Shaun Duke

Shaun Duke is an aspiring writer, a reviewer, and an academic. He is currently an Assistant Professor of Digital Rhetoric and Writing at Bemidji State University. He received his PhD in English from the University of Florida and studies science fiction, postcolonialism, digital fan cultures, and digital rhetoric.

World in the Satin Bag

And She Flaps Her Wings Like Annoyance

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The evil School Faerie decided she wanted to be quite the little pest today. I just saw an email for my British Canon class saying that my TA wants everyone to have a full, six-page first draft of our final essays for the course by tomorrow for class (11:00 AM). I find that rather annoying. The email was sent on the 17th, but it still seems rather ridiculous for me to write a rough draft. I understand that for some people rough drafts (for essays) is really helpful. It’s not for me. It never has been. That’s not to say I’m smarter than other people, it just means I use a different process. I don’t write good essays when I think ahead. And to be honest, when I write this essay and do this draft, I’ll likely not touch it again until the day before the real essay is due. I don’t like doing drafts. It forces me to think too far ahead of time and I like the pressure of having to churn out an essay in 48 hours rather than 336 (or 2 weeks).So the overall result of having to do this rough draft is that I will learn nothing from the process of peer review in class. Here are my concerns over peer review in a college setting (at least in this case): First, it’s a COMPLETE draft. Not a partial. We’re expected to bring a fully realized idea to a peer review workshop for a DRAFT. If it’s a complete draft, why do we need a peer review for it? That’s like saying “I’d like you to write, but not put much thought into it, and then spend hours editing”. For me, this is like destroying the creative process. I’m going to bring six pages of this paper in, all completed, and then be expected to go back and do significant edits on it. When I write a paper, I write it to be finished with it. I don’t write drafts. I never have written a draft and miraculously I do remarkably well on essays. Go figure. The draft process is useless to me. Peer review in a classroom setting has NO value to anyone except in the following instances: Someone with considerably better writing skills gives opinions to some of lesser skills, which means that the person of lesser skill learns a great deal, but the person of greater skill gets shafted. People of relatively equal skill all help one another.This is the underlying problem with peer review in the classroom. People are not all of the same skill, nor do they all go through the same process. I might get stuck with a bunch of people that don’t know what they are doing, or don’t fully understand, or whatever. Generally this is pretty common, as I’ve been in other peer review groups before. What happened in those groups? They told me some things were wrong, and when I didn’t change them and turned the essay in anyway I got an A. What did I learn? I learned not to listen to people in classroom peer review groups because they haven’t offered me anything worthwhile. That’s not to say they can’t be useful to someone else, but the whole premise of peer review in classrooms for essays just doesn’t work for me. I’m going to talk to the TA or professor about my paper anyway, so why am I going to bother with students who likely won’t be able to help me? The TA even expects me to speak to him to make sure to solidify my idea. I don’t like this obsession with peer review for essays. I’m not writing to please the students, but to please the TA or professor. If I were trying to please a wide audience of people I would likely write differently, but there is a set formula to writing college level essays, even if there doesn’t seem to be, and I write within that formula and get my good grades. That’s it. Now, having said these things I feel like I need to clarify. I’m not saying I’m smarter or better than other people in the class or in any class. Far from it, actually. I’m saying that for me the process of writing rough drafts for peer review is pointless. I don’t work that way and never have. In fact, if I look back on my history of essays there is actually a legit reason for me to dislike rough draft/peer review for essays. When I do rough draft/peer review and follow the methods behind it I end up doing worse than if I just kept with my usual habits. My process just works better for me.So the end result of this is that I’m going to write a six page essay, because if I don’t my grade will be docked (as said in the email). I’m going to give my essay to a bunch of people to look at and have them tell me “well this is crap” or “I would change this”, etc. and then I’m not really going to listen to them and do minor editing the following week. My grade won’t slack because I’ll have followed the same process I would normally, and I’ll just pretend that tomorrow is the deadline for the final draft.Needless to say, this is a crappy day. I wanted to get a lot of writing done today.

