English Extension 1 Question Thread

[elysepopplewell]

Hi, I have an idea for the setting of my ATB creative but I don't really know what will happen/what perspective I should take, any ideas would be great thanks
My setting is during the Cuban Missile Crisis, as the soviets tried to get Missiles to Cuba, the  US started to drop depth charges if they saw submarines on the radar in order to get them to rise to the surface as they had a blockade on soviet missiles from Cuba. One time this happened (possibly the first time) a soviet sub thought that it was US fire and that WWIII had broken out. Because of this, they were going to launch their own nuclear weapons in retaliation but required unilateral approval from the three officers in command as they were too low to contact Moscow for info. It turns out that 2 of them agreed but 1, Vasili Arkhipov, didn't and in effect saved the world from nuclear annihilation. I'm not sure how to make this setting into a story/ what would really happen. Thanks.

Hey there! The Cuban Missile Crisis is an excellent facet of the Cold War to focus on! It has always been my own preference when writing to focus on personal situations, or personal relationships, amidst a political backdrop. Would you be interested in focusing on a human experience amidst this backdrop? You could write some sort of romance like The Spy Who Came in From the Cold, where the romance kind of sits as a subplot that encompasses humanity. Or you could play into gender or race here, perhaps by being an African American woman who had intelligence the US needed but wasn't taken seriously? Or, we could look into Vasili Arkhipov particularly, and this is interesting! We can look into this character and why that decision was made. I don't know if the real reasons are readily available online? But, a suggestion is looking into creating a story about the personal reasons that Arkhipov said no. I'm actually really excited just thinking about reading it. Your imagination could run wild here, you could use flashbacks or diary entries. It could be about his wife's miscarriage because of the immense anxiety she felt about the war, causing other medical issues. It could be because of Arkhipov's faith, thus bringing in a religious paradigm. There are sooo many things you could work with for this.

I'm really excited to see what you do with this, let me know what you think, or maybe this has given you some new ideas!

[QC]

Hey there! The Cuban Missile Crisis is an excellent facet of the Cold War to focus on! It has always been my own preference when writing to focus on personal situations, or personal relationships, amidst a political backdrop. Would you be interested in focusing on a human experience amidst this backdrop? You could write some sort of romance like The Spy Who Came in From the Cold, where the romance kind of sits as a subplot that encompasses humanity. Or you could play into gender or race here, perhaps by being an African American woman who had intelligence the US needed but wasn't taken seriously? Or, we could look into Vasili Arkhipov particularly, and this is interesting! We can look into this character and why that decision was made. I don't know if the real reasons are readily available online? But, a suggestion is looking into creating a story about the personal reasons that Arkhipov said no. I'm actually really excited just thinking about reading it. Your imagination could run wild here, you could use flashbacks or diary entries. It could be about his wife's miscarriage because of the immense anxiety she felt about the war, causing other medical issues. It could be because of Arkhipov's faith, thus bringing in a religious paradigm. There are sooo many things you could work with for this.

I'm really excited to see what you do with this, let me know what you think, or maybe this has given you some new ideas!

Hi, thanks it gave me a quite a few ideas, am I allowed to use Arkhipov as a character? Is it bad to follow the real life events to much? Someone told me that it is better to use a random person like a journalist or a spy or something, if it is ok to use the guy then that would make it much easier since I can use the real life events as a guide since I srsly suck at creative writing haha.

[elysepopplewell]

Hi, thanks it gave me a quite a few ideas, am I allowed to use Arkhipov as a character? Is it bad to follow the real life events to much? Someone told me that it is better to use a random person like a journalist or a spy or something, if it is ok to use the guy then that would make it much easier since I can use the real life events as a guide since I srsly suck at creative writing haha.

You can definitely use the real events, but you need to fabricate the details that you don't have access to. Although your content may be factual, your presentation is creative. I suggest that any boring details you could definitely swap for embellished ideas. You don't want to be inaccurate in what you say, but you can, as an author, fill in the blanks of society and wonder what could have been.

Alternatively, you could write the entire thing like an allegory which would be immensely interesting to read!

[ash_mcalpine]

Hey there! You're asking a big question, it's Beckkett after all

So much of Waiting for Godot's paradigms are about your interpretation. Following on from Sarah's suggestion about having a conversation about the text: What/Who do you think Godot is?

The most obvious answer for a lot of people is Godot is representative of God, or a deity. What are the complications with this? I mean, the name denotes it. But also: Godot never arrives (spoiler). So, does God never arrive? Is this a metanarrative for the existential crisis of the cold war? Everyone is waiting for a Heavenly saviour, everyone's waiting around, kicking dirt, just waiting to be saved - and that religious figure never delivers? So this is one of the main ways of thinking here: the religious way of thinking. This manifests itself in the text in more ways than just "What is Godot" but I think that question is a great place to start. Lucky's speech definitely suggests this reading. I suggest this article for some easy reading on this concept.

