Viewing Blog 3

I actually just saw "The Avengers" a few days ago for the first time. Although it is not sci-fi, it has a whole bunch of fantasy and meets a lot of the fantasy expectations. For example, it is a high fantasy. Although, there is a lot of action there are a lot fantasy aspects. For example, the world is a secondary world. So the fantasy world is within our current world. However, this movie has a little twist within the setting because there is the knowledge and acceptance of a world beyond our world and is not our world (also having the capability to interact within both worlds). Not only that, there are portals as well. For example, there is a part of the movie where Loki used his staff as kind of a portal to interact with some group he was plotting evil plans with (I cannot remember the name of that sinister group). Also, the portal to the Earth's atmosphere when the evil army was invading the Earth Another thing is that there is a source of magic within the movie. Multiple examples are Loki's staff, the Hulk's power, Thor's hammer. So the magic element was there. Also, unlike  Falling Kingdoms that has protagonist (hero) development from multiple perspectives, "The Avengers" has an omniscient point of view (as most movies do because it's a movie); however, the character development was a group character development instead of an individual character development. I suppose this week for me was a fantasy week. Well, if you haven't seen this movie yet (although I highly doubt it because I'm always the last person to see a movie), I would recommend it. It's pretty entertaining, and you'll be able to watch the sequel coming out this summer!

Blog Post 13

On the syllabus, there weren't any stories for as to read out of any of the anthologies. So I just presumed we were to do our blog on the story or stories  we're are doing for our reader's choice presentations. Anyhow, I was really bummed out that we bare;y talked about fantasy. I think we only spent one class time on fantasy. In my mind,  I was like, "Fantasy is my favourite genre!" So what better opportunity to go more in depth about fantasy than now? So instead of reading two to three short stories from our anthology, I read the first book to a fairly new series. It was published about two years ago. The story is called Fallen Kingdoms by Morgan Rhodes. It that type of book you'd find in the teenager section of Barnes&Nobles. I don't to give too much away without actually doing my presentation. However, it is an epic fantasy (or could also be high fantasy) and takes place in a world other than our world. In the story, there's these three kingdoms named: Limeros, Palesia, and Auranos. So, the idea of the way the world works in terms of natural law is still there; however, these islands do not exist. So it's a world that is our world, but it's not in actuality our world. I think I'm not making sense, but it makes sense. Typically in high fantasy there is a hero who has to rise up against the circumstances that beyond his control and develop as a character. However, this book takes that particular expectation of the sub-genre and flips it. For example, this story is told in multiple point of views (four main points of view that all intertwine and gets pretty intricate). In a sense, there are multiple heroes and multiples bad guys. The bad guy and the hero differs depending on which perspective is being perceived in that particular chapter.  Overall, this story is pretty good, and I don't want to give away too much without my presentation.

Blog Post 12 (Lesson Learned)

           Well I'm going  start off with "The Monkey's Paw" by W.W. Jacobs because I was so excited to read this story since the beginning of the semester when I saw that we were going to read it. I absolutely love this story, it brings back feelings of nostalgia since I read it in elementary school for a Halloween segment we had in class. Also, as I was re-reading, I noticed it used the word tumblers, and I love the using the app Tumblr (it's how I waste my life away)-- so why not love the short story solely on for that reason? While yes it's great to like it for those reasons, I like the story because it has so many lessons learned and themes that play into it. Such be careful what you wish; money cannot buy happiness, and there is no love like a mother's love for her child. A quick synopsis of the story is: A man find a magical paw called the money's paw that allows for three wishes. His first wish was to be rich (in essence), and he gets his wish through his son dying at working by getting caught in machinery. After ten days, the man's grieving wife convinces him to use the second wife to bring the son to life. As the son was knocking and tapping at the door and the mother was trying to open the hatchet of the door, in fear of what his resurrected son (Herbert) might look like, the man wished his son dead. One thing I wish that would be explained in this story is what happens to the monkey paw after this event? Does it just disappear, or is it just rendered useless and will make a nice key chain? It is mentioned that the monkey's paw only works for three people to make three wishes and the main character Mr. White was the third man.  Another thing that puzzled me was why was there a recurrence of the number three? Only 3 men could use the paw, only three wishes could be made, only three people lived in the house. I did some research and found that three has a representation of completion. It's ironic because at the end of the story, the White family was left more incomplete than ever and filled with more solemn than ever, with only money to fill the void,
          The story "Premature Burial" by Edgar Allan Poe was an interesting read. But what really stood out me was not the lesson learned, but in the beginning of the story (where there a multiple stories of people bring mistaken for dead and buried). There was a part of the story where Poe was describing the symptoms of death and how people would mysteriously rise back to life. Well, in modern science there is thing called The Lazarus Effect (the name deriving from the Biblical story where Jesus rose Lazarus from the dead). What it means is that a patient exerts all the symptoms of death and would be pronounced dead; however, they would rise mysteriously from slumber. And I immediately thought of the movie "The Lazarus Effect" that just came out a few months ago, It basically just contorts this and plays on our fear falling into the uncanny valley.  Anyhow, the story only made me think of that horror movie (and we all know how I don't mix well with horror things) so all I could say is, "Thank you, Poe."

