Tuesday's guest lecturer, Keith Baldwin, is a freelance writer and graduate of The New School's M.F.A. Creative Writing (fiction) program. He's looking forward to having an informal chat about the composition process, your questions about writing and any other questions you may have for him about writing fiction or academic work, pursuing Creative Writing as a degree, advice, etc.
In preparation for his visit, please post 2 questions by Monday 5 P.M:
First, read Chapter 1 of Richard Dawkin's The Selfish Gene and post 1 discussion question you have about the material (whether it's confused, rebutting, or just curious).
Second, please post 1 question you have about the composition process as a whole (about beginning, about being blocked, advice for clearing one's head, etc.).
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ReplyDeleteDo you really believe that humans have the capability to go against their own genetic makeup naturally or do we need artificial assistance?
ReplyDeleteHow do you personally focus on writing?
1) Where do you stand in the idea of levels in regards to altruism? It is fascinating to think about it with the different categories of "all living things" versus "species" versus "individual" versus "gene".
ReplyDelete(I also have to say that after reading through the chapter, I found myself thinking back to all his examples of "altruistic behavior" and applying the idea that these actions were still helping the gene to be passed onto the next generation. The worker bees sacrificing for the hive does allow for the queen bee (who is the mother of all future babies of that group) to survive, therefore allowing for the future of their gene pool. And the female praying mantis is still pregnant by that male, whether he is dead or not. My conclusion being that it is an interesting idea... and one that he argues quite convincingly right off the bat.)
2) And my question for writing is: How do you best organize your thoughts and keep a balance of flow/inspiration in the writing, while still sticking strongly to answering the question or describing the thesis at hand? (I find it easy to go off on tangents and loose sight of what I am really trying to say in the process.)
1. Are humans, in your opinion, born selfish? (I believe we are since we learn the concept of "others" after we have matured enough; theory of "I" and "me")
ReplyDelete2. I'm really bad in writing conclusions. Usually my conclusions are 1 to 3 sentences maximum. How can you write a strong conclusion whilst writing it in a good amount of sentences?
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ReplyDelete1. One thing that the first chapter did was throw some important terms out. First one was Darwin, who Dawkins tries to represent in a pure and true form, stating "we don't have to turn to superstition anymore." He may have been trying to exaggerate his point with this assessment, but it makes me want to slightly disagree only because of the statement's level of certainty. I'm sure I could ponder some examples proving superstition is alive and well, but that isn't all I have to contribute to this reading. I think I was more confused with the nature vs nurture bit. I guess Dawkin wanted to say first that selfishness was perceived as something nurtured through your species, but by the conclusion states that we are all selfish and that is all because of genes from a heritage linking us perhaps to the beginnings of man. I liked his anecdotes, I don't know how i feel about he's conclusion. I want to believe that our behavior and for the sake of relevance, our level of altruism, is really determined by both natural factors and nurtured actions and maybe Dawkins is saying that or maybe not, I think it's too early to tell (if we continue this book.)
ReplyDeleteHow do you surprise the reader?
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ReplyDelete1. Do you think animals are born with traits other than selfishness and individual altruism?
ReplyDelete2. How do you expand on a topic or idea?
1. Can you consider the things that we label as irregularities might perhaps could've been beneficial in a different scenario?
ReplyDelete2. How can a writer improve his opening statements and thesis to better describe the overall theme and to grab the reader's attention?
1. Can the topic of nature v.s nurture be brought into question when saying that humans are born selfish.
ReplyDelete2. How can one write a proper thesis and conclusion?
1. Do you think the environment one is raised play a smaller role than genetics when it comes to this trait?
ReplyDelete2. How can you avoid sounding repetitive when concluding your essay?
1.) Do you think overtime altruism will be a rare trait and selfishness will dominate(vice versa)? Or will humans always fall into those two categories?
ReplyDelete2.) What is the best way to keep a readers attention?