Another reading of the text would say that Godot is a socio-economic paradigm. We look at the relationship between Pozzo and Lucky and we very much see an exploitative relationship, a master and a slave. This can be seen that Pozzo is the embodiment of the aristocracy in capitalism, and Lucky is the embodiment of the working class. Later in the text, Pozzo returns as blind, Lucky is the same as before, except on a shorter rope so that they are more equal. Is this the start of communism in the text? Equality?

Vladimir and Estragon can be seen as the working class as well - they complete each other, they do as they are instructed to be promised something good (the arrival of Godot) but this never delivers. Thus, their belief in the coming of Godot is actually their oppressor and not just their saviour. Surprisingly, there's a good Prezi on this that I think would be worth checking out because it has quotes from the text there as well.

On perhaps the simplest viewing: we could say that Godot is just the embodiment of an empty promise. You could say the entire Cold War is an empty promise, with governments lying to their own people about their superiority, about the promise of elitism, capitalism, socialism, equality, and the promise of an ending war.

Thanks so much, I was also thinking to specifically explore the circular structure of the play that captures the essence of humanity (seen through all the characters) as a means of repetition and then to directly relate that to the philosophical paradigm e.g.. questioning of God, satirical humour that subverts to nihilism and the establishment of existentialism. And to maybe then explore the uncertainty of the era through the substance of time- then linking that directly to the cold war and what you suggested about 'waiting'? I'm not too sure as this is kind of just random babbling and procrastination- would love it if you could let me know if i was going in the right direction!! Thanks!!

[elysepopplewell]

Thanks so much, I was also thinking to specifically explore the circular structure of the play that captures the essence of humanity (seen through all the characters) as a means of repetition and then to directly relate that to the philosophical paradigm e.g.. questioning of God, satirical humour that subverts to nihilism and the establishment of existentialism. And to maybe then explore the uncertainty of the era through the substance of time- then linking that directly to the cold war and what you suggested about 'waiting'? I'm not too sure as this is kind of just random babbling and procrastination- would love it if you could let me know if i was going in the right direction!! Thanks!!

Hey Ash! You're definitely heading in the right direction. I find that Standard and Advanced students are likely to take on the techniques in the text, rather than the techniques in the form. In both Standard and Advanced, it is incredibly important that you take on form - but it is even more important in Extension. I think this is because a lot of the texts have so much merit to their form and structure that you'd be selling yourself short by not touching on it! The circular structure is a great place to focus on, and the idea of the substance of time is a huge idea to grapple with - admittedly it wasn't in my own analysis but I'd be very interested to see what you do with it. You're definitely on the right track, no qualms here! Let me know if you want to touch base and check in with anything, I'm happy to help

[QC]

Hey, I'm trying to write my entire first draft of my story today because I'm v far behind so if you could respond quickly that would be great. I have decided to try and follow the events of what happened in real life during Arkhipov's mission focusing on his ways of thinking about the war and his decisions as the creative element. As he was the captain of the fleet of 4 submarines making a mission, I'm not sure to what level his information about the cold war should be. Would he have known about the Cuban Missile Crisis? That 40+ nukes had already gone to Cuba? I'm also trying to make his decision really difficult for him by emphasising the many hypocrisy's of the west and possibly a religious element as USSR was atheist but not sure how to include that. 
Thanks

[elysepopplewell]

Hey, I'm trying to write my entire first draft of my story today because I'm v far behind so if you could respond quickly that would be great. I have decided to try and follow the events of what happened in real life during Arkhipov's mission focusing on his ways of thinking about the war and his decisions as the creative element. As he was the captain of the fleet of 4 submarines making a mission, I'm not sure to what level his information about the cold war should be. Would he have known about the Cuban Missile Crisis? That 40+ nukes had already gone to Cuba? I'm also trying to make his decision really difficult for him by emphasising the many hypocrisy's of the west and possibly a religious element as USSR was atheist but not sure how to include that. 
Thanks

Hi Aroon, I have never taken to study Arkhipov so you probably know more than me. You can have a look at this great resource I found, it might help with working out exactly how much people knew about different things. It's a great resource and hopefully it answers some questions for you. If you still have questions after reading this, let me know. I'm happy to do my best to help, but you have introduced Arkhipov to me, I didn't know of him before. So I'm learning too

[QC]

Hi Aroon, I have never taken to study Arkhipov so you probably know more than me. You can have a look at this great resource I found, it might help with working out exactly how much people knew about different things. It's a great resource and hopefully it answers some questions for you. If you still have questions after reading this, let me know. I'm happy to do my best to help, but you have introduced Arkhipov to me, I didn't know of him before. So I'm learning too

Oh sorry, haha, I was trying to get a general feel for how much a general/commander would know but thanks, this was a useful read, also just wanting to get perspective of what the common person knew etc.

