Subject Literature and Languages
Topic Legacy: ANATOMY of a Universe
Type Book Review
Level University
Style MLA
Sources 3
Language English(U.S.)
Description
Only Three references should be used as the essay will be based on them :
1- Constitution (Legacy Fleet Trilogy #1) by Nick Webb (Book)
2- Legacy Fleet: Hammerfall by David Adams (Book)
3-Building Imaginary Worlds: The Theory and History of Subcreation By Mark J.P. Wolf (Book)
This assignment requires you to think through the structures of Nick Webb’s Legacy Fleet universe, using Webb’s Constitution, the foundational novel in the series, and David Adams’ Hammerfall.
Organize your paper around Wolf’s terminology in Chapters 3 and 4. And prepare to comment on the following elements. (You may use existing materials for some of the more complex structures, but document them properly and engage with them analytically.)
- Start with basic structures:
• Maps (geography/cosmography),
• Timelines (chronologies/placement/key historical events), and
• Genealogies (familial, political, and societal)
For each of the basic structures, give us the core elements—the idea isn’t to overwhelm us with detail, though it could be helpful to indicate how complex each structure is, but rather to orient us in the world as economically and clearly as possible. What do we need to know? What do we already know that has been cribbed or borrowed from the primary world? What’s new?
- Move on to systems:
• Nature (zoology, biology, governing scientific laws and principles, resources, agriculture),
• Culture (rites, rituals, styles of dress, social customs, economy, etc.),
• Language (variety, complexity, unique words, insight into other systems?),
• Mythology (inherited stories, heroes, gods, mythic places), and
• Philosophy (religion, philosophy of science, politics, ethics, other governing ideas).
As with the basic structures, the objective is to identify, describe, and comment on what’s new in the universe, anchoring or contrasting it to the primary world, and making connections, where helpful, to “known” secondary worlds (from other fictions/films). The order in which you present these systems doesn’t matter: several of the categories overlap with each other, so sequence your treatment organically and economically.
III. More than story.
Address two questions:
• What seems to be the “overall” story that unifies the “world” depicted in both novels? (see Wolf ch. 4)
• Provide a synopsis of one of the two, and discuss its particular contributions to our understanding of the universe (think specifically here about the relationship between structures, systems, and narrative).
Technical requirements
This isn’t a paper in any traditional sense, so feel free to use headings and sub-headings, graphs, images, maps, and other materials that help you present your anatomy of the Legacy Fleet universe clearly and compellingly. Do write in sentences and paragraphs, but don’t worry about having a cohesive argument so much as a coherent representation of the core systems and elements of the universe and how they fit together (see the end of Wolf ch. 3 for clarification about this).
• That said, strive for a minimum of 1500 words, though you are welcome to exceed that.
• Document anything and everything you “borrow” or mention, from our novels, Wolf’s book, or any other helpful resources, including images.
• Use MLA documentation style.
• Format with 1” margins all around, a reasonable font (TNR 12-pt is standard), and double-space text.
• Paginate second and subsequent pages, and include your name, the course, and a title as above (not in a running header).
Please note that the paper should written in ‘simple’ english.
Spacing Double
Pages 5