update:

Watching "The Monkey's Paw" short film was very interesting. When it first started I thought it was going to be scary (I literally was holding onto a teddy bear); however, it wasn't that bad and was pretty over dramatic. The zombie section we talked about as well was pretty cool; however, I wished we could have talked about the popular tv series "The Walking Dead" and "The Strain" more. But it was still cool.

Blog Set 11 (Madness and Lost Love)

          The short story "Berenice" by Edgar Allan Poe was interesting one. Egaeus grew up in a large gloomy mansion and was sick with an illness in which he called "the attentive." When I did some research it Egaeus suffered from some type of monomania-- an impulsive and fruitless observation of trivial things. When Berenice came down with an illness, her cheerful demeanor became solemn and morbid, and for that, Egaeus was now intrigued with her, deciding to marry her (not that he love her). When she came strolling into the library where Egaeus dwells mostly, she smiled at him and he formed an immense obsession for her teeth. But the dark twist was when people thought she died but she really didn't; when Egaeus snapped and took her teeth out and finally realized later when he saw the claw marks on himself and how muddy he was and when her 32 teeth fell out of the black box he was holding along with dental utensils. This story plays on some themes of horror with the gloomy house, the narrator believing he is reincarnated, and dental misuse. I wouldn't be surprised if Poe caused the immense fear for the population to the dentist because of this story.
          I haven't read many stories from O. Henry; however, in comparison to the stories I've read by him and this story "The Furnished Room," "The Furnished Room" is so bleak and dark it is practically ridiculous. I find it ironic that the story title is "The Furnished Room" when it seems so vacant and empty. The story is so sad: a man searching for his love commits suicide in the same room his love.
         "The Boarded Window" by Ambrose Bierce was so crazy and left me with so much anxiety when Murlock hears the noises and shuffling from the table after he wrapped his wife and prepared her for burial. Now so many questions are running through my head with this story. Where in the world did this panther come from? No matter that, it is pretty obvious Murlock's wife wasn't dead just yet from her illness, because she had a piece of the animal's ear in her mouth; also her hands were tightly clenched.If she was dead she wouldn't have been able to fight back the animal biting at her neck, It was a super suspenseful story to me in the latter half of it.

Blog Post 10 (Hauntings)

      It is crazy how in the previous blog post, I mentioned "The Fall of the House of Usher"by Edgar Allan Poe. I didn't realize that it was our reading for this week (I guess I'm just cool in that sense or I know what the Professor is thinking- I prefer the former). Well this is my second time reading "The Fall of the House of Usher" and again, it scared the socks off of me, and I'm most likely am going to have to sleep with a nightlight (not that I own any or anything). So a quick synopsis of the story is: narrator gets invited by his sickly (mentally ill- super sensitive senses), superstitious, friend Roderick to Roderick's house. Long story short, Roderick's sister is also sick, she has a seizure, dies (so they thought), and Roderick and the narrator entombs her. One night, the narrator wakes up unable to sleep; Roderick joins him. The narrator tries reading a book aloud to calm Roderick's nerves; and as this happened, they heard noises from below the room, Roderick jumps and announces that his sister is returning (which she did). When she opened the door she collapses into Roderick and he dies also. The narrator (freaked out) fled the scene; and as he was leaving, the house split into two and crumbled. Everything about this story was creepy. The house was creepy; Roderick was creepy; the sister (Madeline) was creepy. I guess I'm just overly sensitive to anything remotely scary or hinting towards something scary. But I was able to prove myself not a coward (in my twisted defense). I was going to add a photo to be nifty and cool, but when I Google searched images of "The Fall of the House of Usher," it was awful. Hence, no picture.
          "Afterward" by Edith Wharton was five times scarier than "The Fall of the House of Usher." Remember in my introduction blog post when I said ghost, demons and paranormal things are a no-no? Well, this story went well past my no-no zone. I was so creeped out by it. When Mary came to the realization that the ghost took her husband and she remembered what her sister said (mentioning that she wont realize that there is a  ghost in the house until afterwards). Boy did Mary find out too late, and she came to the realization that she will probably never see her husband again. This story just rang with an ending of tension. I can't even deal right now to right a proper analysis.