World in the Satin Bag

Studying Science Fiction Politics: Perhaps

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I’m considering doing an independent study course next quarter. My reasoning is this: I already have to take one course that is required that I really don’t care about and since the number of modern literature courses offered (seeing how I’m a modern lit major) are rather crappy, I don’t want to have to take three courses that I hate. So I’ve resolved to considering independent study as an option to do something interesting.    I don’t want to discuss race because, quite frankly, I’m not that interested in any subject of race within science fiction beyond tropes of racism and the data I’m collecting for the project I’m working on for this blog (which serves no academic purpose other than to educate myself and anyone else interested on what minority categories look like in the spectrum of science fiction and fantasy). My interest, I think, is in politics.    Now, when I say politics I don’t mean in the same sense of the types of politics we encounter in the United States. I’m more interested in the representation of government within science fiction societies, and in particular, dystopian societies. What I’m considering is doing a study of the nature of government within several works of science fiction and perhaps arguing that government acts as a negative force and in some ways is like a corporate entity that uses desperate measures of control to maintain dominance. To put it more simply, I want to argue in a short set of works that government acts like an agent of slavery, using policy and the rule of law to enslave, imprison, and otherwise take complete control over a populace, often under the guise of fear.    The most obvious way of taking such a subject on is to include 1984 by George Orwell into the equation, which is a consideration. I’m also considering We by Yevgeny Zamyatin, and perhaps several other novels from the newer period of the last 30 years of science fiction. I’m not sure what works I’ll choose. I could certainly use Neuromancer by William Gibson or Childhood’s End by Arthur C. Clarke, or a myriad of other novels. Needless to say this is still in the works. I’ve just begun to think about it.    I think the argument itself is rather interesting, though perhaps somewhat simplistic, which begs the question, what do I do to make it more complex and interesting? We can all think of governmental forces as enslavers, because we have learned or seen the use of government in that manner. So what is it about this interesting subject that makes things complex? Is it that people allow it to exist and don’t take measures to change things? 1984 would say so, since the main character witnesses several times the nature of ‘doublethink’ and even stops himself to ponder it. But he never does anything, he only considers it, except when it’s far too late. It could possibly be assumed that people before him did the same, and the people before those people, for how else could something so wicked that is used as a method of otherwise illegal control gain so much momentum? The same might be said of the people in We where the rules have changed so drastically in the domed, closed-off city that even sex is done by appointment and without preference. Certainly the benefit of having easy selection of the partners you want has benefits, unless you’re the type that wants nothing to do with someone. Such a world leaves no room for choice and nobody truly complains until the end when it is discovered that there’s nothing really wrong with the rest of the world (sort of like The Island with Ewan McGregor). You can imagine, though, being forced into sex by appointment and being required to perform sufficiently, or be docked points or whatever it might be that a government could use to control your enjoyment. And what would you do if you found you liked a particular person and someone else screwed up your plan of only enjoying their company? These are things that are perhaps created by a negligent public, since such policies either came out of nowhere and nobody did anything, or not enough was done and whatever revolution might have occurred simply failed.    These are the thoughts in my head on this subject. I don’t know if it will become anything or if I can even find a sponsoring professor to take me on, but I do intend to try and see if I can make it work. It sounds like fun.     On to the subject of what books to read: Do you have any recommendations? Anything really, so long as it’s SF. I’m curious to see what you folks think!

World in the Satin Bag

Quota Reached: Writing Going Well

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Okay, so you might not give a flying fig about this, but so be it. I reached my quota today, and yesterday too (mostly, I generally don’t count when I’m a few words under) and both times have been in this new story I’m writing currently entitled “The Life of Jordan”. I imagine the name will change. I’m writing it for Writers of the Future since I have until the 31st of March to get this bad boy written. It’s going to be on the longer side I think, as in right around the 12,000-word mark. This time it’s SF, while the last time I submitted it was fantasy. Not sure why I’m doing SF this time, but I like the general idea of this story.The interesting thing is that while writing this I’ve had a lot of doubts. Usually I start writing something and I love the story 100% (even the writing) and then as I get closer to the end I start to have doubts. This is turning out to be the opposite. I like the idea of the story, but I’m not sure i like how I’m writing it. It is growing on me, though, and I think maybe it’ll work. I’m going to take it to the end nonetheless to see how it turns out.How about anyone else out there that writes? When you write do you hate the story at first and have it grow on you or the other way around? (Don’t click the read more, there isn’t any more after this!)

World in the Satin Bag

Where Do Your Characters Live?

