librarybarry

At the beginning of the school year, I began to read aloud to each of my classes the novel Unwind by Neal Schusterman, published in 2008. The story begins with the “Bill of Life” which briefly allows the reader to understand that the story takes place after the Second Civil War in the United State, a war fought between the Pro-Life and Pro-Choice armies. The “Bill of Life” states a human life may not be terminated from conception until age thirteen, however, between the ages of 13-18 parents/guardians (and sometimes the state) may choose to retroactively “abort” the person for various reasons. New technology is available which allows those who are unwound to not “truly” die, as their lives do not “technically” end.

It’s a well-written, fast paced bit of young adult literature that examines several themes spurring from the original premise of unwinding. There are wards of the state, children raised as tithes to their respective churches, kids being unwound in response to their behavior, black market organ harvesting, people who receive other’s organs and gain abilities they never had, to name a few. I’ve enjoyed the series and am currently reading the 4th and final book. One thing that amazes me, is that Schusterman reveals at various points in the books, often between one section and another, information which seems to be from his own research, including URL’s or search terms used to find the information. In short, contemporaneous statistics on the price of organs on the world’s black market in 2007, finding of Paul Pearsall’s work with heart transplant patients who allegedly have memories of their heart donor’s lives, or the 2014 news story of the first person in the UK to have a double hand transplant.

Each set of search engine results, book quotes, or news articles is not meant to legitimize the information found therein: I’m still sifting around on a website about Pearsall’s research (which likely could be debunked, but I’ve no proof of that either). As a teacher, I find Schusterman provides these little springboards into researching how much of these technologies already exist and excellent way to have readers explore the moral and ethical dilemmas of the book within the world around us, instead of just in the future world that is the setting of the books.

Although I’m typically anxiety ridden when it comes to punctuality, I have been remiss in creating a post to share an insight from my week since the start of the year. I’ve set a goal to catch up on three post this week, and to keep on track from next week onward. As Kathryn stated in the inaugural post, this series is intended to “bring people together by posting some of what [our family] discover[s] and want[s] to share. We hope to build community around culture. We will focus on images and text to observe, describe, compare, analyze, or synthesize. These days we spend a lot of time consuming, but we hope to also inspire contemplation, spark conversation, or just bring attention to what we like.” This week I wish to share with you my newly begun practice, which occurs on the way to work.

I’ve generally listened to music on my way to work in recent years. The drive is relatively short, 13 minutes direct, and not more than 25 minutes if I drop one or both of the dogs at the spa. As a lover of long form podcasts, I have saved favorites like No Such Thing as a Fish, or WTF with Marc Maron, to longer drives. Even though Fish is segmented by the four hosts’ individual fact for the week, I find breaking the continuity does a disservice to the overall feeling of the show. This week, I stumbled upon Ted Talks Daily.

Interesting topics; between 6-15 minutes; the feeling of having learned something each morning.

This week I’ve listened talks on women in the construction field (from laborers to executives) and the incredible efficiency of a specific type of seagrass which draws down 1/3 of the oceans’ carbon. I find this little bit of mental stimulation sets me on a more inquisitive track for my day, and gets my thoughts flowing toward how my students can utilize media such as TTD as a springboard for their own ideas.

M. Kathryn Shields, Ph.D.

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librarybarry

The Unwind Dystology

Late to the Party