Update:

The show "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" was pretty interesting. It was so old and there was a few scary parts that gave a me anxiety. However, the part when that random girl found the dead body in the locker and she screamed...it was hilarious! Anyhow, I think I saw this show when I was younger but I don't remember seeing it but it seems fairly familiar. 

Viewing Blog 2

          All in all I think I watched about the semester's worth of viewing hours in one viewing blog post but that's fine because I'm and anime junkie and plus the incorporation of movies we have to watch in class also helps as well.
Code Geass              This anime is amazing. I watched about 4 hours' worth of this anime (which is approximately 9 episodes). This story is about a kingdom named Britannia took over the country of Japan and left it in shambles. Japan is now called Area 11 and the citizens of Japan lost their right to self-govern and the people are called Elevens. In order to keep power of Area 11, Britannia enforces their rules through its deployment of new mobile robotic humanoid armor vehicles that are super destructive and large called Knightmares. This kid named Lelouch is super smart and an exiled Imperial Prince of Britannia posing as a student. He ends mingling in the middle of this war and conflict between Area 11 and Britannia. When Lelouch meets this girl named C.C., he gains his geass (the power of the King) and has the authority to have complete dominance of any person he choose. He then is inspired that in order to defeat Britannia, it as to be defeated from within. These few episodes that I saw was just showing the background information, character development for Lelouch and explains how he got his powers. It hasn't revealed what his powers are specifically but only certain aspects of his powers. That he could only use it once on the same person and etc. The story has yet to explain who C.C. is and how she got where she is but I'm pretty sure they'll explain that later. So far, Lelouch is leading a rebellion group to fight against the Britannian army under the alias Zero.
      This story works perfectly into the science-fiction because it entails the aspect of war and conflict, and robots for human advantage. It's a great story and I can't wait to watch more of it.The Hobbit: The Fellowship of the RingSince everyone watched the Hobbit as a required movie in class, I will spare the plot summary and just immediately start on my rant. I thought was a fantasy, so why did this movie scare the socks off of me? The Shadow Kings  scared me so much  and I practically hated seeing when they come up because they give me so much anxiety. There was this one part when Frodo was talking to his successor (I can't remember his name) and for a second his face flashed into a monster. I couldn't take this movie. I guess I'm just a scary cat but someone should have told me that this wasn't a movie to watch alone. 

