Monday, February 6, 2012

"Nightfall" -- Required "comments"

For "Nightfall" comments, you need to write two things (two separate comments):
1.)  Post a QUESTION about the story as you read.  (Think along the lines of questions I might ask on a quiz about plot, characters, setting, theme ... use your literary terms!)  NO ONE MAY REPEAT A QUESTION AFTER IT HAS BEEN POSTED.  IF YOU REPEAT A QUESTION, YOU WILL NOT RECEIVE CREDIT FOR THIS REQUIRED BLOG COMMENT.
2.)  Go back and post a comment to ANSWER someone else's question.  I'm not sure if you can comment directly to someone else's comment.  What you might need to do is, in your "answer" comment, write at the start:  "Answer to David's (or whomever's) Question," and then write your answer.  NO ONE MAY REPEAT AN ANSWER AFTER IT HAS BEEN POSTED.  There should be one questions per student, and one answer for each question.
DEADLINES:  Notice these have been changed slightly, since we discussed "Primeval Night" for most of the period on Tuesday:
QUESTIONS must be posted by the end of class Wednesday, February 8th.
ANSWERS must be posted (as homework) before 8 AM on Thursday.  We will discuss "Nightfall" in class on Thursday, so answers posted after 8 AM WILL NOT COUNT FOR CREDIT.

64 comments:

  1. What do the numbers in the characters' names mean?

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    1. Answer- What I believed the numbers ment was that they signify power or leader ship. An example is that Sor 5 , the leader of the cultists had a lower number compared to Aton 77. The numbers could also show that the story takes place in a future becuase with noyalty they named each other with a number like "Edward 6"." They need the numbers there to create the individuality of people who might have the same name.

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  2. Who do you think the Cultists are?

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    1. The cultists are a group of astronomers led by Sor 5. The astronomers attempt to learn about Lagash's universe. Sor 5 has access to knowledge that helped with their discoveries

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    2. The cultis were also a religous faction.

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    1. The setting of the story is a planet named Lagash that has six suns, which keep the planet lit up continuously.

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  4. Would Theremon be considered the protagonist of the story?

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    1. Yes because he is a central character. He is always mentioned but Aton goes away. At first Theremon didn't much believe what the Cultists were saying then he began to change his mind.

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  5. why do you think these people can't handle teh darkness for barely two minutes?:

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    1. Answer: As stated on page seven, in the line, "...the eternal blaze of the suns..." the people have never had any kind of darkness or night before as they are always in direct sunlight.

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  6. Does the fact the "people don't believe in the Book of Revelations" suggest that people have taken a more scientific approach to the world they live in?

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    1. Yes. On page 6 the author writes that "The Cultis have their own 'Book of Revelations'... of course they mix all this up with a lot of religio-mystic notions..." So the "Book of Revelations" was centered around religion and mythical things.

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  7. What is the mood of the story at the beginning of the story?

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    1. The mood in the beginning of the story is dark and serious. You can tell directors and others were just waiting for the end.

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    2. ^^ grammar mistake. Retyped vv
      The mood in the beginning of the story is dark and serious. You can tell the director and others were just waiting for the end.

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  8. Does the title "Nightfall" show a bit of foreshadowing in the story?

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    1. It tells about the main plot of the story. It says how this event will affect this fictional place where darkness drives people insane.

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  9. How does society recover within the two thousand forty-nine year span between eclipses?

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  10. How is personification used in this story?

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  11. What do you think occurred after the ending to the short story "Nightfall"?

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    1. In another novel (X Minus One: im guessing it had something to do with this story) it says a civil disorder breaks out where fire destroys many cities and the civilizative collapses.

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  12. How do you think the quote before the story ties into the story line.?

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    1. The quote foreshadows how the people react when the darkness comes. They've never experianced darkness for generations, so they would assume when it comes that it would be the end of days.

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  14. Why would they capitalize "Cult" in the text? Are they referring to a certain group or a cult in general?

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    1. They probably see the Cult as a specific group, because they capitalized it. By doing this, they're making it a proper noun.

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  15. The beginning and endings of stories are always very important to pay attention to because they share something about the story , what did the beginning and ending of this short story have to say?

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  16. When talking about the Book of Revalations what does "re-edited through the cycles" mean?

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    1. I think that when talking about the Book of Revelations, what the author means by "re-edited trough the cycles" is that every new cycle more content is added to the book. When things are added and the cycle ends, the Book of revelations must survive so that when the new cycle begins, everyone knows how to handle the end of that cycle.

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  17. On page 8, It states that "People came out of the Darkness shaking, breathless, half dead with fear, but they kept on paying to get in." If people were so traumatized by the the "Dark" why would they keep paying to go into the dark tunnel?

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    1. Sheerin says, "There's a fascination in being frightened when it's part of the game. A baby is born with 3 instinctive fears: of loud noises, of falling, and of the absence of light." (page 8). He also added that when people died after going through the tunnel, ticket sales went up. Sheerin means that human curiosity takes over. People love the thrill of danger want to experience the darkness.

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  18. Do u think that the peoples fear of darkness is an evolutionary trait??

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    1. No because the people of the planet only experience darkness every 2000+ years.

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  19. At what point in the story would you consider being the climax?

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    1. when Beta was no longer giving light and they saw the stars.

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  20. How could a their planet have 6 suns but yet see darkness?

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    1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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    2. Even if they have 6 Suns they will have a eclipse once every 2,049 years, then that is when there is darkness.

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    3. How can all 6 suns go black?

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    4. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  21. Who is the antagonist of the story?

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  22. What would be a motif in this story?

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    1. A motif in the story was The Book of Revelations. It occures many times throught the story and it shows how that society differs from ours so it has a greater meaning; this makes it a motif.

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    2. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  23. What does Aton think of Sheerin?

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    1. From the story, you can tell that Aton respects Sheerin because he is always asking his opinions on things and you can tell he trusts him to be involved in the experiment. However, their relationship is not as strong during the eclipse because Aton refers to Sheerin as an "outsider" which is not very polite and you could see that Sheerin was taken aback.

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  24. What is the main theme of the story and what would be a good thematic statement for this theme?

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    1. I believe the main theme of this story would be "Darkness and Light".
      "There will always be a battle between darkness and light and, whatever the outcome, it will have great effects on the people experiencing it."

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    2. I believe deprivation and need is the theme because after over 2,000 years of light they are about to experience the worst fear and chaotic events imaginable

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  26. Since this is a science fiction story how does technology tie in to nightfall?

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    1. Technology is their source of finding out about Lagash, the darkness and how to prepare themselves. They use technology to adapt their theories and better educate them on the eclipses.

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  27. In what ways are the planets Lagash and Earth similar?

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    1. Lagash and Earth are similar in the aspect that their ecosystems are tied to the presence of light. On Earth, plants need sunlight to grow and survive, while humans recieve vital nutrients from its rays. On Lagash, the human population's sanity revolves around the light the sun provides.

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  28. What other meaning can the title "Nightfall" have other than the relation to the fear of darkness?

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    1. Maybe the fact that Nightfall is the end of the day, and according to the scientists it'll be the end of one cycle of civilization.

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  29. At what point in time do you think that this story takes place?

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    1. it does not have to be that far in the future, the people have alot of the same ideas that we do today. But it is set on a different planet so it is impossible to tell.

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  30. I think that this story takes place in the future four hours before the darkness arrived maybe like about 2000 years after the story was published.

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  31. How do the people in this story relate to us today?

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