Cultural Contexts, or Failing Meta stories
Many people, from historians, ecologists, biologists, economists, religious leaders, and ordinary people are noticing that the stories and systems we have been depending on for health and well-being are failing to meet basic human needs and are destroying the natural world we depend on for our survival. Many are looking for solutions. Some inspired leaders point to storytelling as the key tool for helping us transition into healthier and sustainable systems and practices.
We will explore the crisis in our cultural stories and consider how the stories we tell are often embedded in larger meta-stories that are in dire need of revision.
Catastrophe = Crisis + Opportunity
View This Changes Everything Trailer, and one of the following:
Crisis in Civilization on youtube, Crisis in Civilization website
This Changes Everything (see the Dropbox invitation email from me for a link to this movie)
Future Scenarios, David Holmgren
Assignment 1 The Old Story (due next Tuesday)
Read The America Dream is Killing Us , The Story That’s Destroying the World, and 90 Inspiring and Visionary Films
The Great Transition
The work of building new stories and new technologies is often referred to as “The Great Turning” or “Transition” or “Awakening”. Some have described this transformation as an urgent step in human evolution. We’ll explore what the newest data say about how to live a happy, healthy life, and how we can transition from the crumbling old narratives into a wide variety of new models and stories.
The Great Turning and The Great Turning Online (read through all the menu items from GT Bullet Points to GT Resources)
View two of the following:
HowTo Change the World
90 Inspiring and Visionary Films (pick one)
Assignment 2 Disturbance at Home
Emergence & Movements
A wealth of solutions driven by necessity, courage, enthusiasm, and passion are sprouting up all over the globe. In fact, it’s a really creative and thrilling time to be alive. We will explore a variety of these options, so you can begin to reform your own cultural meta story.
Types of metastories
- Creation
- Archetypal
- Teaching
- Apocalyptic
- Transition
- Techno-utopia
Permaculture
How Permaculture Can save Humanity and the Earth, but not Civilization
Lexicon of Sustainability Photography and video driving transition
Collection of alternative stories/projects:
90 Inspiring and Visionary Films (pick another)
Read The Fifth Sacred Thing (Starhawk) or Star’s Reach (John Michael Greer) to page 100;
Begin Journal of story ideas, sketches, or media
Diversity & Relocalization
The natural world designs resilience in the face of change by creating a wide diversity of solutions, beings, adaptations, and even mutations. Diversity, especially in the context of cooperation, can lead to rapid innovation and evolution. What appears now as an immigrant crisis, for example, is just a repeat of the immigrant crisis that happened to Native Americans, because humans have not found a way to cope with migration without warfare.
What are the options? What happens when people localize and also re-localize? What happens to people who have no locality?
REVIEW Assignment 2 Disturbance at Home
Techno-Utopias:
To Save Everything Click Here ; Neuromancer, Matrix, Terminator, etc.
Homework
Freedom Ahead, and Life is Easy (watch both and pick a small segment from one of them, about 2-3 minutes to share and discuss with the class–note time signature of (beg & end of clip)
Future Scenarios, David Holmgren see especially the section on the four possible future scenarios
Read The Fifth Sacred Thing (Starhawk) or Star’s Reach (John Michael Greer) to page 200
Local Roots
Personal Project
Consider you first two assignments as well as your research, videos and reading. Given your new knowledge, what kind of story do you want to write?
Class Project
As a class establish a local community or organization that might benefit from a new set of stories. Craft an intervention that allows individuals to both speak of their history and its challenges, and also to begin rethinking possible future scenarios. Find a way to capture these community or organization stories.
Assignment 3 Future Vision
Read The Fifth Sacred Thing (Starhawk) or Star’s Reach (John Michael Greer) to page 300
Workshop Future Vision
Discuss Class Project(s)
Read The Fifth Sacred Thing (Starhawk) or Star’s Reach (John Michael Greer) to page 400
Future Vision update
Story Models: Beneath Floes (Twine)
Decide Class Project(s)
Visit from Dell & Marie Emerson
Agricultural Wild Blueberry Heritage Center & Virtual Museum
Read The Fifth Sacred Thing (Starhawk) or Star’s Reach (John Michael Greer) to end
Spring Break
Finish your novel…
Ponder your story…
Speculative Fiction & Twine Hypertext
In the transition was the word…
Review vision & structure of The Fifth Sacred Thing (Starhawk) or Star’s Reach (John Michael Greer) in groups & present to class
Read: Beneath Floes (Twine) See also Internet Fiction Database to find an additional twine story/game of your own
Create your own first few pages of a story/game in Twine: Twine & Twine Guide
You can use material from your our story project or new material.
Traditional vs Branching Stories: Plot
Work Chiasma: hypertext options for story plot
Fear, Struggle, Awakening
Read A Cold Grave
Assignment 4: First draft of Future Vision
Twine & Character Development
Character & Point of View
52 Twine Stories –a great way to explore many features of Twine via models
Read A Cold Grave (did you find all 3 endings? points of view?)
RESOURCES
Twine Novel Prologue
Future Visions (Assignment 4 needs to be complete—ie full draft of story— by Tuesday 4/11; post update as new post with same category, but use “4b” in title )
Begin Twine Novel Prologue (group project)
Twine Novel Prologue II
Twine Novel Prologue (group project)
Feedback on Future Visions
Wrapping up
Finish Twine Novel Prologue (group project)
Last changes in Future Visions project
Final Projects
Future Visions Project
Twine story (can be incorporated into Future Visions)
Twine Novel Prologue (group project)
Final Presentations in class