Blog Post 9

          When I looked at the syllabus and saw that we were moving on to the Horror section of our readings, I was terrified. In my introduction blog post I mentioned that I am terrified of horror and try my best to avoid and stay away from it, and I expressed my dislike for the entire genre itself (however, there are some exceptions to how scary things are).Although in my introduction blog Ms. Geerling reassured me that the horror  reading we'd be doing in this class weren't going to be that scary, just creepy, I was still anxious about reading these stories. However, it was to a pleasant surprise that we were reading "The Raven" and "Annabel Lee" by Edgar Allan Poe.
         Nothing can express my admiration for Mr. Poe. He's a writer of much controversy and brilliance. For example, it is well known that Edgar Allan Poe was an alcoholic; however, writing scholars debate whether or not he was a drug addict as well because in his story "Fall of the House of Usher" he well expounded on the usage of opium. Or his other controversy of him losing his manuscript (the lost manuscript of Poe) that in actuality was never lost because he had a copy of it. Edgar Allan Poe by far was an interesting character,  and his life (for lack of better words) pretty much sucked. However, his brilliance, eeriness, and dreariness shone through his works, that are very depressing, Going back to his story "Fall of the House of Usher"  most writing scholars marvel at how his story perfectly reflects. The first half of the book reflect the other half, the house reflects the family. It was just so precisely and amazingly structured, Poe get major recognition for his writing abilities.
         Okay that's enough of my rant about how I love Edgar Allan Poe. I was excited to read "The Raven." The plot is very simplistic a man was half awake, half asleep was awoken by a knocking not by his door but by his window. When he opened, his window, in came a bird who only uttered the words "Nevermore." The protagonist takes a little while to become aware of the raven's capability to only say one word and continues to ask the bird questions that increasingly get more personal-- eventually going insane. "The Raven" is one of Edgar's most famous works  and he coined the term "forevermore" once this poem went viral,
          The poem "Annabel Lee" was one of Edgar  Allan Poe's last works. At the time, it was a mainstream concept of a beautiful woman dying. I've read this poem a few times in my life when I'd get bored and go on poetry splurges, stumbling across "Annabel Lee." Every time I read it, I'm always left with questions I'm way too lazy to Google. Does Annabel Lee and the speaker speak and communicate on a supernatural basis or did the speaker kill himself to be with Annabel Lee?

Update:

Well it was cool having the author for The Culling. I learned a lot of what went on in the processing of the book and it gave me a new insight which was interesting, Also,  that mini trials we had in class gave me so much anxiety! I literally forgot who The Lady was and the entire last trial was based on The Lady. I couldn't deal with this conflict of emotions in my chest. Surprisingly, I ended up winning the trials and winning his second book. I was super shocked and that trials made me way more nervous than I should have been.

Gender and Sexuality (Blog Post 8)

      In the story "Day Million" by Frederick Pohl is a very short and interesting story. I find it almost crazy how he practically predicted our near future and how spot on he was about almost everything. First of the gender role and representation has been starting to mesh and blend lately (although are meshing and blending of the sexes aren't as severe and seemingly normal as in the story Pohl creates); however, the LGBTQ community rising up and working its way into pop culture is happening in our world. While sexual transformations (and people-who aren't completely people but technologically infused- not caring) are there in this story. Also, how Dora and Don casually falls in love gets married, split up, and go on with their normal lives as if nothing has ever happened kind of reminds me of today's celebrities. Today celebrities such as Kate Winslet (divorced twice), Jim Carry (divorced twice), and Angelina Jolie (divorced twice) are getting married and divorced faster than you can even blink. However, despite these things, Pohl's story concentrated little on the simplistic love story between Dora and Don but focused his attention more towards the reader simply because of the fact he writes in second person (rare in writing because it is the least used writing point of view). The central idea of his writing was to question the sensibility and rationality of the reader. For example, on page 383 he states "...if I try to tell you any of that you will simply stare. Or glare; and grumble, what the hell kind of love-making is this?" Pohl is directly challenging the reader's small-minded world view and our prejudices because we "glare," "grumble,"  and "stare" at the things we don't understand or cannot relate to like the idea of Dora getting sexually aroused and stimulated by herself through an analog of memories and characteristics. 

          When I think of the story "When It Changed" by Joanna Russ, I immediately think of feminism in all of its glory. In Whileaway (a world with only women) they established their own political system, defense mechanisms, social structure and reproduction processes without a feeling of lack while also being fulfilled in reproduction, sexually, and in relational matters. The Whileaway women view men (in a more extreme) way that most feminists today probably view men, the direct chasms that separate the two genders.

