1. Think about the categories Oswalt sets up. Are you a zombie, a spaceship, or a wasteland? Or are you some parts of each? Explain why you do or don’t fit into these categories. Don’t be afraid to make up your own category if none of these works for you.

2. This is a narrative essay, but it also lays out its own taxonomy (a taxonomy is a way to sort or classify things). How does this classification system help Oswalt tell stories? What does this taxonomy do for his structure, organization, and characterization, and how does it help him to reflect on past experiences?

3. An anthropologist might suggest that what Oswalt is doing in this narrative is also ethnography (a way to describe groups of people through close observation and writing). Some of the goals of ethnography are that the text should help the reader better understand social life, that its authors must be sufficiently conscious of their own role in the society they study, and that the account should feel true and revealing. How does Oswalt’s essay measure up to these standards?

4. WRITING: Develop your own classification system for you and your friends. As Oswalt does, use stories to illustrate why you and those you know fit in these invented categories. If it helps, you could choose one of your favorite books, films, or TV shows and then show how you and your friends align with the characters from that text.

5. COMPOSING VISUALLY: Using YouTube, find examples of a zombie, spaceship, or wasteland character from a movie or television show (or from other media). Write about how the character fits this category, and embed relevant video or images in your Word document or blog. Then think about how this character also reflects aspects of your own personality or the personality of someone you know. How does this fictional character (and his or her zombie-ness, spaceship-ness, or wasteland-ness) help you to better understand yourself or people you know?