Great Works Fall 2013

For the final project, I’m going to draw inspiration from the first assignment, and pit the authors of ten selected texts we’ve covered in class against one another to find out which one best represents the ideals of the Enlightenment. To do so, I’m incorporating the Big Brother (U.S. Edition) reality show format with a kind of “recap blog” which will serve as a continuously updated site which reveals what goes down within the “House.” These posts will not be made by me specifically, but rather they’ll be written by the Host of the show: Julianna Reachen. The game, and therefore the House in which the authors will reside, will exist in a universe separate from our own – a universe in which the Enlightenment has apparently been completely fulfilled and realized. This will be done in order to better emphasize the entire message behind the game, which is to determine which of the ten authors’ thoughts and views on Enlightenment Ideals are strongest and most evident in their works.

For those who aren’t versed in the logistics of the Big Brother competition, I’ve put together this preliminary rundown of what will occur each week:

1. The ten authors will all compete in the “Head Thinker” Challenge, which will see each author put forth something from their writings that they deem best relevant to the predetermined Enlightenment Ideal. (These Ideals will cover topics from Social Mobility to Individual Happiness – along with several others which will be revealed in due time.) The HT Challenge will force the authors to debate one another over the views evident in their texts, and one winner will be selected by Julianna.
2. The winning author becomes the Head Thinker for that week, and is safe from elimination. Furthermore, the Head Thinker is tasked with selecting two of their fellow HouseAuthors to be put on the guillotine, where they’ll be at risk of being eliminated following a secret voting by the remaining HouseAuthors.
3. Following the Guillotine Ceremony, all the HouseAuthors will compete in the “Power of Reason” Challenge. The winner of this challenge will be awarded the power to potentially save one of the two authors from the guillotine, and force the Head Thinker to then immediately nominate a different HouseAuthor to take their place. To keep the competitions from becoming repetitive and stale, as well as to retain some elements of surprise, the winner of the PoR Challenges will be determined by a random number generator. (You’re welcome to use your imagination to picture Sor Juana and Melville battling it out in an obstacle course for the win if you so desire.)
4. Once the Power of Reason is used to potentially save a HouseAuthor from eviction, all the HouseAuthors – save the Head Thinker and the two heads on the guillotine – will enter the Diary Room to cast a vote for either of the two HouseAuthors. The HouseAuthor with the most votes will be eliminated, and will exit the House for an Exit Interview with Julianna.

Occasionally, HouseAuthors may take to the blog themselves which would be represented by a transcript of whatever they wish to discuss in the Diary Room. If one HouseAuthor feels a strong disagreement with another, or if some drama breaks out during the downtime between challenges, then one or more HouseAuthors may end up with a post on the blog in order to express their views.

In keeping with the “principle” of reality television shows, this game isn’t scripted. As of right now, all that I have written down and planned are the themes for each challenge, and the names of the authors themselves. I don’t have a winner preselected, which I think speaks to the Enlightenment Ideal of breaking with belief in predestination. (What fun would this be if I planned out this entire project right now and just put up pieces of it every few days? It’s a constantly evolving and growing project!)

I’m also toying with the idea of using polls to be voted on by whomever views the blog to gauge who the audience believes should really have won certain challenges, and if they agree with which HouseAuthor was evicted that week. Depending on the amount of responses to these polls, I’d like to devote at least one week to having an Audience Elimination, where the HouseAuthors evicted will be chosen without me having any say in the matter. It’s an idea, I’d love it if this blog was really actively read so I can read comments that may influence how future posts change the game, but I can’t exactly guarantee anything.

Well then, now that I’ve babbled on for quite some time, let’s get to the fundamentals, shall we? The ten authors competing are: Molière, Sor Juana, Kafka, Melville, Baudelaire, Tolstoy, Woolf, Xun, Tagore, and Rossetti. These ten have been chosen because they all offer distinct, sometimes-conflicting views on the Enlightenment, they’re writers who’ve written works I’ve enjoyed reading in class, and all of them (with the exception of Woolf) have already been covered in class discussions. I couldn’t realistically create a game with authors we haven’t covered yet when I don’t know anything about them. (Woolf is the exception because I’m knowledgable with her writings, and because there really needed to be more than two female authors in this.)

This is going to be an ongoing project, and it’ll be wrapped up in time by the final class. Obviously there may be one or two Double Eliminations or something of the like in order to condense what should a ten-week game into the six weeks we have left in the semester, but those are only some of the twists and turns this game may very well take. Each week, however, will see at least one HT Challenge, one Guillotine Ceremony, one Power of Reason Challenge, one Reason Ceremony, and one Live Eviction. These will all be separate posts, along with anything else the game may throw your way. Clearly my biggest challenge is keeping up with the creative demands of the project, but it’s something I find fun and interesting, so I guess I’ll just have to deal with it.

Here’s the blog. Stay tuned for the first round of challenges. I don’t promise a standard game by any means.