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Theophrast.us had this cool post a while back with cool images of where he lived and where one of his characters lived. So, I thought I’d do the same thing for WISB! Possibly the most interesting thing about doing this post is that the little town where James and Laura are originally from doesn’t actually exist. In fact, it’s placed in an area where no town ever was, but next to a river that does exist and which shows up in the book by name. The little town of Woodton is actually in Montana. There are two images I created using Google for this. The first is a wide shot showing where I currently live and where Woodton would be in comparison (click for bigger picture):The next last picture is a closeup shot of where Woodton actually would be if, by some stroke of luck, the little town actually existed:It was actually a lot of fun coming up with this last image. I actually had to find the river on Google that is mentioned in WISB (Stillwater R.), and then I had to trace that river until I could find a suitable place where a small town might actually exist, taking into account the elevations and the fact that there are already towns along that river. I’d never had to think about it before because Woodton was never a major setting, except in the beginning of the novel. So, now you know where the characters are from. What about your characters?

World in the Satin Bag

Reviewers: Help Me Help Us All

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(Note: Please keep an eye on this as it will change from time to time)(Edit: I’m looking for books printed late 2007 or at any point in 2008)(Edit–Disclaimer: This data is not being used for a thesis, book, or anything of that sort. It’s public domain. I’m not selling it or profiting in any way except by gaining knowledge, which will be presented in this blog. I will not accept money and you don’t have to put your name on it if you don’t want to.) Okay, so the title is a little corny, but it fits in a way. What I’m asking from all of you reviewers out there is to help me with a project for the year: determining social/religious/ethnic biases in SF and F. Edit: It came to my intention that it seems as if I’m implying that SF and F intentionally create these biases, and that is NOT what I’m intended this to mean at all. The bias I am talking about is simply a lack of material dealing with social/religious/ethnic/gender issues. This in no way means that I suggest SF and F writers are racist, sexist, or whatever. Nor is this meant as a fuel for whatever fire might already burning that looks for reasons to discount SF and F as literary forms. Please understand that I don’t intend to point at SF and F in a negative way.This came up in a conversation with Tobias S. Buckell on his blog and what I’d like to do is really get a wide array of information from all over to cover as much as humanly possible. I want to see what the bias really looks like from a more broad spectrum, rather than the readings on one or two people. There are a lot of reviewers out there and if you can just take no more than a minute of your time for every review to write down some info and save it, then we can make this more of a reality.What I’m asking is this:For every book you read in the SF or F genre, take a note of which ethnic, religious, social groups are present within a work in a significant way. What this means is if the main character or a significant character is White, Black, or Asian, then write that down. The same applies to religions and significant social groups (feminists, ACLU types, etc.). They must be significant presences, not just a mention. If there is a strong Catholic presence, say so. If you don’t know what religion is present, but there is one, just say unknown.Edit: Also, I’d like to address gender too. Mention main characters that are male or female and secondary, but significant characters that are male or female (make them separate to differentiate).This will allow me to gather as much data as I can on this. I want to see how it all pans out when there are loads of us gathering this info. For a quick look at all the info I think is relevant: –Author and Title of the book (just so I can differentiate between books so I don’t double up when people read the same thing)–Genre (so I can differentiate again to put the data in one large chart and two smaller genre specific charts)–Ethnic presences (White, Black, Asian, whatever)–Religious presences (Catholic, Muslim, Jewish, Unknown, whatever)–Any other relevant info you can think of.–Social presences (Feminists, ACLU types, whatever)–Gender (For main characters)–Gender 2 (For secondary, but significant characters) The result of this, I hope, will be a load of data that will help determine what this bias looks like, to come to an understanding of it. I think after my discussions with Tobias that I have to agree there has to be some level of bias, but I don’t know how bad it is, or at least how prevalent. Edit: Again, this is not to mean that the bias is intentional or created by the writers of this genre. Will you help me? Do you have questions? Edit: Here is an example format of how I’d like the info:Author and Title of the book: The Dead & the Gone (will be printed in 2008)Genre: Science FictionEthnic presences: Hispanic, WhiteReligious presences: CatholicSocial presences: NoneGender (main): Male mainGender 2 (secondary): 2 female secondary and 1 male main Also, send data either to my email – arconna@(no spam)yahoo.com (remove the no spam)OR post it here. Either one works fine!

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