Blog Post 7

"We Can Remember It for You Wholesale" by Philip K. Dick was a befitting name for this short story considering the protagonist, Douglas Quail, in retrospect paid the Rekal Incorporation to ultimately remember the erased part of his life when he was just supposed to implant a fake memory that wasn't actually so imaginary. I just thought that the irony of it was funny (I literally laughed out loud reading the title of the book again after I finished the story; it still makes me chuckle actually). The adaptation, the movie Total Recall had a lot of similarities (as it should be expected because it's an adaptation), and it had it differences. The first main difference, despite the evident name change of Doug Quaid (from Total Recall) to Douglas Quail (from "We Can Remember It for You Wholesale"), the book wasn't as gruesome as the movie, and had less complexity and action scenes as the movie. For example, though in both stories the two officers tried to kill Quaid/Quail, the book only depicted Quail injuring the officer, while the movie depicted Quaid killing the cops and their troops practically immediate. Also, another difference was the moment of realization that Quaid/Quail realized that was an assassin who went Mars. When he was in the cab, in the story, he found the ReKal Incorporated card in his coat pocket which him to his questioning and propelled the story to keep going. In the movie, he was randomly attacked by the officers for spilling the beans about his mission on mars. This brings the adaptation to another difference. The wife's reaction in the story was completely different. I really don't know if Kirsten was a part of the Interplan set up; however, maybe she was just in denial at the accusations Quail made that he went to Mars and ended up leaving him because of his preposterous allegations or maybe she was in on it the entire time.  In the movie, Quaid's wife, Lori, was a part of the gimmick the entire time and once she realized that Quaid's memories came back and she attacked him, she was forced to tell Quaid what was actually going on. So in this sense, the movie was more personal and deceitful and action-packed extra drama while the book lacked as much action and tension within the marriage. I am not negating the idea that the book had no tension at all within the marriage at all; it was just minimized while the movie maximized the traumatic experience. Although the book and the movie did have their differences, and the book  left out some aspects of the movie decided to juice up (or filler out), the adaptation remained similar in the fact that a man finds out that his reality was never a reality and his dream ultimately was his reality. 

Update:

Oh my goodness. I watched this movie so much that everything I said was almost true except the fact that fact that the movie wasn't the original.(I fixed it though) I am mortified and kind of embarrassed by my silly mistake but hey, you live and you learn.Usually the movie is the adaptation of the book, like always so I don't know where my mind was for that. I guess since I watched that movie so many times and didn't even think twice to look and see when the book was published I made the mistake. Anyhow, the story remain pretty consistent in both the book and the movie adaptation with some differences of course. 

Computers and Virtual Reality (Blog Post 6)

In the story "Burning Chrome" by William Gibson, it was really difficult to into the story (at least for me)  and because of that I probably missed some grave details within the story to help give me that establishment of everything going on. I didn't start getting into the groove of the story until about the last five pages, and each and every time I read it, I just couldn't seem to develop that imaginary world for this story, not because the story wasn't descriptive, but because Mr. Gibson was able to make his story very realistic-a little too realistic. Realistic in the sense of long banters of computer and technological processes that took more effort for me to understand and process- in order build it into my imagination. For example, “A freezer. A fermenter. An incubator. An electrophoresis system with integrated agarose cell and transilluminator. A tissue embedder. A high-performance liquid chromatograph…” Ultimately, the over description and listing of technological processes killed me in the end. However, the way the story is set up, the protagonist working toward their goal and is usually the hero, Gibson did this-yes- however, in a twisted way. The characters, You get attached to the characters and root for them, hoping for their success and lament in their failures. However, he did this in an anti-heroic manner. It primarily two guys (Bobby and Jack) in the slums just trying to get rich, and most definitely not in the most legal manner. However, the future Gibson displays for us seems to mirror a perfect, complicated reflection of modern-day life. Also, this story to me, though the characters may be in slums and aren’t living it up, doesn’t seem dystopian nor does it seem utopian. However what really stood out to me within this story, were the people’s need and almost-like addiction to, what I’d call, “plastic surgery, despite the possible negative  results overall. For example, when Rikki wanted to get the cheaper set of eyes ( at least until she has the money to get the expensive Iris) as a quick fix for her problem. For some reason, this just reminded me of the hot story of when  Tiny (T.I.’s wife, well ex-wife---who knows anymore?)  changed her eye colour with laser eye surgery to like a greyish colour despite the negative possible outcomes. This story just reflects our need to constantly fix ourselves. Overall, this story is a story I appreciate, not so much like. However, I can say Gibson stylistically and skillfully wrote this story like no other I’ve seen yet.

