Please read the attached text, Afterward to âBloodchildâ by Octavia Butler, and p. 1-2 of âBloodchildâ (available under Materials)
WRITING- due 2nd July, midnight BG time
After you’ve read the two excerpts from “Bloodchild”, please follow these consecutive steps:
- Analyze your own culture and choose a common saying, or an emotion or fear that you think deserves more attention. 2. Play some or all of the games described below and 3. Write a detailed description of a monster relevant to your own place and time and culture. (max 1 page)
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INSTRUCTIONS FOR SURREALIST GAMES
If possible find a partner and play each of these four games to warm up your brain, just as we did in the video. In each game one person will think of a secret object, fear and emotion, and the other person will ask questions trying to guess what that object is.
Note: Playing all the games is helpful, but if youâre pressed for time, you can skip every game but the last one. You should come away with a detailed description of your monster.
Game 1. Personification
Person 1: Thinks of an object, but doesnât tell person 2 what it is.
Person 2 (or more): Asks questions about the object that would only be asked about a human.
Person 1: Answers.
Person 2: Writes the answers down. Tries to guess the object or gives up.
(Switch places)
Game 2. Objects to Monsters
Person 1: Looks at an object, doesnât tell what it is.
Person 2: Asks questions about the object as if itâs a monster.
Ex. Person 2: Which is it most like: vampire, dragon, zombie, slime thing?
Person 1: (Looks at object) Dragon.
Person 2: Accepts classification, and asks questions based on that monster.
Ex. Big claw or little claws? Big wings or little?Lucky dragon or not lucky? What color?Where does it store its horde of gold? How big is its horde?
Person 1: Answers
Person 2: Writes down answers and tries to guess or gives up.
(Switch places.)
Game 3. Emotions to Objects
Person 1: Thinks of a feeling or emotion. Doesnât tell what it is.
Note: Emotion can be large or small, concrete or abstract, ex fear of snakes, a feeling that life is speeding up, global warming.Person 2: Thinks of an object and asks questions that a person would ask about that object.
Person 2. Thinks of a concrete object. Creates questions that would be asked about that object.
Ex. a crayon. What would I ask about a crayon? What color is it? Used up or new? Would the paper still be on it? Would it be in a box or in a drawer?
Person 1: Answers the questions.
Person 2: Writes down the answers, probably doesnât guess the answer but presents person 1 with a lovely detailed description of the emotion transformed into a very specific object.
Ex: Love is a worn-out blue crayon with most of the paper peeled off of it, but it colors beautifully bringing all kinds of swirly decorations to an otherwise dull page.
Switch places.
Game 4. (almost there) Emotions to Monsters
Person 1: Thinks of a feeling or fear or concept, maybe one that everyday speech has started to make concrete. Doesnât tell what it is.
Person 2: Dragon, vampire, zombie, slime thing? Tell me the genre of monster.
Person 1: Answers.
Person 2: Accepts the answer. Asks more detailed questions.
Ex. If a slime thing, how slimy? What color is the slime? Is it poisonous? How fast does it move? etc.
Person 1: Answers.
Person 2: Writes down answers, probably doesnât guess but presents the person 1 with a detailed description of the monster.
Ex. Corruption is a slime monster made out of a thick, sickly yellow substance. Most of the time it sits around in a dark box, but it sometimes it gets out in the night and sucks people in by making them think it is a sweet and delightful present sent only for them to eat.
Person 1: Looks at answers and expands to create description of a monster.
Advanced: Combine several fears by playing the game multiple times and adding details to your monster.