[QC]

Do you think it would be better to write it as a series of 2 or 3 letters or as a story, it feels kinda choppy writing it as a story however, the letter format would entail some form of knowledge of the future as he is writing in the future so idk. I'm also having a plot point that they can hear the radio transmissions through a receptor and they hear of the US invading Cuba and forming a blockade etc. I'm planning to make the main character think of this as hypocrisy of the west as the US stood for freedom, democracy and non-inference into political uprising as Cuba had become a communist state without the requirement of Russian "intervention" is this actually hypocrisy since they were doing it in order to defend democracy and the west

[bowiemily]

Do you think it would be better to write it as a series of 2 or 3 letters or as a story, it feels kinda choppy writing it as a story however, the letter format would entail some form of knowledge of the future as he is writing in the future so idk. I'm also having a plot point that they can hear the radio transmissions through a receptor and they hear of the US invading Cuba and forming a blockade etc. I'm planning to make the main character think of this as hypocrisy of the west as the US stood for freedom, democracy and non-inference into political uprising as Cuba had become a communist state without the requirement of Russian "intervention" is this actually hypocrisy since they were doing it in order to defend democracy and the west

Hey Aroon! This is my first time answering someone on the forums, so apologies if this is a little messy!
I wrote my own creative as a series of letters and diary entries, so there is no reason why you can't do so. It may actually help you to develop such a complex character, as the letter will contain his voice and opinion so clearly that your reader won't be able to miss the parallel to Western/US ideals. However, if you find that your piece is plot driven rather than character driven, I would say write your story as a narrative. Otherwise, bits of the plot can fall between the spaces of your letters. An authentic letter doesn't try to explain everything that's happened. So, if you think this may be a problem, perhaps write the majority of your story as a narrative and include a letter at the end, to really show that characters voice.
I hope this helped 

[phebsh]

Hi, does anyone have any good recommendations for related texts for comedy? Thanks!

[elysepopplewell]

Hi, does anyone have any good recommendations for related texts for comedy? Thanks!

Hey! I asked my friend who studied this in 2016 and he replied, "I studies Inglorious Bastards by Quentin Tarantino, and Utopia by Sir Thomas More, as well as three episodes of Black Adder and Jasper Fforde's The Eyre Affair."

Hopefully this gives you a hand

[lauraodonohoe]

Hi!

I'm doing After the Bomb for extension. So far for my first task I used a Guardian article on the Rosenbergs and a George Orwell magazine article called 'As I Please' for my ORTs. I found these texts were great to analyse contrastingly against one another and against Sylvia's oeuvre however I don't know if I'm narrowing my focus too much by looking only at journalistic styles. Any opinions would be great!

Thanks 

[stephjones]

Hi! I'm studying Science Fiction this year and I haven't really been able to find a lot of notes from other people on the genre, so I'm a little bit lost on what sort of related texts I should use to link to Bladerunner and Neuromancer (and Dune, but I hopefully won't use that). I've never really been into the Sci-fi genre so I honestly have no idea what sort of texts would relate to these, so if anyone has any ideas that would be great!!

Also I was recommended Fahrenheit-451, but my teacher told me that it would be used A LOT, and I was wondering if that could impact negatively on my results?

[elysepopplewell]

Hi!

I'm doing After the Bomb for extension. So far for my first task I used a Guardian article on the Rosenbergs and a George Orwell magazine article called 'As I Please' for my ORTs. I found these texts were great to analyse contrastingly against one another and against Sylvia's oeuvre however I don't know if I'm narrowing my focus too much by looking only at journalistic styles. Any opinions would be great!

Thanks 

Hey Laura These sound like really good related texts. I haven't heard of many people using these so props to you! The only reason why you might be limiting yourself, that I can think of, is if the question for the essay relates to form specifically and implies something more creative. But hey, in saying this, I used a political debate and I never questioned "what if the essay relates to form specifically and implies something more creative."

Although it's wonderful to have two strong related texts right now, I think it could be beneficial to have more studied, even briefly. This'll widen your perspective on the era, the issues, give you ideas for creatives, but also give you something to fall back on if you get to trials and realise that your related texts aren't as wonderful as you thought in term one (I'm not predicting this will be the case - it just was for me because I grew so much as an E1 student in this time that I re-evaluated things). It's not difficult to explore other related texts in E1 - there's some very short propaganda films, short stories, posters, visuals, poems..it goes on. So without having to read an entire novel, you could still widen your reading if you're even slightly concerned about being limited with your current selection. And if you're considering changing/gaining related texts, now is the time! Or...after half yearlies. Then it is the time!

So, I wouldn't be too concerned about being limited by text type, but I'd be using this stage in the game to keep reading and assessing your related texts. Always be critical with your work in Ext 1, and it sounds like you are! Always re-evaluate if you're still growing, test your related texts against tricky questions...so on. Good luck