"Computer Friendly" by Eileen Gunn, I could most definitely say, was interesting and very like-able. First of all the fact that the story was written in the perspective of a seven year old girl which makes you questions even more how well will this story turn over because a child's mind is more simplistic. However, this story is amazing. The perfect system of technological system reminded me of the book The Giver where they would euthanize children who do meet the the requirements they have set. Same goes for this story where they are going to put Sheena to sleep because she doesn't reach the social standards they have set to become a part of the system. It is really scary thinking about the brainwash that occurs in this story because it reminds me the brainwash of culture. There's no escape and the more you try to revolt against cultural norms, or what they consider normal, the more shunned you are. Also, as a culture, there is an attempt to keep these revolts ts and abnormalities to a minimum because then there is a fear that people will convert and join the "timebombs" of society just as Elizabeth did when she became a "timebomb" in her technological system. 

Update:

So last week I did my update on the blog post. I updated my blog post seven instead of this blog post. I just not on top of my game this week. Anyhow, I did like the fact that we sat in a circle in class it made the atmosphere different and open. It was like either a therapy session or a book reading club; I couldn't decide which one seemed more suiting.  I also liked the exercise we did in class where we a had to pick a sentence to analyze. It made me develop a new appreciation for "Burning Chrome" by Gibson and his poetic language. It also lead to like "Computer Friendly" more than I already do.

Atificial/Posthuman Life-form (Blog Post 5)

          When reading the story "Reason," so many religious aspects jumped out to me; I immediately did research on the author Isaac Asimov. Isaac has a plethora of works and is highly recognized for his ranges of titles across the library Dewey Decimal System (DDS). His works  range from hard sciences (such as: chemistry, biology, physics, anatomy, geology, etc.) to  more abstract ideas and faiths (such as; humor, Greek mythology, and the Bible). He is famous for his science fiction works and is a proudly acclaimed atheist. So it doesn't strike me as surprising when I saw so many religious connections between this story and Christians versus atheists. In the story "Reason," I believe Mr. Asimov is trying to dictate the superiority of the atheist as the Robot assumed his superiority over the humans because of his (and the robot's) hard reliance on reason and nothing else more. The robot, Cutie,  rest his belief in the prospect of all things that remain in the realm of logic and reason. For example, when Cutie questioned his creation he states "I accept nothing on authority. A hypothesis must be backed by reason or else it is worthless..."(165) It is undeniable that atheists have this method of thinking due to the fact of their disbelief of a God. So they leave their faith in logic and reason (such as science) to explain questions that every human wonders: origin of life. Also when Donovan and Powell were leaving to return to Earth (parallel to how Christians believe when they die, they'll return to Heaven), Cutie pitied them because he had no belief in the existence of the Earth. So ultimately all he could reason is that they'll just be going to the void of nothingness in space. But what baffles me is the fact that he would use the Earth to represent Heaven. We all know that the Earth exists, Donovan and Powell proved that they created Cutie. Is  Asimov trying to convey that he is in denial that a God does exist? Or is he just simply using the Robot as a representation of his pity for the "Earthmen's" (Christians) "pointless" faith? Or is he really just trying to screw us all over by  my over-thinking everything?
        Reading the story "Super-Toys Last All Summer Long," by  Brian W. Aldiss really reflected (to me) about the relationship between adopted children and their "mothers." For example, the feelings David and Mrs. Swinton couldn't express the love they felt for one another because David felt as if Mummy (Mrs. Swinton) didn't love him due to the fact that he isn't really her child (but a robot), and Mrs. Swinton believes David is afraid her. I find it crazy how Mrs. Swinton at the end is willing to dispose of David because he is now an inconvenience to her  now that she thinks he isn't properly working (and is about to get her "real" child)--  parallel to how shelter mothers are welcome to kick their children out of their homes when they become 18 (and the government stop funding them grant), and their children become am inconvenience to them.
         "The Culling" is very....interesting...and dystopic. One aspect of the book that I find crazy is when Lucian's old friend Cussian becomes the prefect and is living against the morals he vowed to keep, killing people he said he'd protect never do, and following a government he wants to overthrow. The fact that he wants to overthrow the government by following their rules is literally brainwash!For some reason it reminds me of the book "Animal Farm" when the pigs take power and become the leader (dictators) they affirmed they'd never be. 

