I Am Curious (Gene)!
Seriously…this Pokemon Theory of Evolution is pretty much what my students think happens. It’s way better than “man came from apes.”
So, there is this awesome Lois Lane, Superman’s Girlfriend story from the Seventies called, “I Am Curious (Black).” The Premise is simple…Lois needs to be black for a day, in order to write a story about African American people from the “inside.” Superman, of course, has a mchine that does this just laying around the Fortress of Solitude. Why not? Guy has a shrunken city and a portal to a prison dimension.
The upper five panels above aggressively reference that issue.
Recently, my students had to write a storybook with illustrations for Science class, explaining the evolution of a made up life form. Most of them are kind of Pokemon looking, and apparently had randomly generated attributes by picking cards. Then event cards are drawn, and the students had to decide how the animal would adapt to deal with the event. In that way, they are modeling evolution.
However, the students wound up with a slightly odd view of evolution from this very clever educational method. Instead of depicting evolution over generations, they conceived it like a Pokemon cartoon. In order to meet a challenge, an individual organism just gets new traits, tailor made to help it survive.
Kind of like this:
This chart shows an indidual Pokemon, that is your pet. “evolving.”
See the problem? It’s the same animal growing up, not generations of the same animal. Kind of like the Triceratops is now conceived to have grown its horns and frill from childhood to an adult, like many deer with antlers. Same animal, growing.
The kids made some really neat books, however. “Franko’s food moved to the ocean. He got hungry, so he grew flippers so he could eat.” Actually way more complex than Pokemon Evolution, which just gives a bigger version of the sam thing.
Hello Kitty Gene Simmons seemed like the character to try this with. First, because the Hello Kitty franchise and the Pokemon francise have the same origins in the form of adorable Japanese knicknacks. Secondly, because I had no idea how Hello Kitty Gene Simmons could do the things she does.
As for “she”…Hello Kitty is apparently a she. Although the student theory of evolution might allow gender change, I felt Hello Kitty Gene Simmons was more clothing driven. We have no tolerance for Hello Kitty Peter Criss.
At that point, with influence from “I Am Curious (Black)” it all came together. The parenthesis are part of the title, by the way.
Also, Hello Kitty Gene Simmons exists. Check this out:
Acquired at the same time as Shoe Wings.
The students were amused by Hello Kitty Gene. As well as the Trek episode that made my heavy handed thematic point in class today. Although solving that technology problem wound up with me getting in half an hour early, and having the assitance of a history teacher, while totally avoiding any legitimate wireless internet…
…but that is another Tale of Adequacy. Tomorrow!
Tales of Adequacy! 