Hope everyone’s Fourth of July went well.

If you haven’t already, you should begin Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Give it a chance. I am asking you to read it for several reasons. First, it is the prototype for the science fiction genre. As unrealistic as we know it is, it is a great thought experiment, like LeGuin’s book. LeGuin’s book has several narrators. Shelley’s book is epistolary.

I was going to post an essay/critical piece for LeGuin’s book, but I think I’ll do that until we meet in class at the beginning of the school year. We’ll go over the more challenging critical pieces together. In a week or two, I’ll post some discussion questions for Frankenstein up on the forums.

I have posted “Round 2″ discussion topics.

One on the NARRATORS.

One on GENDER. Many of you saw that one coming.

One on NAMES of characters.

You may, of course, spend time on all three threads, but I value continued contribution to a discussion perhaps more than a “run and gun” approach. Direct quotes and analysis of those quotes are a requirement for this part!

Again, if you are having trouble registering an account, contact me directly.

You should have The Left Hand of Darkness finished by the end of the first week of July. I will check back in during that first week–let’s say July 5–for a wrap-up assignment and some instructions for beginning Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.

Welcome to your summer portal for AP Lit and Comp. You will need to complete about 8 chapters of The Left Hand of Darkness within the next couple of weeks. You should be finished with the novel by the first week of July.

Every two weeks, I will be posting discussion questions or additional essays for you to read online. That means you will need to regularly check in to this blog.

Your job now is to do the following:

1) Click the link on the right that says “AP Discussion Forums.” This should direct you to the discussion forums page. You will need to set up an account and e-mail me with your real name and the alias you chose. This will allow me to track your work. Once you’re over on the forums, click around–you will find instructions there!

2) Read a few chapters of The Left Hand of Darkness. Under “AP Literature and Comp” discussions, you will need to start a topic that makes an observation, or asks a question about the text. It is an unusual text, so I expect some of you will have questions about it! In AP Lit and Comp, we get a sense of the bigger picture by paying attention to the details. Let’s begin by finding those significant details, and then working into the larger meaning from there. So ask questions about the text, make observations that you think are important, and then take a gander at the questions of others. Reply and discuss.

This is no place to be shy! Let’s use each other as a resource to answer questions we have about the text. I’ll chime in too, because this sounds like fun.

See you on June 14 for the first round of teacher-directed discussion about the text.