The Box Man Reflection

While deciding how to teach such an avant garde piece of literature I decided to rely on

my knowledge of Japanese culture and history acquired through living there and attending

classes at the University of Okinawa in Naha. By relating the seemingly random sections of the

confusing narrative to real world events and attitudes I felt I could increase general

understanding via context. Likewise, I believe that no matter the subject, be it math, science, or

literature people rarely care if they do not see a connection to their real world, this idea is often

echoed in the confused or lazy student anthem “When am I ever going to use/need this?” So I

also grouped the seemingly fragmented storylines into clearly definable sections to help increase

understand of how these stories were related, both in the story and in the real world.

As anyone in the military will tell you, long PowerPoints are the bane of our existence

and tuning out within the first few slides or rapidly clicking through hundreds of slides just to get

it over with becomes the norm, so whenever creating a PowerPoint I try to make it no more than

a dozen slides. This small number of slides can be packed with information, but the low number

of them helps keep people motivated and focused and less likely to quickly scan the information

and move on because of the large number they must complete. I believe PowerPoint slides

should emphasize quality over quantity whenever possible.

I also chose to use humorous images in the background for the same reason, it tends to

increase the audiences willingness to pay attention, thus if one student notices and points out that

the background image is Snake from the Metal Gear game series in his iconic and comical box

disguise, or Hans Gruber falling, or the TARDIS they are more likely to focus on the slides,

especially if the references change and are diverse in origin thus being interesting to a larger

percentage of the audience.

 When selecting questions, I tried to verbally summarize the story to a panel of my wife,

and two friends. As they asked questions I made note on what topics were repeatedly brought up

such as the sexual nature of certain events, the fluidity of identity, the lack of identifying names

or exclusive titles, a strange emphasis on what constitutes real or fake, and the general existential

anxiety in both the story and in the layout of the novel itself. Afterwards, I chose the existential

connection to Kafka as my most important question because it tied back to modernist assignment

in week nine which I had hoped would help others understand the differences and similarities

between Modernism and Postmodernism by directly contrasting two similar stories.

Unfortunately, due to the sudden loss of my laptop I was unable to post my questions early

enough to receive more than one response. However, the one that I did receive was well thought

out and well written, though I would still have liked to have had more responses of various

students’ takes on the subject.