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Homework

Sophomores
You should be one section per night this week, with the goal of finishing by Friday. Your exam on the novel will be next Tuesday, February 5th. We will start working on the papers on Wednesday.

Seniors
This week's topic is the positive and negatives regarding simulation -- as it relates to social networking, military training, the food and drug industry, concepts of beauty, and modern life in general. We are using Jean Baudrillard's theory as a starting point, and you are to focus in any way you'd like.

On Friday, your paper will be in response to the following question:
Have we crossed over into Baudrillard's final stage of "simulacra," where "our models for the real have taken over the place of the real in postmodern society," or where the artificial has become preferable to the real? Or do we still value "authenticity" and "real" experience over the artificial?  What are the implications for human society, both positive and negative?
Below is the website for the video previewed in class. Watch it and use it in your paper, if you'd like. Also, you are to bring at least one article that focuses your attention on one aspect of modern life as it relates to this issue.

Frontline: Digital Nation

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