Monthly Archives: December 2020

Some thoughts on… Glass Bees by Ernst Junger (1957) Andromeda by Ivan Yefremov (1957) Solaris by Stanislaw Lem (1961) The Dispossessed by Ursula K. LeGuin (1974)

“’Excess is excrement,’ Odo wrote in the Analogy. ‘Excrement retained in the body is a poison.’ Abbenay was poisonless: a bare city, bright, the colors light and hard, the air pure. It was quiet. You could see it all, laid … Continue reading →

In what ways is this novel about “the limits of human cognition”? What does it suggest, so far, about the possibility of recognizing alien life? Choose one short passage (1–4 sentences) in the novel’s first nine chapters and use it … Continue reading →

On pages 77–78 in the novel there are two paragraphs in which Darr Veter considers a dinosaur skeleton. Why is this passage significant? Interpret this passage by analyzing what you feel are important details in the text, and by contextualizing … Continue reading →

(Group 6: Julian, Tony, Devin, Vinh, Paige. Passage: pp. 86–88, from “I had always believed that Zapparoni’s monopolies” to “His voice was pleasant, by the way” (ch. 7).) What does this passage tell us about the narrator? What do you notice about … Continue reading →