Week 12 Bloodchild

What is your reaction to the text you just read?

Very interesting also probably more grotesque than any of the horror we've read so far. I like to think of myself having a pretty good stomach but the description of all of the flesh and the grubs was very disturbing to me. At first, I was linking the plot to slavery and particularly to the breed of slavery we associate with America. But my reaction to the horrors of that event seems to pale in my reaction to this story. Which honestly isn't fair. Slavery was awful. So maybe the story is about a different kind of slavery. I would argue that this story could be connected to sexual slavery because the intrusion is so personal and also might end in pregnancy.

What connections did you make with the story? Discuss what you were able to connect?

I think she did an interesting thing to go from relative comfort to horror quite quickly. She set up a world where the people, who don’t seem to have any freedom of choice and are constantly drugged up, are paired with the Tlic in a very personal relationship. Everyone has a personal stake and that's what limited revolution. Often in revolution stories, the leaders are individuals and their followers are more of a makes mass. This reminds of the very personal collection between slave and slave owner that can exist. Through that manipulation of relationships, the owners may keep people from revolting.

What would you do to adapt it into another medium?

So I feel like it would be best suited for a comic. If we wanted to maintain the sense of graphic horror, I feel like a movie would ask the audience to believe the special effects too much. That tends to be how I cope with horror in movies. I know that they are actors playing against a green screen or puppet. What was so effective in this book was that it all exists in the same reality: there are no actors. I think a comic or graphic novel would be the best way to retain that real an unavoidable horror. Plus I am interested to see the character designs of the Tlic, animals and Preserve world.

Week 12 Diversity

I read the story, I Live with You. This story, which I’d qualify as horror, spoke about how people of diversity feel invisible. In this case, she was so invisible that she lived with someone and they hardly noticed. She would sit under the table and they wouldn’t see her. She would take their clothes but they just rolled with it. This was an interesting perspective because it is not loud explicit racism to not notice someone. But we take for granted in the majority having a voice that will be heard and respected. The fact that people are treated otherwise is ridiculous as the story shows. Even though she was basically invisible, the main character still had massive influence in the other character’s lives. If we ignore these legitimate people, we are missing great ideas, power, and influence. I liked how the author twisted this idea of being ignored on its head. Now the reader makes sure not to ignore anyone, unless they may have someone they’re ignoring up in their attic.

Week 11 Cyberpunk

I started to read Neuromancer. I didn’t get to finish it in time for this blog, but hope to do so over the summer. In this cyberpunk world, the author deals heavily with the idea of VR and Cyberspace. The main character, Case is at first unable to enter the matrix because of damage in his nervous system. I think the idea of entering virtual space without the use of goggles is an interesting and possibly prophetic idea. Using goggles still isn’t real enough, so entering through the brain is the next logical step.

As we move into the future it is becoming more and more important to navigate virtual spaces and understand computers. In Neuromancer and many cyberpunk movies, this is pushed to an extreme. Interacting with virtual space is the only thing that matters. And as a result, the real world becomes dilapidated. So I think readers should walk away from the book both looking forward to the possibilities of computers and also appreciating their physical reality more.

Week 10 Ideas

I read the short story, the Drowned Giant. This story talked about a massive corpse of a Giant being washed up on the shore near a city and the local population’s reactions to it. Although the main character was a scientific researcher, he didn’t make too many notes of where the Giant may have come from. Instead, it was more of a study of humans. Sci-Fi is a great format to study humans, because like how the author mentions in the end, who’s to say we are the normal ones. Maybe there is a giant looking down at us tiny people. So the genre allows us to step outside of our world and view it more objectively.

At first people's reactions are full of awe, they don’t dare approach the washed-up mass. Then they become curious and start to explore. When they get really comfortable they start to be rough with it. Then the people who want to make money come and cart it away piece by piece. Something that once was beautiful became reprehensible and eventually forgotten. Connections can be drawn to many natural wonders that when left to people, were destroyed. What’s interesting about this “natural wonder”, is that it would have eventually decomposed and faced a similar fate even without the humans. We consider ourselves protectors of beauty and science, so it’s surprising that no one in the story tried to preserve the giant. Ultimately, this story shows that we need to work hard and organize if we want to save natural wonders or the planet even. Otherwise, as individuals, we will eventually abuse it.

Week 09 Space Opera

I read Vintage Season for the Space Opera week. It was interesting to see how the genre could be interpreted into a short story. This story was set in “modern” times in the 1940’s with an Average Joe main character, Oliver. In doing this, the author kept the preliminary descriptions quite short and left more time to explain the intruding characters.

While being a Sci-Fi story it also included elements of a drama or mystery. Much of the novel focused on the relationship Oliver and Kleph and the mystery of the newcomers. As a mystery story, I enjoyed the range of possibilities and did not predict who they were until the very end. Because I knew it was a Sci-Fi story, the possibilities were way wider that if it had been set in regular 1940’s America. Were they humans? Where they aliens in disguise? Where did they come from and what did they want? These are common questions in invasion stories but made more interesting with the smaller scope of the narrative. The relationship between Oliver and Kleph was interesting enough, but I mostly appreciated how it gave us a window into another culture. Although it carried enough character conflict to be a drama, it was mostly a Sci-Fi mystery.

Week 08 Urban Fantasy

I read Anansi Boys this week. I wasn’t familiar with the mythological character that was interpreted, Anansi, but it was a very engaging read and made me want to know more about West African mythology. Since Anasi is the God of Stories, it was fun for him, in particular, to be brought into modern times. We love entertainment and we love stories. Even our news and real-life events are told like dramatic stories.

One of Anasi’s powers was to bend reality and convince anyone of anything. This power blends in well with modern times because we see amazing new technologies all the time and have gotten used to quickly accepting them into our lives. Even though he has these powers, Spider learns that there is beauty in the truth and in reality. This is a wonderful reminder that no matter what flashy advancements are made in the world, what’s more important are the people. On the other side of the coin, Charlie, who thought he didn’t have any power, learned that he had charm and could tell stories of his own. The “powers” of Anansi helped him loosen up and actually enjoy his life.

Overall, a great interpretation of the myth and study of how stories affect our lives. Would definitely recommend this book.

Week 07 Spiritual Educatioin

In the Sorcerer's Stone, and in many of the Harry Potter books, the characters must decide whether or not to break the rules. Rowling appropriately placed the first of the series in middle school, because that is when we develop critical thinking. We begin to question our place in the world and our relationship to rules. In this world of magic, we have an outsider, Harry, who is the perfect vehicle for these questions. To him, everything is new and a curiosity to be explored.

Many rules in the story seem at first to be for the student’s protection. They describe the off-limits areas as dangerous. But the characters realize that they also seem to hide the truth. When they decide to break the rules, it is because the danger is seeping outside of the zones and the truth needs to be found out. In the end, it seemed that many of the rules were set up by a malicious authority who was undermining the whole system. This concept can translate well to the readers, because it asks us to question why we have rules. It does not say that rules are intrinsically bad. Instead, it encourages us to look into the reason for the rule and question the “truth” that is presented to us.