Annotated Bibliography Assignment

By [Spencer Phillips], [The Big Brothers]

 1. [Booker, Keith. Dystopian Literature: A Theory and Research Guide. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1994. Print.] 

[Dystopian Literature by Keith Brooks, is essentially a series of essays analyzing the meanings inside and intentions behind a surprisingly vast and esoteric collection of utopian and dystopian works. Its contents range from " A Guide to Selected Modern Cultural Criticism Relevant to Dystopian Literature", and sections on "Selected Utopian Fictions", "Dystopian Fictions", "Dystopian Dramas", and "Dystopian Films". Each section contains a number of different examples, typically novels, with the shortest section being that of Utopian Fiction. Each example is given an extensive amount of detailed analysis - the average length for each is roughly four pages of standard print type on a large page. These analyses typically consist of comparisons to similar works, works by the same author, and connections from the work to events around the time it was written.

While Brooks attempts to be both fair and interesting, his regular comparisons to other works tend to imply that none of the works are really distinct. To him, and eventually to the reader, it seems that all dystopian works are repetitive criticism of humanity, society, and government with the only change being that of the milieu. Dystopian Literature is a marvelous catalogue of various and sundry dystopian works, and as such is invaluable for either a rough survey of subjects or for a reference to works of interest. It presents a range of useful articles and perspectives with which to analyze dystopian literature, and is likely to remain topical for at least a decade.]

2. [Newell, Waller R. Tyranny: A New Interpretation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013. Print.]

[Waller Newell's Tyranny: A New Interpretation offers an analysis of how the image of tyranny has changed from that of the sometime benevolent (i.e. Plato's Statesman) to that of Machiavelli's necessarily cruel leader, and finally to the demonic figure of modernity. Newell starts with an explanation of Plato's opinion, of how even great leaders are capable of terrible things, and of the necessity to balance the bad with the good. He then discusses Aristotle's outward proponent for the advantages of a republic, and contrasts them with a claim that Aristotle's Politics offers a muted support for a monarchy by one ruler with supreme virtue (virtue in the sense of arete, or excellence). After this, he moves on to Machiavelli's famous work, The Prince, analyzes how new his ideas are, and how they have regardless changed the world. Stemming from the previous, he examines modern definitions of tyranny, and proposes that while the ancient philosophers focused on utilizing emotions and eros in the individual, modern theory focuses on a concept of the supremacy of "the people", a concept which advocates the erasure of the individual and individual desires in favor of benefit for the unnamed whole.

While Newell's Tyranny contains both passion and thought, its twisting words and occasional backtracking can trouble the eye and conceal the message. It takes some careful thought and delicate attention to derive clear meaning from Newell's prose, which may have been his intention.]

3. [Lewis, Daniel C. Direct Democracy and Minority Rights: A Critical Assessment of the Tyranny of the Majority in the American States. New York: Routledge, 2013. Print.]

[In a sense continuing from where Newell's Tyranny leaves off, Lewis' Direct Democracy criticizes direct democracy as favoring a sometimes slight majority while spurning the needs of the few. Lewis acknowledges that direct democracy helps protect the interests of the public from possible corruption of political representatives, but emphasizes that in a direct democracy, lesser demographics are easily overshadowed. His case is presented by, as the summary claims, "examining a hose of contemporary American state policies that affect the rights of a variety of minority groups". Example policies include same-sex marriage bans, english-only ballot laws, and racial profiling bans. Analysis of these policies typically includes statistical analysis of party affiliation, average level of education, the endemicity of direct democracy, evangelical rate, citizen ideology, preexisting literature, and the phrasing of the law, act, or proposal.

Direct Democracy analyzes an interesting topic, and does it in a considered way. And while the prevalence of mathematical proofs occasionally confused the issue, in general the presented facts and intent were clear. Additionally, while three fourths of the work was dedicated to presenting the downside of direct democracy, the second to last section discussed its potential for good as well, noting that direct democracy allowed for easier penetration of both anti- and pro-minority bills onto the ballot, and allowing policies that drew the attention of the public to easily pass.]

4. ["Choose Your Own Adventure." Various Writers. TV Tropes Foundation, n.d. Web. 6 Nov. 2013. <http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ ChooseYourOwnAdventure>]

[TV Tropes is a website dedicated to tracking common tropes in television, movies, novels, games, and any other popular entertainment medium. While an open-content website, like Wikipedia, it is well-managed, and is both broad and informative.

The Choose Your Own Adventure page is underdeveloped, but is useful for its links to common tropes in CYOA, links to CYOA examples, and the common tropes in those examples. In short, it's a useful starting point for getting a grasp of popular techniques and themes in CYOA, which will hopefully lead to a more fleshed-out final project.

Some considerations it has raised are as follows: should story lines be written individually, in a Round Robin style, or haphazardly; are long steady branches optimal, or should there be random deaths for fun; should the story be open in its entirety, or should there be items to pick up and carry that influence what can be done; to what extent are cruel twist endings appropriate?

TV Tropes has interesting points to make, and the examples of these points can be both esoteric, and interesting in themselves. This website has a couple of downsides, however, in that it can be difficult to navigate, things that should be related do not have established or direct connections between them, and the writers often make their point unclear for the sake of humor.]

5. [inklewriter. Inkle Studios. Web. 6, Nov. 2013. <http://www.inklestudios.com/inklewriter>] [FreeMind. Dice Holdings, Inc. through SourceForge.net. Web. 6 Nov. 2013. <http:// freemind.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/ Main_Page>]

[inklewriter, by Inkle Studios, is a free program that aids in writing Choose Your Own Adventure novels or stories. It is well made, being both pretty to look at, and easy to use. Stories are written by writing a paragraph, page, or chapter and then offering options that branch off from that paragraph. These options can branch as far as desired, and can even be joined back together later on. The program offers the ability to collaborate, to share it via an individual webpage, and to convert it to Kindle format.

A downside of inklewriter is that it is highly specific to story-writing and the CYOA genre. It should be possible to co-opt it for normal story-writing via not branching, but the flipping back to previous chapters isn't as thoughtless as with alternative programs. It's also unsuitable for non-CYOA decision trees, as it appears to not allow you to see the tree as a whole.

An alternative program better suited for time management, decision tree-making, and folding is FreeMind. FreeMind is a free, downloadable program that offers an easy to use way to schedule, split, and otherwise organize projects, plans, or thoughts. While it's rougher than decision tree/organization programs that one pays for, it appears to be far more flexible.]