Apocalypse (Blog Post 4)

The story "The Star" by H.G. Wells and "Speech Sounds" by Octavia Butler contrasted to so much despite they were both end- of- the- world, mankind-in-chaos apocalyptic stories. "The Star" by Wells is about a huge celestial body that had disrupted the orbit of planet Neptune was headed towards the Sun and the Earth stood in its path. This body not only disrupted the orbit of Neptune, but disrupted the nature of man, The calamities  caused by this "star" not only caused the  death of millions and destroyed many lands, but brought a sense of unification amongst the people of Earth and "the new brotherhood that grew presently among men."On the other hand, "Speech Sounds" by Mrs. Butler, the destructive element that came onto the Earth (the illness) not only left the world as we knew it, it caused a sense of disunion a amongst man. In this story, a virus broke out killing many (such as Rye's -the main character- family) and leaving most people impaired through sense of literacy and speech. However, this story really interested me. The fact that when Rye carries around a gun, and she got off the bus and she was hesitant as to what to do next because in the story traveling (especially alone) because is unnerving because she may have to "[risk] seeking shelter with locals who might rob or murder them," shows the sense of chaos in the world. However, what really interested me about this story about how this story was the part when Rye was considered murdering Obsidian because of hatred, frustration, and jealousy. Also, these feelings arose from her sense of loss and loneliness, which is prevalent in cases of murder. Anyhow, despite the difference in the outcome of unity in both of these stories, there was one thing they had in common. There was light at the end of the tunnel.

Update:

Okay so maybe there wasn't light at the end of the tunnel for the story "The Star" however; there is a sense of peace that resonates towards the ending. What really I didn't think about was how hopeless the Earth was with this apocalypse. There was no sense of fighting back because there was nothing they could do. When we discussed that in class all I could think was, "Dang, I'm depressed now." My speculations for "Speech Sounds" were predominantly correct. I also really enjoyed making the short story out of complete randomness. It was fun, funny, and very insightful.

War and Conflict (Blog Post 3)

The story "That Only a Mother," was very interesting story conceptually. A quick synopsis of the story is: a mother named Margaret gives birth to a mutated child as she waits for her husband Hank to respond to her letters and come home. However, this story left me with more questions than answers. Did Hank kill the baby at the end? In the story it says, "His fingers tightened on his child," so did he squeeze his baby to death because how freakish she was?  Was Margaret that obsessed with having normal child she overlooked the fact that  her child had no limbs and was practically a stump? Or was she so obsessed with having a normal child (that wasn't affected by the radiation too badly) that she literally didn't know her child was limbless and that's why she didn't tell Hank about the baby's deformities? Besides the burning questions this story has left me with, this story reminds me of domesticity of a woman in a way. Margret was just a stay at home wife, waiting  for her husband to come home while loving and caring for a mutated baby with a face (and body) only a mother could love.

            In the story “We See Things Differently” by Bruce Sterling, a Arab man named Sayyid Qutb visits a future run-down America as a reporter. This story actually parallels to modern day society and how the outside world views Americans. For example, I was watching YouTube and this particular video by BuzzFeedNews (I love that channel) and this British man said “I love to laugh at you Americans.” Though a lot of people do love Americans, we tend to overlook that there is a great ocean of people in the world that detest Americans and think of us as "jahiliyah-- the land of the ignorance.This was America.The Great Satan, the Arsenal of Imperialism, the Bankroller of Zionism, Bastion of Neo-Colonialism." As a Bahamian (though the Bahamas and the States have close relations), I can completely understand the feelings of the other nations, believing Americans have the culture of no culture and destruction. But I do not understand how someone can hate the ignorance of a country to the degree that he is willing to not only take the lives of the citizens who inhabit  this "impure" country, but willing to take his own life also (just as the unnamed man Sayyid did).

