to the hypothetical should be obvious to people who have read it, but is a spoiler for those who haven't. Yesterday's cheery hypothetical came about because I've agreed to do a guest lecture in a Science Fiction class in the English department.
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