Prof. Rodas' notes for discussion on the second part of Nussbaum's Good Kings Bad Kings. Centers the question of what happens when disability is normalized in narrative rather than treated as a "problem" or prosthetic. Includes practice for upcoming essay, "Fictions of Disability."

1. OPENING EXERCISE:
PRACTICE THINKING ABOUT A THEME
• Where does WORK come up in Good
Kings Bad Kings?
• For instance, Michelle Volkmann
ultimately quits her job, noting, “I just
don’t want the kind of career where you
have to do things that–whatever. That you
don’t think you should do. If that’s
possible” (Nussbaum 278).
• Find additional quotations that address
the experience of work.

2. Good Kings Bad
Kings: Part 2
Julia Miele Rodas
Lehman College
Spring 2022

3. Setting
• ILLC
• Illinois Learning & Life Skills
Center

4. characters
• Yessenia Lopez
• Joanne Madsen
• Ricky Hernandez
• Michelle Volkman
• Teddy Dobbs
• Mía Oviedo
• Jimmie Kendrick

5. PLOT:
background
• Joanne gets a job at ILLC
• Pierre persistently mistreated
• Ricky & Joanne fall in love
• Mia sexually assaulted repeatedly
• Yessie changes roommates, has an outing with
Jimmie
• Michelle slowly realizes Whitney Palm is
predatory
• Teddy worries about turning 22, being moved
away from friends and family

7. Of Mice & Men
disability as a “problem” requiring “resolution”
the “kill or cure” narrative

9. What happens
to narrative
when disability
is normalized?

10. PLOT TURNS:
crucial events
• Sexual assault of Mia is revealed
• Yessie roommate (Cheri) moved to psych
facility
• Pierre assaulted & moved to psych facility
• Teddy killed by accident
• Yessenia protests & is joined by others
• Michelle near suicide, quits her job

11. BEGINNING
AND ENDING
WITH
YESSENIA’S
VOICE
W H A T H A P P E N S I N T H E B O O K ?
W H A T A R E T H E M O R A L
D E V E L O P M E N T S ?
W H O A N D W H A T C H A N G E S ?

12. Narrative conclusion:
crucial events
• Teddy is dead
• Cheri & Pierre in unknown circumstances
• Mia has power chair, getting appropriate
mental health care & skills instruction
• Joanne is fired & Ricky is looking for a new job
• ILLC & Whitney Palm under investigation
• Yessenia “runs away,” has sex for the
first time, is reunited with (and likely
fostered by) Jimmie

13. UPCOMING WRITING
ASSIGNMENT
due April 12

14. WORKING IN PAIRS:
RETURN TO THE THEME OF WORK
USING QUOTATIONS FROM THE BEGINNING OF
SESSION, WRITE YOUR OWN THOUGHTS, QUESTIONS,
RESPONSE TO THE QUOTATION.
HOW DOES THIS COMPARE TO THE WAY BUTLER
ABOUT WORK IN “ THE EVENING AND THE MORNING
AND THE NIGHT”?
ACTIVITY