Alien Encounters (Blog post 2)

     I started off reading the background information of the Wesleyan Anthology of Science Fiction on pages XII-XVII. At first, it was so formal and scholarly, it took me some time to get into the groove and understand the background information it was handing me about Science-fiction and how to read and understand it. However, it was very insightful as to how a reader should interpret the stories he is reading and that things aren't as metaphorical as it would be if you were reading a normal fiction story. For example, on page XVI, there was an example saying if a story said, "Her world began to crash," instead of it being a metaphor for a girl's emotional state, in science fiction, her world could literally be crashing.
     "Passengers" by Robert Silverberg (1968) I thought was a great story. When I finished the story I literally wanted to punch something or someone because of the frustrating ending (in a good way), which had more of a expected yet unexpected surprise. It's was like once things started working out and love could happen, the passengers said,"Nope," and screwed everything up, taking Charles away from Helen.  The general synopsis of this story starts with a man, named Charles, who finally regains consciousness after being "ridden" by a passenger (an alien that possesses people and causes them to lose memory as to what has happened while being encountered), and finds himself trying to regain pieces of what happened- knowing that he was with a girl and that was pretty much it. Then while going out for a walk, he finds the girl he was with while he was being "ridden" by a passenger for the previous three days. Such occurrence led him to remember the events that happened: him  having sex with Helen. Charles, eventually (more like immediately) meets Helen and tries to commit himself to her, yet she is reluctant. This short story parallels a lot with the real world and how people  have casual sex on the quest to find true love and the sense of isolation it brings. On  page  437, Charles thinks to himself, "But I already had that pleasure, three nights of it, though she does not know that. I want something more. Something more. What?" Though Charles enjoy the company of Helen, her company is not suffice. In actuality, what he wants is love. One the other hand, Helen is so fed up with being used and watched by the passengers, she's given up hope as to what she can accomplish while she was free. On page 441, Charles confesses that he remembers the encounters him and Helen having sex while they were both being "ridden." He proceeded to try and persuade her to have sex with him and not be afraid to fall in love in this "little time when [they have] free." This story pulled on my heart strings (but I'm just a sucker for a little romance),  and overall relayed the message: in this short life span we have (referring to the limited time of freedom), love while you can even though it may seem hopeless, and futile. Love while you can, so you can at least say that you've loved before the passengers return again and screw everything up.

         In the second story, "Out of All Them Bright Stars," by Nancy Kress (1985) started  strongly with Sally working in her little diner restaurant, when suddenly a blue Alien man named John strolled in and was immediately the center of attention. Sally's co-worker Kathy ran towards the back to alarm their boss of the new comer. Sally proceeded to serve him, concerned for how uncomfortable he  must have felt, and disgusted with how blatantly everyone was looking at him. As Sally and John spoke, Sally was surprised by his friendly nature. Then suddenly Sally's boss, Charles, came out storming and aggressively, latching on to Sally and yelling at her  for serving John. This very scene stuck out at me because it reminded of Disney channel show "That's So Raven," when Eddie (a black character) reminisced about his old childhood friend who was white. And as they were playing, Eddie's friend's father came storming out, furious because his son was playing with a black kid. This short story brings to my attention a lot about discrimination and even blatantly said "niggers" on page 583. It was only when John was next to normal white men did Sally notice his differences. Same goes for with Eddie's friend. Only did he notice the difference between him and Eddie was when his father came and yanked him away from Eddie.  However, as the story began to end, that's when I started getting confused. Sally starts getting upset with John and how he was there to make a difference and there was so many sudden mood changes, I just couldn't keep up.

Update:

Well my accusations for "Passengers" were pretty much spot on when we conversed in class. However, "Out of All Them Bright Stars" became so much clearer and I understood it more. Previously, the ending had me confused and scratching my head as to what was going on. Now I understand that Sally is frustrated because she has to do something she doesn't want to in order to maintain stable with her needs. So whether she wants to admit or not, she needs her wife-abusing, jerk-of-a-boss Charlie. She realizes she's powerless to change anything by herself. She couldn't protect nor save John. She's stuck and frustrated and that's all. There's nothing more Sally can do. 

Introduction

Hey everyone! As you probably (hopefully) guessed, my name is Kelsey. I chose this class because I thought it'd be an interesting class to join, and I think Sci-fi is pretty cool, so why not? My forte is more  along the lines of sci-fi and fantasy so anything involving:  robots magical powers, aliens, or anything that defies logic is a thumbs up for me. I absolutely detest horror! However, I can stomach certain levels of it such as: killer/murders, gore, vampires, Scooby-Doo and Courage the Cowardly Dog (most definitely). If you start talking about ghosts and demons, I am out of here. So lets see how this class goes. I will keep my fingers crossed that the content in this class doesn't scare too much,  with any luck, at all.