Here is your second assignment:
1. The rat has been called Homo sapiens’ doppelganger—a dark twin that shadows humanity wherever it goes. But not everyone has the same view of the genus Rattus.
Watch the following 4 videos on YouTube and then answer the questions:
Rats invade KFC/Taco Bell in NYC. Fox News reacts:
On the Travel Channel’s “Culture Shock,” Shenaz Treasurywala journeys to the Karni Mata temple in India, where rats are revered, not reviled:
Accompanied by a rat puppet named “Brownie,” Filipino journalist Howie Severino arrives in New York to explore the Year of the Rat. (This year—2008—is the Year of the Rat in the Chinese zodiac). Note: The narration is in Tagalog—but most of these 2 segments are in English. Part 1 (Celebrating the Year of the Rat in Chinatown):
Part 4 (Howie Visits with Rat Lovers):
Question: How are rats portrayed in the different videos, and how do you think the different narrators’ and newscasters’ feelings about rats might influence those portrayals? What is your own response? Do any of the videos alter your ideas or feelings about rats?
2. Why do you think that rats are frequently used as a motif in literature, art, and film? And as a metaphor in everyday language, e.g. “He ratted on me” and “You can’t escape the rat race”?
For examples, you might consider:
--this excerpt from George Orwell’s 1984
--Robert Sullivan’s nonfiction work Rats from the assigned reading
--this recently completed mural at Grand and Wooster in SoHo by the street artist, Banksy
--the following teaser for the animated film Ratatouille
3. Name 3 characteristics of urban inquilines (rats, feral pigeons, cockroaches and other creatures that share the human “nest”).
4. What were the 2 most significant things you learned from Randy Dupree, the former director of New York City’s rat control unit, when he came to speak to the class on September 22?