Our classes tweets varied wildly, but there were common threads throughout the live reading of the book. Much of these similarities revolved around the treatment of the characters in the novel and the believability of its world.
- Discussion of plot device and difference in style between past and present
- Excitement over Margaret Atwood’s direct response and more questions asked
- Disagreement on words that have been thrown out in the new world
- Misunderstanding and disbelief of Oryx’s attitude towards her past
- A very in-depth look at the education system (i.e. the focus on math and science over the humanities that we are already seeing today)
- A lot of tweets mention the mutated and invented animals, especially pigoons, along with the desire for some of the technologies available in Jimmy’s world.
- Further into the book, conversation began to focus on the analysis of the minds of the characters. More specifically, the class was very interested in looking at the motivations behind Crake’s actions and why he chose Jimmy to be the lone survivor.
- Broader questions formed about the God complex, humanity and personhood in relation to the Crakers and Snowman, and when looking at the parallels between modern society and the world depicted by Snowman’s flashbacks.
- There was often a lot of nitpicking at flaws in the book (both scientific and in the personalities of characters).
Overall, the story seemed to elicit a lot of coinciding responses from people, though almost everyone drew slightly different conclusions throughout the in-class discussions. For a visual map of all the tweets, follow the link below!