Faculty of Arts,
Chulalongkorn University
Anda's
Game
(2004)
Cory Doctorow
(July
17, 1971 – )
"Anda's Game" Notes
This short story was first
published in 2004 at Salon.com.
225 Camden
Town: a town in London, England
226 ape-poo:
227 noobs: short for
newbies, meaning novices; here it means players who are new to the game and
are not very good
231 One
two one two and through and through...vorpal
blade went snicker-snack:
lines from the poem "Jabberwocky"
by Lewis Carroll
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'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
"Beware the Jabberwock, my son
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!"
He took his vorpal sword in hand;
Long time the manxome foe he sought—
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood awhile in thought.
And, as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!
One, two! One, two! And through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.
"And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!"
He chortled in his joy.
'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
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232 Mr. Kettle, Miss Pot: play with the expression "the
pot calling the kettle black"
233 Zackly: exactly
233 Curly Wurlies:
234 chump change:
240 orca: whale
This is a riff on the way that property-rights are coming to games, and on
the bizarre spectacle of sweat-shops in which children are paid to play the
game all day in order to generate eBay-able game-wealth. When I was a kid,
there were arcade kings who would play up Gauntlet characters to maximum
health and weapons and then sell their games to nearby players for a dollar
or two -- netting them about $0.02 an hour -- but this is a very different
proposition indeed.
[...]
It's the first in a series of stories I'm writing that riff on the titles of
famous SF novels and stories (this one is a play on Orson Scott Card's
"Ender's Game" [...]
Study Questions
-
In
an interview with Brian David Johnson, Doctorow
mentions his science fiction writing as a sort of
parable. The Merriam-Webster
dictionary defines these types of tales as "example;
specifically: a usually short fictitious story that
illustrates a moral attitude or a religious
principle." Note that the etymology of parable is from
the Greek paraballein
"to compare." What comparisons is Doctorow
making in "Anda's Game"? What examples does he show?
What ethical issues or principles does he illustrate?
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Review Sheet
Characters
Anda – twelve years
old (223); gamer; attends Ada Lovelace Comprehensive school (223); "a little
podgy, like Anda herself" (225)
Liza the Organiza –
gamer; "She had an Australian accent" (223); president of Clan Fahrenheit
(224); called Lizanator in-game (224); "a little podgy, like Anda herself,
but she wore it with confidence. She was solid, like a brick wall, her hair
bobbed bluntly at her shoulders" (225)
Miss
Cruickshanks – "the principal" (223)
Mrs. Danzig – "the
useless counselor" (223)
Lucy, the Sarge –
gamer (225)
Lilian – Anda's
mother (240)
Raymond – a gamer
Anda and Lucy meet in gamespace; "I live in Tijuana. I am a labor organizer
in the factories here"
Setting
Camden Town, England
– (225)
Gamespace – (225)
Vocabulary
allusion
irony
parable
Charater, Characterization
foil
personality
direct presentation of character
indirect presentation of character
show v. tell
consistency in character behavior
motivation
plausibility of character: is the character credible? convincing?
flat character
round character, multidimensional character
static character
developing character
direct methods of revealing character:
- characterization through the use of names
- characterization through physical appearance
- characterization through editorial comments by the author, interrupts
narrative to provide information
- characterization through dialog: what is said, who says it, under what
circumstances, who is listening, how the conversation flows, how the
speaker speaks (ex. tone, stress, dialect, diction/word choice)
- characterization through action
Plot
beginning, middle, end
scene
chance, coincidence
double plot
subplot, underplot
deus ex machina
disclosure, discovery
story
conflict, internal conflict, external conflict, clash of actions, clash of
ideas, clash of desires, clash of wills
- man v. self
- man v. man
- man v. society
- man v. nature
protagonist
antagonist
suspense
mystery
dilemma
surprise
ending
- happy ending
- unhappy ending
- indeterminate ending
artistic unity
time sequence
exposition
complication
rising action, falling action
crisis
climax
anti-climax
conclusion
resolution
denouement
flashback, retrospect
foreshadowing
Point of View
first person
second person
third person
- objective
- limited omniscient
- omniscient
Sample Student
Responses to Cory Doctorow's "Anda's Game"
Study Question:
Response 1:
Student Name
2202234
Introduction to the Study of English Literature
Acharn Puckpan
Tipayamontri
June 21, 2010
Reading
Response 1
Title
Text.
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Media
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- Brian David Johnson interviews Cory
Doctorow
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Reference
Doctorow,
Cory. "Anda's Game." The Best
American Short Stories 2005. Eds. Michael Chabon and Katrina
Kenison. Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 2005. 223–50. Print.
Further Reading
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updated
August 19, 2013