The Senior Seminar at my college was based on World War I, for the most part. The session that I went to had 2 discussions of literature during the time of WWI and a short story based on human genetic engineering. The literature analysis was eye opening as I was not aware of all the social problems between men and women, and problems of the soldiers in the trenches. It makes me wonder about what's going to happen when all the soldiers come back and what problems will arise because of the home fronts ignorance to how the soldiers feel.
The short story was interesting. I liked the fact that it was only when the girl's hormones start acting up that she realizes that their is something wrong with her, and that she needs to figure out what's going on. However, I felt that some things needed to be changed in the short story. Now, I am not an editor, so what I say may be totally wrong. I just felt that the whole "secret" was basically given away, there wasn't really any tension in not knowing what was going on. Maybe if there were more subtle hints rather than giving away cues like being able to hear someone when she shouldn't have. I mean, when she started giving away the cues, I already began forming ideas on what was happening. At first, I'll admit, I thought vampires, but that's because they are is so much going on about them, that it's hard for it to not pop up when there's something strange going on with the character (especially when there's blood, which did happen, she smelt blood, which was what really got me). However, I realized that it couldn't possibly be vampires because they were in an institution, and I really didn't think vampires would go well in a senior seminar. So my next immediate conclusion was, of course, human testing, or, more specific, genetic testing, and that was what was happening. So I think that maybe more subtle cues would be better, but for someone who doesn't know about science fiction or fantasy, maybe that's what they need.
Another thing is the head of the institute (I'm sorry, I forgot his name). When the doctor says that she needs to get the main character's test results to the head, you think, oh, something's going on, but the warning signals in your mind doesn't go off. I think that more tension could be added if there were rumors about people's papers going to him, and the people were brought to the head of the institute, and they never returned. It would give more of a sense of urgency rather than just a, "oh, this is morally wrong, and we should leave" feel. I think I forgot, but I believe that the two characters, Clayre, the main character, and Scott, have been at the institute all their lives, so the only way I could see them leaving a place that they knew their whole life is if their life is in danger. Obviously, the institute isn't the nicest place, but if you don't know better, then it seems good, and it's comfortable because you are used to it. It seems that even if they are being tested on, they would need more of an incentive to leave the institute than that.
These are all my observations, and aren't meant to be taken seriously. I just think there was some confusion that could be cleared up. I did like Clayre and Scott. I liked how cheerful Scott was (although it's creepy referring to this character because my brother's name is Scott, and it's just weird...) even though he was living in a very dreary place.
I thought that this was something very important for me to go to. It shows me want I need to be ready for in about two and a half years.
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