Henry David Thoreau once said that "Not until we are lost, do we begin to find ourselves." During this unit leading up to our 2nd Exhibition (an Integrated Project with Science and Digital Media), I expected students to get lost living in the world of Neverwhere... of London Above...and of London Below.

I asked students to consider: How far from our own 'reality' is it?

It was important to use the language of Physics as a metaphor in this project. As we travelled the corridors of this novel we looked at the 'physics' and forces at play in our own lives and choices by studying those of Richard Mayhew and Door to uncover the metaphor, or The Story beneath the story, of Neverwhere.

"I'd watch out for doors if I were you...You've a good heart...Sometimes that's enough to see you safe wherever you go...But mostly, it's not..."

So says 'the old woman' to Richard Mayhew, a man dissatisfied with his life. He leaves everything he knows and is familiar with to journey to a new place...a place unknown to him. How does his external journey reflect the one taken inside of him? What forces act upon him? What choices does he make and why? By writing a Fantasy novel that presents us with different worlds, different realities, and different truths, what does Neil Gaiman help us to think about? I wanted students to travel together and see how meeting 'a Door' changes everything...

There are forces at work in Richard Mayhew's life, and his Story begins to change. I asked students to pay close attention to how that happens and why. Our examination of this novel was through the lens of Motion and The Physics of Change and studied the events and characters in Neverwhere for evidence of:

* The POTENTIAL ENERGY of a choice waiting to be made (questions, experiences, possibilities...)
* The KINETIC ENERGY of a life lived by those choices (discoveries made, transformations, etc...)
* The VELOCITY at which a life moves (Where did it start? Where is it headed? How fast is it going?)
* How NEWTON'S 1ST LAW OF MOTION not only affects us physically, but also emotionally and mentally (What moves people? What gets in our way? What does it take to change?)

 

Subject Area(s): Language Arts

 

Teaching Days to Complete: 6 weeks

 

Keywords  What's this?

Neverwhere, Neil Gaiman, Motion, Physics, Change, Transactional Reading Journal, Storyboard, Potential, Kinetic, Velocity, Newton, Doors, Metaphor, Fishbowl Dis

 

Outcomes  What's this?

 

21st Century Leadership Skills  What's this?

Manage Projects Effectively, Think Critically, Express Creatively

 

Graduation Portfolio Tasks  What's this?

Literary Analysis, Creative Expression

 

Neverwhere BBC Mini-Series
This is a link to information about the 1996 BBC mini-series production of Neverwhere, directed by Dewi Humphreys. Alth...
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt01...